Wednesday August 9, Day 39

I had an ok sleep, but was awake through night, but did rest. We were up at 4:15 and Jason put on the oatmeal at 4:30, we ate and he drove us back to the meeting place. They live 25 minutes from the church, so we had to leave early to be back on time. Jason had just had his two upper wisdom teeth removed, so it was kind of he and his family to host us. They had two other children, Aiden and Riley, but they were sleeping when we arrived last night and of course not up at the early hour that we were! We had a sunny and crisp morning to start. I had leg warmers and my light jacket on. At the 14 km mark I hit something in the road, perhaps a rock? and then had a back flat. Just got that changed and discovered I had a front flat as well. I only had one 650 tube with me, so we patched the front. The patch didn't hold. Luckily the mechanics truck came along and Bob reminded me that I had some spare tubes in that. He quickly found them and replaced the front....BUT the Grim Reaper, or the Paddy Wagon was on our heals. If I haven't discussed the Grim Reaper yet, it is the name we have given to Bill Bridle (the tour's chaplain) as his job is to remain behind the last rider. Bill drives the 15 passenger van, equipped with one of the trailor's to haul bikes. His job is to pick up the last rider when they are too far behind the rest of the group....NO ONE WANTS TO BE PICKED UP BY HIM!!! Actually the day before, when I was cycling along Lake Ontario by myself, going at a steady pace and enjoying everything around me, I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw what I thought was the Grim Reaper driving on the shoulder....man, what a scare. I discovered it was only a garbage truck. When you know that he is on your heals you definitely pick up the pace and cycle your ass off. Anyhow after my flats were fixed, Berndt, Bob and I had to race the remaining 42 km to our first rest place. It is always good when you pass another cyclist because you know that you aren't the last rider anymore, and you don't have to look in your rear view mirror to see the grill of the van.....which actually looks like a big wide grin!! Bill is a great man, but actually he has a big wide grin too!! We had our lunch stop in Smith Falls, and were escorted to the town hall by police cruisers where we had a photo shoot and then escorted out of town. We did get chocolate bars from the Hershey factory...I ate mine for lunch! Then on to Manotick for a mandatory break. At that point my odomoter was at 175, so I figured that we only had another 20 km to go as our original itinery posted 194 km for the ride. The roads got busier and a bit rough and choppy in some places...and we seemed to zig and zag here and there to avoid any main routes....and then it got long. Over to my left at one point I could see the buildings of Ottawa and we were driving away from it to Orleans. We finally arrived to cheering groups, CBC radio mobile was set up on site interviewing and was live on the radio and it was rather exciting. Made us forget the frustration of having an extra 23 km tacked on at the end of the day and not to mention a steep climb up a hill to the destination church. My good friend Julia was there to greet me, and it was wonderful to see her. Bob had hung back a bit to help draft and bring in Bill Absolum who was getting tired. Bob has to be one of the kindest, and most thoughtful of the cyclists. He is always there to help out anyone. He and Bill arrived about 10 minutes later.....
The group from the Bible Society from the Eastern Ontario region had done a top notch job of organization right from when we entered their district... I believe in Utbridge? The food breaks, church hosting etc has been fantastic. We have had lovely home made cookies at snacks, all the neat little things. Even in Kingston for our dinner, the tables were set up with party favours, the food was wonderful and even had garnishing decorations. Way to go!! I guess Anne (from Ottawa) was very intuitive in that she had read my blog and saw that Julia had posted a comment with her phone number. Anne had the forsight to call her and ask if she wanted to billet Bob and I!! Amazing. So, we are officially billeted by my friend whom I wanted to spend time with!! The rest of the group is going to do the tour of Ottawa, but seeing Bob and I lived here, we have done all of that so we are opting for the day to do our own thing. First and foremost is Bob hitting a bike store. He needs a new cassette and a new chain. I need more tubes. I have had flat #6...Bob has only had 1!!
We had a lovely evening with Julia and Greg last night, great food and fun just sitting around talking. We hauled out our map to show the distance we have travelled. My odomoter hit 5000 km upon arrival last night.
Am off in a few minutes to wander uptown...Julia and Greg live on Frank St., almost downtown.