I’m exhausted. My body is telling me to take a break. Today’s ride (August 8) was the best I’ve had as far as scenery and weather goes! The traffic was heavy only here and there and heavy only meant 5-6 vehicles ahead of me. There were plenty of passing lanes, so that was no problem.

Other than a detour Petunia planned, it was smooth sailing I need to change the directions settings in my google maps! Right now it’s set to avoid highways and Petunia took it seriously. She took me off my route and kept yelling in my ear to take the clearly washed-out road at the end of an otherwise dead-end cul-du-sac in the middle of nowhere. It took me 20 km to find out it was washed out, so that was fun. But you know what? All things for a reason. Who knows what may have been on my path had I not detoured.

Anyway, I arrived in Wawa running on fumes, a full bladder, and a very sore butt. When I pulled in to the Outdoorsman, they switched my designated room so I could check in early. I was very grateful!

All the way here the joy of my adventure split my face in two. I’ll admit that I was so filled to the brim with that joy that I often felt it overflowing down my cheeks.

I had dinner next door at The Vikings. Holy Pie, Batman! Talk about loud. There was a table full of people heading to a fishing lodge sitting right behind me. They seemed to believe they were the only ones there – their voices were waves of hoots and hollers thundering down on my head. I thought I had a headache BEFORE I sat down for dinner. Yowsers! If you’re ever there and it’s loud, there is a staff picnic table in the cute little yard out back. I spied it from my bar stool and let the waitress know I’d finish my dinner out there. She agreed it was a good idea and held the door while I carried my plate outside.

I spent 3 hours looking for lodging for the next day that night. It’s the weekend and there is nothing from here to freaking sudbury! That’s 6 hours of highway away and I KNOW I don’t have that in me. I settled for a conference centre in Sault Ste. Maire which is only 2.5 hours away. That lengthens the number of days in Ontario, but I need a break.

The next morning (August 9) was a hard one for me. I didn’t sleep so well the night before. I’d turned off my AC and woke up a lot feeling parched. At 6:45 am I finally hauled out of bed and wandered over to the office for coffee. I sat and visited with Ray, the owner of the Outdoorsman. He is a very nice man and his wife Lyne was very kind to get me checked in early yesterday.

I had breakfast down the road and faught tears on the walk over. And again over my beautiful breakfast that included fresh avocado. And again on my walk back to my room. Lonliness is a really heavy load for me. It really shouldn’t be; I’ve carried it for most of my life. Not ready to pack up yet, I bypassed my motel and kept walking to the Young’s General Store. The original Wawa Goose was stationed there and I wanted to see if the original base was still holding it up. There are a lot of geese in Wawa! I passed one on the way to the store as well.

Anywho…Mom texted me when I told her I was staing in Wawa and told me Dad said I needed to go find his message on the goose. Regrettably, the base was covered with plywood. It may not have even been the original base, either. I was excited to potentially discover whatever my dad may have scrawled there long before I was even a twinkle in his eye. Not being able to look for it felt lonely too. It’s hard to shake.

While getting packed and ready, the other bikers sauntered over to chat. Weird “conversation”. It wasn’t really a conversation, more like they talked at me as they talked about all they had done, and where they had been. It was as though I wasn’t even really there. I felt invisible when my follow up question was entirely ignored and then they started talking amongst themselves about their planned route. Just….weird.

I finished packing up in silence, and planned to out-ride the lonliness as quick as I could. It turns out it takes 60 km to get ahead of it and I finally felt the gratitude flow through my veins again. I rounded a curve and the view of Lake Superior was quite breath-taking. There was a beach ahead, so I pulled in to have a look. This isn’t something I generally do, so I kind of surprised myself.

As I was kicking down my stand and switching off the ignition, I was greeted by such a warm and welcoming smile by the woman parking next to me. Amelia and her mom Jillian were headed in the other direction, but stopped to see the beach too. We three had a lovely visit before checking out the lake.

Amelia, if you do happen to find my blog, I want you to know what a difference you made in my world that day. When you smiled and said hello, my spirits lifted immensely. When you took the time to chat and we swapped stories, you filled my cup. Thank you for sharing your light with me! And please thank your mom too! I hope you had a great 10k and the rest of your drive was wonderful.

You know friends, we each leave a piece of ourselves behind with everyone we meet. What will you leave in your wake today?