Day 46. Petawawa to Bristol. June 12. 90 km.

Overnight I must have changed my travel plans a half dozen times. Every time I checked the weather forecast, it had changed and forced me to consider another option. Eventually we were awake but unable to start riding because it was raining quite hard. So I spent the time doing bicycle maintenance that arose about two days ago.

I had noticed that my rear tire was noticeably more worn than the front tire, in fact more worn than either of Gramie's tires. So I  decided to rotate my tires front to back. Luckily we had a very large room, large enough to work on the tires etc.

 

Making bicycle repairs. 

Here's the proof. The picture also shows that my upper body is shrinking. I've lost about ten pounds.

About 8 AM, the rain let up, let up but had not stopped. This allowed us to ride to Pembroke, about 16 km away, where we went to the Bonanza Restaurant for their well regarded bacon and eggs. They were really good and the waitresses were so friendly. No wonder they have so many regular customers and address them by first names.

 

Gramie with our friendly waitress at the Bonanza Restaurant. 

When we finished breakfast, it was still raining, so we put on rain jackets for the short ride to the supermarket for a few supplies. Even after that, the rain continued so we just rode on carefully toward the Ottawa River crossing at Chenaux. About an hour before Chenaux, the rain stopped for a bit allowing us to eat some lunch on the road, and to call the Pine Lodge to book a room. In short order, we were crossing into Quebec.

 

We crossed into Quebec at Chenaux. 

 The Ottawa River was high and flowing with gusto. Around noon, Gramie ran through a puddle and didn't see the pothole therein, which caused her to have a flat tire. Let me assure you that changing a tube in the rain is more difficult than doing it in sunshine.

 

Ottawa River at Chenaux. 

A little later, we rolled into the Lodge, which turned out to be much more interesting than we had anticipated. It was built in the 1930s and features a golf course. Most of the rooms were without en suite bathroom facilities but we lucked out and got one with its own bathroom. They also told that breakfast was included and asked what time did we want breakfast. All of this for $100 taxes included. And this place barely shows on Google maps.

 

Pine Lodge in Bristol 

We had dinner in the restaurant. Our beef and chicken burgers and fries and salad of berries and spinach were excellent. Maybe we will drive up here from Kingston later this year. We are very happy to have moved on another 90km despite the weather an to have stayed at the Pine Lodge.