Oh Canada
We're in Canada. How cool is that? Now I can say that I am a world traveler by bike. I like Canada. The people are so... orderly. They don't yell at you on the road. Someone talked to us in a little town and as she was walking away, she turned and said, very earnestly, "Do you need anything?" Oh Canada!
The Canadians seem amazed at our cross-continental ride. After expressing amazement, they almost invariably tell us about other amazing treks. One person said that his son cycled from Alaska to Ontario; another told us about some friends who cycled through South America. (Apparently, the roads were not great.)
Southern Ontario is pretty flat. Despite my love of Canadian people, I'm happy we'll be here only three days. It's kind of boring. Today we did see some new crops. Besides for the corn, soybeans, and hay that are everywhere in the Midwest, we also saw tobacco fields, ginseng growing under netting, and sorghum. A gregarious tobacco farmer wanted to tell us all about his operation. One apparently has to top off the plants to prevent them from going to seed. The leaves are picked from the bottom. The pickers hands' are coated with tar and nicotine at the end of the day. (I wonder what the health implications of that are.) The farmer said that a big storm knocked over all of his plants. He had to hire 26 people to set the plants upright and tamp them down. (Crop insurance apparently pays for that.) But the fact that I'm telling you this reinforces the fact that there's not a lot to talk about.
Not much else to report. I bought a quirky cat sculpture from an offbeat steel sculptor somewhere near London. I found a great place to eat in Mt. Pleasant, Ontario. It's called the Country Store (or something like that) and is built in kind of Bavarian style with a big fake windmill turning in front. It had picnic tables shaded by giant oaks on an expansive front lawn, and had an amazing assortment of cheeses, fruits, vegetables, baked goods, and prepared foods. The owner came out to talk to us and told us that he and his 5 sons had built the huge building themselves (but for the brickwork) and they all lived in apartments upstairs. I suggested that they might want to indicate somehow that there was food to eat inside. He thought that was a good idea, but said that his sons were afraid to advertise or do anything else to attract trade because they already had as much business as they could handle. I wondered about that (there were vacant cash registers on a Saturday afternoon). Anyway, my sandwich was great and the cookies were amazing. (I'll miss being able to eat everything I want.)
We really do eat a lot. Most days, we start with an immense breakfast--eggs, pancakes, sausage or bacon, maybe toast or potatoes or cereal or muffins, with oj, coffee, and water. We'll stop (several times on a long day) for cookies, crackers, fritos, bananas, oranges, sometimes watermelon, trail mix, water, and Gatorade. Then we might stop for lunch, or an ice cream break, or coffee, or whatever. I forgot to mention that we stopped at a fruit stand today and had wonderful watermelon, which the proprietress cut up for us, and raspberries. I usually get V-8 at least once a day--more on hot days. (Bill Randolph told me a while back that V-8 can supercharge you on a hot day because it's full of salt and potassium. I shared this info with the other riders on this tour; our collective consumption should push up the price of V-8 stock.) Then we have dinner, which is usually an all-you-can-eat buffet of mediocre food. Grumbling about the quality, we down huge helpings of fried chicken, spaghetti or lasagna, salad, bread, potatoes, and other delicacies. At one such buffet, the best item was deep-fried green beans (honest). For dessert, we'll have soft-serve pseudo ice cream (topped with chocolate chips and nuts), cookies, and cakes of various sorts. We walk back to the hotel wondering how we could be so full of such bad food. Our digestive systems and the hotel toilets get a great workout.
Injury report: the dog bite is much better. It still looks bad, but is not swollen and does not hurt when I ride over bumps. My left calf has started hurting in sympathy. Paul's Achilles' tendon aches him. After small Paul's Achilles started hurting early on, there's been a rash of similar injuries. Mine hurt for a few days but got better. It's odd--that's one body part that has never bothered me or anyone I know. Our knees, hips, backs, shoulders, and necks are all doing fine now, which is something of a miracle. Dr. Theresa's theory that eschewing ibuprofen allows your soft tissues to heal--which met with a lot of skepticism among our riders--seems to have worked for Paul and me. Of course, another strategy might be to take a few days off and let our bodies heal. What a thought!
Cheers,
Len
The Canadians seem amazed at our cross-continental ride. After expressing amazement, they almost invariably tell us about other amazing treks. One person said that his son cycled from Alaska to Ontario; another told us about some friends who cycled through South America. (Apparently, the roads were not great.)
Southern Ontario is pretty flat. Despite my love of Canadian people, I'm happy we'll be here only three days. It's kind of boring. Today we did see some new crops. Besides for the corn, soybeans, and hay that are everywhere in the Midwest, we also saw tobacco fields, ginseng growing under netting, and sorghum. A gregarious tobacco farmer wanted to tell us all about his operation. One apparently has to top off the plants to prevent them from going to seed. The leaves are picked from the bottom. The pickers hands' are coated with tar and nicotine at the end of the day. (I wonder what the health implications of that are.) The farmer said that a big storm knocked over all of his plants. He had to hire 26 people to set the plants upright and tamp them down. (Crop insurance apparently pays for that.) But the fact that I'm telling you this reinforces the fact that there's not a lot to talk about.
Not much else to report. I bought a quirky cat sculpture from an offbeat steel sculptor somewhere near London. I found a great place to eat in Mt. Pleasant, Ontario. It's called the Country Store (or something like that) and is built in kind of Bavarian style with a big fake windmill turning in front. It had picnic tables shaded by giant oaks on an expansive front lawn, and had an amazing assortment of cheeses, fruits, vegetables, baked goods, and prepared foods. The owner came out to talk to us and told us that he and his 5 sons had built the huge building themselves (but for the brickwork) and they all lived in apartments upstairs. I suggested that they might want to indicate somehow that there was food to eat inside. He thought that was a good idea, but said that his sons were afraid to advertise or do anything else to attract trade because they already had as much business as they could handle. I wondered about that (there were vacant cash registers on a Saturday afternoon). Anyway, my sandwich was great and the cookies were amazing. (I'll miss being able to eat everything I want.)
We really do eat a lot. Most days, we start with an immense breakfast--eggs, pancakes, sausage or bacon, maybe toast or potatoes or cereal or muffins, with oj, coffee, and water. We'll stop (several times on a long day) for cookies, crackers, fritos, bananas, oranges, sometimes watermelon, trail mix, water, and Gatorade. Then we might stop for lunch, or an ice cream break, or coffee, or whatever. I forgot to mention that we stopped at a fruit stand today and had wonderful watermelon, which the proprietress cut up for us, and raspberries. I usually get V-8 at least once a day--more on hot days. (Bill Randolph told me a while back that V-8 can supercharge you on a hot day because it's full of salt and potassium. I shared this info with the other riders on this tour; our collective consumption should push up the price of V-8 stock.) Then we have dinner, which is usually an all-you-can-eat buffet of mediocre food. Grumbling about the quality, we down huge helpings of fried chicken, spaghetti or lasagna, salad, bread, potatoes, and other delicacies. At one such buffet, the best item was deep-fried green beans (honest). For dessert, we'll have soft-serve pseudo ice cream (topped with chocolate chips and nuts), cookies, and cakes of various sorts. We walk back to the hotel wondering how we could be so full of such bad food. Our digestive systems and the hotel toilets get a great workout.
Injury report: the dog bite is much better. It still looks bad, but is not swollen and does not hurt when I ride over bumps. My left calf has started hurting in sympathy. Paul's Achilles' tendon aches him. After small Paul's Achilles started hurting early on, there's been a rash of similar injuries. Mine hurt for a few days but got better. It's odd--that's one body part that has never bothered me or anyone I know. Our knees, hips, backs, shoulders, and necks are all doing fine now, which is something of a miracle. Dr. Theresa's theory that eschewing ibuprofen allows your soft tissues to heal--which met with a lot of skepticism among our riders--seems to have worked for Paul and me. Of course, another strategy might be to take a few days off and let our bodies heal. What a thought!
Cheers,
Len
posted by Len Burman at 2:16 PM
2 Comments:
dad, must you constantly talk about your digestive system? i mean really.... Well I finally got myself over to W-L to pick up my math packet and it is rediculously easy, but before you know it they will be pulling some kind of trigonometery on me and I will be dumbfounded.... that's where your expertise comes in. Anna is coming 3 days after you all arrive back home! which means that mom and I are at sheer desperados to get the study turned into a guest room.... we went to the container store today and bought boxes for your books and files and such and we also bought file containors for John Martin and Lauren's files while mom is managing their lives either while they are away or post death. hmmm interesting... mom has alot on her plate right now and i promise that I am helping as much as physically possible while still maintaining my own life, but it is difficult. we have anna's bed set up after loud shouting and profainities this morning while I was trying to bend metal to put it back together. the metal suspension bar is warped so it was hard to even out the posts to re-screw it in. kind of frustrating, but it got kent out of bed.... I made breakfast for everyone this morning. we had pancakes, which probably doesnt sound like much to you because you are eating them every other day but they were nice this morning. I also diced some strawberries that mom and I bought yesterday when we went grocery shopping. when you get home mom and I will have the freezer stocked with ice cream (but surprisingly enough, no coffee because we were trying to vere away from the mundane... NOT to recomend that you do not buy coffee ice cream when at giant anymore because it will still be very much appreciated) we have gotten Anna drawers and I have donated plastic drawer storage stuff.... it was usefull at GS but it is taking up space for me here... we still have alot of work to do on the study, but we should have most of it done by the time that you get home! we love you daddy!!!!!! take care!
Love,
Liz
PS- you're boxes and boxes of jourals were a huge pain in the ass.... mom laughed though because they were heavy and had my inner jewish girl saying things like "oh god almighty" and "shabbot sha-freaking- lom" yes, my whiney inner jew didn't like economic literature... but its ok... they are all in the hallway now!!!
PPS- oh yea, and we found the other norweign girl teenage host parents, they live in college park... they are a couple of gay guys with the best names EVER!!!! you'll get a kick out of this... Adam and STEVE!!!! hahaha mom and I laughed for hours after we finished talking to them! they were really nice though and lived right by the metro...
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