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As we passed through the town of Yale, we spotted many of our fellow riders resting in the town square. Approaching Emmett, large raindrops began to fall. Fr. Jim and I stopped at a bank to put our rain gear on, but Corky had sent his ahead with his luggage. We stopped under an awning at a small hardware store to wait out the rain, and Corky went inside to buy a small American flag. (For the rest of the trip, Corky planted the flag in front of his tent each night).
The last miles into Richmond were tough, as we battled fatigue, the wind, light rain, traffic, and a bad shoulder on the road. At one point I unexpectedly ran over a large stone, which frightened me. Soon after we arrived at the school in Richmond, a very crowded sag wagon van pulled in. The rack on top of the sag wagon was full, there were bikes in the trailer in back, and there was even a bike inside the van. It was a hard day for many of us.
After a few minutes of rest, we rode a few blocks to downtown Richmond, where we visited a delightful bicycle shop. The shop spread across two adjoining storefronts, with one side being devoted to bicycling and the other to canoeing and kayaking. I found it interesting that all of the bikes were fat tire bikes, while bicycle shops in my part of Ohio typically have a 50-50 mix of road and mountain bikes. The shop also had a photo board where customers could post pictures of adventures that they had taken. Fr. Jim purchased a new lock and had the mechanic check the pedal on his bike, and then we chatted with the owner for a while. Before we left, the owner invited us to help ourselves to an energy bar.
Back at camp, we saw that our bikes were splattered with sandy dirt. I thought about finding a rag and spending some time cleaning the bike, but decided to instead grab a nearby hose and spray the bike until it was clean.
After putting up our tents and showering, we had a delicious and filling dinner in the school cafeteria. The school boosters provided the dinner, with lots of variety and plenty of food. As we ate, shy young girls wandered through our group on their way to a basketball clinic in the small gym behind the cafeteria. There were many cookies and brownies left after dinner, so the boosters left them out on a table in the cafeteria. Finishing dinner, I walked over to the town library next door to e-mail home, this time with no trouble from the staff. As I walked back, I watched the tired and sweaty high school football team struggle through conditioning drills.
We walked downtown to use a pay phone, and were immediately greeted with another deluge from the sky--the fourth rain of the day. We waited out the downpour under a shop awning, and then walked to a nearby restaurant called Chaps to relax until the showers passed. A dark cloud was still overhead as we returned to camp, but a beautiful sunset was visible in the surrounding sky. We were relieved to find that the gear inside our tent was dry. That downpour proved to be the last rain of the week
Thursday, August 3rd: Richmond, Michigan to West Lorne, Ontario (78 miles)
Each night we would go to bed not knowing exactly how far we would ride the next day. After we went to sleep, the Cycle America staff would put out a stack of maps that we would pick up in the morning. Since Corky was the early riser in our group, he would pick up three maps soon after awakening. Each day at about 5:50, he would shake the wall of my tent to see if I was awake. I'd say, "I'm up, Corky". At that point, the tent door would unzip slightly, a hand would thrust the map for the day through, and the tent door would zip back up. I'd spend the next few minutes studying the map to see where we were going that day. On this morning, as I looked at the map, I saw that it would be our shortest day of the week so far, but it looked very interesting. Next page
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