Canada Day

We headed downtown around 17h, unfortunately Tim and Maryam had to head back to Montréal and could not join Jeff, Julie and me.

For those who've never been to Ottawa for Canada Day, let me illustrate: It's a beautiful sunny, summer day around regal capitol buildings. Seagulls are diving in long swoops across the cliffs overlooking the St. Laurence river and the mouth of the Rideau Canal, and the water is a blinding mirror reflecting the bleached sunlight. The air is saturated with the smell of fried food. Everyone is dressed in red and white, the standard get-up for girls are the short white shorts, a red tshirt with rolled up sleeves and two temporary tattoos of the Canadian flag on their cheeks! I'd say 90% of people are dressed in red & white. There are 3 or so stages situated around parliament, with music blaring all day long.

Fireworks

We got a great spot to watch the fireworks, which started at 10pm. My favorite ones are the purple, with orange lit gold trails that hang in the sky and blow with the wind for minutes after. When you look through the streams, the wind carries some and not others and makes the shower appear to be a rotating sphere. Without a ground reference it's a trippy feeling to watch it! Afterward the whole city was bathed in smoke and that gunpowder smell you get from cap guns.

I would have liked to stay around a bit longer (in fact, all night longer), but I realized quite late that my ride tomorrow to Sudbury is supposed to be 7 hours! Doh! First mistake of the trip. The longest I've done is 6 hours. Cranking the tunes and stopping every 1.5hours will be required. Hopefully I'll discover some new music, as I've collected a bunch of streaming radio from a station that I really like. I also downloaded some podcasts of On Point.

Route Change

Jeff suggested that I scrap my idea to go through Thunder Bay over Lake Superior, saying that it's a hilly road with nothing really to see, and is longer than just dropping into the states via Sault Ste. Marie. It does save me 310km, or about 3 hours. He said that the southern route through North Michigan is about as rural, with less black flies, and more to see and do. I can tell from Google Maps that there is a lot of camping around that isthmus.

Tonight's Stay

I'll be staying with Jeff and Julie again tonight, they've been very generous, sparing me another night where I don't have to sleep in the tent!