Day 26 - Imlay City MI to St. Thomas, Canada, 144 miles, 1200' cumulative climbing

On the ferry to Canada 

This was a day that wouldn't end. By far the most humid we've experienced, the morning started out foggy, warm and muggy.  And it got hotter and muggier as the miles went by.  Our first rest stop at mile 24 found us all drenched in sweat and swilling cold water like it was, well, cold water.
There was some threat of rain in the forecast, especially at midday, but the temperatures were supposed to reach 88-90 and most of us opted to leave rain gear in the van.  Even if you get rained on in these temps it's not going to be awful.

Approaching the foreign soil

Second rest stop was just a stone's throw from the ferry we were to take over to the Canadian side of the St. Clair River, about 50 miles north of Detroit. It was much smaller than the 410' long Badger on Lake Michigan, fitting only one car and 40 bicycles for the 15 minute ride.  PAC Tour's vans and cars came on a subsequent ferry due to the space limitations.  Going through passport control was a breeze; how much stuff can you hide on a bike anyway?




After the ferry it was really getting hot, and the stretch of Ontario we were riding through was very desolate, farm houses quite far apart and no towns for miles.  It would be a tough place to live I think. Not many photo opportunities today so we kept on pedaling away.  One saving grace was the nearly pancake flat course we had for the day.  Easy pedaling.
And the threat of rain?  Well it started raining when our group of 4 was about 2 miles away from the lunch stop.  And while we were under some cover of canopies at lunch it absolutely poured.  Thunder, lightning, heavy rainfall, the works.  The poor lunch crew was working very hard to put on a meal and take care of our oddball requests at the same time, such as Cliff and me requesting trash bags in lieu of our rain jackets.
We decided to wait out the storm however, and it was a smart (and lucky) move.  We only rode in rain for a few minutes and then the sun came out.  Naturally this negated the coolness the rain had brought, and in short order we were all steaming again.  But made it without further delay into the hotel parking lot for the night.  It was nearly 6:00pm though, a very, very long day.  Pizza ordered in was the best dinner choice!