Well ….Ladies and Gents ….Wondering how Huron Chapter’s Infamous CREEMORE CLASSIC 400 went this past week-end? UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Of course dinner was held at the Elk and Finch in Southampton Friday evening, where not only the food was incredible, but their Carrot Cake was SECOND TO NONE! Once the lady Chef, Marg found out Dick Felton was coming, she produced enough Carrot Cake for him and every other Randonneur at the table!

Saturday morning, 7 Randonneurs showed up at the Start point in Port Elgin. Dick Felton, Chris Cossonnet, Bob Mcleod, Jerzy Dziadon, Jim Raddatz , John Cummings and Carey Chappelle. Unofficially, this group acted as the SUPERSEVEN! Jerzy and Jim were the first two finishers, Dick Felton pedaled to and from the event, to up his overall mileage to 860km for the week-end, Chris Cossonnet and Carey Chappelle competed in the CREEMORE CLASSIC BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP for 2016 … Carey had to stand in Chris’s lane and actually heckle him enough to win 2016’s Creemore Classic Bowling Championship! Congratulations Carey!

Amazingly, ABC, NBC or CBC videotaped the Randonneurs as they left Southampton heading towards Sauble Beach just before 0530hrs. Check out the video if you didn’t see them on the News Saturday morning:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxtLIF1ecRH7b05vSUo5RHdnY3M

Weather wise, you couldn’t ask for better conditions.  Cloudy 95% of the time, with only 15 minutes of a heavy rain on some of the cyclists as they headed towards Collingwood on the Scenic 19. Having done this ride many times before, Carey has decided to make some changes to the Creemore Classic route in 2017. The Family Restaurant Control in Collingwood will be changed to the Old Mill House Pub in Creemore, an awesome restaurant where Chris and Carey had incredible dinners and of course… a delicious Creemore … or two!

http://theoldmillhousepub.com/Welcome.html

Once leaving Creemore, the Randonneurs headed towards the Village at Blue Mountain for a Cappuccino and Biscotti . Carey touched base with Bob and Dick to confirm that they were together and found that they were having dinner at the Boston Pizza before heading to the Village. Jerzy and Jim were together, as noticed outside the Bowling Alley earlier on, but once at the Blue Mountain Village, they split up. Jim fell in love with the Village and decided to stay for dinner, not sure if he sang a song or two with the incredible band that was playing or just had the dinner, either way … Jerzy, so excited about the Scenic Cave climb … took off! Chris, John and Carey left Blue Mountains Village together and headed out on the Creemore Classics last 100km, wishing it was further and talked about pedaling to Kincardine for breakfast!. As they approached Chatsworth, 350km into the ride, they decided to have a 15min nap that turned into a 1/2hr nap at the Bank of Montreal, an ATM walk-in, that was heated and had a comfortable carpet on the floor … John slept under the ATM (Tim O’Callahan’s favourite spot!) with Chris and Carey sleeping on the carpet in front of the windows. A pounding on the windows a half hour later woke everyone up, frightened to see a Madman staring them down  … it was none other than Dick Felton!  Chris, John and Carey knew they better get up and head to the finish in Port Elgin, knowing that Dick and Bob wanted the “beds” themselves before they headed to the finish.  All Seven Randonneurs were SUCCESSFUL completing the Creemore Classic 400 … thus, they are 2016’s SUPERSEVEN!

Sunday’s weather was perfect for Kayaking, with Sunshine and 24 deg C., Bob, his wife to be, Milana, Donna and Carey headed out on the Saugeen River to do a four hour 20km Kayaking Brevet from Paisley to Port Elgin!  Start time was 1300hrs. Bob and Milana were in a Tandem Kayak, Carey and Donna in singles. Donna offered to tie a rope to Carey’s thinking he was going to fall asleep, but he was enjoying the relaxation and scenery so much she didn’t need to worry about him until …

Bob and Milana looked totally comfortable in their Tandem Kayak!