Day 105 Saturday, August 21, 2010 Distance 98.72 km. Time 5 hr. 14 min. Total so far 7420.68 km. We slept in this morning until 6:30. When we were packed, except for our breakfast items, it started to drizzle so we moved our bicycles to the front of the park to a picnic canopy and had our breakfast there. The rain subsided so we left with Dave having high hopes of making it to Tweed today. We are trying to avoid Hwy. 7 because it is very busy and has no edge. The next time John and Josephine or Chris and Sarah go to Melissa’s they should try to follow the path we are taking between Ottawa and Bull’s Road. Our first stretch was Hwy. 6. It was quite good and there was no traffic, but it seemed to take forever. From there, we turned right to Hwy. 36 only up to Bolingbrok where we stopped to ask about conditions on some other roads. The lady was nice and photocopied 2 maps for us and we bought 2 cinnamon rolls from her store. Crow Lake Road was tarred and stoned all the way which our map didn’t indicate but it was extremely hilly. Our legs have been pampered for quite a while now with the flat terrain. so we felt it. I finally got a photo of a turtle crossing sign. We saw 5 of them today (signs that is- not turtles). I took lots of mailbox photos today for my collection-a canoe one, a pony one, 2 identical to the people’s houses, a barrel one and a metal sculpture one with a last name starting with van der just like my maiden name. Along the road, we met Mary Anne out for a walk. She is 65 and her husband is 68. They used to bicycle, bed and breakfast style, in France and Upper Michigan until his prostate starting bothering him on the bicycle seat. At one point, it started to drizzle heavier and we took cover under some trees by a fenced off lane. We turned left on Hwy. 38 and went past Tichborne to Parham. When we arrived there, I was in dire need of a washroom and the lady in the little corner general store led me past a box full of kittens, through a room with a little puppy, through her first floor and all the way up some stairs to the bathroom. How nice of her. What a relief and just in time! Outside the store, Dave bought some little cherry tomatoes from Mette and Samantha who were sitting at the back of their truck, all covered up because it was cool after the rain and selling vegetables and preserves that their mother had made. I also chatted with them for a while. The store was pretty busy so I hope they sold a lot. We had lunch at a bench across the street, got more opinions and directions from the locals going to the store and the girls waved goodbye as we headed down Wagarville Road which led to Lake Road and then Mountain road . This whole area is rocks and wetland after wetland. I have never seen so much green water, water lilies and bulrushes and cattails. I wonder what the mosquitoes are like in this area. They have to be very BAD! As we kept going up this road, it started to thunder and a big, dark rain cloud came over so we started to look for cover. We saw 2 big buildings with open doors but we also saw a big German Shepherd dog. At the same time, Don came out of the building and saw us and the sky and asked if we would like to take cover. Zoey, the dog, turned out to be very friendly and followed us as we parked the bicycles in a gigantic building full of different piles of wood. Then we spent some time in the shop. Don used to work for Nortel but now is self employed with his wife and makes hardwood flooring. At that particular moment, he was sharpening some knives. As we spoke, Zoey kept bringing her ball to Dave to throw. We chatted for a while as the storm blew over, said goodbye and thank you, and left. We came to Tamworth at Hwy. 4 At that point, we had done 93 km. and I told Dave we wouldn’t make Tweed and should look to camp somewhere. We didn’t see anything there so we continued on to Hwy 21. At Erinsville, Dave suggested we stop to look at the map to see how far it still was to Tweed. The picnic sign led us to Beaver Lake Park which had lots of picnic tables, children’s toys and best of all- a canopy with about 8 picnic tables under it. An extended family was there having a reunion and birthday celebration but half of it was empty so we decided to stay there. Thank you, Lord. That was a good decision as not too long after, it started to rain. We waited until the other people left, moved some tables and put the tent in the center. Now we would be nice and dry in the morning. Supper was noodles, salmon, cheese and butter tarts. Dave had to buy water at a convenience store down the road because the water here is not drinkable. Two buildings down is a bar so I hope everything stays quiet tonight.
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