Exhaustion is my only excuse. The last few days have been long…foggy memory and Day 35 was no exception. Knowing that we have to get to Ottawa early enough to get at least 2 oil changes with the understanding that if we get there early enough we can get all three bikes done, we are up and on the road at 6 a.m…..or at least it looked like road what 6 feet of it you could see. More fog…thick pea soup fog. At times we could see the huge orange ball of fire high in the sky that looked angry….it must have been the fog that was ticking it off. We were all tired by two very early morning starts but also by the amount of fog and rain we have endured the last three days. A few stops for breaks, coffee, lunch and we can tell that we need to really press on to make it to the shop in Ottawa on time. By now the fog is gone and the angry sun is now a burning ball of desire…to roast our butts! As we get closer to Ottawa the 17 turns into the 417 and the road is no longer single lane, it is divided and 4 lanes. We are not used to running these roads all the time but we are very cautious especially with on ramps. We made it to the shop successfully at 1:45 p.m. (2 p.m. was our target). All the bikes got an oil change and they helped us find a Saturday shop open for tire changes. Larry and I have been running Pilot 6 GTs and have had great performance from them. The last two sets of these tires carried us over 20,000 kms each time. We have also hit some mileage goals that will be even higher once we get home. I am at 139,000 kms and Larry is at 181,000 kms (he retired 7 years before me).
Day 36 (today) was a down day other than the bike shop to get a tire change. We met more great folks there and even connected with a gentleman who is planning another trip east. He just completed an Iron Butt with a friend to North Sydney from Ottawa. Originally from Newfoundland of course! Larry even got a pair of new riding pants! The young mechanic who worked on the bikes was out picking up another one for service just as we were getting ready to leave. He told us that when they saw the bikes and the mileage they were wondering if the bikes were owned by two really close friends or a married couple. “We are both” answered Larry, to which the young man smiled and said “that’s really great! Have a safe trip”. Sometimes things are not lost on the young. We will take your compliment young man and treasure it.
No pics…just more fog and we have all seen enough of that (or you can reference previous post for fog look-a-like pic),
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