Bicycle World in Cornwall

We stopped for lunch at a McDonald’s not far from the Quebec border. Shortly after lunch, we hit the border and took a few pictures. We met a nice French cyclist who rode with us for a bit and gave us some tips on the construction we’d encounter. We took Route Verte #5, which was a very nice bike path that went on forever. It followed alongside the Soulanges Canal, which used to be Quebec’s main shipping route before the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959.

At the Quebec border

Around this time, I started feeling a weird pain in my right ankle/achilles area. It got worse as the day went on, but luckily I was able to continue riding.

Riding alongside the St. Lawrence in Quebec

When we reached the end of Route Verte, we were mostly on streets, going through some very nice little towns. Pat got his first flat tire around this time. Shortly after that, Spencer broke another spoke. We stopped for dinner in some little town at a roadside pub. At about 7pm, we realized we still had about 30km to go before we’d be in Montreal. We knew this was the homestretch, so we started riding hard. Along the way, we encountered a spandex rider on a fast-looking bike, so we started chasing him. We were on his tail for over 30 minutes, and Spencer caught him at one point, but then fell back to join us. We were ripping it up, averaging over 30km/h with our fully loaded bikes, gaining speed up hills, racing through the busy streets. It was a lot of fun, and I’d like to think we kinda scared the guy away, although he very well may have just been going home…

We continued along at a pretty quick pace, making it to our hotel in Montreal at 8:30 – at the same time Pat and Spencer’s girlfriends rolled up in their cab.

It was quite the adventure, with a lot of ups and downs, but it was tons of fun. Riding our bikes was a full time job for those four days, and I know I really pushed myself to my limits, both physically and mentally. It was a great feeling to make it to our destination, knowing we could just relax and enjoy Montreal for a few days. And to top it all off, we had a free bus ride home.

Distance covered: 160km
Total time on the road: 12.5 hours (8am to 8:30pm)

Total trip distance: 633km
Total time on the road: 48.5 hours

Packing up the morning of Day 3

Around lunch time, we stopped for Spencer to fix a spoke and we were surprised to see our friends Chris and Sandra pull up in front of us. They were in the Brockville area for the weekend, so we met up with them again once we got into Brockville and had some lunch.

In the late afternoon, the rain started up again. It got really dark and windy just as we got to Crysler Park, which is somewhere around Morrisburg. We took cover at the pavilion there for about an hour while we waited out the storm. The rain slowed down, so we took off and eventually made it onto this really cool forest trail. The rain started coming down hard again and it was getting dark quickly. We started to worry a bit about where we’d be able spend the night, but we kept on pedaling through the rainy forest and suddenly we found ourselves at the entrance to Farran Park campground.

Morrisburg

Waiting out the storm at Crysler Park

Nice sunset between the rain storms

Riding through the rainy forest at night

The young sweetie at the front gate must have liked us boys, because she was really nice and gave us free camping for the night. We set up our tent in the rain and had a shitty night’s sleep because of the rain and extreme winds.

Distance covered: 140km
Total time on the road: 12 hours (9:30am to 9:30pm)

Spencer was down to his last spoke, which broke on the way out of Pat’s cottage. We stopped off at a tourist booth to wait while Spencer took Pat’s bike across the bridge to Belleville to find a bike shop. Spencer returned at around 10:30am with some replacement spokes, fixed up his bike and we were off by 11am.

Tourist booth near Pat's cottage

Throughout the whole morning, the conditions were pretty bad. We were riding on fairly busy roads that didn’t have very good shoulders. The rain was coming and going, and we were riding into the wind for much of the time.

We stopped in Picton for lunch at Subway. It took me about an hour to eat my sub. I had a baby stomach for some reason, but it improved by the end of the day. After lunch, we took the Glenora Ferry across to Adolphustown, which led the way into Kingston. The ferry is part of the Loyalist Parkway (Hwy 33), and is free. The ride took about 10 minutes.

Glenora Ferry

Once we landed on the other side, it was like a whole new day. The sun was shining, the winds were at our back, and the roads were nice and flat for as far as the eye could see. We were traveling as a pack, our mini peloton riding at a quick, yet easy to sustain pace for almost three straight hours.

Awesome straight roads with a nice paved shoulder

We made it to hilly downtown Kingston just in time for dinner, and we ate at a nice little pub. A short time later, we were in Gananoque, where some sort of biker weekend was taking place. We saw a lot of motorcycles, but didn’t run into any problems with the Hell’s Angels. We did however, run into a problem just outside Gananoque, when we took a wrong turn and got a bit lost. After riding for about 6km and not finding the campground we were expecting, we realized where we made the wrong turn and started heading back. That’s when Spencer broke another spoke and darkness started falling very quickly.

Downtown Kingston

We struggled to get Spencer’s bike fixed quickly, trying to see what we were doing with flashlights. The mosquitoes were absolutely horrible and we got eaten pretty badly. Once fixed, we high-tailed it to the Landon Bay Campground in the dark. We were holding flashlights trying to see where we were going. It was pretty scary, but we made it to the park just after 10pm. They were closed, but there was a sign saying we could find a spot to camp and register later. We found a spot, set up the tent and went to bed. It was hot, humid and gross, and very difficult to sleep, especially with the thunderstorms and strong winds we had that night.

Distance covered: 160km
Total time on the road: 11 hours (11am to 10pm)

As mentioned previously, we started off the day by meeting up at Spencer’s house for a little pre-ride sendoff party. We presented the money to Wyatt’s aunt, took some pictures and said our goodbyes.

The first day was by far the worst day. I was really discouraged a lot of the time, and felt like quitting and going home a few times. I just couldn’t picture doing this for three more days.

We were on the road for 13 hours, making it to Pat’s cottage at around 8:30pm. We covered 173km, which was the longest distance any of us had ever ridden in a single day.

I had two flat tires and Spencer broke four spokes, with no spares left.

When we finally made it to the cottage, I was really tired and could hardly breathe. It felt like my lungs were shutting down and just didn’t want to keep working. We did some stretching, which I think really helped with soreness and recovery. I slept really well that night.

Here’s a couple more from day 1:

Distance covered: 173km
Total time on the road: 13 hours (7:30am to 8:30pm)

First of all, I realized that if I’m going on a longer ride (more than 25km), the first 40 minutes to an hour is usually shit. I’m sure it’s all mental, and it’s definitely getting better, but I’ve noticed a few times that I’ll feel crappy or tired for no reason. I’ll usually think there’s no way I am going to make the distance and the thought of turning back home creeps into my mind a lot.

If I press on and push through the discomfort/pain/bad thoughts, the rest of the ride goes really well. I’ll pass a point where it seems like all of a sudden I’m “in the zone” and I could just keep riding all day. I think it’s probably similar to a runner’s high. I will ride for an hour straight and then sort of snap out of my trance and realize I’ve just gone a long distance, not totally sure how I got there.

At this point, I am as prepared as I can be for the trip. By Thursday, I will have put 1,000km on my bike this year. The hills are not as daunting as they used to be, and I almost look forward to some big climbs. The only thing I’m not sure about is riding long days back-to-back for four days straight. I think if I get enough rest, eat well and stay hydrated, I should be fine. The rest will all be psychological.

I’m really looking forward to this trip. I think it will be a great test of my abilities, and I’ll be pushing myself to the limit physically and mentally. I just keep thinking of the great feeling of accomplishment I’ll have when we roll into Montreal on June 30th.

We agreed to raise some money and get people to sponsor us for our ride to Montreal. I am hoping we can raise $1000, and all proceeds will go towards Wyatt’s family and the Cardiology Department at The Hospital for Sick Children, through the SickKids Foundation.

I think it’s a great cause, and it really makes the trip to Montreal a lot more meaningful. It also puts a lot more pressure on us to actually go the distance. A lot of people have been very generous, making donations and offering support, which is great. If you are interested in helping out, contact me and we’ll make arrangements.

For more information about Wyatt, see:
http://caringbridge.org/visit/wyatts
http://www.totsites.com/tot/wyatts

It will be a lot of hard work, and I’m sure there will be some challenges along the way, but I think it will be a great accomplishment and a lot of fun. We’re heading out on June 27th, hoping to make it into Montreal on Canada Day so we can celebrate and party for a couple of days before we head home.

I’ve been doing some training over the past months, but I’m going to really step it up in the coming weeks. I’m at a point where I know I can ride 50km in a day, but I haven’t pushed myself farther than that yet. We’re hoping to average close to 150km per day on the trip, so we’re going to start doing longer rides in preparation.

I haven’t done much riding this week, because of bad weather and my bike is currently in pieces. I’m doing a bit of a mini-overhaul and trying to make the mountain bike a bit more road-friendly, since most of our route will be roads and bike paths.

During the first week of February, I received a letter from Best Western International. It wasn’t from the president directly, but from Greg Trotter, who is manager of Customer Care. According to the letter I received, Mr. Kong was made aware of our situation and the issues we faced while in Nashville. In the reply, I received an apology for the poor service, as well as some comments about how Best Western strives to provide excellent service and value for all of its customers.

Mr. Trotter went on to explain that he’s aware travelers have a lot of options available when selecting accomodations, and he hopes we will consider staying at a Best Western again in the future. To make things right, he is sending me a check for $80 (Canadian) to cover the cleaning fee and is also sending me a Best Western travel card worth $25.

Best Western locations are all independently owned and operated, so I can see why, despite their best efforts, the level of service provided is not always up to par. It sucks that I had to write a letter to the president to get any sort of help, but I am happy with the way they handled the situation and the end result. My faith in Best Western International has been restored, but I don’t think I’ll stay at their Nashville location again.

Everything was fine from Friday until we came back to our room Sunday afternoon and our keys wouldn’t open the door. We went down to the front desk to inquire, and they informed us we had been checked out and were facing a $200 fee to clean our room. There really wasn’t a big mess at all, and we arranged to clean the room ourselves if they would remove the ridiculous charges. We spent ten minutes cleaning, which is all it took to get the room up to Best Western’s standards. The head housekeeper inspected everything and agreed it was up to par. We later heard there would still be a $75 fee, which we could discuss with the manager the next day.

Monday morning arrived, we got up at 6:30am and got packed up and ready to leave for home. We complained about the $75 fee, but the people at the front desk claimed they couldn’t do anything about it. We kept getting bounced around while they gave us names of different people who could supposedly help us. It was very unprofessional.

We contacted the valet to get our car, and he couldn’t find the keys. After about half an hour of searching, they realized they had lost our car keys. They called in a locksmith who was able to cut us a new key in under ten minutes. When he tried to start the car, it just clicked, since they left the ignition switch in the accessory position, which drained the battery overnight. This was actually the second key they’d lost that week. The first one was a fancy Mercedes key that cost Best Western over $800 to have cut and delivered.

At this point, we were pretty pissed off. We were being overcharged for no reason, they lost our car keys and killed the battery in the car we were about to drive 1200km home in. We decided at this point we would wait for the general manager, David Legg to show up.

We hung out with the other valet, Tony (the one who didn’t lose our keys). He was a cool guy, and he really helped us pass the time until David Legg finally showed up at 8:30. David knew we were waiting to speak with him, since he was called several times that morning by front desk staff. Still, he made us wait a good 20 minutes until he came to talk to us. David Legg was a total arrogant prick. We went and looked at the room, which was spotless, and he basically told us we were lucky he let us stay there the additional night. He definitely wouldn’t drop the charges on our bill.

After some time discussing/arguing with him, Adam (the car owner) told Mr. Legg he wanted to be compensated for the damage to his vehicle. Once Leggers saw there was potential for some trouble, he changed his tune and told us he would drop the $75 charge if we didn’t pursue any car-related damages. He basically said we’d just call it even, which is all we wanted in the first place.

We should have insisted upon getting a new receipt printed right on the spot, showing the adjusted bill, but we trusted the dirtbag. Once we were back home in Ontario, I checked my credit card bill to find I had been charged the full amount.

About two weeks after we returned home, I was in contact with David Legg who said he would get back to me “within half a day”. I still haven’t heard back from him. I talked to Best Western customer support, who weren’t very helpful, but they did at least contact the Nashville location to get a statement. In the end, I paid the bill.

A couple weeks ago, I got all riled up about the issue again, and decided to write a letter to David Kong, the president and CEO of Best Western International. I’ve had pretty good success with my letters in the past, so I really hoped something good could come out of this.

Stay tuned for part two…

I’ve heard their lineup changes, depending on when and where they are playing. At this particular show, they had two guitarists, an upright bassist and a guy playing a mandolin. They also brought in these big sheets of plywood with tambourines attached to them, which acted as some really cool stomping platforms. Take a look:

Check out this little video clip I took with my digital camera: