3 years ago I met Steve and Darlene (confusing, I know) at the Scarborough Bluff Marina. Steve, then late 60s, diagnosed with PD 8 years prior, former body builder, now sailor, was in town to promote his tour of the Great Lakes. Mike and I attended to support, and we were then invited aboard to sail for a day and struck up a friendship. They live in Winnipeg, so Mike made plans to meet today for breakfast.
They are both warm and wonderful people. The sail boat is gone, replaced with an RV (land yacht), and a new passion – photographing derilect cars in their natural state and location. They bring a collection of print examples to show, which they will be producing into a book as a fund raiser for Parkinsons Canada.
After catching up, we meet them again 20 km East of Winnipeg at a location calculated to be the geographical centre of Canada. We are halfway to St. John’s in distance, though not in time – it took us just over one month to get here, but it will take over two months more to finish, owing to our convoluted path through Southern Ontario, and the various places that we need to get to for meetups.
I did something next that scared me – I switched bikes to Dan’s repaired recumbent, to ride along the TransCanada. Scared? In training, I crashed at least once per ride, and I am concerned that a crash here could land me underneath a passing transport truck. The remaining route is short (30km), flat and straight, with a decent shoulder, so best to try here. Results are okay – no deaths, but slower and it works heretofore lazy muscles. Still, happy to continue with it.
Our campground is fun, with a pool and zip lines, but no wifi. I go for a twilight zip, and I am nearly beheaded when I crash into a drone. Worse, Mike forgot to record, so no record of it. Tomorrow, we will be home-ish – in Ontario, but a post that I have never been to in my 57 years living there. It will also be the start of a stretch of road that I have been told to fear. We’ll see.