-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 This was my fifth Rideau Lakes tour. My thanks to the dozens of volunteers for putting together another excellent tour. I hope this short story inspires some of you to type something for the newsletter.
The check out was flawless and I had bib number 950 this year. I foolishly let Tom Stratton talk me into be a marshal in exchange for a beer ticket so I did not have a group to ride with, counting on cycling down with who ever happened to be around and travelling at my speed. You meet more people that way. I only road with two OBCers - Dave Barnett and Matt Ladd for some stretches of the trip down. The rest were strangers. I was chatting with some members of the Brampton Cycling Club and asked them about their club. They said they had about 80 members and were a little shocked when I told them the OBC has over 800. I found it a bit chilly and it sprinkled from time to time. The return trip of RLCT 2000 was a topic of discussion. I had packed my rain coat in my luggage. Matt Ladd's hobby is weather forecasting so he gave me a detailed explanation of what was going on above. Luckily the roads did not get wet. I met the route manager, Peter James, at the Ashton water stop. He was also acting as a support vehicle and said he had to deal with a few flat tires but nothing more serious. It was between Ashton and Perth where I linked up with the Brampton gang. Hand Road was in the best shape I've ever seen it. We arrived in Perth around 11 AM and it was a bit crowded. We ate lunch and headed on to Westport. The only memorable thing I recall from that stretch was a "Cool-Aid Stand" set up on the opposite side of the road, half way up a rather steep hill. I thought it was probably the worst place to attract cyclists. Oh yeah, I hit 77 km/h heading down the Westport hill. We stopped at the Elgin County Park to water up. It was still chilly and sprinkled there too. On to Perth Road Village. Matt and I road alone for most of this stretch and I was starting to feel fatigued. We stopped and bought a GaterAid out of the row boat. It wasn't particularly cold but hit the spot. Peter James arrived and said most of the main body of troops were ahead of us at this point. On to Kingston - I found this stretch nerve racking. There were hundreds of cyclists and very rude and selfish motorists who were probably saying the same thing about us. Hey, it's only once a year, give us a break. You'd think it was the only road to Kingston. Some were running oncoming traffic onto the shoulder. One fellow sat behind us with his hand on the horn for about five minutes in the mistaken belief that doing so would make us get out of his way faster. Some stretches had newly paved two foot shoulders that made it much safer by allowing lone cyclists to cover over and out of the way, making it much easier for motorists to pass. I hope Kingston finds the money to re-pave the other stretches to appease some of the motorists along that stretch. They are by far the worst. I'm sure the phone lines to the police and city politicians were jammed and voice mailboxes clogged. Queens - I was surprised by the number of questions I got this year while wearing a marshal sash. I was also surprised I was able to answer them all. I stayed in Chown Hall this year. I was very pleased it had an elevator as I was on the fourth floor. I took a shower, then rushed right over to the bar to redeem my hard-earned beer ticket. I met Ron Elmer on the stairway into the bar and he told me he had taken over 200 photos on Saturday alone. I had a honey brown and chatted with other OBCers about their trips and how things went. I bought a second beer and started to feel a bit light-headed. I'm not sure why. I resisted the urge to have a third. Anyhow, I staggered off to supper and ate a mighty meal after encountering a group of "Raging Grannies" at a convention. Their clothing fit right in with our cycling garb. The cafeteria in Ban Rea Hall was much nicer and faster than the one we were in last year, which is being renovated this summer. On Sunday, I headed out with Jeff Roth, Perry McKenna, Bob Choquette, Avery Burdett, Lisa H�bert, Robin Hittos and Nicole Laviolette on the cruise route. We had fun on the rolling hills between Kingston and Elgin. We also encountered some wildlife - a rather large snake keeping warm on the road that moved suddenly after Jeff Roth clipped it. Whoa! That thing is alive! Jeff may have saved its life from a car. We also saw a jack rabbit sprint across the road a short time later. Between Elgin and Toledo we were ambushed by Ron Elmer. We stopped in Elgin at the FreshMart and found they did not open until 10 AM (it was 9:30). The manager kindly put out water and juice for FREE for us to drink. Anyone taking the Cruise Route next year or otherwise stopping there should thank them for their kindness. We headed on for Toledo. Lisa and Nicole started from Perth. We departed company with Lisa and Nicole in Lombardy. Our navigator managed to get us lost as we tried to avoid cycling down highway 29. It cost us about 20 kms. Oh well. He shall remain strictly anonymous because of the unremitting harassment he got all the way back to Ottawa. Avery jumped on with a faster group just after Jasper, so we were down to five. We stopped in Jasper for water and met Lucy Cole's group and several dozen other cyclists. We ate lunch in Merrickville at the "Yellow Canoe" at around 12:30. I sat with Bob who told me about his experiences doing the PAC tour and some of the characters he had met on it. We headed for home and the wind had picked up quite a bit but was mainly a cross-wind at this point. Once we turned north, the five of us, Robin, Bob, Jeff, Perry and I had to battle the relentless headwinds. We stopped at Rideau River Provincial Park for a pit and water stop as well as Kars for another water stop. We pressed on through Manotick and arrived at Carleton just after 4 PM after covering about 200 kms. Then it was beer time again and we all toasted another enjoyable, although slightly longer, Rideau Lakes Tour. This was Robin Hittos' final tour with the OBC for some time, as he is travelling back to his home town of Victoria, BC. We all wish Robin the best and hope he can come back for next year's Rideau Lakes Tour. - -Rod Plunkett Newsletter Editor Member #23 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 7.0.3 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> iQA/AwUBPQluqC2G1ETgdA0gEQKrdwCggfL3V5EboCCSpdm6TchRIGY9dckAoLIf D2xKCC0YHiY3crxek4L9kMuS =D8ni -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------------------- For list help, please send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Club Office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (613) 230-1064 Web/mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cyberus.ca/~obcweb Newsletter: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cyberus.ca/~obcweb/Newsletter ------------------------------------------------- ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiDo.a2i8p1 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
