Day 79: Rivière Ouelle to Trois pistoles ( yum!!)

This morning started out like most other mornings - get up, pack up, eat breakfast and go. However, breakfast was rather disappointing - not all granolas are created equal, and "Selections" granola (Sobeys' discount brand) was among the worst we've had. This was soon forgotten though, because as soon as we started, the astounding beauty of the countryside made us forget everything else. "La Fleuve" was off to the west, held back by dykes which protected a fertile strip of perfectly flat farmland nestled below the ridge to the east. We flew along straight flat roads, tailwind behind us, passing through fields of gently waving green wheat which flashed silver in the sunlight. The deeper green of the barley fields and the brilliant yellows of the canola accented the amazing tapestry. With the grace of a smooth road and steady power of being in high gears, we rode through the landscape with our heads high taking in the scenery. The picturesque farms and lovely small towns - each identified by their own graceful church - completed the scene. We've been in some amazing places on this trip, but I've got to say that this one takes the cake.






There was only one thing needed to make this perfect, and when a friendly biker zoomed by, then slowed back down again so I could catch up, he gave me the clue to the missing piece. He told me of the most amazing bakery, located just up in the town ahead, where you could eat the bread as a meal itself and the chocolatines were promised to be the best in all of Quebec (and therefore all of North America!)



So we raced on ahead and through the beautiful town of Kamouraska (where every second house is a stylish old B&B - obviously a tourist town, but in a careful, well done way) and found the "boulangerie" just where he said it was. On the outside it was a wonderful old historic house with all the touches and well kept grounds, but it was the inside that blew us away - even though we had high expectations.

I'm quite sure that whatever I write will not do justice to the place - it was the ideal old-school small French bakery. Wooden shelves covered in a myriad of amazing golden brown loaves, flavored from plain old bread to chocolate cranberry or grains galore, helpful staff all dressed in simple white aprons and hats, and a pastry display that blew our minds. Decide? We wanted everything!



After much delicate and careful consideration, we managed to reluctantly leave the shop with only 10 pastries and 2 loaves of bread. The first of the pastries didn't make it out the gate, and boy were they great! Warm, flaky, buttery, soft but not underdone, perfectly moist inside. I've never had anything like it before. And the true sign of their superiority - even us pastry devouring bikers sat around and slowly nibbled, savoring every bite. Incredible, and we all will be back there again some day ;) However, for now we still had kms to cover so it was back on the bikes, propelled forward by the knowledge that we could have the bread and remaining pastry at lunch.




After that, it was several hours more of similarly gorgeous countryside. If you're ever thinking of trying a short bike trip, go around here! We even out-fixed the wily Route Verte and took a flat sideroad through a quaint little coastal town, thus avoiding several kms of big hills. From there we had to suffer our way through Rivière-du-Loupe (a modern commercial mess) but we were able to refill our dwindling supply of groceries which made up for it. Then quickly out of town (through a construction nightmare - blasting the road to install a new sewer main) And eventually back into pretty countryside.

Here at Rivière-du-Loupe La Fleuve becomes overwhelmed by salty ocean water, and so while it still keeps it's name and you can still see across it, the environment becomes much more rugged and coastal. Ridges and terraces overlooking the water fewer fields and more trees, fewer towns - it all started to feel like the Maritimes with that extra bit of Quebec style/class (a good thing). We also got a devil of a tailwind and literally flew along the flats above the sea, doing 30km/hr without even pedaling! Thank goodness we weren't going the other way, we would have given up instantly.

With the wind behind us we reached Trois-Pistoles only to find that the 2 campgrounds were already full. After much discussion, it seemed like it was going to be another night on the side of the road until one of the helpfully women called up a fellow member of the Optimists Club (a local seniors meetup group we think) and convinced him to let us camp in his back yard just down the road. And it was great a thanks Hector-Jean!

Let's see what tomorrow holds - with any luck the beautiful riding/scenery will continue, but we'll have to turn inland leaving Quebec for NB soon - sooner than we want.

Distance: 111.66 km
Time on bike: 5:24:36
Average speed: 20.6 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 6270 km
Start: 8:00 am
End: 5:20 pm
Wind: south-west (strong-tail)
Conditions: sunny with great wind!

Location:Trois-Pistoles, Quebec

Day 78: Saint Micheal de Bellachasse to rivière ouelle ( la belle province)

La Quebec me Parle

Champs, fleuve, montagnes, fleures,
Wild rose, cattail, purple vetch,
Le Quebec me parle.



Presque Chez Nous

Brouillard ce matin,
L'arome de trefle coupe
On est presque chez nous.

Today we followed an amazingly beautiful and flat route along the south side of the Saint Lawrence from Quebec City.


It felt like home. The thick fog from the river burned off by 9 or so and we pedaled easily with a delicious light tailwind along gorgeous quiet country roads with stunning views of the river. A highlight was the amazing dedicated bike path near Pocatiere (15 km)which ran right along the shore.


Wild flowed were everywhere, and perennial gardens with gorgeous displays of flowers graced the beautiful historic stone houses along the road. And the tidy vegetable gardens! And fields of freshly cut clover. Gorgeous. This is where I will return some day for a bike trip. Along this shore, then across to the north shore by ferry, then back to Quebec City. Oh lala!

Another highlight was the stop at the delectable patisserie shop for pain au chocolate and chausson aux pommes. Mmmmm. We are feeling mighty fine.



The last highlight is the opportunity to speak French toute la journee chaque journey. On s'est bien amuse. A mon avis, c'est dommage que Montcalme a perdue la bataille sue Les Plaines d'Abraham..... Sinon, peutetre que je parlerais Francais chaque jour a la Nouvelle
Ecosse.


Grosses bises a vous. On n'a que 2 semaines qui reste.

Distance: 104.29 km
Time on bikes: 5:32:02
Average speed: 18.8 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 6158 km
Start: 8:00 am
End: 5:30 pm
Wind: south-west (tail-medium)
Conditions: sunny (25)


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Rivière oueolle, Quebec

Day 77: Quebec City to Saint Michel de bellechasse (What if???)

Up early, we were off to Quebec City and soon found a beautiful bike trail that led us down the shore of the St. Lawrence on the narrow strip of land with the raging river to our right and the cliffs of Quebec City and the Plains of Abraham above us to the left.


352 years ago Gen. James Wolfe sailed his British troops unnoticed past the fort on a dark September night. They soon landed below the cliffs and climbed up to the Plains, suddenly appearing behind the fortifications. Though the French outnumbered the British 3 to 1 overall, they panicked and attacked poorly with only a part of their forces. They were defeated in 20 minutes. Through a long series of errors and bad luck on the French side and clever tactics by the British, Quebec was lost and this proved to be the pivotal battle in the war that resulted in the ceding of all French colonies to the British in North America.



We pondered all of this as we arrived in the old city and climbed up the hill to the Chateau Frontenac (if our Deep Hollow hill at home is called "Murder Hill" by some bicycllists, we would call this one "Kamikazi Hill" - the steepest of the trip).
We found the best bakery in the city and we wolfed down (no pun intended) incredible French pastries. After a wonderful week in Quebec, we asked how things might be different in Canada (and maybe in the US) if the French had won that battle and gone on to win the war. Our answers:

- There would be great bike paths everywhere. Quebec wins the provincial prize hands down for best bike paths and Quebec City is the best of the best, nothing else anywhere is close.

- There would be wonderful fresh bread pastry and cheese everywhere everyday.



- The roads would be lined with flowers and everyone would take pride in the look of their homes and communities.

- There would be beautiful catholic churches everywhere, mostly not being used except as tourist sites.


- Stephen Harper, or anyone with a similar political philosophy, would not have been elected Prime Minister.



- Overall there would be a stronger communal and community emphasis relative to individual rights above all, a greater focus on quality of life.


- and... Alan would have to speak French...



Needless to say, we have come to really appreciate "La Belle Province". We ended the day with a beautiful foggy ferry crossing of the River from the base of the old city.


25 km later we befriended some enthusiastic Quebecois farmers who graciously gave us water and a beautiful place to camp for the night (we sure are glad that Ginny speaks French well).






Distance: 58.79 km
Time on bike: 3:43:05
Average speed:15.8 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 6054 km
Start: 8:15 am
End: 6:15 pm
Wind: east (head-light)
Conditions: foggy then overcast with sunny breaks


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:St. Michael de Bellchasse

Day 76: Neuville to Quebec City (Nico and Kino)

We woke up to the sound of pitter patter on our tent. We continued to sleep past the 6am wake up time. It felt nice to sleep in to the sound of the rain but finally at 9am, Shane decided to rally the troops. We gathered under cover for breakfast as the "light" showers continued.

We were going to spend a nice relaxing day in the tent when we got an unexpected message from my friend Nicolas! He had just gotten back from vacation and was heading off to Montreal soon. But somehow he found time to write us back and welcome us into his wonderful home.

We packed up lickty split between rain showers and were off. In the nick of time, we arrived at Nico's house mere seconds before he had to leave which was great because we got to meet his wonderful partner Domonique and they showed us around thier beautiful house and garden.

It was hard to leave such beautiful surroundings to run into Quebec city for the afternoon so we decided to stay, relax and catch up on the small things ( email, reading, route planning, laundry, and most importantly blogging). We also took advantage of the countryside and took thier dog kino for a walk. He has "lots" of energy" and had a splendid time taunting the cat, though by the look on the cats face and the swatting of it claws it was clearly not amused.

Kino, was a very "special" dog and so evan thought it might be nice to give him a present aka a distraction. He gave him a ball. Not just any ball, but a dog brand tennis ball that evan had carried all the way from Fernie, British Columbia. This ball was to be Evan's excersise ball, as prescribed by the physio in Fernie. As you may have guess it didn't get used to often.



With ball in mouth, kino felt very pleased with himself and trotted around the beautiful farmers field like he was king of the land.

It was a beautiful night and all was well until Kino stopped dead in his tracks. What were those large beasts? We attempted to continue our journey but kino wouldn't budge. Suddenly one of the large cows let out a great moo which made kino nearly jump out of his skin. With that he turned around and high tailed it back to safety of the house, dragging evan and the leach behind him. Only an iron grip on the leash kept kino out of the vegetable garden.

Meanwhile Ginny and Alan's foray to the grocery store proved a success and we fine dined on a wonderful eggplant curry made with the luxurious aid of a full kitchen.



We really can't thank Nico and Dominique enough for thier generosity. They live in such an amazing spot and I have little doubt that we will come visit again soon. Hopefully with nico and Dominique around.



With full stomachs, we look forward to visiting Quebec city tomorrow and eating a famous pastry and visiting the site of one of the most famous battles in canadian history. The journey continues.

Distance: 22.36 km
Time on bike: 1:22:34
Average speed: 16.2 km/h
Distance to Vancouver: 5995 km
Start: 12:45 pm
End: 2:00 pm
Wind: east (light-head)
Conditions: showers


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Quebec city, Quebec

Day 75: Trois Riverere to Neuville (Images of the day)

Bike path oh bike path,
Whose smooth black surface I dream of,
Where art though?



Sweet green summer smells,
Soft warm fields along the river,
Make me feel drowsy.



Neatly trimmed French colonials,
Fronted by organized bouquets of color,
Speak of Quebecois pride.






Distance: 103.89 km
Time on bike: 5:53:18
Average speed: 17.6 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 5973 km
Start: 8:10 am
End: 6:30 pm
Wins: east (light-head)
Conditions: sunny with clouds (26)

Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Neuville, Quebec

Day 74: Saint sulpice to Trois-Rivere (bodytalk)

Brain: Awake. Kinda. Let's do a system check. Eyes still shut but ears are beginning to function. Ears: words coming in from the other tent "good morning".
Mouth: Mumble somthing back .."smorning".
Brain: turn back off. Head back down

Few minutes later, brain activity again.
Feet: I'm in my sleeping bag brain: hmmm... That's weird, I haven't been my sleeping bag for almost a week...
Brain begins to chug, why haven't I used my sleeping bag...It been hot, right, so that means now it's.... COOL!

Awesome! Eyes open, lungs breath in cool fresh air! Go hands go! Pad rolled; bag stuffed. Tent packed.
Brain: Remind myself to charge phone.
Tung says yum to fresh berries and granola.
Hands: Panniers packed, on the bike.
Stomach: "gurgle"
Brain:"I know stomach, I won't forget my daily bathroom brake exactly 14 minutes after breakfast".

Eyes: Look at watch... Wow only 7:55 , right on time,
Feet: clip clip, off we go!

Eyes; To the right amazing heritage house, to the left beautiful flowers.
Nose and skin: All around my helmet is clean cool crisp air! What a day!






Face: Hmm, what's that pushing against me? Legs? Why are you slowing down legs???
torso responds: "we are heading into wind!".
Brain: "oh no!".
Memory: "are we still in praries??"

Stomach: Grumble grumble, Mouth: "what do you want stomach? Some ice cream and fresh bread pudding from a little cafe?"
Stomach: "grumble grumble"
"ok , How about some fries too?!
Stomach: GRUMBLE!


Legs: groan
Brain: What now legs? Your getting tired? Trois rivere is only 20 km away.

Eyes: La route verte sign.
Left side of brain: "no no, route verte is windy confusing and out of the way!
Right side of brain: "but it's safe from traffic and sometimes pretty!"
Light side of brain: "it winds through the burbs and the curbs are really bumpy, let's take fast route on big road"
Right side: but I like bikes path...
Left side: ok you win right brain, bike path it is...

Left brain: 15 km later, stupid right brain, long bumpy confusing path, way out of the ways. please keep going legs.
Eyes: "here's the campground, ohh no looks busy."

Brain: "stay chill hopefully it won't be to expensive".
Mouth: blah blah blah
Ears: $72, water isn't drinkable
Brain: yikes, no! Freak out alert!
Eyes: friendly campground manger approaches.
Ears: "I can understand your position, do you want to come stay in my yard?"
Entire body: Thank you Michele and Joanne!

Whole body: Michael and Joanne are very generous. Dog Tayo is very cut too. Use stove to cook, stay on lawn, take shower, great company. Relaxed....





Distance: 114.60 km
Time on bike: 6:45:04
Average speed: 16.9 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 5869 km
Start: 7:55 am
End: 6:50 pm
Wind: North-east (medium head)
Conditions: sunny (26)


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Trois Rivere, Quebec

Day 73: Montreal to Sulpice

When the root of a problem ends up leading back to ones self, it is much easier to call fowl and blame it on mechanical failure that come clean and admit ones fault. That is to say, the fan in the house claire had graciously lent to us was not broken. The sleepy non fully functioning brains of Alan and Ginny instead failed to fully realize the significance of an important sustainable and ecological feature of the fan; the timer. So instead of realizing that the fan was on a 2 hour timer and resetting it, there sweated and sweated and sweated.

Needless to say while Alan and Ginny were exhausted , Evan, Leah and Shane slept great and everyone really enjoyed and appreciated the kindness and generosity of Kim and Claire. Their new house in southern Montreal is a great place with a beautiful back yard that we hope to visit again soon when evan and Leah move to Montreal in january!



We used the space to it's fullest by inviting evan & Trevor Cervelli , and Evan's partner Hanna over. Trevor had recently moved there and evan and hannah were visiting. We planned to devour down a mountain of eggs, melon, Danishes and since our guests were a bit late arriving, the 5 of us bikers nearly ate enough for 8 people!

Getting out of Montreal promised to be easier than our way in and for the most part it was. The Route verte is a great bike path but it tends to err on the long side winding through the suburbs. We have finally figured that sometimes it is better to stick with the big roads when the bike path winds off in some wierd place. This works well because even the big roads in Quebec often have a big shoulder if not a bike lane!

On one of our detours we finally discovered an important statistic of Montreal suburbs. Hundreds of Thousands of people live in the suburbs which are filled with row upon row of identical houses. The design that they are based off in Montreal has a pool. If you do the math you come up with this equation.
Burbs= 100 000's of pools! Wasting alot of time by winding through the route verte in the deadly heat and being unable to swim in these pools was tormenting! Ahhhh

Despite the torture, we finally arrived at the saint sulpice trailer park. The people were nice but no matter how hard we try we just can't understand the RV park culture. The way things are going, we will have a lot more to say about this later. However I will leaving you with one highlight of this park...Christmas in July...

All evening residents of this RV park would drive up and down the lanes in their golf carts decked out in christmas lights and sequence. When dark came their trailers came alive with lights drapped over ornamental Santa clauses and reindeer. Maybe it was the heat and we were simply seeing things but this was too much for our tired brains to handle to we headed to bed, trying to avoid dream of sugarplums...





Distance: 65.54 km
Time on bikes: 3:58:22
Average speed: 16.4 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 5754 km
Start: 1:00 pm
End: 7:15 pm
Wind: West (cross-medium)
Conditions: hot! (32)


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Saint-Sulpice, Quebec

Day 72: Carillon to Montreal

Up early or else, more heat is in store for us, slightly lower temperature but fewer clouds and more sun made it feel like the hottest day yet. A pleasant early morning ride along.the St.Lawrence slid by smoothly. By late morning we were entering the suburbs of Oka. But instead of cookie cutter houses, the dwellings of choice were boxy drive through cigarette store all lit up like Christmas while advertising all kinds of special deals on Native cigarettes. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the stand off at Oka, there was undeniably a Native pride that was in the forefont and seemed strong and courageous. An endless string of cigarette shops seemed sad, neither proud nor courageous.

The heat was building and was magnified expoentially by a long climb out of Oka toward Montreal. Eureka! Our first Québécois boulangerie at the summit with great air conditioning. The pain au chocolates were amazing.

We cooled off enough to continue and discovered the Route Vert, the bike route through the suburbs and into Montreal. This was good new and bad news. The good news was that we had a dedicated and segregated route most of the way into the city. More good news, even the suburbs have lots of bike routes The bad news- there is no accessible map for the Route Vert and poor signage. So bike routes are going every which way and we are lost in the burbs, and asking non-bikers on the street is not helpful. Decision making in a group on a sunny street in the sweltering heat quickly lost it's allure so we took a side trail to a park, ate lunch and regrouped, plugging in the iPhone at a Shopper's Drug Mart. We hit the mother load with a Montreal city bike map PDF. Soon we were back on track and over the bridge to Montreal and headed straight to Evan an Leah's favorite bagel shop. The riding was a challenge- bumpy city streets and paths, tons of bikers, lights at every corner and more city heat. But we made it by 6pm and wolfed down a dozen of the best bagels in the world, right out of the oven, along with several liters of juice. A shopping stop and we were off to the other side of downtown to Clare's new house (Evan's former appartment mate). Clare and Kim had just moved in but were out of town, so they so generously offered us a great place to stay in the centre of the city. Thank you Clare and Kim! What a wonderful deal though getting there was again challenging due to a series of road detours for construction and a music festival. Everything was sweltering still when we arrived at 8pm. Cold showers and a cold supper helped. We were whooped and there were great fans which we strategically aimed at our beds. All seemed hot but survivable with the fans. Off to sleep we went till Alan woke up in a sweaty delirium that felt like a high fever. The fan had stopped. Was it broken? Had it blown a fuse? What to do? The fan was not turning on by pushing the proper buttons and turning on the light would mean more people waking in a sweat. So he dumped his head under a cold tap, went outside for a bit and was able to finally sleep. Then Ginny awoke in a similar state. Her solution was to find a sleeping pad and sleep in the backyard. Happily the heat started to dissipate and we slept in (Evan, Leah and Shane all slept well with their fan). So what happened to the fan? More conspiracy theories were proposed but it took until morning to get to the bottom of it. Stay tuned.
Distance: 106.91
Time on bikes: 6:03:39
Average speed: 17.6 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 5689 km
Start: 8:10 am
End: 8:00 pm
Wind: west (strong tail)
Conditions: hot and muggy (32)


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Montreal, Quebec

Day 71: Ottawa to Carillon (hot hot heat)

In an attempt to avoid the midday hear we woke up at 5:30 am. A wonderful breakfast with our gracious host Besa before she left for her 6:30 am swim in the Gatineau.

Off and rolling at 7, but not for too long... BOOM!!! My tire exploded. Ginny tried to wave down the boys but no such luck. However, she did catch Valerie's attention.



Valerie, an avid biker, recognized that there was a problem. With no spare tubes that fit my tire (though there were 4 that fit Evan's tires!!), she wipped us off so fast to the nearest bike store in her 4 wheeled machine that we got a speeding ticket! Who knew there were random 30k m/h zones. Oops, $125 later we got some $5 tubes.

Off on the road again and an hour and a half behind we could feel the air heating up. By the time we stopped for lunch and the temperature had risen to a whopping 36.25 degrees! Ouch! We were lucky to find a "less hot" spot in the shade of the quaint town Montebello.


By the time we finally stopped to pick up groceries for dinner we all felt like a pile of steaming vegetables. With no possible campground or swimming option we went inside the air conditioned grocery store to cool our brains and let off some steam.


Our brains were so fried that the thought of cooking anything was unbearable so we found the first air conditioned restaurant (a pizza joint) before hoping back on our bikes and doing another 20km in the beautiful evening light.


The view along the Ottawa river was amazing. With the sun low on the horizon, it was a great, cooler time to be on the road.


The first campground looked perfect! A place to swim, shower and it even had an upcoming pirate themes event day. The gentleman at the desk was nice but with the cost of extra people and tents, it was above what we normally settle for. However he did say there was a cheaper campground a couple Kms away.

Joins arriving we at option 2, we were again told we would have to pay for extra people and have 2 sites!!! These campground don't seem to understand how small our tents are and really have no clue what tenting really is for us.

The heat had come back and humididy was now off the charts. In addition to lacking a swimming pool, this new camp sites charged $1 for showers that only came out hot. Oh well better than nothing.

Exiting the shower things got became a bit more dire. A thunderstorm had arrived and was seconds was from impact. We had ridden to the bathroom on our bikes and evan had forgotten his clean clothes. So, He did the only thing he could think of. Wrap the tiny towel around his waist and hop in the saddle.

This is when things went from bad to worse...the bike took off down a small hill and with shampoo in one hand and wet clothes in the other evan hung on. Unfortunately Evan's towel wasn't quite so adept and it slipped off as he rolled down the hill. Suddenly the dark cloud swept in began to pound down rain. What was a tired, hot sweaty, and most importantly naked biker to do? With a yelp he kept going. With caution to the wind he zipped through the campground and past RVs and cars feeling the air on his exposed rear. What a riske scene! There was a naked biker on the loose!

Unfortunately the hot showers and naked riding did little to cool us offs so we went to sleep dripping and hoping for cooler weather tomorrow.

P.S for the sake of appropriateness, we decided NOT to take pictures of the todays latter events.




Distance: 139.05 km
Time on bikes: 6:39:34
Average speed: 20.8 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 5581 km
Start: 7:00am
End: 8:00 pm
Wind: west ( strong head)
Conditions: hot!!! 36 degrees



Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Carillon, Quebec

Day 70: Chelsea to Ottawa (kindred spirits)

Friends! How wonderful to see people we know and who knows us. Starting with Nour and his incredible hospitality ( and great sense of humour!) and moving on to our good friends Marc, Susan and Bessa, and our new friend, Leah's Aunt Nancy, we felt so at
home. Makes us think of all our other friends. We miss you all, and are really looking forward to seeing you all in the not too distant future.


At Marc and Susan we had an incredible supper of Grilled Halibut and these amazing pasta and green salads. We chatted just like in old times 30 years ago on Windsor Street, (but the supper was definitely a step up from former coop days).... Marc is a biker too, and we sure were envious of his super light carbon fibre beauty of a bike. We watched the Tour de France, sighing as the cyclists sped up the 165 km climb, with its long ascent of approximately 1000 metres elevation change, while still averaging 50-60 km per hour for the day. Hmmm put our big adventure into a different light!


Next day we made our way across the river back into Ottawa for a really special visit with good friend Bessa.


She turned herself inside out for us with a gourmet meal. Oh for more of those Quebecois cheeses and those amazing fresh raspberries, that crab salad and the tasty black bean soup. That was to die for. Rivaled the haut cuisine served at Fleur de Sel, the wonderful restaurant owned by Bessa's son Martin in Lunenberg. We talked bikes and social change. Bessa gave us a copy of a book she recently edited called Activism
That Works. Really looking forward to reading it. Then off to bed to get ready for early departure next morning - the forecast still being for record breaking heat- 35 degrees and high humidity.

In addition to an already full spectrum of people from our past and present Evan and Leah got in a quick drink with Evans good friend John. John, thank you for your stories, goodwill and company.

Our lasting memories of Ottawa area will be of friends- and the wonderful warm feeling of knowing kindred souls in this vast country - and having them know us. Friends near and far- we are thinking of you.

Distance: 26.25 km
Time in bikes: 1:36:01
Average speed: 16.4 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 5442 km
High: 32 degree
Conditions: sunny

Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Ottawa, Onatrio

Day 69: Ottawa to Chelsea (a busy scedule)

Despite the e-nor-mous ( pun intended) expectations we had for Nour because he was only the second person we knew across the entire country, his preparation and royal treatment of us for breakfast was unprecedented.

A short walk over to his favorite Lebanese bakery and expert suggestions on what short of meat, cheese, potato or thyme pies to get left us stuffed and happy.











With that he bid us goodbye and even biked with us for the first 3-4 Km to show us the way. How classy is that! We were sad the visit was over but he had his much missed family coming home and we had other people to see and places to go.











For many weeks we had been looking forward to our visit to Ottawa but a strict scedule had to be followed if we were going to see everybody who we wanted to visit! Chop chop everybody, this may be a day off but there will be no lollygagging! Shape up or ship out!

First stop, Gatineau, where both Leah's aunt Nancy and WarPo's family friends Marc and Susan lived.

The Ottawa region bike paths put the rest of the places we have been to shame. They are beautiful treelined and shaded paths which run all over not only the city but also the suburbs and even over the great Ottawa river to Hull, Gatineau and Chelsea. It is therefor such a shame that the signage is so confusing and that on a loaded bike the curbs are so huge! Call us bike snobs, but as wonderful as the path are, they could still use some work.





Even still, from Ottawa we wound up and down and all around the beautiful cool woods until we arrived at marc and susans house on chemin beausolie. Since being there as a child almost 15 years ago, the house was as beautiful as I remembered though the trees in the front yard were a tad bit bigger. With promises by Alan and Ginny to return that evening we dropped off our bags and headed to the perfect place to be on a hot summer day: the Gatineau river at Nancy's house.







Before we could get to the river we needed to eat! Nance had this all covered. Despite having to pack for her trip to Vancouver tomorrow, she had somehow found time to make up a scrumptious lunch! Yum yum!

A short while later found us swimming, napping and chatting on a quiet dock down by the river. The water was perfect, cool on top and refreshing below.

Alan and Ginny headed back to marc and Susan's (you can hear their tale tomorrow) while us young folk continued to enjoy the kindness and generosity of Nancy. Once again, we were stuffed full with great food and even taken up to see a beautiful sunset in Gatineau. However to our dismay, the sun did not set tonight. No, it lowered into the fog, which warned of the real heat to come. Checking the weather made the fear rise in my belly. The day after tomorrow, 36 degrees...





Distance: 30.58 km
Time on bikes: 1:56:50
Average speed: 15.6 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 5416 km
Start: 10:00 am
End: 1:30 pm
Wind: none
Conditions: sunny and hot


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Chelsea, Quebec

Day 68: Arnsprior to Ottawa (Governments can make a difference)

It was reassuring to wake up in a stable and secure tent. Our blue pod had withstood the deluge... or maybe it was just a bad dream. We climbed out of the tent and realized that it had been very real. The power was out, the telephone cables were on the ground by the house and a series of power poles had snapped just down the road.









The neighbors were visiting and sharing stories. Everyone had been up much of the night corralling crazed cows and horses and in one case a. barn had collapsed with a lot of panic stricken cows inside. But everyone in tents and houses were just fine and we thought that Sierra Design (our tent manufacturer) could use this night as a promo for the quality of their tents. We heard later that everyone had not fared so well in Ottawa where the main stage at the Blues Festival collapsed just after the performing band evacuated it.


We had a pleasant breakfast while chatting with the farmers and their neighbors. We had come to learn that this was a very different sort of farm. Beyond the pet pot belly pig and the peacocks who brought life to the place, the key difference was that the farm was using silicon chips rather than green plants to capture solar energy on nearly half of their 200 acres. In fact they had more than 300,000 solar panels in their field producing 23 megawatts of power, which is enough to power 7000 homes. Thanks to the government of Ontario support programs, they said it was more lucrative and far less risky than planting crops on the same land. Wow.

We said goodbye and were off to Ottawa. It was a pleasant trip in, first on country roads, and then after a short stretch of suburbs, we did 10 km on a beautiful paved bike trail through parks and along the Ottawa River,


with the trail depositing us at Parliament (with a stop at MEC on the way).


Another 10 km of bike trail and we were just a few city streets away from our destination at Nour's house (Jeff and Deb Moore's son-in-law- Sarah and the kids are visiting Deb & Jeff in NS). Obviously NS is a third world country relative to Ontario when it comes to things like energy policy and bike infrastructure. Also the number of people using the trails was amazing (build it and they will come!). I should add that the signage was terrible... Yes there were great trails but trying to find them or get from one to another was often an adventure in frustration. The best strategy was to look for other bikers and then follow them. Once you knew where to go, things got a lot easier.

Upon our arrival, we got a grand tour of Nour and Sarah's house- beautiful... and Nour went all out hosting with a scrumptious Indian supper topped off by yummy ice cream cones (he found our hearts quick). Nearly falling asleep at the table after four tough days of biking up and down hills in the heat, we quickly settled in to comfy beds that felt like home. Thank you Nour!



Distance: 81.55 p km
Time on bikes: 4:28:52
Average speed: 18.1 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 5385 km
Start: 9:00 am
End: 5:00 pm
Wind: west (strong-tail)
Conditions: sunny with clouds, muggy


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Ottawa, Ontario