31   Tuesday, September 30   Stewart Lake, ON

So, fully 4 days have passed since I last wrote, and I 
find that I am finally able to do so again. Most of that 
time, I do not wish to recall. 2 things of note: on 
Saturday, I passed the "Longtitudinal Center of Canada." 
It started raining. Last night (Monday), I entered 
Ontario. Shortly thereafter, it stopped raining. That 
more or less sums it up. 3 days in the rain. Manitoba's 
gravel shoulders turned to mud. Everything I had, save 
my maps (which were in a plastic bag), was absolutely 
soaked. Lost my last spare tyre (again), and ended up 
walking the last 50 or so miles into Kenora (last 
night), which was the next bike shop. Extremely tired; 
no sleep. Who wants to sleep in a waterlogged sleeping 
bag, in a waterlogged tent, in the crashing rain, in the 
howling wind? Who *can* sleep in that? Enough! No more! 
I will turn my thoughts elsewhere. Tonight, I saw the 
stars. The beautiful stars. The clouds are gone. No rain 
today, but all cloudy, and the ground is still soaked. 
But the stars are out. And tomorrow, the big one -- the 
Sun -- will perchance show itself. Dry the ground; dry 
me. Warm me up. That's the good news. The bad is that 
the roads here in Ontario are just as bad as I had been 
led to expect. Some of the areas where they have been 
resurfaced are okay, but the rest... "suck." No 
shoulders, of course, and they are so narrow and 
twisting (through the Shield), that I can't see very 
far, so don't really have the option of riding on the 
roads themselves. What's worse, about half the distance 
I went today was under construction. Meaning that they 
ripped the pavement up entirely, and I have been riding 
on mud for the last 20 miles. I am making no better than 
5 mph through most of this. When I get to Dryden,not 
tomorrow but the next day (at this rate; I had 
originally intended to reach there today), I will look 
into taking the bus to Thunder Bay. At the rate I am 
travelling now, it could take me 2-3 weeks to reach 
there otherwise.

   Now as for the Shield itself, it is neat. Not really 
what I expected, but I find I like it, although I can't 
quite say why. Just the ruggedness of it, I guess. Also, 
I am passing by the first decent lakes I have seen since 
I left BC. With this beautiful scenery, it almost seems 
a shame to have to take the bus through it.

Living the lines between
Life and death,
Love and solitude;
It's been thousands of miles since
   She was back home.
And she said that she understood people.
But maybe you didn't understand her.