Day 26 & 27 Richmond Hill to Newmarket to Whitchurch-Stouffville

The morning of day 26 was a bit of a surprise. As I went into the bathroom I found these burning lanterns in my bathtub. These are 2 of 8 lanterns that have been lit from the Pan-Am flame in Mexico City. I love the smell of kerosene in the morning.

Our first stop of Day 26 was in Richmond Hill, and was also one of our last school stops on the relay. Today is the last day of school in the district. These kids were prepared with their Pan-Am knowledge

They worked hard for this day.

todays meeting was in the library.

torch bearer class is now in session

class dismissed

The kids were really excited, more so for the Pan-Am mascot, Pachi, then the torch, but still a lot of energy in the room.

Pachi was moving so fast, I couldn't even focus the camera, lol.

Along the route, we passed by another school. You can see in my side mirror the crowd of students cheering on the flame.

Our second meeting point of the day was at a our last school stop of the relay, King City public school in King City, population around 7,500 and growing fast. (development). Part of our torchbearer briefing involves a diagram of the relay convoy vehicles. Earlier today we forgot the diagram at our last meeting point, so the last person that should be drawing (myself) drew the convoy for the meeting. 

Our group two of the day, briefed and ready.

Loaded up trucking

The relay stopped at the school in front of the students and the fire department colour guard, but unfortunately the heavy sudden rain but a damper on the event.

back home at the hotel in Markham, Toronto looming in the distance.

One of our weekly team meetings in the hotel conference room. (over 60 people involved on the road)

Day 27, down the highway on the 404 towards our first meeting point of the day in the  town of East Gwillimbury, population around 23,000.

Yikes!, one of the early councillors. (dating back to 1836)

Outside the town hall, what a nice day for a relay (compared to yesterday)

haven't missed a torchbearer group picture yet.

I spied this tower beside the hall, but I never did find out what it was.

As the pilot vehicle leads me to drop off the torchbearers, we are totally on our own to get in and around traffic. Even thought there is a lot of police presence around, they are strictly for the core convoy that travels in front of and behind the flame. So we are left to fend for ourselves .

The community had a small but lively celebration

After we dropped off our last torchbearer we headed down the highway for lunch. We ended up in Newmarket and happened by ..........

the Grey Goat pub and grill. Rick, who works behind the scenes on the road, wad riding along with us today.

this place was really cool, It would be nice to come back again on our own time.

the food rocked

It just so happened on of our torchbearers who ran earlier in the day was having lunch at the same place.

The meat pie was filling and delicious

wow, the only thing about the Grey Goat that wasn't quaint was the bathroom advertising.

Our second meeting point of the day was in the small town of Mount Albert, Ontario. (population about 2,700) (about 65 KM from Toronto)  It is described as an exurban (A commuter town or exurban is a town whose residents normally work elsewhere, although they live and sleep in these neighborhoods. The name also suggests that these communities have little commercial or industrial activity beyond a small amount of retail, oriented toward serving the residents  community).  All I could see was massive housing developments closing in.

We had a couple of minutes before the meeting, so we went to a creekside park, and managed to find a little wildlife in suburbia.

It was peaceful enough, though.

and I got to see a Ebony Jewelwing, a species I have not seen in British Columbia

Haley and Kayla enjoying a little down time

This young guy seemed to be the park ambassador and was quite happy to show us around his world.

back at our meeting point, a little basketball was in order before the start of the meeting.

Outside the community center and library

group two, torchbearers 69 to 75 for day 27

The small communities, like I have said before, really know how to celebrate. Most of the town were on the main drag to cheer on the Pan-Am flame.

Then it was a nice short drive down a country road before we were back in the big city of Markham. (the end of day celebration was in Whitchurch-Stouffville, but it was not on our schedule)