July15 - Day 69

Woke up to drizzle. By the time we left it was raining. We were delayed until 11 before leaving, in part because of Wyatt's gear problem (trying to keep it dry and tie it down effectively. Along the way I was amused to find James Street in the town of Morton (James Morton is a good friend of mine) But that wasn't enough to cheer me up about the weather. About an hour into it that turned into a downpour, and we pulled into Elgin for lunch at a local restaurant, where we both ordered the farmer's breakfast special.

Figures that it would stop raining as soon as we sat down. Oh well. It was a nice place and we were hungry. But guess what? As soon as we were ready to leave again...?

Yep, started to rain again.

Sheesh.

Time spent cycling: 6:19:44 hours

Distance traveled: 66.84, km

Total distance: 4360 km

Average Speed: 17.0 kph

Maximum speed: 39.6 kph

Current Location: Farmer's field outside of Numogate, north of Smith Falls

The "rain" turned into another downpour in short order! We took shelter in a semi-abandoned shelter off the side of the road for over an hour until it subsided a bit.

This became the theme of the day. Delays. Ten klicks from Smith Falls and my sidewall finally blew out again. This time I was ready for it, and in an hour or so we were back on the road.

When we got to Smith Falls things were slowing down for us. We ate mac and cheese at a Tim Horton's, and it was already six in the afternoon.

There was no way we'd get to Ottawa today.

The Laundromat was closed so we couldn't dry out. The motels in town were prohibitively expensive. The Giant Tiger, the only place we could find where we could stock up on food, was closed. Things were not exactly going according to plan. Wyatt also found out much to his chagrin that he might have to leave me in Ottawa because his YTV project is having more unexpected problems that require his supervision. So as I expected, I might be finishing this trip alone. In case you haven't figured this out about me, I don't like the idea. Not one bit. I don't like traveling alone, and for Wyatt to leave will be harder than when I left Erin and Linda or even Elaine.

Eventually we left Smith Falls, and made it past Numogate (a strange name for a town) before stopping in a farmer's field (after several previous aborted stops before). The rain was letting up, and the wind stiff. Wyatt set up a tarp over his tent to better protect himself. The mosquitos were everywhere again, and we quickly retreated to our shelters. No fire was made, no meals prepared. Just a Hop and Go and some Crunch and Munch we got from a Beckers in Smith Falls.

This is a lousy day. From start to finish. Rain all day, bad news, bad events, just bad. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow in Ottawa with Jessica, Rachel, and Mel.