8th
Day 7 June 19th: Espanola to Owen Sound
We travelled all night, catching the occasional blink of sleep in between the EPS’ annoying voice informing us that she’s “recalculating…recalculating…” and the loud, obnoxious sound of driving over the rumble strip. We got attacked by the late night munchies, so we stopped briefly at Boston Pizza where Drew and Jim ordered pizza and shared a few beers while soliciting $100 worth of donations while waiting for their order. We never made it to the bunk trucks and woke up in Espanola at 6 am still in the RV, and in consequence, had to run around madly to get ourselves ready to leave by 6:30am. We had a long ride ahead of us to the Ferry Docks in South Baymouth and couldn’t be late as we were scheduled to catch the Chi-Cheeman Ferry at 11:30 am. I was very thankful there was a Tim Horton’s nearby so that I could grab a breakfast for champions—medium double/double and a hot breakfast sandwich.
It was a pleasant 110km ride to South Baymouth. It was warm and sunny, although we did have to battle head winds again. We arrived a little early so we took the time to explore the area before we had to board the Ferry. I was amazed at the size of the watercraft and how a transport truck seemed much diminished in size by comparison. The Chi-Cheemaun is the largest ship of its kind on the Great Lakes, 365 feet in length at a weight of nearly 7,000 tons. In operation since 1974, the Chi-Cheemaun, meaning ‘Big Canoe’, can carry 143 cars and 638 passengers between Tobermory and South Baymouth. The ferry can make the 30-mile trip in less than two hours at an average speed of 18 miles per hour. I would like to point out that I can cycle faster than this, but as I cannot cycle across water (yet), the Ferry was the way to go. Plus it meant we had two hours of down time!
Since beginning this wonderful, but hectic journey, this was our first chance to “put up our feet.” We had two hours to do whatever we wanted. At first I was at a loss of what to do with my new found freedom, but that was soon solved when Jamie and Eric brought out the lunch trays. After filling our bellies with delicious sandwiches, fresh fruit and veggies, we went our own ways, with most of my teammates going up on deck to catch up on some much needed sleep. I don’t like to nap in the afternoon if I can help it as it leaves me groggy and miserable, so I went around taking pictures of people sleeping instead.
Once the Ferry docked in Tobermory, we got ourselves organised for the 110 km ride to Owen Sound. Kathy is a resident there and she set up an event at the Sears store and an interview with someone from the local radio station who met us at the dock. After the interview we saddled up and he followed us, covering our journey live on the air, telling people to come and meet us at the Sears parking lot in Owen Sound. 40km outside of our final destination we got a police escort and he used his siren and lights as we cruised through Weirton. People waved and cheered along the side of the road.
For the last part of the ride Kathy, Debbie, Monique and I were put on the front of the peloton. After a brief visit to Kathy’s house, we rode into Owen Sound where the local police met us and took over the escort. Unfortunately the cop made a quick stop to talk to another cop and we had to brake really fast in order not to crash into them or each other. Luckily everyone reacted quickly enough and avoided what would have been a really embarrassing crash in downtown Owen Sound in front of many people.
Just before we turned to go into the Sears parking lot we had a 14% grade hill to climb. I love the steep, short climbs, even if they happen to be at the very end of a long ride! Once we arrived we were met by many local people, mostly friends and family of Kathy, but also people who were there for the cause. I talked to a father whose young son was recently diagnosed with cancer and gave each of them a dog tag. The father thanked me for what we were doing and we chatted about the ride and the cause and why I chose to get involved. We then enjoyed a great barbeque dinner with pie and ice cream for dessert, showered at Kathy’s gym and enjoyed a quick beer before getting in the RV. I was fried again from the sun and my ears were so bad they were blistered so Jamie gave me some cream to ease the soreness.
We only had a three hour RV trip to Woodstock, tomorrows starting point. This meant we would finally have a full night sleep in the Bunk Truck!
We cycled a total of 220 km today.
