Marine City — John Murtaugh started a bike ride last Tuesday. He won't be going home until he travels at least 2,500 miles.

Murtaugh, 69, is biking from his home in Toronto through three countries to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. He stopped Thursday in Marine City and was headed to Ann Arbor on Friday.

"I had expected to get there (San Miguel de Allende) in about 40 days," Murtaugh said, "but I am thinking about slowing up. It was hot and the wind was against me. It's hard to be battling head winds."

Murtaugh wants to raise at least $25,000 for Amistad Canada, a charity that helps Canadians support social and education projects in and around San Miguel de Allende, which is in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato.

Amistad grew from Canadians for CASA, which was founded in the 1980s by Murtaugh's mother-in-law, Aileen Harris and later was administered by his wife, Elizabeth Harris.

CASA stands for Centro para Adolescentes de San Miguel de Allende. The group was started by a young woman named Nadine Goodman, Murtaugh said.

"She became very interested in helping out young women who were getting pregnant before they should," Murtaugh said.

The group, he said, funded a birthing hospital and Mexico's first school of midwifery.

Murtaugh said his mother-in-law and his wife, who died in 2011, raised money for CASA.

He started from London on Thursday and rode through much of southwestern Ontario's agricultural heartland before taking the ferry from Sombra to Marine City. "It was amazing," he said. "I had these large combines, $300,000 machines, coming down the road at me."

He said he was grateful after pedaling more than 100 miles to crest the ridge at Sombra and see the St. Clair River spreading before him.

"That looked very good," Murtaugh said. "Beautiful."

He's calling his effort Bi-CICLO por Amistad. He said he was inspired by the 2013 documentary called "CICLO" about two brothers from Mexico who, in 1956, cycled from Mexico to Toronto.

The brothers, Arturo and Gustavo Martinez, remained in Canada, married local women and raised families there. Arturo's daughter, Andrea Martinez Crowther, persuaded her father and uncle to retrace their journey.

"It's kind of a reflection on the changes in their lives and the changes along the route," Murtaugh said.

"When I saw that, I said I'll reverse the route as a fundraiser."

Murtaugh, who was born in Chicago, has lived in Canada since 1970. He is an experienced long-distance cyclist - in 2014, he rode from Vancouver to Toronto to raise money for Amistad Canada.

How to Help Bi-CICLO por Amistad
To donate to John Murtaugh's fund raising ride to Mexico, go to amistadcanada.org/biciclo or on Facebook.