Days 34-36

Day 34 - Ottawa or Bust!

I opened my eyes and noticed that Seb was already sitting up in bed, checking his phone.  "Man... what time is it?"  It was still relatively early, so I flopped back down and passed out for a little whil longer.  Finally out of bed and packed up, we made a quick breakfast stop @ Timmy's and another at a gas station for road fuel and were rolling by 10:00.  It was "Ottawa or Bust" day ~220km with a few hills, but mostly flat. 

The wind was good to us for the first few hours, and we made Pembroke in just over 2hrs where we stopped for a quick fuel break.  The gas station had an attached restaurant that looked pretty good, but it was too early for lunch so we just grabbed milkshakes and kept rolling. 

Rolling along well, we were making good time and enjoying a nice tailwind for a change.  It was pretty warm out, but one can't complain about sunshine after all the rain we'd just been through.  We stopped in a little hamlet for lunch at ~4:30 and had a surprisingly good meal - HUGE sandwiches that were very well made and delicious, but entirely too much food that sadly would not travel well on the bike. 

Back on the bikes and rolling, we just kept kicking over the pedals until the highway turned into a major highway and we had to exit.  That's where things got a little more confusing, as we weren't exactly certain how to get into the city from there.  We had an idea, but there was a lot of construction and all of the small highways have alternate names - so we were looking for Hwy20 but it was called "North Whatever Hill Rd".  Stopped at a few gas stations for directions and we finally made our way to Carp, and then eventually to North Kanata - where S had a pretty decent idea as to where we needed to go.  We ended up on a multi-use bike path that goes along the river just as the sun was setting.  It was a fantastic view, but by this point we were just hammering the home stretch into town.  Once darkness fell the awesomeness of my SON dynohub and E3 Triple headlamp came into play.  I was blasting along the unlit path, able to see very well.  S wasn't so fortunate as the batteries in his headlamp had died so he fell off the back a few times and I had to stop and wait on several occasions.  I haven't done much night riding on this trip but those last few kilometers on the bike path really showed how well this system works.

Once in town Seb's wheel finally started to blow up.  It had been making weird noises since AB, and we figured it would get him home - which it did, although just barely.  It pretty much failed as it approached the finish line - still holding together, but definitely no longer true and losing integrity by the minute.  We limped it in to the market where I went to the hotel where Paul and Terry were staying, and S went down to a bar to meet up w/ some friends. 

Day off tomorrow with a massage planned, some bike work required, and hanging out w/ the guys.


Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 11:45
Actual Ride Time: 9:00
Total Distance: 213.13km
Avg Speed: 23.6kph
Max Speed: 57.1kph



Day 35 - off day

p/u Amex
AWESOME massage
Bike shop
Out w/ boys
Bye to Seb



Day36 - back to rollin' solo...

I got a late start.  Had breakfast with Paul & Terry at the hotel, they left, and I went to pack up my stuff.  I didn't get rolling until just after 11am.  It was very hot, very humid, and a pretty "blah" kind of day.  Getting out of the city was pretty easy, though it did take close to an hour.  After that I spent a very short period of time enjoying a really nice country road before being dumped back onto Hwy17.  Hwy17's an okay road - it's just that there isn't anything particularly nice about it. 

I had been told to take a detour to "Old Hwy17" and then a bunch of other stuff for the best route into Montreal, so I tried it - but the road was so brutal that after less than 5km of it I cyclocrossed my way back onto Hwy17 and rode it out to Plantaganet.  I stopped there for lunch and proved that just because one is far enough East in ON that the default language is French, DOES NOT mean that they know how to make smoked meat.  Bah.  At the restaurant I met some touring cyclists who were doing an Ottawa-Quebec City run.  They were checking into the motel, finished for the day.  They plan on making Montreal in 3 days, and QC in 7.  Now that's touring speed...  We discussed route options and they shared their maps with me as I had some confusion about my final approach into the city.  Back on the bike I must have either misheard them or misunderstood what they said, but I missed my turn and wasted about an hour and a half noodling around, trying to find my way back.  It didn't help that the signage out in Eastern ON is terrible, and that now that I'm in in flat farm country, there are lots of options.  From Hope to just outside Ottawa it's really straightforward.  Now I have to pay attention.  :p

I had lost what little motivation I had going into the day with the unplanned detour, and the wind had been hitting me with a head head/cross pretty much all day.  It was also spitting a bit.  Never full on rain (yet), but enough to be threatening.  I just kept rolling along, wondering how far I'd make it.  Fueling was pretty easy, but it was also a bit forced.  There was no joy in fueling today - just ensuring that I was taking on enough calories to keep rolling.  When you don't get any joy from eating Snickers bars, there's something wrong...

Finally I crossed into Quebec (see ya later, ON!) and my mood picked up.  It was a little after 20:00.  I had made plans to stay with a friend of a friend in the Western suburbs of Montreal, but knew that he had to be out the door at 07:15 tomorrow morning.  I called him just before 20:30 to let him know that I was going to be pretty late, and that I didn't want to keep him up - so that I'd find other accomodations whenever I decided to stop.  He was mostly concerned about the fading daylight and my not having anywhere to spend the night, but I assured him that I was very well lit and that I'd be fine.  He told me "not to be shy" about calling if I changed my mind, and thanked me for letting him know.  Still ~60k from his neighbourhood, I didn't want to be rolling in at 23:00 and waking the guy up - nor was I sure that I wanted to be rolling at 23:00 period.  We'll see what the road gives us.  A common theme...

It got dark and I turned on my lights.  That headlight is so kickass that it brings me a ridiculous amount of joy to see it light up an otherwise pitch black street.  I can ride at pretty close to full speed with that thing.  Barreling down a hill, all of a sudden the shoulder disappeared and I was on very loose gravel.  Glancing over to the street, it was all broken to hell as well.  Great - no option but to ride it out.  Thanks to my cat-like reflexes and super awesome ninja skilz, I cleaned the section without a hitch - but I did slow down a bit afterwards.  The road was crap anyway, so there was no point in trying to go fast.  Somewhere along the way my front derailleur (that the guys at the bike shop in Ottawa just bent back into shape for me) decided to try to commit suicide again - for the 4th time this trip.  Then it started to rain.  Great.  Let's see...  Dark.  Mechanical issues.  Crappy roads.  Rain.  I'll happily deal with any one or two of those issues.  Three might be pushing it.  But all four?  Forget this - I'm getting off the road.  Unfortunately, that proved to be a little more difficult than one might think.  I was ~10km from the nearest town, so I had to at least ride there.  Okay, no problem. 

Dorion, the next town, has lots of motels.  Frightening looking motels.  I rolled by a good half dozen of them and then came to a bridge.  Does the town span the river, or is this it?  Is this really it?  Do I want to stop badly enough to go back and stay in one of those ratholes?  I crossed the bridge and was pleased to discover that there was indeed life on the other side.  Suburban type of life.  Canadian Tyre.  Subway.  Tim Horton's.  The kind of life that compliments a Best Western, Super8, Travelodge, or some such chain of motel.  Sweet.  Or was it?  I didn't see anything, so I went into Timmy's and asked the staff there.  They seemed hung up on ym use of the term "decent" - as in "are there any decent motels in town"?  Okay...  I went outside and called Phil, but he didn't answer.  I called Julian, who was at home studying - he looked up a bunch of stuff and it looked like that I had one option that might be decent.  While we were on the line Phil had been trying to call me back, and as I hung up I noticed text messages from both him and Andy just checking to see if I was okay.  As I was in the middle of replying, he called back again so I explained the situation.  Phil used to live in Montreal, and convinced me that my best option was to continue on to the airport.  At least there I'd have several options.  There was also the carrot of a Marriot at the airport - though it's right at the terminal, so sort of a pain to get to.  Still, a carrot is a carrot. 

Back on the bike and the rain had stopped.  Sweet!  I made good time over the bridge into the city, and then hopped back on the highway - which was now a freeway, and apparently somewhere where cyclists aren't supposed to be.  I did what any person in my position probably wouldn't do and decided that the best option was just to drill it.  The less time I'm on this road, the lower the odds of a problem.  :D  I got a lot of honks and some yelling, but really there's a wide shoulder and I wasn't in anyone's way - so I guess they were just yelling for the sake of yelling.  Riding a Montreal freeway is trully exhilarating.  I was fully jacked, cranking away at over 33kph with no assistance from any wind, up a moderate grade with Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" blasting on the Khaipod.  (For those unfamilliar with the term, the "Khaipod" is not an actual device and I don't ride with earbuds - it's the broken music player in my head that I have very little control over, which dictates the soundtrack to my life.  Sometimes it tortures me, and sometimes it nails it with absolute perfection)  It was pure, visceral, animalistic, hedonism.  A combination of the feeling of immense power, and fear from being hunted at the same time.  I think I used up my supply of adrenaline for the month.  I've never really been an adrenaline junkie, and even though I've dabbled in what many might label as "extreme sports", I was never in it for the rush.  This showed me why they do it in a way that for the very first time, made sense to me.

A large truck pulled up right behind me, so I moved over as much as I could and waved him through.  He hit the jake and scared the living crap out of me.  Then he followed me, honking for a few kilometers.  Finally he pulled up beside me and told me that I had to get off at the next exit - and proceded to "escort" me off the highway.  Some might say "pushed".  :p  Anyway, I got off the highway.  But I wasn't at the airport yet.  So I called Phil back, and he and Andy worked out my route options as well as a few hotel options.  It's good to have support.  :)

Blowing a tonne of points on a "full" Marriott when I'm checking in at midnight just doesn't make much sense - plus it's a pain to get to - so I went for the Travelodge.  Rather, I tried to.  I got to a point where I could see it, but the only way I could see to get there was going back on the highway.  I figured that I'd loop around the back and try another route.  That's when I noticed a Fairfield Inn.  The Fairfield is another Marriott property, but a "lower ranking" one.  So it costs a lot fewer points to stay there.  Plus is was relatively easy to get to.  Nothing is really easy to get to near the airport without taking the highway in Montreal...

I have to say, I was really blown away by the quality of service at this hotel.  The check-in staff were very good and the nighttime cleaner offered to open up the pool for me so that I could relax after my long ride.  He was so excited to do something special for me that I had to oblige.  If this place was downtown I'd stay an extra day just because I like the staff so much.  It's a nice hotel, too - better than a lot of "full" Marriott's where I've stayed in the past...

On the road again tomorrow, headed for Trois Rivieres.  It should be a relatively easy day at ~165k, but I'll try to get an earlier start than I did today.  The plan is to stay with friends of a friend again, so I don't want to arrive too late. 


Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 13 hrs
Actual Ride Time: 9:01 hrs
Total Distance: 203.72 km
Avg Speed: 22.5 kph
Max Speed: 52.8 kph



For Quina: (this was actually before Ottawa)

Looks MUCH better than it was...

I've never seen one of these before...

Oh yeah - a milestone