The next few days after leaving Midland passed rather quickly. We crossed into Canada on August 26, using the Bluewater Ferry at the crossing in Sombra. It was very nice to once again see some Dow folks among the visitors welcoming us on the Canadian site. Our late afternoon shift into Canada was very pleasant one - with cooler temperatures and much lower humidity a welcome change from the hot and humid conditions of the last few weeks. We (Paul, for that matter…) also enjoyed the company of some guest runners on our first day in Canada. Most noticeably that evening, however, our team van suddenly seemed to have become particularly attractive to flies. Although not of the aggressive kind, hundreds of (Canadian?) flies appeared to seriously consider moving in with us into our “home” of the last 25+ days… That prompted us to schedule a total clean-out of our van next morning. On that occasion we also went through all of our personal stuff (some of it spread out throughout the van) and got rid of a lot of items no longer needed for the reminder of our journey. Clearly, a real sense of the approaching end of our adventure was in the air now, and even Paul, although reluctantly, handed over a bottle of his (sensitive) skin moisturizing lotion to Laurel… The rest of the day we spent driving into Toronto, stopping by a one of the smaller Dow sites for a visit, before continuing on to Hamilton where we spent the night.

Next day, August 28 was a special day for several reasons. First, it was Taeko’s and Jason’s big day, the day of their wedding in Niagara Falls. Both exchanged their vows at the exchange point right next to the falls on a picture perfect day during a nice ceremony. Also, for us in the Yellow Team it meant the first day of our last full shift (night shift) before arriving in New York City, the countdown to the finish line has definitely begun… Crossing the border to the US without much hassle for the last time on our trip, we still had some time to spare before our shift. Jason, local to the Buffalo area, took us to the birthplace of the famous Buffalo Wings in town, the restaurant in which the wings were offered for the first time in 1964. The shift that night as well as the following two went without anything out of the ordinary. We continued our nightly journey towards the east coast while passing through the historic Gettysburg and later Baltimore. Except maybe one thing: We (the Yellow Team) collectively discovered the ultimate gas station: SHEETZ. While living on the road, the quality of gas stations is pretty important, and we would stop there for all kinds of tasks. Quite frequently, gas stations are the actual exchange points. Also, good for getting stocked up on beverages (both kinds), for last minute preparations (i.e., sorting out clothing issues, taking bathroom breaks) before the shift or, quite often, just for meeting the locals and get our story out to the public. The only thing we never worried about was gasoline… Although I have traveled all over the country in the past, I myself had never seen any of those ones, apparently the SHEETZ stations are mostly local to the north east. The variety of things available there was just amazing: from more than eight different coffees, to various milkshakes, hot food items, beverages, you name it. Naturally, from here on out we were on the lookout for those places, especially during our overnight shifts…

In no time, the last day in August had arrived, and we went out for our last night shift. It was a pleasant and cool night out through some rather hilly country side, and I actually got rained on for a good while during my run. In the morning we drove to Toms River for a short rest, and about four hours later we were on our way to Philadelphia where we spent a good part of the day. Later that same evening we drove back to Toms River, where a noisy wedding reception (and all that comes with it…) was going down at the hotel. Naturally, rest was going to be hard to find and we did the most appropriate thing under the circumstances: We joined the crowd at the hotel bar for some time before we were finally ready to call it a day.

The next day was our final “rest day”. It was a beautiful, sunny Memorial Day weekend and we used the occasion to stop at the New Jersey shore for just a few hours. Certainly not my cup of tea: Although there were some nice views…, it was totally crowded, the board walk packed with people and nothing but fast food. Pretty soon we headed out for Edison in NJ, our last place before New York City. The highlight of the day: At 6:30 pm at a local sports bar we watched the first – and so far only – BPR segment on national television (ABC news), a nicely done summary on the run featuring several of the runners in the different parts of our route around the globe.