Day 82: Ottawa - Grenville

We are squatting in a cemetery. Creepy? We probably would have agreed 2 1/2 months ago, but squatting has become part of the routine, and cemeteries are actually pretty ideal. This is actually our 20th sequential night of free accommodation (free including friends houses, and B&B birthday presents). We think that this might be a record.

Today’s ride involved a game of hide and seek. We hid, and the rain sought. Only once did it actually catch us, the other times we prevailed, thanks to our opportunely timed pit stops. We felt pretty lucky, because the rain we are getting is apparently the same rain that has already devastated half of the U.S. and Canada. The weather reminds us of that in the prairies in that it comes in heavy spurts from menacing clouds that, when they pass overhead, reduce the light to dusk like quality. It was crazy, it was 2:45pm and it felt like 8:00pm.

Despite the rain, today’s ride was absolutely fantastic. Quebec lives up to it’s reputation for bike routes. La Route Verte was composed of clean, smooth jet black asphalt bike paths and wide, equally clean shoulders. This was cycling at its finest. We could have rode for hours and, in fact, we did, only taking two very short breaks which, upon commencement, conveniently saved us from the two most torrential downpours of the day.

Actually we just remembered, we took three breaks. We visited the Fairmont “Chateux de Montebello” where, just 3 days ago, Bush, Harper and Calderon were busy with discussions. Too bad we weren’t cycling through a few days ago.

B&K