Le Tour Section Five Day Five

We started the day later than normal in Sault St. Marie, Matt's wheel lost a few more spokes so our morning revolved around the wheel. Sault St. Marie was possibly one of the only places in Canada where people go to have their bikes repaired at Canadian tire. I really cringed at the idea of Canadian tire fixing bicycles. I really don't mean to be a snob, but this is almost unheard of in Western Canada. Matt eventually found a bicycle mechanic in town and we were off on another day of pounding the pavement.

We rode to Blind River Ontario, along the way we came across a Mennonite family selling produce at the side of the rode. The father had classic clothing on that was very traditional, plain and square. The daughter's clothing was very similar to the father's, she had a cute little bonnet and a long cotton dress. The father was selling home made maple syrup, green onions, beets, strawberries, free range eggs, sweet peas, and zucchini. The father made the syrup traditionally, drilling holes in the trees by hand and collecting sap in buckets. The sap was then boiled down into dark Canadian pride syrup. I asked him how much labour went into one of the five hundred milliliter bottles he was selling for eight dollars and fifty cents. He could not tell me, I am sure that the small amount of syrup he was selling involved numerous hours of labour. I told him I was not the biggest fan of technology myself and afterwards I bit my tongue thinking about all the technology I had on my bicycle. There were too many techie type things to list on my bicycle, odometer,heart rate monitor, altimeter, ipod, and numerous additional gizmo's that made cycling through the prairies more entertaining. I also tried to tell him we didn't like cars very much and he related to us more after that point, he corned me on that comment though. He asked if we were going to turn around and ride back to Vancouver once we hit Halifax. I told him I was planning on flying, at that moment he ended the conversation and strutted away. I suppose he was the bigger man for living on the farm and doing everything possible in life the hard way.

When I arrived in Blind River, I cruised threw town and checked out the sites. The city was a cute little town with old buildings and well kept small homes. We camped in a motel owner's back yard right near the lake. I had my regular meal of carbohydrates, yes pasta. I have become obsessive with the pasta, I am afraid of letting Matt near it when it cooks, this is the most precious meal of the day. Yes, I do have an obsessive personality but my pasta is sacred!
Here are some tips for cooking pasta, use a a very large pot or the only one you have, add tons of salt to the water,stir the noodles around lots, do not overcook the noodles! I cannot stress this point enough, cook the noodles till they are just undercooked and they do not crunch in your mouth, the noodles continue to cook once they have been taken out of the water, don't rinse the noodles ( that is the hack way), pour a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil over the noodles and a pinch of salt as well.