It was a relatively nice and easy ride to London, Ontario. Rain
threaten several times, but held off until after at least three of
us were tucked away neatly in our hotel. Yes, Bonnie, Ken and Martin
are camping as I type this, and at least two thundershowers blew by
on its way to the campground. I hope they manage stay dry.

I went to the bike store for my replacement wheel, but was talked
out of it by the tech who builds the wheels. He felt that if my
wheel held up all the way from Sarnia, it could just as easily last
out the trip. He said that a bad bump will bend the wheel, but
considering the weight in my front panniers, it could bend a brand
new wheel as well. A lot of components on all of our bikes are
showing signs of extreme wear, but his advice was the same, and that
was to try and use the equipment as long as it works, and then
replace all of the necessary parts after the trip. He felt that new
parts would be old shortly just because of the rigors if this tour,
so just use everything to the end. Gail did need to replace her rear
tire, and Susie needed a new chain.

It is because we three needed repairs that we ended up just checking
into a hotel, while the other three left earlier to camp.

We were again showered with free goods today. A sales person for the
Canadian chocolate bar, O'Henry, loaded us up with goodies when
she heard about our tour.

London is one of those perfect sized cities. With less than half a
million people, it is big enough to offer all of the amenities of
larger cities, but none of the traffic or sprawl. London is
surrounded by tidy farms, and the roads were nice and clean.
Tomorrow we will close the gap between ourselves and Niagara Falls.

To get to London we had to cycle 4,490 kilometers and climbed 32,866
meters, and it has taken us 49 days to get here.