There's nothing like a finish line to get your juices flowing and your legs pumping. I started at the break of dawn, heading for my sister's place just outside of Toronto - Milton Ontario.
There was no coffee at my hotel so of course my first stop was a coffee at Tim Hortons with a lemon poppy seed muffin. Yummy. Then it was a turn north up towards Woodstock to continue my journey and if I put in some hard miles in the morning I'd have a light afternoon to relax and reflect upon all the struggles and joy I've experienced crossing this continent.
It was still damn cold but as soon as the sun began to rise higher in the sky it warmed up considerably. It was perfect riding weather and my first town along the way was Ingersoll. That's where I met Darrell on Main Street. My beautiful person of the day.
Darrell's fixes up old bikes and makes them like new, then resells them. He says he helps many people who can't afford a new bike at the fancy shops. He gets by and makes ends meet by this and doing odd jobs. He's never had a driver's license and believes strongly in the bike as a way and means of life. He told me about some of the trips he's done on his bike locally. He's never traveled very far out of the country or province on a bike but he's still dreaming. We shook hands and nodded our heads in the typical Canadian way and I was off heading north east.
I hit beautiful Paris, Ontario and then headed more north towards Cambridge along the slow moving Grand River. I remembered the West River road from my ultrarunning days and even though there was construction blocking entry to it, I found it and boy was it a gem of a ride. Beautiful rolling hard packed gravel road. No cars at all and stunning views. It was so beautiful I had a hard time cycling. I kid you not.
Just south of Cambridge I swung east and tried to make my way over the Niagara escarpment and find my sister's in Milton, Ontario at the bottom of the escarpment edge. It wasn't that easy. The roads we're often washed out or closed and I had to double back lots of times and I got lost a few times and went too far south. But hey it was the last day so I had plenty of energy left in my tank.
It was beautiful forgotten country on top of the escarpment. I passed by the now closed African Lion Safari, once a famous attraction. Finally, I hit Guelph Line and knew I was close to the end of my journey. I slowly cycled into Milton reliving all of the highs and lows of the past 30 days. I really couldn't believe that I'd done it. That this was it. I still can't. Impossible is nothing. If the spirit is willing, the road is not long.
I hope in the coming days after getting a new keyboard, to write more eloquently about the truth I've discovered during my time riding through America and Canada. I've listened and many people have spoken. From them, I think I've learned a few things about what people need in their lives and what they aspire towards and why so much is lacking in people's lives these days. It's not so much that people live quiet lives of desperation … it's mostly that people live quiet lives of separation. More on that next time.
Tomorrow, I'll buy some running shoes and visit my heroes grave. It's right and true that we honor those who came before us and Ed Whitlock was one of the good ones. Along with a few others that most people don't know but who have made the world so beautiful especially my world.
And don't worry I've continued writing poems throughout this whole journey. Mostly in my head but some in a notebook. I even found a beautiful book in a wet cardboard box by the side of the road, a book I guess I was destined to read.
Let me end with a poem off the top of my head, in my own Whitmanesque fashion.
Celebrate yourself
Whatever else.
Sing your own song.
Dance your own dance.
Celebrate the fact that you are here,
Standing breathing overlooking
The chasm that is nothing
And with Chance you did appear.
Celebrate yourself
Above all else
This world that you have made inside.
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