Day 33 - Final Ride to St. Catharines

Day 33 -Saturday, Aug 1/2009
Starting Location: Sault Ste. Marie, ON

Ending Location: St. Catharines, ON
Distance Travelled: 522 miles or 864 km
Distance Travelled to date: 10853 miles or 17582 km


Gas:
Sault Ste. Marie, ON $0.951/li 18.34 litres $17.44 total
McKerrow, ON $0.969/li 13.721 litres $13.30 total
Nobel, ON $0.949/li 12.438 litres $11.80 total

Whoever ordered the clear blue skies on the day I left Thunder Bay, I thank you as I had a great day for riding...THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED WHEN I LEFT THE SAULT!
For the grand finale ride of the trip, the weather also decided to have it's grand finale. I hit, by far, the worst weather of the trip.

When I left for St. Catharines, there was a gentle rain and a slight southerly breeze. As I filled up in the Sault, the rain was coming down harder, so I decided to put on my rain gear. About 20 miles from the Sault, I hit torrential rain and could not keep my facemask clear. Coupled with that, I was being hit by very strong, gusty crosswinds that were throwing my bike all over the road. It was raining and blowing so hard, that cars were maintaining only 80kph and were not even passing each other on the four lane sections or passing lanes.
What am I complaining about...it only lasted for 2 hours. By the time I got to Serpent River, the rains started to subside, but the gusty Southerly crosswinds persisted. Once I headed south from Sudbury, I was now facing the wind and the ride was fine. The sky was still turbulent until Parry Sound, where I got just a small amount of rain. Once in Barrie, the wind died down and the ride much easier. The traffic in both directions, from Barrie to Hamilton, was very heavy as it was the long weekend.
It was nice to get home after a pretty tough day of riding....but it was part of the trip!
I'll put in one more post when I get a chance to total the gas bills.