Hi Dirk,
At 2000 June 13 - Tuesday 9:24, Dirk Wright <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
spoke about *Re: [OM] how's the weather??...* saying
> >I'll swap you the weather we had in Sydney on the weekend (the 'Queens
> >Birthday' long weekend at that) - unremittingly cold, grey and
> >drizzling!
> >Dylan
Hey, try cycling in Canada, from Kingston to Ottawa, Ontario:
Sunday....anyone who did it knows it was the exact opposite of
Saturday. Brutal headwinds, rain and even some hail. We stopped in
Elgin for a quick break and just as we were leaving, Avery noticed he
had a flat, of course - the back tire. I helped him fix it and
noticed that I could occasionally see his breath as he beavered away.
We were thankful this happened at a stop. Two girls who started in
Perth took the Cruise route with us as well, but turned off at Toledo
to head back to Perth.
The next town was Jasper and we passed through it without stopping.
We were a group of about twelve, and Gunther jokingly said "Well,
we've had every other kind of weather, we might as well have
thunderstorms and hail". The words had hardly passed from his lips
when it started hailing and pouring rain. Many of us burst into
laughter. There was one fellow who was not part of our group but
joined up along the way. He couldn't understand why we thought
pouring rain and hail was so funny and concluded we were all nuts.
This hit us just as we passed through Jasper, and we all thought "we
should have stopped".
We decided to press on to Merrickville, a good 15 kms away. We saw an
open barn close to the road and considered deeking into it, but knew
we would freeze if we did that. Merrickville was a long way in that
weather. It was the longest 15 kms I've ever covered on a bike. I've
road through many storms like any bike enthusiast has, but none that
cold or that far. Give me cold or give me wet but not both at once!
The cohesiveness of our group came through in the trying times with
flying colours and we kept each other motivated to press on to
Merrickville.
We dragged our soaking wet butts into a restaurant to eat and warm
up. Before going in, a couple of us stripped down as far as the law
would allow and wrung everthing out. I was looking for a laundromat
but didn't see one. I was too tired to look far. The waitress
couldn't bring the coffee fast enough. She did not seem to clue in
that we were all suffering from borderline hypothermia, and I was
getting quite annoyed with her, probably unfairly since I was in a
foul mood. We were all shivering and I could not keep my teeth from
chattering and I was getting worse. After what seemed like forever,
she finally brought me a coffee. I had two more cups, two cups of
tea, two bowls of soup, two small loaves of bread and club sandwich
platter. By the time I'd finished, I had stopped shivering and my
patagonia sweater was almost dry. Alas, one of our numbers had
"bonked" and got a lift from a kind lady back to Ottawa.
The rest of us put our damp clothing back on and pressed on to
Ottawa. Thankfully, it had stopped raining and the sun looked like it
might break through. The wind had also dropped. We were all cold but
quickly warmed up, and the wind dried our clothing. Many of us
admitted to having doubts about whether we would be able to finish
while we were in the restaurant, but never said so at the time. I
guess misery loves company. I had tried to call my brother on my cell
phone to see if he would pick me up at Carleton but I couldn't get a
hold of him. It's just as well, I might have been tempted to ask him
to come to Merrickville but I thought that extremely unlikely. Tim
and Peter went to a store and bought new t-shirts and socks. I would
have done the same but I was too tired. It must have been those three
beers at Queens.
I spend the day photographing orchids & rocks at the midway point,
Westport. I drove there in a car... I used my new (to me) 50/3.5
macro and tripod, some shots w/T-32 w/BG2 and other lenses. Only a
little rain & drizzle & thunder.
So... I'll trade you some weather! Where is global warming when you
need it?
Tom
------------
Tom Trottier ICQ: 57647974 TomATrottier@xxxxxxxx
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