Day 2 - An early rest day and an opportunity to hang out with friends and do some logistics

miles today: 12 total miles: 82
km today: 20 total km: 142

It’s so great to connect with amazing people and Jason and Jovo were a blast to hang out with today! It was a low-key day, starting out with a leisurely breakfast at their place and then we loaded up the bike and had them ride with us on a quiet road to better pinpoint the annoying squeek that plagued our first day. Jason diagnosed that it was probably the spokes since the trailer didn’t seem to be causing it and we were confident the hub is in good shape. So, they got on the phone with friends who have an awesome bike shop in town (First Cycleworks). They told Marty and Wahnita we were in a bit of a challenge and they were able to get us in to look at the wheel. Good news / bad news….they were able to get it on a truing stand, even out the tension (which I had done recently, but apparently not as well as I thought!) and this definitely straightened the wheel and got rid of the squeek. But, they also found hairline cracks around a few of the spoke holes.

So, we can definitely get going again and the squeek is gone, but we will have to think carefully about whether to get the rear wheel rebuilt before we pass Montreal. Until then, there will be bike shopes around to hobble into if a spoke breaks through, but out the St. Lawrence and into New Brunswick we will have fewer options. Something we have to think about.

Often our bike trips are a quest for pie. I have to admit, we haven’t started looking too hard yet, but we’ve found fantastic beer! We dipped into the Toboggan brewery for snacks and a beer before heading back to Jason and Jovo’s place.

We got back and took a little baby shakedown ride 8 km to a fruit stand to pick up fresh corn and berries for dinner. Then we got lost in a cornfield, but luckily got guided out :-).

We headed back down to the Yacht Club and had a great dinner that Jovo made back out on the pontoon boat and enjoyed a chill cruise all up and down the Thames and the reservoir Jason and Jovo live on.

It’s been a super nice visit here and we loved reconnecting. There were lots of memories of our time together in the Grand Canyon and it was great to just relax after the hectic push to get this far. But now, the biking starts in ernest! I’m a little apprehensive about the rear wheel, but also happy that it’s better trued and I marked the fractures with a sharpie so we can keep our eyes on them. We have a couple good opportunities to sort out a wheel rebuild and I’m feeling like we will want to do it, but for now we will be cautious and will enjoy getting some km on us and embrace the road!