The last 5 days were spent getting from Canmore to Ottawa. Thankfully, we are now safely in Ottawa and will be for a few days to come - and there is free wireless (aaaah, that's better!). The drive was long, pure and simple, long hours of driving. And of course we had the inevitable added excitement of car trouble - back on the first day! Fortunately we were only a couple of miles past a town where they could do the repair (cooling system - thermostat was bung - seems cars are affected by the heat too) but it didmean losing the better part of a day, and therefore driving through the night to make up for it. Luckily that was pretty much through prairie country so it's not like we missed any scenic wonders.It's a long story really but some of the standout features (I'd say highlights but mostly they weren't really) were taking nearly 2 hours to get through Chicago - not going through downtown, just on the freeways - worst traffic EVER - LA ain't got nothin' on this! From day one John outed himself as a poor time keeper (30 minutes late to leave Whistler, 40 minutes late to leave Canmore, etc ad nauseum) and the WORST navigator ever, but every now and then I give him a chance to navigate. Unfortunately every time he gets us lost, at least twice! So I'm now better than ever at driving while reading a map propped up against the steering wheel (I'd navigate and have him drive instead but that also doesn't seem to work too well...). So after a stop in downtown Minneapolis we spent a good half hour getting lost, and lost again, andlost again. I thought I was a shocker for getting lost - I don't think that anymore.
And have you ever bathed in honey? Me either... but I may as well have yesterday when John's honey leaked everywhere, and in trying to contain the sticky, sugary explosion I ended up near covered in it! I was fairly livid but he thanked me for being pretty light about it so I must have kept most of it inside somehow. If we'd been in bear country I would have been in all sorts of trouble! So I've given John the special job today of cleaning what remains on the seats of the van.
Many, many times I've said over the last few days 'One day, we'll look back on all of this and laugh'....
Well, we are here in Ottawa now and I'm pretty keen to have an explore. The race here is a roadie and it's tomorrow so I have to go register this arvo. The race is out at Camp Fortune (which is actually over the border in Quebec province) where there is also really good mountain biking, so a trip back there in the following days is definitely on the cards, before we have to leave for Mont St Anne. For now, I'm happy just to be in one place for a few days - and it looks like a pretty nice one to be in. Since I shouted myself a sleep in I should get going on sussing out a training ride to turn the legs over before tomorrow.
I hear things are still pretty cold in Wellington. Tempo and Sara are spending lots of time cuddled up in front of the fire (and Tempo stole a chop off Dad's plate the other night - that's my girl!).
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