Day 42

43 miles including post tornado Eureka.

We packed up and left our camp early this morning after a nice rest. We had about 18 miles to ride to Eureka which we covered quickly.

Arriving in Eureka we bought some snacks at a petrol station and were just finishing early morning lolly pops when we had a nice surprise. Along came three of our fellow cyclists from Newton. We chatted a while. They reminded us that the seemingly normal looking town of Eureka had in fact been hit by a tornado just three days before. The north of this small town had sustained severe damage as you can see in the photos. 

We passed through the devastation before leaving town and it was distressing to see how people’s homes had been totally destroyed. The only positive is that remarkably (due to superb prediction and warning) no one was hurt.

Back on the highway (54) we pressed on to Toronto. We had planned to keep going but as we arrived at the superbly named Lizard Lips cafe we met Jean-Marie who you see in the fourth picture. This amazing lady rescues people like us and offers them a place to stay. This made our decision easy, we were stopping in Toronto! 

Jean-Marie has been amazing, she has chatted with us, made us some lovely vegan food, looked after Tracey who isn’t feeling too well and also took us to Lake Toronto where we watched the sun go down. 

We are now settling down to sleep, once again a day made by the kindness of others.