DAY 16 (6/26/05): Fort Erie to Peacock Point, ONT 76.8mi. The first 15 or so miles today were all on very nice bike paths. There were lots of other people out on the paths running and riding, and they were all very friendly. After the bike path, I picked up a narrow road that meanders along the shore of Lake Erie at a distance of about 20 feet from the water. The inland side of the road is lined with little vacation cottages. The road has almost no traffic since it is paralleled by a much more major road a mile or so inland. There were lots of Harleys out cruising, and they were very keen on Dagny and the whole adventure. I stopped and bought my first souvenier of the trip: a woman who lives in one of the cottages that I passed is a welder and makes little scrap metal animals as a hobby. I couldn't resist a little ant made out of an old railroad spike (Dagny is an A.N.T.) So, I have a pound or so of solid metal to carry with me until I get back to the states, but that's ok. DAY 17 (6/27/05): Peacock Point to Port Burwell, ONT 62.4mi. Last night I made friends with some of the people who live in the cabins in the park here during the summer, and my day started off well when one of them stopped by my campsite with freshly brewed coffee. The scenery on today's ride was a bit different than yesterday as the rode was farther from the lake and went through lots of fields, mostly corn and wheat with a few fruit orchards. I camped on Lake Erie again this evening. The only really noteworthy feature of this campsite is thousands and thousands of what the locals call "fish flies." These insects, which basically look like mosquitos but are three times as large, don't bike. In fact, they don't eat at all and just live in their adult form for 72 hours, enough to mate and lay eggs. The annoyance of being surrounded by all the fish flies was somewhat compensated for by the acrobatic show put on by the hundreds of tiny birds that swooped through the air, wheeling and diving, as they pursued the flies. All the birds were backlit by the Erie sunset, which was really beautiful. DAY 18 (6/28/05): Port Burwell to Eatonville, ONT 83.8mi. Today was another day of cruising through the starch bowl of Ontario, corn, wheat, and potatoes on all sides. After I arrived at the campground, the sky grew very dark and at about 9pm a huge thunderstom began. The lightening made the sky as bright as day and the thunder sounded like it was right overhead. The ran was so heavy that it bounced up off the ground and coated my tent with sand and mud. I stayed nice and dry in the tent, though, reading Don Quixote by flashlight and eating chocolate as the storm raged outside. DAY 19 (6/29/05): Eatonville, ONT to Capac, MI 103.7mi. This morning I rode a few more miles of Canadian farmland to get to the St. Clair river, which forms the border between Ontario and MIchigan. I then rode north along the river to get to Sombra, where I took a little ferry across the river to Marine City, MI, and was basically waved through the tiny customs plaza to my native soil.In Marine City, I picked up a bikepath that supposedly led to the town of St. Clair to the north. The path lead past dozens of McMansions, all built literally in the shadow of two huge electrical power plants. Very odd. The bikepath wasn't exactly as shown on my map, so I wandered around St. Clair before stumbling on the right road out of town. From there, I made my way to the nearest campground shown on my map. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a "members only RV club." The parking lot attendant, who was dressed in a faux park ranger outfit, wasn't in the mood to make an exception for a tired cyclist. So, I got out the map and found that I had another 25mi to the next campground. So, at 6pm and with 75mi already behind me, I put the spurs to Dagny and we charged off across Michigan, rollint at a good clip all the way to the KOA just east of Capac. The Canadian couple that runs the Kampground were very nice to me, and the hot shower feltawfully good after a long, long day.