Day 3

Thessalon, ON to Ottawa, ON

My route is in blue.
Again I had a bright, sunny, HOT day to ride across Ontario.
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How is this for a site to wake up to in morning?
The Carolyn Beach Hotel is certainly placed in a wonderful spot. The proprietors are also very nice people. I would recommend to this place to anyone.
As I was packing up in the morning, I was lucky enough to be in my room when the phone rang. It was Cindy Maclean. Cindy is Maggie Mai's original parent. Yes, Maggie Mai is from Thessalon. I had phoned her the night before to see if there were new puppies that I could meet.
Cindy gave me excellent directions but of course, I got lost anyway. I think of these detours as lucky breaks. How else would I have seen this pretty reflection?
And here is Cindy. Syryn Kennels is the Maclean household. As Cindy explained, if you want a dog to be a good house pet, they need to be raised in a home environment.
Meet Lola. Lola is a Havenese. What a lovely girl she was!
This is Moxie. Moxie is a three month old Cairn Terrier.
Moxie's kennel name is Perpetual Motion. I knew why as soon as I got to hold her.
Here are the new Cairn puppies.
They were absolutely charming. This boy was a special cutie. I took video of these darlings. I will add it to this webpage when I have the chance.
If I had been listening more closely to Cindy's directions, I would have turned at this lovely heritage Village and missed the dam.
Lauzon Village... it certainly looks like a peaceful place.
Lake Nipissing near North Bay...
... lovely!
Ruth Church... a cute little road leads you from the church to what I assume is a rectory.
In Mattawa okay, beautiful wood sculptures are placed throughout the town. This one is at the corner where Highway 17 changes direction. I spoke with the man there who told me about one man was responsible for most of the statues. Upon his death, another fellow finished his work.
I stopped here (N46 05.680 W77 29.686) to admire the river view. What a lovely spot for a vacation.
Here (N45 33.105 W76 44.012), the land is marshy but quite lovely.
I actually stopped here to stretch my legs. I had seen many of these structures but had no idea what they were. I assume they are agricultural storage units of some kind. Their shape is quite eye-catching.
Finally! I had reached my destination... Hotel Tessier! When I was a young teacher at Daniel McIntyre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, my best friend at the school was Valerie Frisken. Shortly after she married Pierre, she and their young son (Marc) moved to Ottawa. I had been looking forward to seeing Valerie. I consider this a highlight of my trip.
Valerie welcomed me and introduced me to the guest suite (Paul's room). I got cleaned up in preparation for our evening's plan. As I unpacked my bags from the motorcycle, I met Ode and Gary who are neighbors of Valerie. We had a lovely chat and I realized that Valerie was quite lucky to be living in such a friendly neighborhood.
From right to left here is Valerie, her middle son Philip, and her young nephew Alex. Valerie and I met Pierre at her golf club for a casino evening. There, I met Janelle who is one of Valerie's golf buddies and was one of the organizers of the event. Janelle actually graduated from the University of Manitoba's physical education program one year ahead of me. I recognized her face but I don't think she remembered me.
The Casino night was lovely. I met many wonderful people and had a good time gambling away all my hard-earned fake cash. After the evening was over, we went to a distant neighborhood to pick up Paul, Valerie's youngest son, who had been at a party.

Next Day

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