August 11, 2024. Oshawa to Scarborough, Ontario

     Had a pleasant breakfast with our warm shower hosts. We hoped to go to church with them but because of a head wind and the service time at their church being later in the morning so we would not be done till about noon, we decided that it would be more prudent to go to a church that was along our route. They recommended Sanctus in Ajax that some of their friends go to. It started to rain a little as we arrived, so were glad to duck inside the building!

   The message was on the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector and how we shouldn't be proud. We were impressed that even though the service was an hour and 20 or 30 minutes long, we didn’t even realize it. Sometimes North American churches just want to get their services done between 58 and 60 minutes.   

   Back outside, our bikes were wetter than when we arrived, so we got spared some rain while inside. 

From the church, we headed a short distance back to the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail along the lakeshore, where we could see it raining on the other side of the lake. 

.   Soon it started to rain on us, too. After a bit we came to a park and ducked under an overhang of a park building and had a snack. A birthday party was going on inside the building and a couple of little girls had a lot of fun peeking at us through the window. When it eased off, we were just about to leave when a family sat down at a picnic table near us. A young man named Sameer began asking us questions as he is interested in doing more bicycling. We found out that he and his parents and sister were from Pakistan and their native language is Urdu. We had a great time talking with them and exchanged contact information in case he had more questions about bicycle touring. Sameer even suggested an app to help plot routes between two locations. And Jim told Sameer that he's got to find a wife like Kay who's willing to go camping in a small tent covered with ticks! (Happened to us at a state park in Missouri last spring)

  Shortly after, we crossed a bridge over a creek where it empties into the lake. Down on the sand, we saw a large white bird with a long neck, bigger than a Canadian goose, standing on one black leg preening itself. When we looked it up later, we think it was a trumpeter swan. Later on we passed a large nuclear plant. 

  We continued to work our way along the lake to our warm shower hosts in Scarborough on the east side of Toronto. At one point as we followed the waterfront trail, it took us out on a stretch of beach!—we walked our bikes along that section.

Another time it took us on a skinny dirt path through a field, where we wondered if we would pick up ticks!

  The weather improved and we even had some sunshine on the last part of our journey. Although we had a short mileage day of 43 miles, due to church and a headwind we didn’t get there until about 6:30. We found out that our hosts bought the house because it had a small basement apartment where an elderly relative lived until she died, and now that’s where the bicyclists they host get to stay!