Leg 4, Ride 2: Windsor to Chatham

Not a ton to report today. Another beautiful day -- low 70s and sunny.

The ride itself was only okay. Today is the flattest day of the entire trip, but we didn't actually make very good time because of a lot of detours and a headwind that picked up over the last 20 miles. A lot of the ride was on roads with no paved shoulder. But, in general, drivers are much better here than in Michigan, and they leave plenty of space when passing.

One annoyance about my setup is that one of my bags doesn't properly interface with my rack. The rack gets in the way of the bag's locking mechanism, and so the bag can't fully clamp on as designed. This has almost never been a problem in the past. On previous tours, the bag would come unhooked due to a bump maybe once or twice per week, tops

However, in Michigan, most trails did not have smooth transitions at intersections. Instead, there would be a concrete piece with a groove in it (presumably for water drainage). Something about the shape of that groove causes my bag to come loose multiple times per day. So, in that sense, I was happy to no longer be riding in Michigan. Bad news! Ontario (at least this part of Ontario) uses the same system.

This was the first of three longer rides through very rural areas in Ontario. Once we cleared Greater Windsor (first 20 miles or so), there was just roadway and farms the whole way.

This is another one of those days where we're saving like $175 by staying in a no-frills motel a little ways out of town, instead of in a nicer place closer in. But, Chatham is small, so we did the 30-minute walk downtown after our ride.

Chatham is small, but they have a pretty decent downtown strip. There are three museums here that look at least mildly interesting, but alas, they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

We got dinner at the place that invented the Hawaiian pizza. We had the Hawaiian pizza. It was pretty good.

Many smaller cities like this will have some sort of theater or playhouse or something. And, it always seems like these buildings are underused. Like, we'll go to their website, and the next show won't be until August.

Well, today, we got lucky! The city has a film club that shows movies every couple of weeks in the beautiful old Capitol Theater here, and tonight was movie night. Souleymane's Story (2024). Recommended.

We have a day off tomorrow to rest up for the ride to London on Wednesday, which is the longest ride of our entire trip. But, I don't think much of interest will happen tomorrow, so I probably won't post again until we get to London.