Day 61 Clearville, ON-St Thomas, ON

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Jo Day 61 (Sept 30):  Clearville Park, Ontario was not so clear this morning... it was still wet and windy...cyclist(s) rain gear was still hanging up to dry in the van!  Janut was helping John dry his footprint...she looked like a matador fighting the wind! Haha! Kevin, Alan and John rode 42 miles today...42 wet and windy miles.  Janut, Bob and I stayed fairly close to the guys, trying to figure out where we should sleep tonight.  We drove ahead to look at possible campgrounds and motels, then waited for the guys to see how much further they wanted to ride in the rain and wind. One motel owner gave Janut the key to the room without paying (we drove around with the key for over an hour).  The room was ok (as expected for the low room rate) but there were two letters from the health department posted on the bathroom wall warning that the well water was unsafe and had high sodium.  We gave the room key back and told John and Alan to find another motel.  Better safe than sorry!  We stopped at Picard's, a peanut and candy snack shop...we bought beer nuts, honey nuts, mint meltaways, caramel pecan clusters, and chocolate bars. Mmmm tasty!  We were tracking the guys with the find friends app, and they missed a turn (they turned left instead of right).  We were very concerned and tried to call and text them (missed your turn, stop, go back), but no luck, they could not use their cell phones because their fingers and screens were too wet from the rain...well, that's what they told us...but if you look at the find friends app, it looks like they were making a direct b-line to the Railway City Brewing Company in St.Thomas!  St.Thomas is the railway capital of Canada.  Before we met up with the guys at the brewery, Janut, Bob and I stopped at the life size sculpture of Jumbo the elephant, perched on a hill as you enter St.Thomas.  On Sept 15, 1885, Jumbo (PT Barnum & Bailey's prized African elephant) met an untimely death when struck by a grand trunk locomotive in St.Thomas.  On the 100th anniversary of this tragic event the citizens erected this monument (a tourist photo op)...there are also murals with Jumbo throughout the downtown area.  Canada has some fun road signs, so I thought I'd share some with you.  The Railway City Brewing Company began in 2008 and has some tasty craft beers.  We had a fun time there.  Stephanie (their promo girl) took our picture in front of their beer brewing tanks, and it is posted on their Facebook page!  Alan and John checked into the Comfort Inn (no health dept warning letters, yay!) in St.Thomas, Ontario.  The van is nestled behind the motel with a nice view of a green lawn and tall bushes. We hung out at a coin laundry place to dry bike gear and soaking wet socks and chatted with the guy who worked there (he said for me to call him Prince Phillip - he shook my hand then kissed the back of my hand, oh my), he liked curling and sudoku, and did crossword puzzles everyday to "stay sharp". He also said he was a "zoomer"...what Canadians call a baby boomer with a little zip!  A lot of the local football teams drop off their uniforms to be washed...he said diluted baby shampoo removes the grass stains! I'll have to try that sometime. Enjoyed pizza from Al's Pizzeria for dinner.  The rain and wind has calmed down for now...it's a nice, quiet night.

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Kevin Day 61 Clearville ON to St Thomas, ON. 42 miles. Today we took a detour off the regular ACA route to find a motel in order to dry gear and clothing. The forecast was predicting more rain and stronger wind than yesterday, and the weather guys got it 100% correct this time. We left the campground and were immediately greeted with a more than fresh breeze right in our faces. Pouring rain added injury to the early morning insult of wind! We slogged about 18 miles to Wallacetown, where we had breakfast and then left the ACA route to our destination of St Thomas. At breakfast, we saw several items on the menu that included "Peameal bacon", so I asked what it was and our server laughed and explained that it is what Americans call Canadian bacon. Learned sumthin' new! Back on the road, wind and rain were once again our companions and we chugged our way towards St Thomas. I don't know the exact wind speed, but Weather Underground was forecasting winds of 22mph with gusts of 30+. Trees along the road offered some relief, but we would curse at cornfields and soybeans when we saw them, as they had no shielding effect against the wind. By the early afternoon we had reached St Thomas and discovered the Railway City Brewing Company in an industrial park, and we went in to try to dry off a bit, and have a beer. Turns out we had a great time there! They gave us some towels to dry off with, and had great beers! We got the full story about their beers, including their flagship beer, Dead Elephant IPA.  Dead Elephant was named to commemorate Jumbo, an elephant in the Barnum and Bailey Circus that was hit and killed by a train in 1885 in St Thomas. The people at the brewery were very friendly, and had some tasty beers. After we left there, we quickly found the Comfort Inn, where Alan and John have a room, and the Sprinter is parked out back. Tomorrow the forecast still calls for some rain, and decreased wind, but we will rejoin our regularly scheduled programming and be back on route on the shoreline of Lake Erie.