Buffalo Getaway- Day 2

We turned off our alarms and got up when we woke up. We drove over to the local Wegmans where we had breakfast and picked up a few items for snacks for the next couple days. Then we drove downtown and parked in the City Hall parking lot.

Our plan for the day was to visit the Anglican cathedral, walk around downtown Buffalo and go for a free tour of City Hall at noon, followed by lunch.

This picture is taken from the top of the parking garage and shows City Hall on the left, and a courthouse next to it. The large red building is the Statler Hotel and the monument is to William McKinley, the US president who was assassinated in Buffalo.

Buffalo has grid overlaid by a radial system of streets which was laid out in 1804 by the Elliott brothers who were inspired by Washington DC.

One of my prevailing memories from childhood and early adulthood was how often fires were reported in Buffalo and the surrounding area. We saw several of these standalone fire alarms as we walked around.

Buffalo’s population peaked about 1950 at 580k. It is now about 260k. In the early 1920s there was an expectation that Buffalo would grow to 1 million people. The picture below shows the old City Hall which was deemed to be too small so money was put aside and a new one was built from 1931 to 1933. The old one became County Hall. The new one cost just under $7M.

Many streets have bikes lanes, but I have seen only a handful of cyclists, mostly on the sidewalks. That might be because of the time of year and also because of the poor quality of the infrastructure. Paint is not infrastructure.

One of my memories from my trip four years ago was how empty Buffalo feels. That hasn’t changed. From mid morning to mid afternoon the wide streets were mostly empty. Most people didn’t wait for the walk signal to cross the road , and even when they got in the way of cars, most drivers were quite considerate. Possibly, congestion contributes to our feelings of frustration and flouting of the law in the GTA.

This is St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral. Michael enjoys visiting cathedrals whenever he travels to a new city.

Quite the hinges!

I enjoyed reading this explanation of who is welcome, especially the last point under “If you are…”

This scale model of the church was made at 1/4 inch to the foot and was made in 1849 before the church was built and was used to inspire donations to build the cathedral which took 24 years.

We then walked north to Main Street where the LRT runs. It’s cross-section varies block by block: a transit plaza (LRT, walking and cycling only) , LRT right of way and separated car lanes, shared right of way – cars and LRT with parking and finally it enters a tunnel. I wrote about it and shared pictures four years ago here.

I hate it when cities give away naming rights on public goods.

Theses two beautiful buildings house a bank and the electric company. We walked a little further along the LRT route then we headed back south for our tour of City Hall.

Buffalo City Hall is the second largest in the US after Philadelphia.

We had to pass through airport style security to enter, but there was no lineup. Bruce the docent from the Buffalo Preservation Society was waiting to begin the free daily weekday noon tour.

The architect John Wade is considered one of the three greats of American architecture, along with Louis Sullivan, who designed the Guaranty building which we visited later in the day, and Frank Lloyd Wright who designed the Martin House, which we will visit on Thursday.

Bruce took quite a bit of time explaining that the building is Art Deco in style and telling us about the friezes and sculptures. We were the only people on the tour.

The frieze over the main entrance showed the Canada-US relationship and even then, apparently Canadians were known to wear plaid.

I was very impressed (having just replaced our kitchen floor which was 30 years old) to learn that the original tile floor is still in place. It is secured only with the metal pieces which holds it together like a puzzle – no cement. We also learned that the building has has geothermal heating.

We then saw the treasury room (the only place where no pictures were allowed), then the Mayor’s Office and the Council chambers.

We then took the elevator to the top and then climbed several flights of stairs to go out on the observation deck.

The large red building is the Statler Hotel and has over 2000 rooms, but has been abandoned except for the first few floors for decades.

Bruce explained that Buffalo has so many great old buildings because of its history as one of the premier cities in the country followed by its dramatic decline which meant that there was no demand to tear down old buildings and build modern ones in their place.

We noticed these homes, in the bottom centre of the picture, on our way in. They are abandoned. We asked Bruce about them. They were built in the 60s, but not well built, were very cold and windy because of the proximity to the water, and not needed with the population decline. There is a plan to tear them down and replace with large, expensive homes.

As we finished the tour I asked for a lunch recommendation. He sent us to the Pearl Street Grill and Brewery. The food was excellent and the building interested. The ceiling fans were belt driven.

On our way there we passed this courthouse which must be one of the most brutal examples of Brutalist architecture I have ever seen.

After lunch we visited the Guaranty building, notable for being built in the Chicago Style – internal steel support and curtain wall construction. The curtain wall is made of terra cotta. The details in this building are incredible. Like so many buildings in Buffalo it suffered years of deterioration and bad renovations before being beautifully restored.

Here is a one of the terrible renovations and the restoration that followed.

I only walked 11000 steps, but my feet were tired. I am more used to being on my bike than walking and standing. We headed back to the hotel to relax and had dinner at 100 Acres again because we enjoyed it so much last night.

Buffalo Getaway – Day 1

Michael and I decided to take a getaway to Buffalo for our 32nd wedding anniversary which falls on the solstice. I was here four years ago with my eldest son to visit the Martin House. I blogged about it here and here.

Last time I stayed downtown at the Hyatt, but this time we are staying at Hotel Henry. I learned about it on twitter when a couple of the people I follow posted pictures of the beautiful hallway shown below.

From the website: “Widely considered to be one of Buffalo’s most important and beautiful buildings, construction on the 145-year-old Richardson Olmsted Campus began in 1872 and opened in 1880 as the state-of-the-art Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. Hotel Henry is the first phase and 1/3 of the redevelopment of the Richardson Olmsted Campus.”

We crossed at the Rainbow Bridge, but there were no rainbows today. There was no line at all to enter the US.

You can tell you’ve entered the US by the way they hang their traffic lights. I only see them like this at home during construction.

I generally think of Canada as a more progressive country than the US, but shortly after crossing into the US we encountered a bike lane. It turned into a multi-use path running along the river, that, I believe went all the way into Buffalo.

We have a lovely room with a ceiling that is probably 18-20 feet high.

It was raining heavily, so after settling in, we explored the extensive building.

There are many places to sit – rooms and nooks.

There is art displayed throughout the hotel.

This is the restaurant where we had dinner, at the hotel, in the hallways on the second floor, called 100 Acres. The name pays homage to the original acreage once reserved for agrarian use on the Richardson Olmsted Campus, 

We ordered from the Prix Fixe menu. The portions were small, but sufficient, and the flavours were excellent.

We went for a post-prandial walk. I took my DSLR and tripod. I haven’t used it for ages, as for daily use, I use my cell phone, and on my bike trips, I use a point and shoot.

This is a small part of the un-refurbished section.

Greg’s Ride – Day 2

We breakfasted at Tim’s then went back to our AirBnB before heading the 300m to the start of the ride. Dayle found a fabulous house in a perfect location. This is my second year riding Greg’s Ride. I blogged about it last year, here.

We arrived at the Legion Hall just after 9 o’clock so that we could catch up with old friends before the ride. Here I am with Jamie Stuckless, executive director of Share the Road, and Dayle.

BikeBrampton folks with Eleanor McMahon and Justin Jones.

As one would expect, there were lots of bikes.

Before the ride we had speeches from Jamie, Eleanor, Thomas Carrique – the OPP Commisioner and Kerry Schmidt, of the Highway Safety Division.

Wayne decided to ride the 80km route. David and Dayle and I rode the 40km route. It was a hot humid day and a hilly ride. We were very happy that we chose the shorter route.

That’s what we have to ride up!

Snack break at 13km after the first long climb of 10km.

It was a challenging, rolling, but beautiful route.

Our road route was crossed many times by rail trails. I would like to spend some time exploring these in the future.

An actual railway.

I love roads with a tree canopy, especially when it’s 30 degrees!

Second rest stop. I cannot fully express what wonderful women Jamie and Eleanor are. They always make us feel so valued and appreciated for our cycling advocacy in our communities and for supporting Share the Road.

I spotted this bike on a front lawn and had to stop for a picture.

I am a slower descender then David and Dayle. On a lovely descent on Valley Road and York Road, at a corner with a stop sign, I turned to tell the cyclist behind me that he could go ahead when it suddenly occurred to me that that cyclist was sweeping the ride. I asked him if he was the sweeper and his answer was in the affirmative. He wasn’t allowed to go ahead of me. Here we are the last three people in on the 40 km ride with the sweeper.

I was very hot and sweaty at the end of the ride, but because our Airbnb was so close, I rode my bike back, and had a shower, before returning to the Legion Hall for lunch.

Wayne arrived back from his 80km Ride very relieved to be done.

After things finished up at the ride and the follow up event, the others went back to shower, and I went to downtown Dundas for a coffee. It was very windy, which we had noticed on our descent back into Dundas.

I had a good coffee and very good cookie at Detour, although it was even pricier than Starbucks across the street.

I spotted this mural on the side of a building downtown.

I was surprised to find that I hadn’t completed this year’s ride much faster than I did last year’s, even though last year I was on a heavier upright bike, and still recovering from crashing my bike in the spring. I guess I was still tired from yesterday’s ride from Brampton to Hamilton. I did go a little further this year, as you can see from the short out and back line at the bottom of the map. David and I and at least five other riders missed the sign leading us to the first rest stop and went further uphill than we needed to.

I was so pleased to be able to participate in this important fundraising event for Share the Road and to see many friends once again.

To Hamilton for Greg’s Ride – Day 1

Today we rode our bikes to Hamilton for the 14th Annual Greg’s Ride. David and Dayle, Wayne and I are staying two nights in Dundas, where the ride begins. Barry rode with us to Burlington then back to Brampton.

From their website: “In 2006, OPP Sergeant Greg Stobbart was killed while cycling on Tremaine Road in Milton. After Greg’s death, his wife Eleanor McMahon founded the Share the Road Cycling Coalition in his memory to advocate for safer roads for all Ontarians. At Greg’s Ride: Ontario’s Ride for Safer Cycling, we ride in Greg’s Memory, celebrating how far cycling has come in over 10 years and striving to making Ontario the safest place in Canada to ride a bike. ”

It was a perfect day for a ride, unusually warm, but not too much so, for the equinox. We had some head and cross winds, but they weren’t really noticeable.

We were very excited to check out the brand new cross ride on Kennedy Road, south of Steeles, which will help Etobicoke Creek Trail users get across safely to the extension that goes under the 410/407 and Tomken Road. I have written about that section of the trail here. The pictures in that post were taken before the trail was paved. It is paved now and lovely to ride.

We took our first break at Starbucks in Port Credit, a place popular with road cyclists. We saw an astonishing number of road cyclists on Lakeshore Road between Stavebank where we joined it and Appleby Line where we left it.

I do enjoy the Mordor-like quality of oil refineries. This one is in south Mississauga.

I planned our route on Ride with GPS and was pleasantly surprised to find it knew about this road closure in Oakville and routed us around it.

We left Lakeshore Road at Appleby Line to go to the Centennial Trail, a lovely trail that runs through Oakville to the Burlington border.

The trail has excellent road crossings, with curb depressions, and wayfaring signs at every road.

North Shore Boulevard is a lovely tree-lined, rolling, residential street in Burlington. There is a park at about the halfway point that has great views across Burlington Bay to the industrial part of Hamilton

This tree lined street is near the botanical gardens in Hamilton.

This bridge took us across the Desjardins shipping channel and runs above the 403 and rail tracks. There is a set of stairs on the left hand side just past the large concrete pillar in this image that takes you down to the waterfront trail.

This is a jersey wall separated bi-directional cycle track on King Street over the 403 in Hamilton.

Here we are entering Dundas.

This is the AirBnB where we are staying. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, but is quite lovely on the inside. I’m happy to be staying in one place for two nights.

We decided to walk to dinner at The Thirsty Cactus and found one of the Share the Ride route signs.

Dundas is part of Hamilton, but feels like a little town of its own. There are lots of nice shops and restaurants. It is much bigger than Brampton’s downtown at Four Corners.

Look who we found at The Thirst Cactus! Five more BikeBrampton people!

Wayne and I needed more food after dinner so he availed himself of the local ice cream shop and I got chocolate bars and a milkshake at Shoppers Drug Mart. What’s the point in cycling 90 km if you can’t eat everything you want?

We have stored the bikes safely inside and are winding down for the night.

Bike to Meaford – Day 4 – Stayner to Brampton

Once again we had to ride to a restaurant for breakfast.  Most mornings our planned leave time turned out to be aspirational rather than accurately adhered to, however, this was our longest day for cycling so we pulled out all the stops and got on the road as planned.

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It’s not often that within a short distance of leaving our accommodation we see a sign for Brampton.  We didn’t actually take this route, which would have been a single straight line all the way down Route 42 and Airport Road, even though it was 16km shorter than the route we followed, as it would have been more than double the climbing.

I had prepared two routes for our final day:  shorter with lots of climbing, and longer with less climbing.  We had discussed it several times and decided to decide on the final evening.  Patti was always leaning toward the longer route, David and Dayle toward the shorter one, and I was undecided.  At dinner last night no one had changed their position so we let Patti decide and she chose the longer, flatter route.  Then I said, “You can picture the hills on Airport Road north of Highway 9, right?”, while gesturing repeated steep climbs and descents.  David then interjected with his recollection of the road and explained to Dayle who exclaimed, “Oh, Hell, no” as she finally visualized what we would have been riding.  Laughs all around and satisfaction with Patti’s decision ensued.

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It was a lovely misty morning, dry, with the promise of heat and the garbage bags were tucked safely away in the panniers.  We had breakfast at Coffee Culture.

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There was a pretty little park in Stayner formed by some odd street angles and adjacent to the rail trail on which we travelled from Collingwood to just north of Stayner.  There was a map in town showing that it extends to Creemore, but we took the road.

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Barry decided to meet us to share the road on our final day.  We joked as we packed up at the B&B that he would probably be saving a table for us at Coffee Culture when we arrived. He set out in the dark and made it to within 10km of Stayner before meeting us. And he was very fortunate to climb a lovely hill (circled in blue on the elevation profile below, along with his route to and from and Stayner circled in blue at the top) to find us at the crest before turning back south!  He managed to reach his goal of doing a 200km one day ride.

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This lovely scene required a stop to capture.

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Just after the turn, we encountered a photographer with a DSLR with a huge telephoto lens, who pointed out a bald eagle nest and eagles to us. My picture is extremely zoomed in, with a point and shoot camera, so not very good, but gives an idea of the size of the bird.  Shortly thereafter we encounter two snow geese flying cross wise over us.  They were beautiful and enormous, but too fast to capture.

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We are ready to go after lunch in Alliston.

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We are still smiling at Tim’s in Tottenham where we got on the the Caledon Trailway.

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We took one final group shot, back in Brampton, before separating to head to our respective homes.

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Patti came back to my house where her husband picked her up for a well deserved rest.  She did an amazing job on her first multi-day trip.

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At the end of my fourth multi-day cycling trip I reflect on what an amazing way it is to travel and am incredibly thankful to share the road with friends old and new.

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Bike to Meaford – Day 3 – Blue Mountain to Meaford to Stayner

The day started cool and overcast, but there was no rain falling, or in the forecast.  These units with a full kitchen, two queen beds – one in a loft, and two bathrooms, were quite reasonable for a group of four.

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The Thai restaurant where we ate last night was on the same property and a very short walk from our unit, but there was nowhere to eat breakfast so we packed up and biked to Blue Mountain Village. The whole village was nicely decorated for autumn. There were few people about.

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We had a feast for breakfast to fuel our ride.

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Unfortunately, as we finished breakfast it had started to rain.  Fortunately, we still had our garbage bags from Day 2 and pulled them out again.  There were quite a few stores where we could have purchased rain gear, but the garbage bags had protected us well from rain and wind on Day 2, so we stuck with them.

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Dayle’s feet were very cold on Day 2 so she took the opportunity to go shopping for wool socks, something she had failed to pack.

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As Patti and I sheltered from the rain under the overhang in front of Columbia, I noticed that the forecast showed a high of 21 degrees and no precipitation.  Here is Patti gesturing to the TV screen shown in the following picture.  It didn’t show up the the picture with Patti due to reflections.

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Shopping done, we backtracked past our accommodation to a lovely road descent that took us to Craigleith on the shore of Georgian Bay.

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Most of the day was spent on well marked rail trails with an excellent surface of stone dust and aggregate. It was tiring though. as even though it is flat, or gradually climbing or descending, there is more rolling resistance on the trail, than on the road.

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There was wayfaring signs at every crossing.  Most of the roads that we crossed were quite quiet and there were long distances on the trail between roads.

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We spent quite a bit of time at Thornbury at the fish ladder near the ruins of an old mill.  We saw large fish in the river, but didn’t actually see any fish climbing.

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Stretch break.

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Seen in the backyard of a house from the trail.

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The rain has stopped and it has started to warm up.  Dayle strips off her rain gear to reveal her beautiful new socks.  I laughed when I first saw them as I thought they read “WTF Snow”, so even though they actually read “Let it snow”, they will forever be “WTF Snow” socks to me.

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The original plan for the day was to have coffee in Meaford (at 25km) and lunch back at Blue Mountain Village (50km), but we were so slow due to using the rail trail and being tourists that we ended up having lunch and coffee in Meaford at McDonalds. Here we are under a lovely forest canopy, just south of Meaford heading back south.

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We didn’t see much of Collingwood today, other than busy highway 26, as it was getting quite late and we wanted to get to our accommodation in Stayner.  Even in small towns the drivers behave badly with one driver almost clipping my panniers and a passenger in another vehicle yelling, “Share the road” followed by expletives. We were happy to get back on the trail south of Collingwood.

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This lovely fellow greeted us as we arrived at our accommodation. It was a farm with horses, miniature horses, goats and chickens, many of them rescues. The owner took us around and talked about the animals before showing us to our rooms. She told us the story of Norman, a 27 year old miniature horse, who is a “felon”.  He escaped from the farm and made his way to Tim Horton’s in town, about 2km away.  The police were called and used their belts to put around him and lead him back home.

When we left for dinner, the border collie did his best to round us up and keep us on the property, running back and forth in front of our bikes to try to get us to turn back toward the farmhouse.  It was quite the adorable performance.

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The place had a Paris theme and was very eclectically decorated.  The owner was lovely.  Unfortunately, the mattresses left something to be desired.

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Someone rented the library for a wedding last weekend.

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There was an indoor pool and hot tub in which Dayle and I relaxed after dinner at a bar called Friends.  The food was good and the service friendly. It was a long day.  We didn’t head out for dinner until after 7pm.

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The bathroom was quite unique.

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The outside looked like a little French village square.

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Bike to Meaford – Day 2 – Barrie to Blue Mountain

Subtitle: The weather forecast I checked before leaving Brampton was wrong

Lessons learned:

  1. Don’t trust the weather forecast when packing
  2. When away from built up areas plan lunch and coffee stops ahead of riding
  3. Garbage bags work quite well as impromptu rain gear and are cheap and stylish (well, not the last thing)

Neither Patti nor I brought rain gear as we both saw sunny forecasts for the whole weekend. David and Dayle, on the other hand, apparently saw rain in the forecast, and packed accordingly.

We learned last night rain was forecast for the whole day today. We decided that we could buy something if necessary. I jokingly suggested garbage bags, but then proceeded to look at MEC and Walmart online.

Then our hostess independently offered garbage bags. We laughed and then accepted them. Snip, snip and we had rain gear without shopping. They turned out to be good enough to keep our cores warm and dry. We both had merino wool shirts and socks which stay warm, even when wet.

Morning us-ie. Ready to ride. Still smiling despite the rainy ride ahead of us.

Our hosts, Sandy and Terry, were excellent, and provided good conversation, a lovely home and breakfast.

Our route took us along the Barrie Waterfront, which is beautifully done with gardens, parkland, marina and public art. It was the Terry Fox run today and an astonishing number of people were out participating in the rain.

One of the things I like about the Barrie Waterfront is that they have built densely – close to great parks, downtown and GO transit.

Between having difficulty hearing Ride with GPS from under my clothes and over the noise of cars on wet pavement, to the app sulking and refusing to give directions verbally, to misplaced or misread street signs, we made a lot of wrong turns which caused backtracking, and wasted time today. We expected to ride 72km and finished at 86.

We still had a great day. One of the highlights, was the descent pictured below, which was the longest descent I have ever encountered, just after we left Barrie. It was about 5km long and a joy to ride, even in the rain. The low lying clouds made for a spectacular view.

It was followed by a few hundred metres of quite challenging climbing. Here we are taking a picture, nature, and nutrition break

I think one of the reasons I am fascinated by hydro towers is they are ubiquitous and take up so much land in linear corridors that connect all our cities and towns.

Imagine if we built bike trails through them!

Anten Mills is where I realized Ride with GPS was no longer speaking to me. We turned west, then realized we had gone too far, fortunately just before descending the hill pictured below, then doubled back in the other direction, only to realize that was also incorrect and that we were looking for a trailhead, not a road.

If we hadn’t done that, though, we would have missed seeing this house decorated in tricycles.

It is quite sandy up here and on the trails generally, but especially where the trail crosses roads. We were only on it for 1.2 km though, so it wasn’t too bad. It was called the Simcoe County Loop Trail.

Looks like it is used for ATV’s.

Leaving the trail behind we travel some quiet country roads.

We had a couple of mechanical problems – David’s front brake and Patti losing her chain, but neither was serious. At this point we realized it was getting past lunch time, and we hadn’t even passed somewhere to stop for coffee, let alone lunch. We consulted the route and realized that we would not be going through the commercial area in Wasaga, which appeared to be the only chance for food before Collingwood, so we re-routed on the fly.

We were pleased to go through Wasaga. They received bronze status as a bicycle friendly community this year from the Share the Road organization. There were bike lanes and good shoulders. We lunched at McDonald’s at about 50km into our ride, longer than we have ever gone before on one of our trips, without a break for a snack or meal.

The rain stopped, but we decided to continue wearing our garbage bags for the protection from the wind. However, having said that, we had another day of only mild winds, which were generally at our backs.

Wasaga Beach – we didn’t go in.

The gals at the beach. Look at the fancy shoulder treatment on Patti’s garbage bag!

There were some modest cottages along our route out of Wasaga, but a lot of older ones have been replaced with large modern homes.

The cottage streets were lovely to ride along.

Every few hundred metres there were beach access paths.

There were more cute bikes decorating homes and gardens.

Patti in her economical rain gear.

After what seemed like a very long way past the Welcome to Collingwood road sign we see a water tower and built up areas.

Blue skies!

The sun!

We have arrived and settled in.

Time for the hot tub.

There was an excellent Thai food restaurant right in the resort where we are staying.

Bike to Meaford – Day 1 – Brampton to Barrie

David, Dayle, and I are biking to Meaford and back, over four days, on our first fully self-supported bicycle trip. Patti is joining us for her first bicycle trip. Patti’s husband dropped her at my place for the start of the ride.

I could have titled this day “Wind at our backs”. It was an absolutely delightful ride with a good tailwind the whole way.

Here we are, having bade farewell to our husbands, ready to go.

David and Dayle arrive at our rendezvous at Torbram and Countryside. Dayle is very excited!

Barry is riding with us to Cookstown and then returning to Brampton. First group us-ie of the day.

An hour later we have arrived at the Caledon Trailway. Jason, a fellow BikeBrampton member gave us a nutrition seminar a few months ago in which he advised we eat 100-200 calories for every hour of riding on full day rides. Here we are complying.

Here we are in Tottenham, the end of the Caledon Trailway, and the start of the South Simcoe Railway, which is a steam train run by a group of enthusiasts. We stopped for second breakfast at Tim’s.

This is in interesting looking, operating flour mill we came upon as we left Tottenham.

Tottenham to Beeton was on the road. We expected to use the New Tecumseth trail for a short section north of Beeton, but it was closed for a bridge reconstruction. It wasn’t difficult to figure out a detour.

Here we are at the next trailhead. I imagine at some point there will be no trail gaps, but at the moment there are several. Unfortunately, the next section to Cookstown is very soft having been constructed recently and not settled yet.

I also rode this section in May on a cold, rainy day. It was hard going. I thought it might be better now having settled for a few months and dried up, but it wasn’t. Next time I will take the road the full distance between Tottenham and Cookstown. It only adds 3km versus the more diagonal trail.

The next two pictures were taken about the same spot on the trail, today and in May. It was much nicer riding today.

Last time I didn’t notice this lovely vista. It was just gray and wet.

I’m a sucker for hydro towers marching across the country against a beautiful blue sky.

Thanks to Barry for the following three images. I love this one of Patti and me. We have been riding together since Grade 7.

We stopped for lunch, at Tim’s again, in Cookstown. After lunch, Barry returned to Brampton, and we carried on to Barrie.

We followed the Thornton-Cookstown Trail to the Georgian Downs race track near the Barrie city limit. it was a good stone dust and aggregate surface like the Caledon Trailway.

There were a lots of places with windfall apples that I was concerned about hitting which, I think, might have caused a loss of control and a fall. I navigated these sections carefully. My bike handling was more challenging with 9kg of panniers on the back.

Picture just before we exited onto Veterans’ Drive.

Our AirBnB hosts are very friendly and accommodating. We parked our bikes in the garage. Patti and I are sharing a room in the basement. David and Dayle are on the main level. They swam when we arrived. Patti and I decided the water and air were a bit too cold and spent half an hour chatting and stretching instead.

On our previous trips we have had a van with us to drive to dinner or walked to a very close restaurant. Tonight we had to bike, but found an excellent place only 2km away. According to our hosts, Justin Trudeau ate at The Barnstormer when he came to Barrie. We locked up our bikes in the parking lot patio which is now closed for the season. It was loud and busy, but the food was excellent.

Before we arrived in Barrie, I suggested that we decide on where we were going for dinner and see if the return distance would get us a gran fondo (100km) before saving our rides. I would have needed an extra 12km, so I saved mine. But David and Dayle had come from further away this morning and needed only 2 additional kilometres after the restaurant so went around the block a few times to get their first gran fondos of 2019.

Tomorrow we ride to Collingwood. David and Dayle came prepared with rain gear. Patti and I both looked at the weather forecast before leaving and didn’t see rain. I packed no rain gear. Patti did have a rain coat, but decided to send it home with her husband this morning. Unfortunately, it is now forecast to rain all day. Sigh.

Our average speed of 17kph was very much dragged down by the trail in between Beeton and Cookstown during which we averaged only 11.9kph.