travel notes: day 6

organic hippie farms & hawberry jelly

just enough fuel this morning for oatmeal and half of a cup of coffee each. had a lazy day today but perfect for exploring. went into an old abandoned farmhouse and barn.

took backroads most of the way to Providence Bay. came across an organic farm--Gypsy Family Farm--and bought fresh snap peas from Ted's sister. the 3 of us polished off a litre of them by mid-afternoon. they were the sweetest peas ever. everything else was at market with Ted, the farmer, who incidentally is a retired nurse from Texas. his wife is still a nurse. great stories. we are taking an extra trip into Mindemoya tomorrow morning to go meet him at market and get some fresh fruit for lunch.

missed our turn off today and ended up staying on the highway, which was a good thing or else we wouldn't have come across the tiny hamlet of Spring Bay, which had an LCBO outlet (we had run out of wine--funny how things work out like that) and the Hawberry Farms company whose jams and chutneys we love. had to pick up a few jars of their famous hawberry jelly (hawberries only grow on Manitoulin Island)...and a few other things. extra weight, yes, but only for another day and so worth it. also got some christian paraphanelia for Sue at a tiny old church in Britainville.

Providence Bay has the coldest water i've ever jumped into. my toes went numb. and there's a family (a dad and his two kids) who are just starting out on their journey of biking Manitoulin at the site across from ours. i'd like to give the girl a book that i finished on the trip (Strange Heaven by Lynn Coady).
we're going into town tonight to eat fish & chips.
(edit: the fish & chips place was closed but lucky for us because we found the best soup & sandwich shop! once again, love how things always have a way of working out. ~m)

day 6 stats
27˚ & sunny
total riding time: 2 hrs 43 mins
total distance: 40.72 km (avg: 14.9 km/hr)
max speed: 36 km/hr