Day 12
Time to wake up, but since it's been 90 degrees for as long as I've been on the road, it's laundry day again. I head down stairs and grab $4 worth of quarters.
I'm staying at an Extended Stay America for the night, so no waiting on doing laundry.
I find front loaders do a better job cleaning, but, beggars can't be choosers. I head back upstairs to do the 3's and update the blog.
I forgot my coffee, so back down I go.
Since it's an extended stay, the breakfast fixings are slim pickings. I go for the instant Starbucks "French roast" which hits the spot. Followed up by my breakfast banana.
The offerings in the vending machine breakfast catagory. I'll stick with my banana.
Back to the laundry, to do the other half, drying.
While I'm waiting, I'll head outside and do some bike maintenance. I've been a bad boy and haven't done it in a few days. Front tire pressure, good, rear, down, or down on what I like running it at anyway. Same for the trailer, it was low as well. Time to check the oil. Since I've put some miles on the bike I knew I'd be adding some.
If you look real close, it's half full, just where it should be. I'm thinking that I should have had my shower after doing this. Anyway I grab my laundry, after going back up stairs and cleaning myself up.
I check out, and head out, but I have to pull over to get out my Ezpass, I forgot that I still have some toll roads to go. Surprise, I've decided to take the ferry from Sandusky, OH to Pelee island, Ont. It's one of those things I've wanted to do. The ferry doesn't leave until 3:30 pm and they say I should be there 1 hour before.
So how do I waste 2 hours in Sandusky? I go see a movie. Before you say anything, I checked TripAdvisor for anything cool to do in Sandusky, and to be honest, besides Cider Point, (which I didn't have time for) there isn't anything of interest.
I just make it in time for:
I loved Lucy, and the Fifth Element, and you can see a lot of the Fifth Element in this. It was a ok movie, but not outstanding. From here it's off to the Ferry docks with a stop to fill/top up the bike.
Lesson one, I didn't need to be here an hour early, to be honest a 1/2 hour would do.
If you look really close, you can see Cider Point Amusement Park in the background.
It's nice and hot out, 90 degrees plus, so waiting around the dock wasn't really enjoyable. But finally the ferry shows up.
This is not the ferry I was expecting, and not the one we rode on going to the infamous "Pelee island Scooter run". You learn something everyday.
America's Border Patrol takes it time checking the cars coming off the ferry (which due to the size of the ferry is only around 10). Bikes are usually either first on or first off. So I get the pleasure of being first on. The crew didn't like the trailer and complained (Oh, how I missed that Ontario government employee service). But at least he tied down the bike. I totally forgot about bringing tie downs. Since we didn't have a full load going back, they could have given the bike more room.
Just in case your wondering, it's $58.25 CDN for the bike, trailer, and rider, or $42 USD. to go to Pelee island.
This is about as close as I get to Cider Point.
This isn't the fastest ferry in the world, but that's ok, I'm in no hurry. They have a snack bar on board, so I can grab a diet coke and the ferry has air conditioning, so I get to cool off . I find out the ferry was built in 1950. Who can't say Ontario doesn't get value out of some of its assets.
The lake is like glass, so it's a nice and smooth trip. It only takes just over an hour to get to Pelee Island.
Almost in Canada.
Finally back!
It's nice and cool on the Lake, plus with the breeze it's so relaxing.
Almost there.
There is a dock there, honestly.
We docked and they started off loading. The ships crew, drive and unload/load the cars off and on the ferry, as it's rather cramped. Though, if you ride a bike, you get the pleasure of doing it yourself.
First on, means last off. which isn't bad, as my bike is a pig at slow speed maneuvering. Canada Customs asked a lot of questions, but didn't bother inspecting the bike. Which wouldn't have mattered, as I really didn't buy much, as there really is no where to put it.
The memories of this place, mostly good, until the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police ) kicked us off the island. That infamous "Pelee island Scooter run".
Since I've got an hour and 1/2 to waste I have dinner at the local Tavern. It's still the same place that we went to on that Saturday night of the scooter run. If you were there, you know.
The OPP station, we saw these guy's a lot that weekend.
Dinner is of course is, the chicken, no bacon, and ranch salad. It was better than it looks, and after eating all that buttery popcorn at the movie theatre, I'd better get back to that diet.
Finally it's time to buy a ticket for the ferry ride to the mainland. This ticket only costs $15 and it's a longer ride, go figure. So all together, it's around $70 to cross the lake. That's not to bad.
It looks like the ferry is coming.
Yep, that's the ferry I remember.
Since there's no customs to deal with, offloading goes fast. Same as the last time, bikes on first. Though I get the pleasure of tying down my bike and that takes a while. Then upstairs.
So the last time I was on this ferry we called it the "Love Boat". Here's the back story if it. For the Pelee island scooter run, I just missed the 3 pm ferry. The next one was around 4 hours later. So now, you have a bunch of scooterists with lot's of time and beer on their hands. So by the time we got on the ferry, we were well into it, and guess what, they sold beer on the ferry (we called the server Issac). So for that whole trip all we did was drink, and we actually drunk the boat dry. Or if they were smart, they cut us off.
One of the spot lights we played "lightsabers" with, way back then. After that we got a good talking to by Captain Stubing (or that's what we named him). Ah, such good memories. This is a bigger boat, so they have a Cafeteria (beer), and a gift shop, better seats and air conditioning. This trip takes around a hour and half.
A beautiful sunset.
Stuff I don't I have to use.
Almost there!
All things must come to a end and were in Lemington, ON. I head down to the vehicle deck and untie the bike. You can feel the ferry docking and the boat moves around. Now there was always a trade off by taking the ferry. That is that, I won't get to the Burwell run until Saturday. But since I wanted to do this ferry trip, it was worth the trade off. But you ask, would you do it again? The answer is no, that is at least for coming north back into Canada. The ferry schedule is a lot more accommodating for heading south to the US.
From here it's up to the 401 and off to my motel in London. I asked myself, if I really wanted to show up at Burwell at midnight and set up all my crap, or show up on Saturday morning and get things done then.
This will be my last post for a few days. I can't post at Burwell, and I have to work Sunday night, so the earliest I will finish off this trips blog is Monday.
Mileage, I'll update it later.
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