TODAY'S TALES:  OK, Barb made me put this notice in the page...our youngest daughter and her husband are the proud new parents of a bouncing baby girl...their first, our 5th grandchild.  Welcome into the world Claudia Juliet Piotrowski or "CJ" for us.

Well, tonight we're holed up, not in a different state, but a different country!  We entered Canada today! 

Boy, another good weather day.  We've been pretty lucky lately as the temperatures have been ideal and the sun has shone most of the day.  We planned a group photo this morning and the light was perfect...a little cloud cover was ideal for a great shot.  But as luck would have it, just as we were lining up for the photo, the clouds broke and the sun started to beam brightly from our left...bummer.  We took the photo anyway and it didn't turn out too bad.

Today, I felt like I was back in the military trying to herd the troops to a common goal at a designated time.  I think I said it a long time ago trying to get all these bikers organized and at the same place at the same time is like herding cats.  But in spite of the 50 different agendas and the photos that were scheduled, we seemed to be at least a little bit organized this morning.

We scheduled breakfast at 6:00 to allow everyone time enough eat, load, and to gather for an 8:05 photo before our 8:30 departure time.  We were scheduled to meet the bridge authority at the toll gate no later than 8:30 as a group.  Everyone was promptly in place and ready to go as I made the call to the authorities at precisely at 8:20 to alert them we were on time.  It was only about 3/4 of a mile to the booth, but it was a little climb up the ramp to the bridge and I knew we didn't want to be late.  We all lined up with the gold van in front, all the riders, then silver, and Barbara driving the luggage truck in the rear.  Coordination was needed so they would have time to stop the traffic coming into the bridge so we could climb the hill and cross over 2 lanes of traffic to the right to a holding area.  When we arrived there, we waited until the bridge authority alerted customs that we were inbound and were ready to escort us over the bridge.  Our only challenge on the road over the bridge is to stop and walk over the expansion joints...two of them...big suckers that would swallow a bicycle tire in a heartbeat.  With all that, the neatest thing is they close down the whole bridge for the time we are on it.  That's right, they shut down the whole bridge and escort us across...it's really cool.  It was a great sight to see all the riders lined up in an ABB peloton being escorted across...everyone wore their ABB jerseys this morning and it really looked impressive.  I couldn't believe we got all of them together on time...but somehow we did. 

Customs went pretty smoothly as it didn't take but a few minutes to check everyone's ID and clear us to go...now I hope we can all get back into the country in 2 days.  We had a little scare as one rider had misplaced a form that was needed to get back into the US.  After rooting through luggage with no luck, he checked in his bike bag where his passport had been and there it was...whew...all processed and legal at last.  I'm always on pins and needles until we all get over the bridge and through customs.

Once we got out of town and on the road, I must say I really like Ontario.  There was a survey done on the internet someplace and they said that Canada was the 4th worst for friendly people...they couldn't have been talking about Ontario.  I couldn't stop without someone stopping by and asking what was going on and wishing us well.  Every time I stopped to take pictures, someone would ask if I wanted them to take one of me...just out of nowhere...and everyone was so friendly.  The drivers are friendly too as they seem to give us lots of room when they pass and sometimes they even slow to our speed until it is clearly safe to pass.  The roads we were on had no shoulder but were lightly traveled so we really appreciate their courtesy on the roadways.

The terrain was so flat I don't even think it registered on our altimeter today.  We did pick up a little cross wind in the morning, but nothing too serious.  We were in farmland almost all day that seemed like Iowa to me...flat and lots of crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat (we even saw some tobacco on one farm).  I even drove out into a wheat field to photograph wheat transfer from the combine to the shuttle wagon.  The farmer said I could drive out and take some pictures...told you they were friendly here.  

Another thing I noticed here is that they even have better lawn art than we've seen in Michigan and other states.  We passed many houses that were adorned with colorful flowers and various displays of wishing wells and serenity gardens instead of manure spreaders.  One thing I noticed was when farm machinery gets past its life expectancy (they use wagons and plows), they just park it in the yard and plant flowers around it...it's now lawn art!  If I tried to plant flowers like that in Alabama, they would just burn up.  It's nice to see such color and pride in people's yards. 

Aside from navigational challenges in Canada, our biggest challenge for the next couple of days will be figuring out the money here.  The exchange rate is really good, but Loonies and Toonies?  Also, all of their money has the same person on it...Queen Elizabeth II.  If it's not her, it's a bear or an elk but she's the only person.  They have issues with our money too...they can't figure out how we can have all our bills the same color and the same size and still keep them all straight...THE NUMBER IN THE CORNER might be a clue!  And we have different people on different denominations...Let's see, Ben Franklin is worth...?  And our nickel is bigger than our dime.  The penny is bigger than a dime too.  Very confusing to the people north of the border. 

After rap, we all went to the Southside Restaurant for a great meal after a great riding day.  Tomorrow we will sleep in and hopefully enjoy a shorter ride day.  The weather is forecast to be good...but we'll deal with what ever is dealt us.  See you then.

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