July 8 - Day 63 - Montréal 124.8 km

Cycling by the Ottawa River

After 31 days in Ontario….welcome to Québec

Hills

The different flavours of dipping sauces for the soft ice cream

Another stellar day for many reasons…..I’m staying with family tonight 😀, it was a Goldilocks days….sunny but not too hot, and not too cold….and my GPS found the best routes ever….country roads with very little traffic all the way through to Montréal.  

I slept in this morning, and finally got going just before 0900.  No services ahead of me for 45km, or I could have gone back to the town - backtracking only about 4 km….but...you guessed it…. I had breakfast ahead at 44 km!  I did have a banana and chocolate bar, and a bit of water before leaving.  

I hadn’t gone very far when I remembered that I needed to oil my chain.  About 4 km from the campground there was a rest area by the water, with picnic tables.  A nice place to stop and do some care for my chain.  I was just finished and was ready to go when I got a phone call from the campground.  She was calling to let me know that I had forgotten my yellow jacket - darn, but I was only about 4 km away, not big deal for me to return….but no…wait, her husband is going to bring it to where I am!!!!  How kind of him!  

After that, I followed my GPS….one fantastic road after another….quiet, most with wide shoulders.  Perfect.  Sometimes the pavement was really broken up, but it was so quiet I could ride in the middle of the lanes. Most of the day I cycled near the Ottawa River.  Sometimes there were trees, sometimes houses…gorgeous houses…..and about 1/2 the time I could see the river!!!!  Such great views all day 😀

I made a stop for some ice cream, soft ice cream and a choice of 9 different dipping sauces…..I just had to know what ‘Barbe de papa’ / papa’s beard is!!’  Turns out it’s cotton candy 😂😂 😂 

I had to cross over two bridges to get to where I needed to go….thankfully found the cycling/walking path to get across….no police escort required this time 😀😀

Now I’m in the home of my gracious host, a restful evening!  Dinner was on the enclosed porch with a view of the back yard…we were almost done eating when the fire flies came out to play.  Beautiful.