Bicycle Sets Speed Record on Highway 17!

The previous post, and the next few, present a travelog of our recent trip around Lake Superior. We'll get to the trains soon enough, but in the mean time.....

September 5th: First day out from Ottawa, lots of nasty construction zones on Hwy 17 but we're only a few klicks short of our destination for the night. We're cruising down the Sudbury Bypass when a white van goes by, horn blaring, flagging us over. So we stop, and discover that the rear-most bike on the back of the trailer has fallen off the carrier and is being dragged down the highway by the cable lock (good thing we used that, or we would have left it as a road hazard in our wake!)

I have no idea how long we were dragging it, but it looked pretty wrecked. I suppose it was repairable, but we were having a little car/trailer electrical trouble as well that occupied more of our attention. So we abandoned our poor battered velocipede to a Value Village in Sudbury before blowing town the following day. Maybe someone else can fix and enjoy it. But in case you were ever wondering what happens to a bike that tries to do 90 km/h down the road, sideways:


Burning rubber?











General damage: stem post, left handlebar and gear shift. The ground metal surface was too hot to touch when we picked it up!









The hot seat!!












I'll get to the trains next post, I promise.

Trucking Nomes Sighted In Mattawa!


Well, do you see any driver in that truck? I don't.
(For those who don't get the joke, you need to read this very funny book. Actually it's a trilogy, but the other two are worth reading as well.)