Day 17, Sarnia to Windsor

Day 17 of the 2015 Pan-Am relay. One last peek at the Blue Water bridge, spanning Sarnia with Port Huron, Michigan.

Our meeting point was at the Sarnia city hall, where I caught Kayla, our torch bearer operations manger, posing in the mayor's chair. (Kayla and I worked together as driver and host on the 25th anniversary Rick Hansen relay. )

Torchbearer host and partner Haley addresses the masses.

There was a celebration of the flame outside of the Sarnia city hall, including this first nations drum circle.



The "through the fountain" cam of the festivities

and our favourite mascot, "Pachi" was there

our biggest group yet, 23 torchbearers.

I tried to get a shot across the St. Clair river to Port Huron, but we were moving the torchbearers to their spots, and the only chance I got was the "through the power pole" shot.

a pleasant surprise at this school drive by, these kids worked hard to create their own torches

Leaving Sarnia, I saw many of the petrochemical plants know as "Chemical Valley". Read about it in this link.

The GPS took me down some of the nicest secondary highways. Miles and miles of farmland.

Northeast of Wallaceberg, we made a random stop after I saw a sign saying Peers Wetlands.

did manage to see a red-winged blackbird, though

back in wind turbine country, there were hundreds of them on our trip between Sarnia and Windsor.

On the straight and narrow

and even the 401 highway was clear sailing today.

We will be in Windsor soon, but a quick detour east to Tecumseh (population around 23,000) was in order.

This was our second torchbearer meeting point of the day.

The town turned the torch relay visit into a family event with many games, music, dancers, and even a little archery. (Hey Haley, shouldn't we get back to our torchbearers?)

Outside the arena, I spied a sticker from the 25th anniversary Rick Hansen relay

Omg, apparently a professional clown made all these balloon torches. Huh.

Nice day outside for torch practice.

another graduation class of torchbearer 101

the fire department was out in support.

The core convoy showed up at the arena for a short community celebration.

on our way into our home away from home for one night, Windsor, here's a shot of Lake St. Clair

We happened by the Hiram Walker distillery , but the relay can't wait, no tastings today, meh!

across the Detroit river, 2 blocks from our hotel, there's Detroit, just sitting there, very cool.