Darlington to Campbellford - 138 kmAug 12, 2005
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TS getting a kick out of a local road sign.
Cor's mom serving up hot home made soup. Delicious!
Cor's sister making yummy sandwiches for hungry cyclists.
We awoke to the same sounds that we had fallen asleep to...the murmurs of the 401. Both of us were quite tired after the busy rest day and the late night out with the gals (oh dear...when did I start considering 9.30 a late night?!), so we were a little slow to get rolling. Rolling out of the tent we noticed grey skies above and the lurking possibility of rain.
After a breakfast of French Toast we hit the road...today only one PBJ - just in case of emergency since Cor's family was treating us to lunch by the roadside on the route today. Yippee!! Real sandwiches...and real home made soup...and NOT PBJ!! :)
We headed out of camp around 8 am. Just outside of camp in Bowmanville, we came upon a Timmy's. What better way to start the day than with a large double double?! We hung out at the Timmy's for the better part of an hour, chatting with Deb and leisurely enjoying our coffees. When we left, it was beginning to drizzle. Thankfully, we'd both grabbed our coats on the way out of camp.
Back on the road, we opted to take a different route than the one given to us. TS, myself, and a few others instead took the #2 into Port Hope. On the way out of Bowmanville I got my second flat of the trip. Damn. Although I must say, 2 flats in over 5000 km is a pretty good record! We pulled over and TS changed my flat (hey...chivalry is NOT dead!) for my as I aided whenever needed. Once the tire was back on, we were off.
The ride to Port Hope was really great. Although it was a bit rainy, the road was marvelous - a nice wide shoulder, beautiful scenery, and mostly flat. We heard that the other riders that followed the designated route encountered a few different construction zones and also had to tackle lots of hills. No thanks.
The route we followed, however, met up with the others in Port Hope. This was great, since the lunch at "Chez Manders" was in Baltimore, just past PH. We rode into Baltimore just around lunch time. Hungry, wet, and a bit chilly, we were absolutely spoiled with the spread that Cor's family had put together. Cor's mother made home made soup - we had the choice of chicken or cream of broccoli. I had the chicken soup...it's not only good for the soul, but it was damn tasty too! We were also given a selection from a wide variety of home made sandwiches. Cor's sister whipped them up as they were ordered, and they were superb too. There was even dessert!! Cor's daughter and his niece served ice cream, and there were rice crispie squares and butter tarts as well. Everyone thought that they'd died and gone to heaven. Thank you SO much to Cor's family! Everything was delicious, and everyone really appreciated it! :)
After resting (under an awning so we were dry!) for about an hour and a half over lunch, we decided that we had to hit the road and make our way to camp. Shortly after leaving Baltimore, the rain started up again...and started up with a vengeance. It was raining so hard that rain was pouring off of our faces...like a river going from just under our helmets, over the bridge of our noses, waterfalling off of the tips of our noses, and running off of our chins. It was pretty miserable. Adding to the misery was the terrain we were on. Not only was it extremely hilly (the hills were typically steep, but not too long), but the road surface was awful. We met up with Newfie Bob and rode with him for a while. Each of us took turns cursing. We all learned some new words that day. :)
We rode into Warkworth and stopped at a quaint little café for a coffee to warm us up and dry us off a bit. The café was just what the doctor ordered. We all relaxed there for about 45 minutes and then had to force ourselves to motor on to camp. The rain had let up by the time we left the café, so our clothes (and ourselves) were able to air dry en route to Campbellford.
We arrived at camp, showered, pitched our tents, had dinner, and hit the sack. We were pretty tired from the past few days of events, so we were content to get a good night's rest.
