It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … ok, Dickens already said that and it wasn’t really the worst …

I love the Big Chute ride.

Half of the day was glorious riding, from Barrie to Honey Harbour, to Severn Falls Marina and beyond, but it was getting hot at that point.  It was windy and a test of our stamina from the Marina to Coldwater, but we made good time, getting there before the ducks were launched.

Every other year I’d seen the rubber ducks in the Coldwater River.  The ducks are numbered and they flow with the river; it’s like a raffle.  A truck backed up the trailer of rubber ducks as we had a cold drink at the convenience store, but we weren’t going to wait until 2 pm, a half-hour away.

Wind from the south, heat and climbing made the next section slow and then we turned east … I said to Henk – I don’t want to ride towards the rain!

Just before we got to 9th line for our run south, the rain started and a HUGE north wind that blew us south along 9th line, out of the rain … but just for a while.  We turned east for the long ride along Shanty Bay to Barrie and the wind from the north blew the rain sideways.  Somehow that ride along Shanty Bay, pleasant on the way out, is always a long slog on the way back, rain or no rain!

So we had, perhaps, 175 km of pleasant, then hot windy riding and then 25 km of rain.  Riding on Essa Rd towards the Tim’s and the end, it seemed that we had to wait at every traffic light in the rain.  Both of us having planned ahead, we had towels, dried off and changed in the Tim’s washroom and headed home.

Leaving at 7 am, we finished at 4:40 pm.  Riding back along Shanty Bay, I was thinking – “am I having fun yet ?”.  Today, randonesia having set in, I know that I had a good time.  I can’t speak for Henk :).