London and Hamilton

Aug 21, 2008
Early up today as I am on sweep. Breakfast went well as did the clean up. This could be our last official sweep. We are scheduled to sweep starting in the evening of the last day, but it sounds like that maybe that will volunteer. The day went well, although it was long. We arrived in camp around 6 pm. The scenery is mostly rural with lots of nicely kept farm places and some really beautiful houses. Some of them remind you of the big southern mansions in the US, and in fact other things remind you of that as well -- tobacco is a common crop here along with the tobacco barns and equipment. There were a couple stops along the way, put on by the local churches. The Canadians have gone all out at the stops in providing food, drink and conversation. All along the way since we’ve come into Canada there have been signs and people along the road to cheer us on. At our destination, London Christian School, they really threw us a feast.

We haven’t seen a lot of wildlife in Canada, but in the evening, I was able to enjoy watching several bats as they took out a large part of the mosquito population. The bats appear to be quite a bit larger than the little brown bats at home. Another thing that happened during the day was a 40 kilometer time trial. I would have liked to do it but I was on sweep and am also nursing a slightly pulled muscle or tendon behind my left knee. It’s not bad but I decided not to push it with a little over a week to go in the tour. The TT was right on the route to London and was flat, much like the Iowa State TT course. They did have a little headwind, but still turned in some very good times, Rueben Vyn was the fastest at 1:03.
Trip total 3610 today 80

Aug 22, 2008
I slept in a while this morning, as it is getting light later and later. We took it pretty easy -- there were 4 church stops on the way. It was ride a little, eat a lot, and ride a little. The scenery did change to rolling hills, some of them quite steep but short. Out on one of the nice quiet country roads we were suddenly surprised by 2 big dogs, a german shepherd and a black lab mix. We almost made it past them when the black lab ran right into Doug’s front wheel and Doug went down on the pavement. Fortunately he wasn’t seriously injured, but he is bruised and scraped up a bit. After making all the stops we pulled into camp at Redeemer College in Hamilton, ON.
Trip total 3688 today 78