Jul 24-Aug 8 - lots to report

Well, Starlink is in and performing better than expected.  Better because it appears that we don't need a honkin' big tower.  The dish is perched on the peak of the bedroom wing roof held in place by some bags of salt and we only lose a few seconds per day due to obstructions; totally unexpected.

Performance is great.  It's not fiber but good throughput, good latency.  It's such an improvement over Xplornet but I haven't cancelled X yet.  That'll come soon.  We're not getting the 200 mps download speeds that some are reporting but that's likely due to satellite density overhead.  

Marty and I did the 600k and 1200k rides in this time period.  The 600k went to the north end of Lake Temiscaming and south on the Quebec side to North Bay and back to the start/stop at the cottage.  It's a great route except for the long highway 11 leg of roughly 100km.  It's just long, not unsafe.  Not much shoulder but good vis and the trucks give you lots of room.

Sandy supported us on the 1200k.  It was the pre-ride and now I have work to do on the route to incorporate some minor changes and clarifications.   Starting on Manitoulin Island, the route goes to the west end then east again to Sudbury for an overnight, to Parry Sound and Huntsville for another overnight, to Honey Harbour and Midland for the third night and then finishing in Tobermory.  The notable climbing is between Little Current and Espanola on the island, in the Huntsville area and then Collingwood.  We lucked out weather-wise with rain around us, ahead of us, behind us but not on us :).

Sandy enjoyed herself with some touring and hiking with Cassie as she went from overnight to overnight.  She prepped the rooms for us with food and our bags, cleaned up afterwards and reloading the car.  We only saw her a couple of times during the ride but she and I did lots of texting.  

We have a busy week coming up with appointments, Roads Board and Randonneurs Ontario meetings, and cousin Bobbie celebration of life on Saturday.  Cousin Anne will ride there with us and we'll stay overnight in Collingwood.  We haven't sorted out Cassie yet but hopefully Kim will be here at the cottage.

Time is flying by.