Saturday, July 19, 2008

Day 28, July 17, Upsala Ont. to Thunder Bay Ont.



I was woken by heavy breathing outside my tent 3 times last night. I looked out my screen the first time and didn’t see anything and fell asleep. The second time the breathing was followed by heavy crunching. The third time I saw a white and gray dog outside my tent eating a large amount of uncooked spaghetti. I wasn’t completely sure if it was a dog or not being that it was dark, coupled with being blind without my contacts. The Aussie thought it was Allan at first, but then was convinced it was a wolf. I didn’t believe him, probably because of his accent, but I didn’t venture of my tent to check.

Allan and I saw a dirty mutt in the campsite in the morning. It looked like the animal I saw during the night. We didn’t tell the Aussie. The dog must have eaten a half a kilo of uncooked spaghetti noodles.

It was a fairly long day in comparison to the last couple, so we took off early. About 20k in we stopped at a gas station to grab some fuel, and chocolate bars for myself. The Aussie was there having a pop, and he continued to ride with us for the next 80 or so km. Brett and Vanessa were riding slow to help Brett’s knee, so I rode ahead with the him for most of the day. BC Guy eventually caught up with us.

We split with the Aussie and BC Guy 40k outside of Thunderbay. We took an alternative root that would have less traffic. It did end up having less traffic, but a tone of construction.

We arrived in Thunderbay around 7:00pm. We lost an hour today because of the time change. We found a nice campsite to stay in, but we didn’t stay there after I phoned some relatives of mine that I had never met.

Since we were taking a rest day, I thought a coffee with my Dad’s Aunt and his cousin’s family would be a good idea. When I phoned them, they offered to have us stay with them in a trailer in their backyard. A nice bed and a clean shower would be a nice change, so we gratefully accepted.

We hadn’t met before, and I didn’t know what to expect, but all four of us were greeted like family. We stayed up until 1:00am chatting about family, curling, the trip, etc. It was a fantastic night, considering all I new about the family was through a brief conversation with my Dad, and what I found through Google. Thanks Bruce, Tracy, Irene and Philip, for hospitality. I felt a little guilty because I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to repay it.

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