Wed July 22 Thunder Bay ON

I'll blame it on the time change, wink, wink. Didn't get out of the motel until 9:30 am. The guys on the Harley's woke me up - outside, smoking their faces off. They got rolling just after I fired up my stove for breakfast. Finally made the time - had to clean up my bike. Despite 4 hrs riding in the rain some of that Assiniboine River bottom mud or should I say cement was still stuck to the fenders and racks and the chain was showing rust. The girl in the motel with the U-Haul was probably shaking her head after seeing the Harley guys clean their bikes and them me cleaning my bike. Rain threatened but didn't happen and by noon I was in the sunshine, cool but to me anyway it was humid. The locals are in jeans and hoodies. Met a guy today riding east, the first I've met so far. He updated me on some of the others that are now ahead of me. Staying tonight at the Confederation College student dorm - no kitchen facilities as these are for the ones who eat in the cafeteria. Not sure if it really is part of the HI hostels or if it was just a couple of kids that took me for $25.00. Nevertheless the keys work and I got everything I need. I always try to stay away from the franchised fry pits but tonight I thought I'd try some thing new to me: Montana's. Forget it if you're vegetarian or even mildly enviro about your fish, or if you want to sit out on a patio. It was OK, nothing unique about it except they deep fry the cheesecake. A quick look at the map says I'm going to be riding hard for the next 7 or 8 days to get to North Bay. Crossed into the Eastern time zone today and over the Artic/ Atlantic divide today. Ontario doesn't seem to be into those historical/ geographical/ heritage markers - those are about all I've seen in the last four days.

OD 3562.9, 6:52:23, 138.26km, 20.2 ave, 51.6 max