It’s not often that 87 miles can be called easy and fun, but yesterday was. Also beautiful. The first 20 or so miles out of Renfrew were very hilly, but then the Ottawa Valley flattened out and we spent most of the rest of the day with the wind at our backs, traversing beautiful farmland, much of it with old gracious farmhouses, many of them brick. The smallest of towns seem to compete for who can have the biggest churches with the grandest steeples. The ruined church in the photo is St. Raphael, which was built in 1831 and gutted by fire in 1970. We crossed the Madawaska (pictured) and Mississippi Rivers (no, not that Mississippi). The roads didn’t have much in the way of shoulders, but we were on county highways with light traffic, so it didn’t matter. We did have to ride for a couple of miles on Highway 17, which we had shunned last week. Not only was the traffic still heavy, but the narrow shoulder was completely taken up by a rumble strip, forcing us out into the traffic lanes. Interestingly, we spoke with some other bicycle tourists in the Renfrew Campground last night. All of them recognized the horrors of Highway 17, but just shrugged, saying there was no alternative. We’re so glad that we found one!
Today was another 87-mile day -- not quite as easy, but still not too tough, with a tailwind much of the way again. We were finished by 2:00 and are now in the internet room, doing our blogging, e-mail, etc, before dinner. The terrain today was much like yesterday -- rolling farmland with big farmhouses. This part of Canada seems to have retained the small family farms, and they do a good job of marketing their produce locally. Kathy and Cindy are at a loss for where to stop. So many choices, so little time! (See Kathy's blog for more on this.)
We rode into Quebec this afternoon. It's interesting that, whereas in the rest of Canada the highway signs are bilingual, in Quebec they are en francais seulement. Hardly seems fair. We are near Montreal, but we decided to bypass it, on the grounds that navigating through it, either by bicycle or motorhome, would just be too tough.
It’s amazing to us how the summer has disappeared into this trip. Starting at the end of May in San Francisco, and progressing to the end of July here in Canada, we have seen the days lengthen to the solstice, and now start to shorten again. We saw corn in Montana and North Dakota that was just a foot or so tall, and now is over our heads. The wheat in the northern plains was new and green. Here it is golden. Through it all, we continue to be blessed with birdsong and wildflowers, continually changing and continually beautiful. We are very grateful.
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