Day 18 - Sunday August 30th

118.00 miles

8:33.15 hrs

27.7 mph Max

13.7 mph Avg

This was a long day!!! I went well above my previous mileage high and my legs feel noodled. For the first time, walking down the stairs is difficult after the ride. I am staying with a friend's family friend and they are very hospitable. Upon arriving in Edwardsburg I had beer, a large plate of ribs, tater-tots and cooked carrots awaiting me. It was the best meal I could have asked for! Thank you Wayne and Anne for everything! You really made my night!

With such a distance to travel I did not know if it was going to be possible for me to make it all the way to Edwardsburg, since I got to a late start 9:30am. It was not nearly as windy as the day previous but there were definitely some hills to conquer. These hills were rolling and nothing compared to the mountains I passed through in NH, VT and NY, but I did not want to attack them in forecast of my legs/knees giving out if I took them too hard.

Typically, I would ride for 2 hours, take a little break, ride for another 2 hours, take a little break... etc. until my destination. Of course I would have to stop randomly for bathroom breaks, etc. Since I did not get started as early as desired it meant that I would not be able to take it easy and take a lot of breaks because I would be in the saddle for a presumed 9 hours. This means any time spent off the bike for a rest could prolong my trip longer than I had time to cycle with light. So, I would have to be on the bike constantly for longer periods of time than I was used to. Lets just say that 9 hours in a saddle with a half hour break for lunch was not exaclty fun for the touche'.

Day 17 - Saturday August 29th

51.36 miles

4:25.36 hrs

24.3 mph Max

11.5 mph Avg

Since I have about 3 days to get to Chicago from here I decided to take it easy this morning and not be too worried about time. I was going to head towards Ann Arbor and have lunch there while I checked out the campus. This really didn't happen for I didn't leave the hotel till about 1:30pm-ish. It was good to sleep in but it would have been better to bike an extra 20 more miles instead for then I could have camped somewhere closer to the destination I had set up for the following day.

It was fun to see Ann Arbor but I missed the majority of the campus by going down Main Street and transferring over to State Street on the south side of campus. It was very cold, VERY windy (headwind) and kind of hilly making this trip not very fun. I did have my iPod up and working which was a plus, comparative to the five day stint where it was out of battery during my trip through Ontario.

I ended up making it to Irish Hills Campground just on the West side of Clinton. The normal price for camping was $22, which is outrageous for a single tent, but he game be a 'break' and only charged me $15 for the night. That is such a high rate for having someone just pitch a tent and then go with no upkeep or anything. I think I want to open up a chain of parks across the US just for people like myself and only charge $5 per night/per person. Hopefully that would cover all the costs of the land and upkeep (probably not going to happen but it is an idea!).

Day 16 - Friday August 28th

77.99 miles

5:43.37 hrs

26.1 mph Max

13.6 mph Avg

Today was a VERY interesting day! It started out with me getting an average start out of Charing Cross and heading towards Windsor, ON at a brisk pace along a new route that the Sparks family recommended due to its decrease in overall distance. With a slight breeze at my back it started to rain pretty hard about 10 min into my travels. I didn't mind the rain really because of the tail wind that I had, you don't come by many of these when traveling East to West. I already had my rain gear on due to temperature outside (55 degrees) and in preparation of the clouds ahead. Unfortunately, I was soaked after about two hours of riding. With the elements against me I pushed through and arrived at the boarder a lot sooner than I expected. I was very excited to get back into the US!

Here is where things get interesting... There are two ways to cross the boarder. You can either take the bridge or you can take the tunnel. As bikes would most likely not be able to go in the tunnel I headed to the bridge. I took my time along the river taking pictures of Detroit and taking in the view of the bridge. As I rode up to the boarder patrol station to pay a toll to cross the bridge I found out that you cannot bike across the bridge either! This put me into a little predicament... I ended up calling a cab but when I found out that was going to cost me at least $50 I nixed that option. There was no way that I was going to spend $50 to go a mile in a cab!

The other options I had for traveling across the boarder were to travel back East and then North around Lake St. Clair to another boarder crossing (120 km away), Travel back East and then South to Kingsville to take a Fairy to PeLee Island and then take another fairy to Bay Point, OH, or to pack up my bike into a bag (?) and take the bus across the boarder where I was, or find another person riding in a truck and ask him if I can throw my bike in the back of his truck and then we ride across. Yes, I am talking about hitch-hiking... and I chose the last one. Of course this was probably not the smartest idea but it was a lot better than spending a couple extra days trying to get over the boarder. Anyways, the boarder patrol did not like me hitch-hiking across the boarder and the truck I was in got searched and I got a little lecture from the cop.

Needless to say, I made it over the boarder safely, but I was unable to get in contact with unemployment. I guess that will have to wait until next week.

When I got over the boarder and through Detroit I had little time to get out of the city and find a camp ground to stay at. As you can imagine, there are not many camp grounds around the suburbs of Detroit. I stopped at a grocery store to look at a map and asked around. As I was checking out, talking to the cashier, a lady overheard my conversation and approached me when I was outside packing up the food I bought on my bike. She started talking to me about how she loves to bike around and some of the options I had. She was going to get in touch with a friend who lived fairly close by and see if I could camp in their back yard but ended up offering to put me up at a Redroof Inn for the night. This was truly a treat and made my day a lot better compared to me previously thinking that I was going to be stranded in Canada for a couple nights.

I ended up spoiling myself this night and went out to eat. My days total expenses came in well above the budgeted $15/day that I am trying to stay under but I didn't really care at the time. Overall, I am well under my budget and things will work out.

Day 15 - Thursday August 27th

99.11 miles

6:48.59 hrs

35.4 mph Max

14.7 mph Avg

Three trip records were broken today! I hit the 1000 mile mark on my bike trip, I went over 90 miles in one day and I averaged 14.7 mph. Overall it feels pretty good to be this far in the trip! Surprisingly, it was not till the second half of the trip that my averaged jumped so much. The first half average was at 12.5-13 mph and at the 40 mile mark, after lunch, my legs felt pretty good and with a little tail wind I averaged about 18 mph for the next 2.5-3 hours! I was very happy to be knee-pain free for I would not have been able to do this with any knee pain. Hopefully they feel good tomorrow too!

Since today was cold and wet, I ended up wearing my full rain suit. I feel like this helped my knees out by keeping them warm and dry! I took off the jacket at one point but kept the legs on and it seemed to work wonders.

A special thanks to the Sparks family for hosting me this evening in Charing Cross, ON, Canada. The hospitality was amazing and the company even better. It was great meeting you all and hopefully our paths will cross again in the future. Thanks to the Asher family as well for the pie and sponsorship of my trip!

I am needing to get out of Canada by 4:30 tomorrow so that I can call unemployment before the weekend. I will just have to plan for this by leaving early in the morning.