Bicycling and beachcombing

To Wasaga Beach for the weekend to stay with friends. We leave Friday night and after a quick pitstop at Tim Horton's on Dundas Street we head off up Airport Road. I'm peddling hard in the smart car to keep up with the GMC crewcab carrying the tour party bicycles. Up saturday morning and we head for the Georgian Trail. After positioning the vehicles we suffer a setback as the valve pulls out of the tube on one of the bikes as I pump up the tires. Luck is with us as Little Ed's Bike Shop in Collingwood fixes the problem on the spot.
We set off about midday and take a picnic lunch beside the Georgian Bay where sailboarders and parasailers are enjoying the end of season weather out on the lake. We carry on towards Thornbury but Annette takes a tumble on the trail and we limp in to town in search of a bandage and coffee. We stop at Tourist Information, which is open but unmanned. An OPP Officer appears but turns us away when asked for a first aid kit. We are unimpressed.
We find a drugstore and Tim Horton's - Annette is sufficiently revived to photograph the many bicycles but with no bike rack. We cover the last segment from Thornbury to Meaford in good order completing about twenty-two miles in all. There is much new development on the trail - they are on their way to spoiling it.
We load up the bikes for an early dinner - the yellow Brompton folded under the seat in the crewcab. We've booked a table at Ted's Range Road Diner, out-of-town, down a sideroad in the direction of Owen Sound. The diner is in an old quonset hut - Nissen hut for UK readers. There are no menus but many choices spread around the walls. You sometimes have to wait for other diners to move to see the full selection. We don't lack an appetite.
We head back to Wasaga, retrieving the smart car en route. There is heavy rain overnight but still there is a lack of water in Georgian Bay - the water has retreated at least 100 feet or more - is this a cyclic phenomenon or a permanent depletion? We spend some time beachcombing and return with a bowl full of litter.
Back to Hogtown and we stop at the workshop of our friends where we view a '56 Chevy being rebuilt, a Volkswagen beach buggy and a Yamaha-powered single-seater built by students at Ryerson University. I'm impressed by the skill and ability of these young folk, the future movers and shakers, and also the opportunities provided by their school. I don't remember a racing team when I was at college.