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.
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.
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