Early to rise this morning, 5:45 am, no more loons… just the sound of trucks. Our schedule calls for us to be in Rigaud, 138 km from Manotick and about 20 km from Dorion tonight, so we decided to get an early start to enjoy the afternoon/ evening. Once we cleared the outskirts of Ottawa on highway 31 we had a good ride East on friendly roads.
Today was also somewhat of a nostalgic ride for me as I played in fastball tournaments throughout the area, and against teams from every town we rode through. Names like Metcalfe, home of Larry Robinson and Russell, Casselman, and a story I remember from Embrum. It was a Sunday morning and the ball diamond was on church property (photo attached). The priest opened the tournament and wished us all good luck and reminded everyone to attend mass before day end. He also announced that at the conclusion of the 11:00 am mass the games of chance and a bar for beer sales would be open for everyone’s enjoyment!
Our experience of the day was at Vankleek Hill where we stopped at a tea room. We met owner Sandra Fraser and her Mom, Ruth and Dad, Ken. Ruth asked us about our cycling wear and wanted to know more about what we doing in Vankleek…we gave her the story. About five minutes later a reporter, Felicia arrived who she had called to do a story for The Review. Felicia had just graduated from Queens and would be enrolling at Dalhousie to further her interest in journalism. I guess things were a little quiet in the Gingerbread capital of Ontario (that would be heritage not something baked) the buildings are very unique. When I went to pay Sandra she insisted that our lunch was on her…if you are ever in Vankleek Hill instead of rushing to Montreal via 401 drop into the Tea Room. By the way the picture is with her Mom and Dad, Sandra would not buy in. Twenty years in business… you are nice people.
We moved on and soon noticed the sign to Quebec, at the same time we noticed a farm whose house was in Ontario and barn was in Quebec, couldn’t see a car license plate to give a clue to what province they lived in.
Another 20 km and we arrived in Rigaud, which was new to me but a very pretty town . We rode to the RV park, which has 550 sites all of which are full for the weekend. We are close to Montreal and my guess it will be a more lively evening than our other provincial park sites.
It’s been a fun week getting to know Hugh’s friend Tony who has been a great help driving and looking after these two guys. Tony will be leaving us tomorrow and he will be picking up Jon at Dorval to take over the driving and helping support us through to Newfoundland. Thank you Tony, and welcome back to Jon!
Catch up tomorrow… it’s dinner time.
Cheers, Sid!!
C2C Sid's Ride Across Canada 
You may not remember us, but we sat next to one of you (sorry, didn’t catch your name) on the flight to Vancouver. Good to see you’re doing so well on your ride. Best of luck on the rest of the trip.
We enjoyed our honeymoon in Hawaii and still happily married 2 months in.
Hi Tim…Thanks for your follow up…arrived home from Newfie last night..all the best to you and lovely wife..Cheers Sid!!