Grove City, PA to Essa, ON, Canada - April 29 & 30

We had a fairly uneventful ride north to Erie, PA, before heading east on the I90 into New York State towards Buffalo.  At this point the miles seemed to add up quickly and we were at the Peace Bridge and returning to Canada by early afternoon.

The Canadian Customs Official was fascinated with our passports given the number of stamps and interested in our trip, and before you know it we were in home territory.

I had one last mechanical issue to deal with.  I wonder if my bike just didn't want to go home, as it threw the drive chain on a speed bump only metres into Canada!  Since it is springtime in Ontario, there was a convenient construction zone that I was able to roll into to complete a quick repair.

Back on the road, we stopped at Dual Sports Plus in Stoney Creek to say hello.  The folks at DSP were very helpful in getting us geared up before departure (with equipment and advice!), and they have been following our blog with interest.

From Stoney Creek we rode to Mississauga to stay at my folks for the night where we shared lots of stories and pictures from the journey, before heading north to Essa by  midday the next day.  We had a drink (and I had a cigar!) to toast our safe arrival home, before Petra's folks came over to celebrate and suffer through our stories and pictures!

Our ride took us to 14 countries in 89 days with a total distance of 24,145 km's.  With only 65 days on the bikes, that's an average of over 370km's per riding day.  We've seen remarkable landscapes and incredible diversity, met fascinating people, been awed by the kindness and generosity of strangers, challenged by roads, rivers, heat, cold, wind and natural disasters...in all a fantastic adventure.

In some ways it will be difficult to adjust to a normal life, but in other ways we are just on a journey of a different kind...each day may bring new challenges to adapt to, obstacles to overcome and sights and sounds to enjoy - but I think we're up to it!