Last night Willy parked the RV at the boat launch just a few meters from the lakeshore so when I awoke and looked out the window I could watch the seagulls floating and diving, in search of their breakfast. 
. It was beautiful and so 
. far from the ordinary for me. Today was grey, gloomy and rainy all day. My kind of weather and I’m not even a vampire. (I suppose that’s what all vampires say. ) Why do I like that kind of weather? It’s because there are fewer bugs about. My theory, totally unsupported, is that their little wings are too wet for them to fly. I notice that as soon as the sun shines and it dries up, the bugs come out in droves! And they are huge! Some of them carry steak knives! There are horrendous horse flies, dastardly deer flies, malicious mosquitos and bloodsucking black flies, although we haven’t seen any of the latter yet. Hopefully we’ve missed the season. I was totally covered up except for a bit of my face and some mosquitoes still found the few exposed inches of skin.
We had fantastic conditions for biking today. There are many hills but some look far more intimidating than they actually are, appearing daunting from a distance and stretching flatter as we go forth. 
Charlie and I started out leaving Willy with Rebecca. Willy had a few things to take care of and ended up leaving an hour later. He booted it though and caught up with us AFTER we’d had snack and tea time with Rebecca who met us 55km down the road in the RV. All day he grumbled jokingly about how deprived he was about having missed snack time. He made up for it at lunch. Rebecca makes us the most amazing meals in this tiny RV kitchen. We are so appreciative!
Mid afternoon as we were charging down the road, me in front setting the pace, (slow), I saw a black shape about 100 metres away on the left. Loudly I asked Charlie and Willy what they thought and we all screeched to a stop, startling a mama bear. She looked up at us, then continued to graze, her cub bouncing around her. As we stood respectfully astride our bikes watching, and armed with our bear spray, she looked up again, then moved towards the thick forest, melting into the foliage within seconds. They are out there, even if we don’t see them. We also saw deer crossing the roads and several squished turtles. If we see a turtle crossing the road, Charlie and I plan to stop and pick it up to help it across. Hopefully it’s not a snapping turtle! I like having fingers.
We did a total of 140km today. Rebecca went ahead and found us a suitable spot to park the RV for tonight and when we rolled up she had tea and chocolate ready for us and dinner on the go. Tonight she made chicken breasts, egg noodles and broccoli all with alfredo sauce. Oh, the calories! We are so, so blessed by Rebecca and Willy supporting us like this. Plus, it’s just so fun to spend time with them. I will cry when they leave us Tuesday afternoon after lunch to get back to Illinois. It will be a shock to our systems to have to figure out our own food and accommodations again. It is a very long lonely stretch of highway across northern Ontario, especially between Longlac and Hearst. And I do not want to camp at all!
It’s pouring rain outside. We are so lucky to be inside this RV with Willy and Rebecca. We will sleep well tonight!
Well, maybe not….. I just found a wood tick on me. Now I’m itchy.
Wendingourway:Across Canada by Bike 2017 