Day 28-Rest day
Beasojour to Kenora, Ontario! Home Province
Distance: 172 km
Hot then thunder showers later on

The past couple of days have been tough rides (I think I always say that, but its all true, each one offers its own unique challenge.)
Day 27’s ride was pretty flat, but unfortunately Head and cousin SideWig decided to accompany us for the ride, turning what would ordinarily be a relatively easy ride, into a challenging one.
We started off the ride on some very rough road (for the better part of 60km or so) and had us riding beside all kinds of fields of wheat and sunflowers.
Also accompanying us were aphids, tiny, almost invisible buggy-things that flew nonstop into our faces, up our noses, and into our ears.
We couldn’t see them, so I thought I was imagining them; but luckily their existence was confirmed when talking to the other riders who experienced the same thing.
Bees are also very enthusiastic travel companions, (unwelcome) as they seem to love to zoom back and forth around our heads, and bikes.
Often we’re traveling up to 45 km/hour and they seem to have no problem keeping up with us; they make me nervous as I have been stung while riding before, and I can’t help but hope that they’ll fly into my wheels, although I heard that when they die they send out a ‘dying signal’ to their brethren to rally the troops, so on second thought, maybe not.
I am not sure whether they think we are the Queen Bee, Mother Bee, or Mother Ship, but whatever they think we must be important to warrant keeping up with us for so long.

We also saw a plane spraying crops, and that also made me quite nervous, as I didn’t wasn’t sure what toxins we were inhaling into our now pure and clean lungs!

Yesterday’s ride to Kenora started off well enough, although Lewis and I were still the last to leave camp, again, after the galley crew had done their thing.
The ride started off well enough, and we were making pretty good time.
We stopped at a little tea room run by an eccentric woman who was running around in bare feet, and barking orders at her minions.
I had one of the best cinnamon buns I’ve ever had though, so she must be doing something right.
The buns supplied us with jet fuel, as we were rocketing along, eagerly anticipating getting to Kenora (Ontatio) to begin our rest day.
Along we flew until Lewis blew a tire; we changed it quickly enough but things went into rapid decline once the little pump he carried went kerplunk, and pumped its last breath of tire air.
We ended up having to wait for an hour and a half for some other riders to catch up so we could borrow their pump.
At this point, we still had 60km to go before camp, and the skies took a turn towards the unfriendly.
By this time, I had crossed over from the rational, to the irrational as all I wanted at this point was to be back at camp, on with the serious business of relaxing.
We hammered it home, pushing as much as we could; my legs and lungs on fire with their exertion.
We crossed the border to Ontario, which was a strange feeling, knowing that at this point we’d pedaled our way from Victoria to northern Ontario.
Interesting that within 30 km of the border the landscape switched to the very telltale look of Ontario, with the trees and rocky terrain, and with lakes scattered along the way.
As we neared Kenora (not near enough) the threatening skies started to look even more ominous, and very suddenly the wind (Hedwig) turned on the jets and hit us with such force we almost came to a standstill.
I was raging, and wanted more that ever to be at camp before the rains pelted us, but it was not to be as we were hit with large fat drops which quickly escalated to a downpour within minutes.
My cycling shoes soon started to emit a ‘squelchy’ noise with every pedal stroke.
We kept seeing teasing signs telling us how close we were, “Canadian Tire welcomes you to Kenora!”, and “Come enjoy some warm apple pie and coffee at our cozy café, just twenty kilometers away!” and the like.
And as always, eventually we made it to camp, soaking wet, and feeling rather sorry for ourselves.

Today is our rest day, and as always internet and laundry are top priorities for all of us.
A few of the more energetic people in our group went out boozing in the later hours and came back to camp quite pickled, and apparently continued their conversations in tones used for deaf people.
I sleep with earplugs so didn’t hear anything, but there were a lot of unhappy people around camp this morning; especially the 73 day group, who were getting up to ride this morning (we overlap on our rest days.)