July 27 - Kitchener, Ontario to Vandalia, Ohio - 430 miles

Here are the two "Silver-Haired Road Warriors" at home in Norm's garage. You can tell that its Norm's garage by his tractor sitting in the background.  Restoring it is another one of his many projects, if he can ever stay home long enough to get it done.

Leaving Kitchener, Ontario this morning and riding the Ontario highway toward the border of Canada-USA the scenery was very pretty.  Large farms with green crops on  low rolling hills were very prosperous looking.

The truck traffic was quite heavy, and we did see a lot more 26-wheelers, many 30-wheelers, and we lost count of the number of 34-wheelers at around 20.  We decided that these large trucks were used to haul ever larger loads of grain and farm products.

Along the way, a couple on a Gold Wing with Canada license plates came up on us, waved, and then passed.  When we stopped at a Tim Horton's, the couple, Ron and Judy Matkowski (who live north of Toronto) were there and we had a cup of coffee together.  It turned out that Ron and Judy were going down into the area of Tennessee where we had been recently, and we were able to give them good information about riding down there.  When they found out our route to Vandalia was the same as they wanted to take, and Norm was on home ground, they decided to ride with us.

Getting across the U.S.-Canadian border from Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan was a breeze.  So, we started down the crowded Interstate toward Toledo, Ohio.  We hadn't gotten far when we ran into the biggest traffic jam of the whole trip, caused by construction.  After idleing along for a half hour, we were off again.

After a long ride on busy Interstates, we arrived at the border of the town of Vandalia.  Here we had two things going on.  Deane had to get a new front tire on his Gold Wing, and Ron and Judy decided to stay overnight in Vandalia.

Norm's wife Kay had a casserole cooking for dinner, so Norm and Kay invited the Canadian couple, Ron and Judy, to dinner.  See, all you have to do is be a Gold Wing rider or couple, and it opens the door to all sorts of kindnesses.

Meanwhile, Deane and Norm went to get a new tire for Deane's Gold Wing.  What it amounted to is the OEM tire (a Bridgestone tire) had either a design flaw or a manufacturing flaw.  It started "cupping" at about 5,000 miles, and had gotten considerably worse by 12,000 miles.  There are reports of other 2001 Gold Wing owners having the same trouble with the Bridgestone tires.  Anyway, with the tire changed, the bike handled much better, and Deane felt much more safe.

Kay had arranged a "homecoming" dessert get together with motorcycling friends of she and Norm, so a good time was had by all.

When arriving home on July 27th, Norm had ridden about 6,900 miles since leaving home on June 19th!  Since Deane had further to go from Albuquerque to Knoxville, where he and Norm met, he had ridden about 8,600 miles - and he isn't home yet!!  More Later.

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