Lost again

Great visit in Richmond Hill with my son and his wife. Perfect timing with him flying in from Seattle and me plodding in from Peterborough. And my daughter drove in on Sunday with her son to visit as well. So, we ate and chatted and kicked a ball around and ate some more and chatted some more...a totally relaxing break...and that was a good thing, because the bike ride today was suppose to be long to set up my Tuesday visit of the old family places...and then I got lost!! The route was simple. A couple of blocks north and the west for quite a while, then north again and then west again. Like 4 turns all day....my estimate was 155km. The first western portion was strange because it took me past all the streets you pass when you're on the 401. On the 401 it kind of goes BathurstDufferinKeeleJaneIslington....on a bike the streets aren't nearly as close together..very weird. Then I swung north, then I headed west....just like the plan said...and then it wasn't. I still have no idea what happened. One second I should be coming into Orangeville, the next second I'm riding through Terra Cotta which didn't sound at all familiar. And all of a sudden there were t intersections and no roads were going anywhere. Twisty and turny and stopping....I was totally turned around. Finally stopped and asked directions from a couple on the road. And they had a hard time helping me.   My fault again because the only reference point I had was Orangeville. I was actually 'way south of it but I was also now west of it....so by saying Orangeville they were sending me back east to streets I knew I had passed and did not particularly want to see again. So the request changed to 'I just want to go west' . And as it turned out the best way to do that was to go farther south to #7 and head for Acton and Guelph. Anybody out there ever driven through Guelph? Probably not, as I think it is impossible. That town is really confusing. One of the reasons I was going the Orangeville route was because I did not want to deal with Guelph....but here I was. The solution was to stop at all Timmies, pull out google maps and confirm the next turns. Thank goodness Guelph has lots of Timmies....probably because people are just driving around in circles and always needing to stop. Made it out. Back on a route that would get me to the same place. Ended up only adding about 20 km....173.8 for the day....another century ride. But with the rest day yesterday, just a little cross wind and just a little rain today, it was a very comfortable ride.
Two things I did learn...actually one today and one on Saturday.
Today I learned it's really not advisable to ride through Mennonite country when it's raining. My new route put me right in the heart of Mennonite country...so think lots of horses and carts. And where there are lots of horses there are going to be lots of piles of stuff that maybe look like piles of mud...but aren't. And when it rains those little mud piles get spread all over the shoulder of the road right where you want to be. So...don't ride unless you have to, and fenders are definitely a good idea.
The thing I learned on Saturday was not all traffic circles are at the intersection of two through roads.
Came up to a circle and knew I wanted to basically make a left turn....so the third gap...right? Into the circle I flew. Past the first exit (right turn), past the second exit (the straight through), and I took the third exit...basically the left turn. Except this stupid circle didn't have a straight through.....they put a traffic circle at a t intersection. So I flew out of the circle heading back down the road I entered it on. Worlds easiest u-turn ever, but not what I was planning. Thankfully I wasn't in my normal tuned out day dreaming mode and picked up on the error pretty quickly, and some guy in a car gave me a beep on his horn. I'm pretty sure he saw what I did and probably knew it was not an unusual occurrence. At least that's what I'm going with.
So a couple of days left. Tomorrow is cemetery and old house day. Something I should have attended to a long time ago. It will be an interesting day. Hoping to hit a provincial park for the last night of camping ....... maybe Point Farms. And then London. Wow. Doesn't seem like basically a month. Tough to even think that, yes, I did ride to Halifax and tour around and visit a bunch of people and places. It will be interesting to sit down and read my blog myself. As I read it I know I'll be thinking "that sounds really cool, I should do that some day!!"