June 23- Day 47

What a beautiful day! I woke, as usual, at 5 only to sleep again until 7. For now the sky is clear with only the occasional puffy cloud drifting overhead. The river here had a blanket of mist over it, the birds are singing, and I didn't get busted last night for staying here. In fact there is another couple camping in the main park area not 200 meters away (I'm in a small offshoot by the river that I thought would be less noticeable).

The mosquitoes are a noticeable presence here, and I fear that will only get worse when Wyatt is along with me, since their offspring will have hatched by then.

I took a picture of Mossfoot fishing, made him a tiny rod. Very cute. Of course this place doesn't allow fishing, so hopefully nobody in the fish and wildlife department will find out, I doubt MF could afford the fine.

By 8 I could easily have left, but I wanted to dry out my tent and sleeping bag a bit first. There was no rain, but the usual condensation from my own breathing coated the tent fly and the end of my sleeping bag is a bit damp on the outside, probably for the same reason.

As I said yesterday, I think I'll make it either to or near the ferry terminal before I stop tonight. If I'm lucky there will be an 8 o'clock ferry that I can catch, so I can start on the Bruce Peninsula tomorrow.

Only one week left of June. I think I'm behind schedule. But who cares? When Wyatt start riding with me, the time will be better spent, and I won't care if I go overtime... except for the money aspect, that is.

Before I left it went cloudy. Very cloudy. Here's hoping there is no rain hiding in those clouds...

I used the last of my gatoraid on my water bottles, but didn't have enough water for them, the nearby indian reserve didn't have drinkable water (and I didn't want to buy any), so I had to wait until I reached Spanish, where I also readjusted my knee bandages. They didn't seem to be on right today.

Had a semi-serious crash outside of Massey. Wiped out trying to put some garbage in my pocket. Stupid. My left peddle bent out of shape a bit, I scraped my knee and tore up my pants. Some things went temporarily out of place on the bike, but I put everything back.

At Massey there was a St. John Ambulance charity BBQ, and lots of people to ask questions about the bike. I bought a hot dog, and they gave me a second one for free before I left.

Lessons I Have Learned The Hard Way #1: Get the right tool for the job. I learned this lesson late in the trip. My attempts at trying to save money by getting silicon based lubricant instead of bike lubricant have led to nothing but trouble. I have had to relube the bike every day for the last week! And it keeps squeaking sometimes regardless of the lubing. I haven't been able to clean the chain effectively either. So today I broke down and bought a bike degreaser and lube kit. If I had done that in the first place instead of the several cans of silicone lube I went through... well, I would have saved a fair bit of money at the very least. As well as aggravation.

At Little Current (aptly named since the only river I saw here was completely still), I stopped at a local donut shop, and tried their local chocolate milk (I've seen no less than a dozen types of chocolate milk so far on this trip), which overall is one of the weaker brands I've tried. Their homemade chocolate chip jumbo cookies, on the other hand, are much better.

Time spent cycling: 8 hours?

Distance traveled: 185km?

Total distance: 3656 km

Average Speed: 22 kph?

Maximum speed: 63.2 kph

Current Location: "Free" campground at South Baymouth

Oh my God, is it ever raining!!! It's a good thing I set up this tent beforehand! The ride here was largely uneventful. Came to a nice lookout and talked with some elderly tourists and the bus driver. Lots of riding to do. I arrived at last at 8:30.

The first problem was to find somewhere to sleep. I looked around and found nothing accessible in town. I asked some kids if there was any free camping here, and they directed me to this place, which, while it says it costs 13 bucks to stay, appears to be in the same category as the other campgrounds I've stayed at like this in the past. Nevertheless part of me fears capture!

I called Gillian, and had her all me back at a payphone (I love it when you can do that!) since she gets better long distance rates than a collect call would give her. She won't be able to afford to see me in St. Johns after all. Not even Toronto. Damn holiday rates! This means even if Wyatt has a student discount, it's going to be bloody expensive to get home! I was upset, I just hope I didn't take it out on her.

My scraped knee is in good shape. Still sore, but the tension bandage covers it nicely.

It hasn't stopped raining since I called Gillian. That was over an hour ago. About a third the strength of the Winnipeg downpour.

Somehow I reset my speedometer today. Happened when I put it in my pocket. But I remember the important stats (without decimal places) and the maximum speed wasn't erased.

Oh well, not much else to say. Except that I hope it stopped before I wake up!!!