July 5th, 2017, Day 44, Cochrane to Iroquois Falls, Ontario 

Sleeping in is a luxury. We often take it for granted. It felt luxurious this morning o allow ourselves to awaken without an alarm and to have some time to putter, just a little. Still, we were downstairs, dressed, packed and putting together our usual breakfast by around 7am. Tuesday evening we had been welcomed into the very lovely and tranquil home of Brent and Maryanne Irvine of Cochrane.  Maryanne is a Captain and a Reservist with the Canadiens Armed Forces and was busy packing away some last items she would be needing for an 8 week contract position in public affairs. She will do the 10 or more hour drive to Trenton on Wednesday. Brent does renovation work, usually  painting, although he is mostly retired. They have 2 kids. Their 16 year old daughter just finished grade 10 and will soon be leaving for 6 weeks of cadet camp and their son, 11 is at camp now. The sun was still bright as we joined them outside, cracked open some wine    and beer and munched on tortilla chips. Avid cycle tourers themselves, they had completed a strenuous 2 1/2 week ride in Portugal earlier this spring. We had lots to talk about. A little later Charlie and I walked around the corner to a movie theatre where they made greasy fries, burgers and fish and chips.   That’s what we had. I’ve had my grease quota for a while! The owner, Ray, came out and sat with for a while. No bugs, gentle breeze, comfortable temperature. It was nice.

We went back to Maryanne and Brent’s home, Charlie went to sleep and I stayed up for awhile talking with our hosts.

So, here it is, 9:40am. Charlie has an appointment and we are (im) patiently waiting….  We waited for 2 hours without resolution, and were told we’d have to wait at least another 2 hours. Charlie decided to take his chances in the next town. We need to pickup some food and then get on the road. Only 50km awaits us today, but apparently a lot of that is through a construction zone. And traffic will get heavier now as we will now get the traffic going to and from Timmons as well.

The highway was torn up for about 18km, which necessitated much dodging and weaving, but at last, we were back to the usual buckled pavement and narrow shoulders. If that wasn’t bad enough, there was a south wind and we were headed straight into it. It was work! Hard work! Eventually we saw the sign to Iroquois Falls and there was some easement from the wind as we turned towards town. We were staying with some “Warm Showers” hosts not far away , so I stayed at the beach snack shop while Charlie headed in to town to again attempt to get his blood work drawn at the hospital. I expected him to be, maybe at most, an hour and a half, but they gave him the run-around again and he came to meet me, still needing the test.

Fran and Marc Delaplante,     (This is a picture of a picture) both retired teachers, enthusiastic cyclists, and all  around athletes,  (although right now Fran has a painful neck and Marc can barely walk from back pain), live on the beautifully manicured lakeside property that they bought many years ago and have worked very hard to improve. It’s lovely. They have another camp property up north, which doesn’t sound rustic  at all, which they fly into on their private Cessna, which is floated on the lake at the back of their property.   Marc loves to fly. He told us that when he was a teenager, he sold his motorcycle to pay for flying lessons. Now they regularly take off for Ottawa, where their daughter lives, or for anywhere else they feel like going. We had a nice dinner of salad, chicken, potato salad and broccoli while we conversed. They inquired as to our planned route and dissuaded us from continuing on highway 11, as the traffic to North Bay becomes increasingly more congested and the pavement is rough, the  shoulders narrow or nonexistent. Plus, we are headed for the hills! So we are now looking to go through Mathewson and Val D’Or. I would prefer to go through North Bay. I used to live there 24 years ago when I attended Canadore College for dental hygiene. One of Charlie’s former students has parents there who have graciously offered to host us. So in some ways we regret not continuing through North Bay. But, seeing as we both enjoy being alive, we have decided to take a different route. It’s more remote but we’ll get through it.