Canada part two

Saturday, May 24 (Day 8)

Distance: 84 miles

Average speed: 10.9 mph

Max: 30.1 mph

Total: 450 miles

This was a great day. 

There are a lot of windmills and farms in Canada, and lots of signs protesting the wind farms due to increasing hydro (electric) costs and decrease in property value. 

We met a couple on bicycles (not touring) who asked us if we were also going around Lake Erie. We looked ahead and saw the silhouette of another tourer-- it was the fabled tourer from the day before! We caught up to him and chatted for a bit before splitting up as he went to eat lunch and we continued. His name is Jason. We didn't know if we would ever see him again.

We rode about 50 miles before stopping for lunch at Port Talbot Orchards, where we met Susanne, who was preparing 170 rhubarb strawberry pies for a baking competition-- Rosie Rhubarb (which she expected to win!). 

Her brother Geoff was getting ready to open his food truck, which had been delayed because the county decided to declare it a building (he thought it was the restaurant down the street who didn't want competition). We introduced ourselves and when his wife heard my name, she said "Natasha, that sounds Russian..."

And Geoff interrupted with, "You know that thing, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? With her, it's six degrees of Lebanese."

Susanne gave us some delicious butter raisin tarts and Jason stopped too, as he had been behind us and saw us. 

We continued on our way and at one point Remi told me "If I saw a touring cyclist in my town, I would ask them three things: Where are you from? where are you going? Do you need a place to stay tonight?"

Not five minutes later, a BMW pulled over by the side of the road and a man came out, waving us over. 

"Where are you from?"

We told him.

"Where are you headed?"

We told him.

"Where are you staying tonight?"

After which he proceeded to invite us to set up camp in his yard. 

We rode off delighted with the irony and generosity of Robert, headed an extra 10 miles to get to his RV park (which he wasn't going to be at). 

We ran into Jason stopped for ice cream and he tagged along with us, also spending the night in Bob's yard. 

We arrived at the RV park and were welcomed heartily by the neighbors, who had been forewarned of our arrival. 

One neighbor brought us cold sodas (he called it pop) and water, and another, whose name was Jeanne, took us for a tour on her golf cart. She had a ball telling us about the park and introducing us to everyone, going for dramatic effect by emphasizing that I was traveling alone. She was really very sweet. 

I asked her what she thought of the wind farms and she said "You know, I don't think they're so bad. Some people really don't like them, but we really have to do something."