My excuse is that I was on my bike. Truly.
It's a blur. Back to Toronto, take a deep breath, pack and head to Ottawa. Ride the Granite Anvil pre-ride with Marty. Guy was riding too but we didn't see much of him. He's obviously in much better shape than I !! Marty and I did a lot of lollygagging and finished up the ride with 2 hours to spare ... yikes. The last day was tight as we got some heavy rain and I was chilled, very chilled. Charles did an excellent job supporting us.
The route went from Ottawa to Bancroft; back to Bancroft; back to Bancroft; back to Ottawa. We stayed at the Sword in Bancroft and the Days Inn Downtown in Ottawa. I spent a lot of time in 2-star motels! They served their purpose.
When I'd left for Ottawa, I was pulling the 5x8 trailer. I left that at Peter Grant's place while we were doing the pre-ride and of course it was the drop-bag and food transport to Bancroft.
We had quite a few drop out at the last minute but I kept the hotel rooms just in case we had to deal with a covid outbreak. That never happened but from 50 registrants to 41 starters to 27 finishers ... but the 27 had a great time. In fact, most of the 41 had a great time. The days were progressively more difficult 1 to 2 to 3 and then easier on the 4th. We had some sit out day 3 and finished the ride on the way to Ottawa. Everyone save one was at the party.
The food in Bancroft was a hit. Alice's Pantry did a great job. The volunteers were appreciated! The route was praised, in spite of the difficulty. We made money. The club was supposed to contribute to the finances from its coffers but instead we made money. Oh well.
Exhausted, more tired from supporting than riding, we (Sandy too), headed back to the cottage. She had driven to Ottawa on Saturday and joined in at the party.
Not resting on my laurels, I headed to the Waterfalls 1200k in NY/Webster right after Labour Day. That was run by Pete Dusel who also helped me during the Granite Anvil.
Pete had a fascinating setup with his 1200k that made maximum use of a very small group of volunteers that included his wife and daughter.
There is a cluster of hotels about 18km from his house. The ride started at a park near the hotels and each ride segment ended and started at his house - a clover. That sounds simple but the key was that the segments routed by those hotels late in each segment, with an info control in the vicinity of those hotels, so that in fact you ended each day's riding before you finished the segment, ate some dinner, got some sleep, and then finished off the segment the next morning at "registration central" in his huge garage that had seating, breakfast etc. You then hit the road again, starting the next segment.
Thus my first day's ride wasn't the segment length of 407k but rather 389 (or thereabouts). Day 2 finished off the Day 1 segment and then ended back at the hotels; same with Day 3 finishing off Day 2 and Day 4 finishing off day 3 but ending at his house. This setup had the effect of shortening Day 1 by that 18k and lengthening Day 4 from the published length of 201 to the balance-of-Day-3+Day4 length of 219.
(Note that the 18k has a variation depending on which hotel you picked).
I visited a grocery store and stocked my little hotel fridge with enough for dinners and a small bite to eat as the main breakfast was at Pete's place.
Not rocket science but I considered it ingenious. Otherwise there would have been extra hotel costs, more difficulty providing breakfast etc. There was no one frowning at us having a celebratory beer at the end. To top it all off, Pete and his main volunteer Marcia shuttled us to our hotels at the end of the 4th day.
Under-Promised and Over-Delivered always wins out.
Oh - and the route was interesting. I saw parts of Niagara Falls from the US perspective that I had not seen from the Canadian side. Other waterfalls within the Finger Lakes provided wonderful scenery (one of which is higher than Niagara but of course has a lot less water flow); I found out that according to local lore, Seneca Falls (the town), or at least the bridge, provided inspiration for "it's a wonderful life". I expected hills and the area delivered - not extreme but the third day had some real punch to it with short steep hills.
Last but not least, Pete ordered up a brisk tailwind for the last 100k northbound.
Oh ... and that was number 50 for me. A milestone or is that millstone?
The Wednesday start really messed with my head but my head was already messed up from all the riding and supporting. Normally these things start on Thursday. I was out of sync the entire time! Finishing on Saturday did give me an opportunity to go to Mass in Webster before driving back to the cottage (6-7 hour drive).
Now we're both here at the cottage and plotting our next move. Or rather, I'm here and Sandy is in Mississauga getting her teeth cleaned. I took the 4-wheeler into Arnstein this a.m. for a look-see; off the top of his head he figured that it needs a new gasket for the carb. I'm not sure that I'll get it back before we head to Asia ... in fact I rate that likelihood pretty low.
Here's what the Asia timeline looks like:
Sept 21/22 - Toronto to Manila (Dave & Sandy)
Oct 1-4 - Manila 1200k
Oct 6 - Dave to Perth / Sandy to Toronto (she's ahem ... about had enough travel for this year!)
Oct 10-13 - Perth 1200k
Oct 15 - travel to Jakarta
Oct 20-23 - Indonesia 1200k
Oct 25/26 - Jakarta=>Manila=>Toronto
A few days later we'll load up the car and do our annual migration to Florida.
I think that I'm tired just thinking about all this.
Onward ...
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