The photos from yesterday are now posted. 

This is a photo from yesterday, though, that I didn't get from Jaz.  It's a big piggy bank, so we contributed.

This was awesome.  You could tell when you dropped some coins in, that there were lots
of them in there.  There are cameras trained on it so people stay honest, and hopefully
don't vandalize.  The money will go to a charity once removed.

Woke up to a beautiful day and a calm lake outside of our motel room door. Jaz still hasn't had to ride in the rain, although we've come close. We've ended up skirting everything so far, including a near miss with flooding in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, where we nearly were a few days ago. I heard on the radio today that some buildings had 8 feet of water in them. So we were lucky in our route, and the days we came through that area. We had bypassed Yorkton and the shop in favor of going south and a different route almost at the last minute. Of course, I did miss hitting a Harley shop. There are plenty more.

Last night was a real problem, though, since the Internet connection was so very slow. We figured it must have been dial-up. We even figured out my connection problem. My computer isn't erasing previous connections, so we deleted them. I didn't even try to upload any photos as Jaz had tried and failed several times. It was easier to just try to do it tonight. We'll see … haven't started that part of the process yet. Type the story first, load the photos, and then try to upload everything to the blog. It's wearing me out … it's like real work.

Day after Canada Day, and as we rode along there were still lots of Canadian flags flying. Take pride in your country. I believe in that wholeheartedly.

We wanted to make Thunder Bay and the shop before it closed to try and see about my security issue, so we pretty much just rode all day, without taking too many stops. We did stop to add some rocks to a travel guardian figure along the road. There were a lot of them today. They're pretty cool. Maybe we could start that at home since we have more than enough rocks.

Doing my part to make the travel guardian.

The ride was beautiful. At first it was some farmland with those gorgeous red barns, and then lots of rocks, trees, and many, many lakes and rivers. Love going along the water and seeing more hills than rolling farmland. It's my favorite. Must be the Alaska gene bred in me. I need mountains and water. We just haven't been seeing any animals, though, other than roadkill. Seen a few dead deer alongside the road, but that certainly doesn't count. Would like to see alive ones … they're beautiful creatures.

We did see a mama bird (long elegant neck, kind of gray) with her flock in the middle of the other lane. She was trying to get them back across to the lake and wasn't having much luck. It made you want to stop and help her herd them across, but you know they'd scatter to the wind and she'd never get them back. So we rode on.

At Dryden we stopped for lunch. We passed an incredible yard. It wasn't large, but had a couple of lovely plants. The bushes were blooming and shaped like dresses, and there were little faces on them, hats and parasols. It's hard to describe, so there is photo support. YAY!!

Someone was very creative when it came to doing yardwork.

About 15 miles outside of that community, I saw something coming at me. Couldn't duck quick enough and whatever it was, small and dark, hit me in the upper lip. I figured it might be a rock, but maybe it was a bug since it didn't split the skin. I checked, and there wasn't any blood. It did give me a fat lip, though. No photos of that so guess there's no proof. Glad my mouth wasn't open singing along with the radio or CD at the time. Otherwise I might have had a tooth knocked out it hit so hard.

I'd been listening to CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) which is lots of talk radio. One program was a family who kept trying to escape Viet Nam after the war; another was food and what new foods people had tried. Another was a young lady named Jamie from Doyleston, Pennsylvania who decided to blog about her experience of following tips in Seventeen Magazine for a month … health, flirting, make up, hair. She blogged and ended up with lots of people who were interested in reading it, although not in her age bracket. It was mainly women in their 40s-50s. So maybe it was women who had children who were looking for tips on how to deal with their teens? Her ending opinion was that while there might be something in the mag of interest, she hoped young women didn't believe everything they read.

Listening to some of that is nearly like listening to an audio book. I've come to enjoy those a lot, but figure if I try to listen to them on the bike they'd be really distracting.

It got windy again, although never so bad as the other day but enough so you had to pay attention.

We took a break about 90 – 100 miles from Thunder Bay. Changed from boots to sneakers because my feet were so hot. The thermometer on the bike was registering 90 degrees, and I had been begging for some cloud cover. Sat on a bench for a while just watching people and guzzling a Coca Cola, my drink of choice when I'm really needing something special and to help me stay awake.

Of course, you see the strangest things while just sitting and people-watching. We were sitting on the bench, and a guy in a big F350 Ford diesel rolled in, pulling a travel trailer. It was loaded down with bicycles, four-wheelers, and who knows what else. His wife was driving a little red car stuffed with worldly possessions. So the guy gets out of the truck, takes the kids into the gas station/store and leaves the driver's door wide open, the truck running and the music blaring. It was a “steal-me” moment if I've ever seen one. But no one bit. Maybe it was like that show where the cops set up the cars to be stolen and they always get someone to do it. Not here. But that's not the end of it. He came back out with his kids and put them in the vehicle. Then he took his T-shirt off and struggled to get it over the back of seat, exactly to his liking. He then got in the truck, and in order to impress us, I'm sure, revved the engine and blew smoke out of one of those exhaust stacks that come up the side of the truck. Jaz and I were not properly impressed. In fact, we laughed out loud. It was a great shared moment of mirth.
Went to the laundromat in Thunder Bay, Ontario, to wash clothes. I was out of underwear, and most everything else could stand a good wash, too. I've been on the road for 11 days now … it's time. Finished and gathered up everything and headed back to the motel. Besides, there was drama at the laundromat. Gal put money in a dryer that doesn't work; clerk wouldn't give her back the money, and they ended up in a shouting match. She then put her clothes in the dryer and left; clerk removed clothes. She came back and the shouting and screaming escalated. We got out of there before the cops arrived.

I've got a new system for remembering things I want to talk about. It was just words, then I went to letters, like CTD for construction/tar/dump. Now I'm taping note paper to my tank and making little notes as I go along. Of course, I have a hard time reading them since it's kind of difficult to write as I go and I can't really see what I'm doing.

There are a couple more photos I'd like to put out here, but the connection has slowed way down, and it's taking 10 minutes to load a photo.  So, I'm done with that for tonight.  I may add a couple tomorrow if possible.

But it's been another great day of riding. And with that remark, we are all in.

And that's the end for today.  This was on the back end of a firetruck in the parade yesterday. 
Thought it just too cute not to post somewhere.