Outside the Lake Ontario corridor, trying to get anywhere in southern Ontario can be problematic. Township roads rarely point in the direction one wants to travel. Road closures are a constant, and detours appear to run in random directions. For a stranger to the area, a good map would be a constant companion. Unfortunately, my map is a dud — white roads on a very light green to white background. Thanks, MapArt Publishing, for nothing.

The inhabitants of much of southern Ontario aren’t known to travel well. Ask directions, and most don’t know the way to the next gas station because they haven’t been there. To say that it’s a simple life is an understatement. Time moves so slow that even when there’s a crisis of epidemic proportion, the citizenry is left to die before the cure is announced.

Thus I found myself in Walkerton, home to the worst E. coli contamination in Canada. Whereas it had been only a place name on a map, it’s now embedded in history forever. It’s a nice looking little place, where the pace is a little slower and nothing ever happens – until it does.

And so when I stop for a break and a drink, I get the question: Would you like tap or bottled? Call me overly cautious, but I’ll have a bottle.

Edited to add: I rode by the light of the full moon tonight, all the way up the Manitoulin. Where were you?