The beautiful game

Jul 5 - Port Stanley ON to Rondeau Point Provincial Park ON: 51 miles 

Flat roads, lots of beautiful farmland

We woke early to lots of bird activity in port Stanley, and took advantage of that to get an early start today. There was still time to go sit on a rock and watch the sun rise and the bird activity with coffee in hand.

It doesn't take long to climb out of the town and on to open farmland again. There's still plenty of windmills visible in all directions but no headwinds at the moment. We have a theory that they are strongest in the afternoon, so an early start is best.

It's clear skies and hot again today on the road, and we need an occasional break, plus we generally go through all the water in our water bottles before we reach our destination and need a refill. It is painful to buy water in bottles, and today we get a refill  from a gas station stop that turns out to be the local diner / pie-ery.

Peaches and peas from a farm stand with a welcoming picnic table under a tree

They filled our water bottles with chilled water for free here at Tall tales cafe in wallacetown ON on talbot trail...  Hardly anyone parked outside but the inside is crammed with people having lunch and pie (sorry about the thumb!)

Our destination is the provincial park just beyond the town of Morpeth, which turns out to be just an intersection with a cute antique store where heathers query about nearby grocery store is met with laughs when she grimaces at the answer that they're just 10 minutes up the road (10 miles) in the wrong direction.  Luckily this answer is followed with guidance that there might be a convenience store next to the park.  We'll take our chances and survive on our snacks if   there is nothing.

I don't think we realized that the park was 5 miles off our route. As we get close to the park, there's more traffic and the scenery now includes views of Lake Erie which I didn't really realize we had not seen at all since leaving port Stanley. It also includes a small grocery store and a pub called Rondeau joe's. Our prayers are answered: somewhere to watch today's women's World Cup final!!!

We've actually managed to arrive at camp at a reasonable hour and can catch up with ourselves: do laundry (first time since we left, so you can just imagine...), go for a swim in the lake, take a long hot shower, eat together at a reasonable time,... 

gear explosion - hard to believe that I carry all this stuff... It takes a while to cram it all back into two stuff sacks  

Swimming from the provincial park beach along Lake Erie

Our first campfire! Heather cooks sausages before the game

They are having some sort of mosquito problem here - mostly male mosquitoes, and they cover EVERYTHING. Especially black things, so our black clothes on the clothesline are covered in bugs. It doesn't seem to hinder the drying process. 

We're actually wearing clean clothes, and have clean hair and bodies, to go sit in a real bar and watch soccer. We try our first biking while in skirts and flip flops without any mishaps and scope out the bar/TV scene.  I'm greeted by another fan at the bar with "we're waiting for the women's soccer match to start"... Ok I love this place! Rondeau joes has a good beer selection and friendly efficient and accommodating staff.

We settle in to watch the mostly lopsided  high scoring game. The Japan team came out stronger in the second half but the U.S. Women still came out well out on top.  We score a Barcelona FC scarf here from one of the staff,  who wanted it "to go to a good soccer fan home."  

We say our goodbyes to our new fellow soccer fan friends at the bar, and successfully make it back to our campsite on our bikes again.

CLEAN, in bed, with a USA World Cup win. 

Who could ask for more? 

Sunset View from rondeau joes