A whole lot of Pain for an Incredible GAIN!

Tuesday I had to go to Cobourg to take my mother to a hospital appointment. I normally stay at my sister’s house on the lake between Grafton and Colborne Ontario. By highway this is about a three-hour drive.

When I woke up Tuesday morning and look at the weather is was as follows:

Tuesday: Rain with high winds and a high of 8 degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit)

Wednesday: Sunny and a high of 28 degrees Celsius (83 degrees Fahrenheit)

I kind of stared at it for a while and imagined how nice a ride it would be on Wednesday if I took the motorcycle but today just screamed Subaru Forester.

I sat down on the computer and opened Garmin Basecamp and planned a route.

The only thing left to do after I loaded the route into my Garmin was to commit. So I packed an overnight bag and put on my KLIM Gore-Tex with my Gore-Tex gloves and Forma Adventure boots. I guess at this point I was committed. I did forget to pack layers. I put on a long sleeve cotton shirt and my jacket. By 10:00 AM I had packed my BMW F700GS and filled it with the gas in my garage and set-off in pouring rain.

The first hour was not bad at all. However after I passed through Smith Falls the curvy country roads that I had planned also came with wide open farm fields surrounded by hills and mountains that just relentlessly blew high winds and rain at me in gusts coming from every direction. By the second hour of riding I started to feel cold and damp. I looked down at the temperature gage on my BMW and it said 5 degrees C! I was not wet inside but the coldness of the Gore-Tex was becoming more apparent as the wind pushed it against my chest. In fact, I began to regret my decision to ride and the new clarion stereo and heater in the Subaru was on my mind.

I stopped at this gas station for gas alone the way. I grabbed this picture from Google Maps just to show how there is no roof over the gas machines. Obviously it was a sunny day when the google cameras rolled by. So imagine the gusts of wind pushing the rain everywhere. It was difficult to get the hose into the tank without introducing rain water into my gas. There was a truck driver stopped and he commented ” mighty fine day for a ride?” I responded that I had actually not waved at a single rider since I left Russell. I guess most riders are sunny day riders. Well, I filled up, got back on my bike and really started to feel the dampness and cold.

I continued for another two hours which got me to Belleville where I was freezing and hungry so I stopped at a MacDonald’s. I spent some time in the wash room blowing air from the hand dryers into my gloves to both warm them up and remove some of the dampness. I proceeded to order a chicken wrap meal with fry’s and a HOT!!! Coffee while the whole time ignoring the calorie counts on the ordering computer. I enjoyed the wrap and the coffee which I held with both hands for a bit to warm up my bones.

After spending some time at McDonald’s to warm up and fill up I headed back out into the rain. I had about one hour left to my journey and as Murphy always plays an important part in my life it stopped raining as I arrived at my sisters. In fact my sister and their friend Bob were outside rearranging a large dog fence for their standard poodles.

The next day I woke up to sunshine and a great forecast. I borrowed my sisters Jeep to pick up my mother and take her to the hospital. We arrived 20 minutes early and they took her immediately, performed the procedure and we were out in under one hour. That was an extra two hours of sunshine that I did not gamble on, so Yippie!

However, during the visit I took a few pictures of my mom and one at the hospital. While my mother was being treated I was sitting outside the nurses office staring at a cart of supplies. One thing that just jumped out at me was a box labelled CONDOMS that after further investigation was full of what appeared to be condoms. So for the short ten minutes that I was waiting I was trying to imagine why there is a box of condoms on a supply cart at the nurses station?

I proceeded back to my sister’s and Bob decided to ride part way up to Madoc and we planned to stop for lunch. Bob just purchased a limited edition blacked out Can-Am. We left and started heading north from Brighten without using our GPS and made our way through Campbellford is a lovely town and deserves a second visit to walk down the main streets and explore.

Expedia’s Take on Campbellford:

“Campbellford is a small town in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, in the Municipality of Trent Hills. Located at 44°18′N 77°48′W / 44.300°N 77.800°W, Campbellford lies approximately midway between Toronto and Ottawa. It is situated on both the Trent-Severn Waterway and the Trans Canada Trail. It can be reached from Highway 401 by exiting at Brighton and going north on County Road 30. It can be reached from Highway 7 at the Havelock exit going south. Campbellford is surrounded by prime agricultural land which is home to many farms. In recent years, some of the town’s agricultural sector has diversified into non-traditional areas such as bison farming, rare breeds farming and there are many horse farms in the area. The town has a farmers’ market that is open two days a week in the summer.”

After going through Campbellford, we headed up towards Madoc. We stopped at the Subways there and had lunch. The temperature was over 28 degrees, no wind and I stopped to open all vents on my KLIM jacket and pants. After lunch Bob headed back while I grabbed highway 7 to Perth and then headed back down to Russell through the back roads.

I arrived home at 5:30 just in time for dinner. The ride home totally made up completely plus a lot more for the miserable ride down. So a whole lot of Pain for an Incredible GAIN!