To Lake Huron and Back

It's been almost two weeks since we last rode. Somehow, our wedding plans always seem to get in the way. Fortunately, after making substantial progress in that department over the last week, we got out today on a very beautiful day. A key piece of our planning was completed on Friday as our customized stamps from Canada Post arrived less than a week after ordering them. So last night we managed, with my mom's help, to pretty much finish assembling the invitation packages. We were even able to hand deliver a handful of them.

Sheets and sheets of stamps.

We left on today's ride at around 9:30 am. As usual, I planned the ride a few days in advance and made sure that it took us through, unknown to us, roads of Southern Ontario.

Today's first stop was on Harriston. We stopped at the local bakery, the Harriston Bakery, and picked up a croissant, a cinnamon donut and an apple-cinnamon bread. Somehow, I feel we'll be making a few more trips to that establishment. On the way over to Harriston, I noticed a number of signs promoting something called the Canadian Redneck Games. It seems today was the second day of that three day competition. I just looked it up online and the Games consisted of several events involving mud and a Hubcap Hurl, among others. Maybe next year.

We filled up a couple miles out of town and continued on through Mildmay, Walkerton and onto Kincardine. It felt like the traffic was crawling all the way over but that could be because last time I rode was 4 days on US interstates. We decided to have lunch in Kincardine but after zipping past a couple of family restaurants we settled on Crabby Joe's. We sat on the patio and Heather had a plate of apple-pecan salad while I had a Hawaiian sandwich (a BBQ chicken sandwich with a slice of pinapple in the middle). Needless to say, we were both satisfied with our selections.

After lunch at Crabby Joe's.

We then rode along Lake Huron to Goderich. From Goderich, we finally started heading in the general direction of home but with frequent stops, mostly due to fatigue, in places like Seaforth, St. Marys and Woodstock. In Woodstock, we filled up once again and finally decided to head straight home. It was well past 4 pm when we left the gas station.

Our menu of destinations from Seaforth.

Because it was getting to be a long day for us, we chose the quickest way home which meant getting on the 401. The traffic wasn't very heavy but the first 5 miles or so from Woodstock were in a construction zone with reduced lanes, no shoulders and a small section of stripped asphalt. We got home at about 5:15 pm and after an hour to unwind we started work on more wedding plans, this time trying to select music for key parts of our special evening.

And one more note about riding. We rode all day today without gloves and I may have to consider using sunscreen in the future. And now, from wrists to knuckles, I got a great tan.

Caught red-handed.

SEASON STATS
Today's trip: 405 km - 252 miles
2009 to date: 4,277 km - 2,658 miles (50.3%)
2009 goal: 8,500 km - 5,282 miles
To obtain goal: 4,223 km - 2,624 miles


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WATER TOWERS

A Snap of Genius?

Since last August, Heather and I have begun snapping pictures of our motorcycles in front of water towers. It wasn't meant to be some sort of competition but it gave us something to target as we ride from town to town. We've even been neglecting the idea as last week we only got our 30th.

Well, sometime in mid-May I received an e-mail in my Flickr account from somebody looking to use one of our photos. That somebody was a Quebec marketing firm which, in this case, represented Yellow Pages Group. And that photo was one of our motorcycles in front of a water tower in Listowel, ON. Once I singed a release, the photo would be entered into a photo contest and would possibly be featured in future Community Guides. I really didn't think twice about signing the release because a lot worse things can happen than having a chance to win a camera.

It wasn't until today, that I followed up to see what has become of my photo. I surfed over to www.ypgphoto.com and there I noticed my photo as one of 21 June entries. What a pleasant surprise! And while it would be nice to win, Heather and I don't take these pictures to win prizes and awards. We mostly enjoy riding together around the countryside and beyond.

If you'd like to support us, go here to vote:
http://www.ypgphoto.com/2009/june/listowel-on-tom-gronek/

Just Visiting

Today we set out to see some people we haven't seen a while.

First, we drove to Brantford in the morning to see Darryl and Erin. Darryl and Erin were supposed to be in our wedding party but we recently found that Erin is pregnant and expecting twins. Because of that, we all thought that it'd be better if she stayed on the sidelines during our wedding. Nevertheless, she's already 15 weeks pregnant and doing great.

Next we drove to Cambridge to see Kim and Mike and Jolene again. We visited them because Heather and Kim wanted to do some shopping for their upcoming trip to a an annual twins festival in Twinsburg, OH. Their shopping trip took about two hours.

Minutes later, we went to the Doon area of Kitchener to visit our friends Dennis and Diana. It was our first visit to their new home and we were welcomed by well done burgers and a salad. After that, we relaxed in front of a TV and discussed each others' wedding plans - Dennis and Diana are getting married in September. We also managed to pick up an invitation to their wedding since it was somehow mailed back to them. No harm done.

Heather and I arrived home at 10 pm after a busy day on the road seeing some friends.

WWR '09 - Arriving Home

Today was going to be the final stretch of our big trip. We took our time getting ready and didn't leave until 8:30 am. We stopped 30 minutes after leaving in Westlake to fill up. From there it'd be smooth sailing on I-90 all the way to Buffalo.

Breakfast stop in Westlake, OH.

We missed Cleveland's morning rush hour traffic as we hardly encountered any delays going through the city. We made a couple more stops along the I-90 including one just before crossing the Pennsylvania-New York border. That's where we filled up for the last time in the US and said our goodbyes to Jim and Sandy. They still rode with us as far as the exit to the Peace Bridge in Buffalo but after that we were on our own. Jim and Sandy continued east to another rally happening in Epsom, NH.

Crossing the border wasn't a problem and the guy in the cash booth was really excited to see us back in Canada as he started chanting our names (which are on our vests). While in Canada, Heather and I switched to riding the back roads, mainly Hwy 3 to Dunnville, which was our last stop on the road home.

From Dunnville, it was more back roads as we tried to avoid the afternoon traffic of major cities by passing west of Hamilton, east of Cambridge and west of Guelph. When finally got to Waterloo, Heather and I got separated for five minutes as she missed a turn mainly due to fatigue. We caught up five minutes later and arrived home with the 5 pm traffic. We were welcomed by a warm supper made by my mom. Once home, Heather went straight to bed, while I organized the photos and other miscellaneous things.

We both had a great time during the trip and were glad to be accompanied by an experienced rider such as Jim. Thank you.

We also accomplished another milestone in our short riding careers. We both went past the 10,000 km plateau with me doing it in Ohio, about 20 miles short Pennsylvania, and Heather doing it in the vicinity of the US/Canada border.

Overall, we did over 2,350 km (1,460 miles) and five states (Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New York) in six days. It was a great experience and we look forward to doing more in the future.

SEASON STATS
Today's trip: 581 km - 361 miles
2009 to date: 3,870 km - 2,405 miles (45.5%)
2009 goal: 8,500 km - 5,282 miles
To obtain goal: 4,630 km - 2,877 miles


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