Sep 06, 2013

Well where we stayed last night ‘looked’ like the sort of area in movies one should avoid at night with some interesting individuals travelling back and forth and yelling for no apparent reason. I have to confess I felt relieved we could cover our bikes before they were there for too long and that they were still there this morning. DOH we had brought some disc locks for the bikes and forgot we had them! We really must be losing the plot. Detroit (home of the car industry) really is a dying city and the area we were in was quite empty and the hotel I’d say is part of a bid to renew things and they did it quite well. We were told today (not in Detroit) that there used to be 1.98 million people in Detroit and there are now about 980,000 which is staggering!



A hint of the Detroit skyline from behind our hotel…it looked quite attractive really.



We crossed into Canada over a massive bridge around Port Edward and were welcomed into Canada by a brusque young officer. Don’t know if he speaks any differently to people when he’s mad at them or he just has one winning way to do it. Didn’t impress either of us in fact the first grump we have come across on this trip.



A quaint little Church where we headed off Lakeshore Road (a lie except for a couple of brief glimpses) to find the Ipperwash Beach on the lake which was quite lovely and unbelievably rough.



The other side of the road shows some interesting contrasts. A farmhouse (hiding behind trees) and barns (old school) and a solar panel and wind turbines to the right (new school). These were the first of many and showed us that it wasn’t unseasonal but ‘normal’ for there to be a gale blowing and we saw many many more between there and our destination.

We have enjoyed the changing views today with farmland changing from huge expanses of corn and other crops, then to vegetable growing and later cattle which I assume are dairy as we have seen a cheese factory or two. Been interesting to see the variations in the barns as the type of farming has changed and sad to see some beautiful old timber barns literally disintegrating.



We detoured into the little lakeside village of Grand Bend which was an interesting mix of real estate from expensive to pretty scarily rough.



An example of a well-kept barn and silo complex and again the house hidden behind trees and given the wind likely so it is protected!



We enjoyed seeing the picturesque town of Goderich Ontario. There is a major refurbishment underway of the town centre and this is the Courthouse in the centre of (not surprisingly Courthouse Square) though it is in fact an 8 sided square surrounded on the outer rim by a collection of picturesque shops. Looking across at the Courthouse.



We arrived in Sauble Beach late in the day and checked out the beach after we checked in and where to get a meal. A very nice beach and the wind is nowhere near as rough as it was when we checked out the beach this morning when there were literally rows of white caps pounding on the shore … pretty impressive since it is a lake!



We dined at an indigenous restaurant on the beach and this is the tail end of the sunset.

Bits and Bobs:



The dogs in Goderich Ontario can apparently read as I found this on a shop wall. …. Okay so it was beside a pet grooming shop and it was too high for them to read anyway being my waist height but it appealed to my sick sense of humour.

Yesterday as we were trying to track down a toll transponder bracket and unlocked phone we parked in the car park around a massive shopping centre (J C Penny’s, Sears and several other brands) and the car park space was massive! Literally acres and acres but we could ride anywhere we wanted across car park spaces to get anywhere we wanted without having to steer around parked cars. It was scarily empty….almost looked deserted! The Auto shop had no cars being serviced and there was NOTHING parked anywhere near there and the stock in there was extremely limited. The few shops in the complex we went into were all but empty of customers and were loaded with stock with very few staff anywhere. It was eerily empty and we found ourselves thinking how we had previously thought retail business in Australia was slow but it’s nothing to what we saw yesterday.

We were also directed to a Lowes store looking for a transponder bracket (a Bunnings equivalent) which had good patronage and the car park area was reasonably full which led us to assume that people are maintaining their homes themselves rather than spending money on just shopping.

By the way, last night on the TV there was advertising for 0% interest for car purchases which is supposedly starting to stimulate some interest. Pretty grim all round really.
PS. We have seen many more examples of empty car parks around shopping centres today including in the one we finally got a phone … now we are in the process of getting it unlocked! No unlocked phones sold in Canada we are told. A security issue perhaps as we had to provide a verifiable name and address to apply for the unlocking.

Last night’s Accommodation:



Hilton Garden Inn Detroit Downtown
351 Gratiot Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48226

The hotel is really very nice and has great amenities complete with restaurants and bars and gym and pool. Parking is available though we were told to park the bikes on the footpath adjacent to the rear entry where the parking attendants monitor the comings and goings so it didn’t cost us anything. We were pleased about both because it didn’t cost us anything and because the area looked like it has its challenges. All the staff were welcoming and friendly and the room and bed beautifully comfortable.