ride for africycle day three (part one)

kingston to selkirk shores state park 110 km (part one)

waking on a couch in a church is sort of different but you sleep where you can, you get water where you can, you get coffee where you can when you're riding 'round the lake!

so, no complaints. i was warm, dry and got breakfast and coffee.

surrounded by good people who love cycling.

let the day begin!

after cleaning up and packing up we went outside where speed cyclist lisa had prepared a mixtape of eighties' dance music to stretch to. it wasn't pretty at all but it got us going!

after the stretches were all done, we wound our way through the lower downtown of kingston to the wolfe island ferry which was just starting to load up when we got there.

ben and michael grit their teeth in preparation for the heaving waves.

this was another ferry i'd heard about for years but never been on.

this one was bigger than the last and loaded up with cars and families all on their way to beautiful wolfe island.

we had a competition to see how many windmills there were at the kingston windfarm.

the highest number was 75.

here are a few.

as soon as we landed on the other side, three of us took off at top speed to catch the ferry at the other end of the island that would take us to the united states.

here goes big dave!

eleven kilometres in twenty two minutes on completely unwarmed up legs. tough, but it had to be done!!

part way across, a deer was standing in the middle of the road so we slowed down and then watched in awe as she bounded her way through a field of corn.

if you look to the left of this picture you'll see her standing still for a moment.

finally the rest of the team caught up and the ferry driver who was literally pulling away, brought the ferry back to the dock and allowed us all on.

it's not a long journey

but it does give you a chance to really enjoy the scenery.

the other side.

well when we got to the states we were greeted by a family of martens making their way

back to their little home in the dock.

then we saw three blue herons.

that more than made up for the noisy smelly motorcycles who were right in front of us.

here we are passing through american customs.

a little hut with a man and a scanner.

once through customs we made our way to the main street of the little village of cape vincent

and found a coffee shop that was known to the cyclists who had been on last year's tour.

coffee and tasty baked goods.

then back on the bikes!