Well, we all knew it would happen sooner or later. We had been keeping just ahead of it for the last three days, and what would that be but rain! And rain it did! We left the motel in London under cloudy, threatening skies. I had put my rear fender on prior to departure due to the prospect of rain. My fender helps keep me dry but it does not help the people riding behind me at all.

It drizzled off and on until we reached the first SAG stop at mile 31.7. We had ridden to the SAG without wind breakers but as soon as we stopped we all started to get chilled. Out came the wind breakers. We had 33 miles to go and it rained 30 of the 33. It rained hard, there was thunder and lightning, and it rained harder. We rode in pairs as much as traffic would permit. Danny and I rode up front and Mary and Steve rode set back a ways so as not to eat the spray from our rear tires the entire time.

At first we tried to dodge the puddles so as not to spray the people behind, but soon the water covered the road. Occasionally a truck would come toward us and the spray would cover us. We were literally soaked! Now this doesn’t sound like a lot of fun but we have avoided rain every day but one day in South Dakota. A little warm rain felt good. We actually had fun, and the harder it rained the more fun we had. Water was literally running through our shoes and socks.

We rode well all day. By that I mean that early in the day Steve stepped up the pace during his pull right after Mary had passed another rider. That rider had jumped on the back of our pace line. Steve took us up to about 21.5 mph for the next couple of miles. He rotated out and I stepped it up again to 24 mph but only for a short period, _ to _ a mile. I could not hold that speed and settled back into the 21 mph range. During our antics the rider who had been riding on the back decided he did not want to follow at those speeds. We rode hard all the way into the SAG stop. We also rode hard during the rain after the SAG. We arrived in Brantford, ONT at about noon.

We grabbed some lunch at Wendy’s and returned to unload the luggage truck. After completing this task, Dan and I ate our lunches on the steps of the conference room at the motel. We cleaned up and started to get ready for tomorrow by doing laundry at the Laundromat, cleaning our bikes, and doing the important maintenance after a hard rain.

Tomorrow we will re-enter the USA at Niagara Falls and will take our last rest day. I am looking forward to my friend Jay joining me there. He has worked it out so he can ride with us for a day. How cool is that!

I heard some people talking in front of the map in the lobby that shows how far we have come. They just couldn’t believe it! I am not sure I believe it. Well, I am off to dinner and rap so I’ll see you tomorrow on the road. I have 9 riding days left before we all touch the Atlantic Ocean in Portsmouth, NH.