Day 21 - Manotick ON (822 km): The good, the bad & the ugly

The good: we made it to Manotick and Jan had cold beer & homemade ginger cookies waiting. The bad: it was a hot, long and painful ride. The ugly: the photo, taken post-shower and within about an hour of arriving, says it all. I was in rough shape and wonder if it wasn't heat exhaustion. Not an auspicious ending to this journey. However, I've had a good dinner (Jan & Dave took us to their favorite chinese place) and am drinking lots of water tonight. Tomorrow's a new day for the homeward push.

We got away at 0730h under partly cloudy skies and about 16 degrees. The weather forecasters were pretty adamant about there being a front of severe thunder showers stretching from Toronto through Ottawa and on to Montreal. Our objective was to reach Manotick ahead of this front. The temperature climbed to 30 degrees and, at times, was higher than that. And the 'humdidity' (as Carol calls it) was horrible. The day had, in fact, all the ingredients for a humdinger of a storm but no sign of it - in this neck of the woods anyway.

LOTS of road construction (we'd actually turn the bikes off while we waited - it was SO hot) and the LEOs were thicker than deer today! We had at least 10 sightings although numbers 2, 3 & 4 - we think - were the same guy, driving up and down the same old strip. Hey! isn't that a Beach Boys song?! ;-) Saw 2 deer, too - in a ditch minding their own business.

We're down to the wire now and am looking forward to seeing everyone. One more post - probably Saturday.

I have to hit the hay for our 900+ km tomorrow ....