September 5, 2025

We arrived back on mainland Canada Sunday Sept 1, 7am, after an overnight ferry ride. The ferry has cabins, with small beds, but these were all booked, so we opted for reserved seats. We had on our comfy clothes, brought a quilt (thanks Sydney!) and wore hoodies which we pulled down over our eyes. We both managed to get some sleep, and both noticed the big rollers and waves that rocked us around during the night. It was a bit bitter sweet arriving in Sydney….it means we’re heading home and our amazing journey will be coming to an end soon….well, at least this version. 😊

We drove Sunday through Cape Breton (on a bit of the Cabot Trail), then hit a Harvest Host we stayed at on our way to Nove Scotia, Big Axe Brewery, in Nickawic New Brunswick. A fellow who came to get instructions where to park his rig told me that his wife would come talk to me – her brother died of ALS last year. Jeanine and Eric sat with us for the night and we had lots of discussions about ALS, travel, family, their rescue dog, work, Tri’ing…. Our conversation continued the next morning while we all enjoyed our wake up coffee (tea for me). It was a really nice to meet them and share our stories. They already sent pictures from the next Harvest Host we recommended to them. Hopefully we’ll connect again one day in person.

We decided to have one last ‘tourist’ day before the final trek home. We spent Tuesday in Old Quebec City. We took the ferry across from Levis and it dropped us right down town. It was wonderful to wander around looking at old buildings, wondering what the walls would say if they could talk, dodging crowds distractedly walking down the narrow sidewalks, drinking aromatic coffee and tea, while gobbling down the fluffiest, gushiest pistachio croissant I’ve even had. I’ll confess….I thought about buying the rest of the batch to sustain me over the next few days.

We went into a United Church that was open to the public and it was beautiful inside, with colourful stained glass windows and a beautiful organ. We ended up providing an interview to the woman who was hosting visits, which will be passed onto the editor of the local paper. She was also going to mention our journey to the congregation as they’ve had several members pass away from ALS.

Thursday we arrived at our Race #17 location: Senova Lake for the Lakeside Triathlon. The lake is shallow, warm and calm. The surrounding town has old houses, new houses, rolling fields of corn and what I think are peas.

We spend Friday noon having lunch in Kitchener with Chris from ALS Canada. He presented us with a lovely framed certificate to commemorate our journey. We had a good discussion about the needs of the ALS community and how we can help make a difference. Thank you ALS Canada!

We’re currently waiting for our radio interview with CBC! A link will be posted on the media page.