Day 53 – Palgrave to Etobicoke via Kleinburg (T.D.: 44.4.km; S.T.: 2h32min)

We awoke to find our mountain bike friends still at it. Our nearest neighbours were a boy-girl couple who were dominating their mixed couples division, having ridden something like 450km throughout the night, and a pair of fellas who had pretty much given up on the whole idea and were enjoying some much-needed shut-eye instead of racing. We slipped out of the park as unnoticed as we were when we arrived. Our touring bikes, fully-loaded with bright yellow panniers, raised only a few eyebrows, mostly from competitors who must have thought we were a bit confused as to what this event was all about.

Anyway, we went from this athletic venue to an artistic one: the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg. This is a place we had wanted to visit for a while, and had tried (and failed) to get to via public transit from Toronto a couple summers back. Now we were arriving on bicycles from Vancouver, and it seemed much simpler. After stowing our bikes in the coat room, we spent the day moseying through the Group of Seven exhibits, comparing notes. Their work checks out. Not 2 bad.

Also good was the air-conditioning. We found that out at the end of the day, when we got back on the bikes for a very hot ride into Etobicoke. We came into town on Islington St., and were happy that bicycles are forbidden on the 400-series superhighways that carve up the region. From some of the overpasses, we could see that they wouldn’t have been very fun to ride on. Rather, they would have been terrifying. Islington wasn’t too bad in comparison. Still, we were happy to get to Caroline’s aunt and uncle’s house, which also signified the end of Part 2 of the trip.  (Part 1 was Vancouver to Winnipeg. Part 3 would be our homecoming, Toronto to Fredericton. Our jaunt to PEI from Fredericton would be considered the epilogue). TO RECAP: WE JUST BIKED FROM VANCOUVER TO TORONTO! HUZZAH!

Av. Spd.: 17.4km/h

Mx. Spd.: 57.0km/h

Odometer reading: 4844.7km or 2/3^rds of the trip all done!

Nationalist sentiment aroused in our hearts at the McMichael Gallery: Plenty!

Nationalist fervour aroused in our tastebuds at the Gallery restaurant: Oh saaaay can you see!!