Day 5: Dutton to Kingsville. Trip total: 607km

Today definitely had its highs and lows.
The storm I was expecting did come,  starting at midnight and continuing through to about 3am. All was quiet at 5:30am so I decided to take a gamble and make a run for it. I packed up my gear in record time and was on the road before 6am. Unlike the Satan fowl that greeted me at the start of yesterday's ride,  today I had a lone deer send me off.  It felt like it was going to be a good day.

The weather was cool and overcast,  which suited me just fine.  Even the sporadic showers were a welcome change from yesterday's heat.  My legs were tired, but no lingering aches from yesterday.

I spent the entire day on the Talbot Trail, which was just a straight up highway ride and that suited me just fine.  I had a nuisance headwind for most of the day,  but otherwise it was shaping up to be a very manageable 133km ride.

With little more than 4km left to the motel,  google decided to take me off the highway and put me onto a quaint little nature path. I should have known better,  but I only had a few km left to go.  

Then the sky opened up and let loose a torrential downpour that flooded the trail in a matter of seconds.  All I could see in front of me was water,  no ground.  I should have pulled over and waited it out,  but I had less than 3km to go,  so I pressed on.  Bad move.

Beneath the uniform glassy surface of the flooded trail was a pothole that Dolores managed to find,  throwing me over her handlebars in the process.  

Dolores hit the ground hard as well.  Surprisingly,  the flimsy side view mirror,  gps, gopro and phone all survived unscathed.  The only casualty was my large chain ring.  My brand new large chain ring.  My large chain ring that I spend 99.9% of my ride time using.  That large chain ring. 

The are no bike shops in Kingsville, and it doesn't look like I'll find one until Windsor. Even then,  there's no guarantee they'll have one in stock.  

Today I really need a drink.