Day 116 (9/9): Yale, Michigan to Wallaceburg, Ontario

Mileage: 59.5; 3,629 total

Found a nice breakfast restaurant in Yale, and had a good meal. I talked briefly with a woman who was wearing a T-shirt that said "Yale Bologna 2008." I was curious about why her T-shirt mentioned bologna, and she said that it was because of the town's recent bologna festival -- apparently Yale makes a lot of bologna. I had seen a sign earlier that day that advertised "pickled bologna"; when I told her that, and told her I had never heard of pickled bologna before, she seemed genuinely shocked!

I was off to an early start, with plenty of time to poke along the way. The pretty little town of Memphis, Mich., had an historic sign announcing that the first self-propelled vehicle (the sign didn't use the term "car") manufactured in Michigan, and possibly in the U.S., was fabricated here in 1885. The vehicle logged over 500 miles, but then the inventor dismantled it and sold the engine to a local creamery!

Since Helena, Montana I had been carrying a small canister of pepper spray to use, if needed, to fend off dogs. I have never needed to use it. I knew that I would not be able to take it across the border into Canada, and didn't want to just throw it away, so I was on the lookout for a responsible person who might have use for it. I was hoping to find another bicyclist who would like to have it, but I wasn't finding any today. After eating lunch in St. Clair I got into a conversation with a woman who was asking questions about my bike trip. I explained my situation with the pepper spray, and asked her if she would have any use for it. She said "yes," she had just been thinking that she should buy some; she explained that the day before someone with a history of ual offenses had come into her shop and begun to molest an employee, and that she thought that in the future she should be armed with pepper spray. So, I was glad to get rid of it, but hope she will never need to use it.

There was a bike path running south from St. Clair for about 7 miles, and I soon boarded a ferry at Marine City and crossed the St. Clair River to Sombra, Ontario. For several miles I rode south along the river, admiring the nice houses and docks along the waterfront. I stopped at an apple orchard, and enjoyed talking with the owners and eating a delicious, crispy Macintosh apple -- two for 50 cents, and then they gave me two Gala apples as I left.

This part of Ontario, like Michigan, has lots of fields of soybeans, corn, and sugar beets. Also some fields of dill (or at least that is what someone told me they thought it was).

I plan to poke around town tomorrow (Wednesday), doing laundry and so forth, and then put in only a few hours of pedaling.