Day 1 - Ottawa to EAST of Morrisburg

106 km - Total so far 106 km - https://ridewithgps.com/trips/9721003

We loaded up the bikes in the garage of the Blackburn building and eventually made it out 
at 8:30. We could not leave right away because my GPS could not locate satellites. When downtown my GPS takes for ever to pickup satellites signals because of building interference. By about 8:40, we were ready to roll down Somerset Street West on the way to the Rideau Canal Pathway.

It takes more luggage for 9 days then it took for 9 weeks last summer...go figure!

It was pretty easy going with the trailers tracking beautifully behind us. It takes
a bit longer to stop with the trailers but otherwise you would not know they are
there. That is until you reach you first incline and then you can feel trailer
holding you back. Fortunately, we had the gears on the bikes changed to enable us to 
pull trailers up a long and steep hill. All we had to do was change gears until
the pulling got easier. With the bikes geared the way they are we can't reach fast speeds
but we can sure go up hills.

Once we left the pathways, the riding on the road with all those stop lights and stop signs gave us a good workout with all that stopping and starting. How soon one forgets just how much much fun it is to ride loaded bikes in the city.

We had lunch in a nice little park in Winchester (South of Ottawa). Helene observed 
that had we been in a car we would probably have not stopped there. Soon we were joined 
by a number of locals, who were there with their lunches.

Downtown Winchester

Our wheels having a rest

A quick lunch and we were off to Chesterville to pick up a few items for supper. 

Chesterville mural

Under Afghanistan at the War Memorial are listed the names of six of our finest - that is a lot for
for such a small place 

Listed on MLS for $350,000

We saw tons of farms and fields on the way down but did not take any pictures. 

The topography is very flat making it impossible to find any sort of vantage points.

We made it to the camp ground at a decent time and quickly set up the tent and got
ready for supper. Our alcohol stove doesn't have the same output as the stove
we had last year, so cooking is gonna take a while longer. On the positive side, there
is no sound coming from the burner...everything is so quiet.

Well that is it for now. Tomorrow we will let you know how we spent the night on our new air mattresses.

Helene and Daniel