Day 40 Port Huron, Mi. to London, ONT. Canada 89 miles with 1829' of climbing

Today we ate at 0600 and loaded luggage at 0645, we then took pictures of all of us in our ABB jerseys before all riding to the bridge for the trek into Canada.  Mike the ride leader had to coordinate our arrival with the bridge people as they only shut this bridge down once every 5 years and when America By Bike does the ride into Canada.  It is really a special event to be able to ride across the 6128' bridge without any cars and getting a personal escort to the customs area on the Canada side.  We left the motel at 0720 after our photo and all the riders and the 3 support vehicles going across together, it was quite a site.  They did not want any of us taking pictures on the bride as our main goal was to get across as quickly as possible because on an average day 14-16,000 cars cross this bridge daily.

After arriving into Canada we cleared customs and then we got a guided tour of the Canadian side from Jeff who is originally from Canada and we meet his Mom who was waiting just before we went into the park which is under the bridge on the Canadian side.  It was really nice to have a tour and his mom brought snacks for us that were put in the support van for us to have at the only rest stop today at mile 44.  We had an extra 8 miles that were not on the Que sheet due to our tour of the sites after crossing the bridge, but all agreed it was well worth the extra miles.

After we got back on route we rode on rural country roads once again with low traffic and smooth roads. The countryside looked somewhat the same as Michigan, with corn and soybean fields and dairy farms.  We road to the town of Delaware, Ont. which had a Deli- Grocery Store and we had ice cream and homemade sandwiches.  It was really a great lunch. 

We then set off for London and once again we were on the back roads.  We had a cross wind some of the time and a tail wind the rest and the miles went by quickly even though we got a late start leaving Sarnia, Ont. after our site seeing adventure. 

The riders that I was with decided we would stop at the bike shop when we got into town as we heard it was a good one and many of us bought  Canadian Jerseys there. They had bottled water for us and everything in the store was 20% off just for us.  They really treated us good and got lots of business from our group.  After leaving we checked into the motel and cleaned up after unloading luggage. 

Tomorrow is another short day only 66 miles and we will be wearing our new jerseys.