Friday, June 24, 2011

Grandma's house !!!

Day 38, Mattawa - Pembroke
Dist 159 km, 22.3 km/hr, Saddle Time 7:07

06 24 2011
A great day !
Easy roads and the anticipation of rolling into Ottawa and finalizing Ontario gave me the mental boost needed.. I took it easy and comfy till Deep River (about 100 km) . I found a Burger King which was happy to unload 10 million calories of fat and protein into my bio-furnace. It's funny how some of the most unhealthy foods are so cheap and fast. Evil. Once my furnace was able to break down the BK Blob, I was ready to take out the Hammer. 
I put the 7 ounce hammer away and pulled out the 20 pounder. I was zoom zoomming my way to Pembroke. If you don't get the "Hammer" reference, you arn't a cyclist. Thats OK, but you are missing something.  Perhaps you could liken it to adding jet fuel to your car's fuel mix, or simply accessing your "passing gear". It's a reference to enhanced acceleration. 
Once I arrived at the #41 turn off, I was heading down towards the Ottawa River. I'm breaking my #1 rule, (never leave the highway for more than 2 km.) Pembroke is around 6 km off the path.  My plan was to visit my Grandma's house.(mother's side) She is long since dead and fully decomposed, but the house is very cool and has significant memory value. I've got strange feelings surfacing from childhood.
I must say that it feels very surreal to enter Pembroke. This is where my mother grew up and I have creepy but good memories of driving out here from Ottawa. "Are we there Yet, Are we There Yet...?" me and my older sisters would chant.  I can still see the big Ford wagon that took us there and the Ford Galaxie XL before that. (my dad liked Ford, obviously) Rest his soul.

Road work leaving Mattawa. Excellent shoulder
Riding out of Mattawa mudville

You know that Ottawa is near. Twice as many signs needed. One in French and one in English. This is the French one. Stupid, but I like what it represents.


Picnic Break
Jesus Saves What ? I don't get it. The tombstones don't either.
Lama barn ? Hey Buddy what's goin on ? Ha Ha. 
This kind of Signage, I like 
Typical Locomotion in this region. CFB Petawawa  is about 20km west of here. Lots of Military vehicles around. 
North it is. Who the hell wants Eganville ?
Pembroke Cat needs help...He's got "Big Eye Syndrome."  HWC is pissed at me for not taking him along. Hopefully he stayed off the main road. I know what road kill looks like.
Home base. A place to get organized and look up Granny's location. I will investigate on the way out in the morning. Food, beer and shower on the agenda. Roads in Pembroke don't accommodate cyclists and neither do the dirt-bag car freaks.

Entrance to my palace. Habibbi was happy to check me in. A nice curry aroma filled the office. I love Indian cuisine, but had to settled on Quiznos which was 100 feet away.

Home. I get my own patio area. Sweet.

View Larger Map    A strange feeling as I rode into Pembroke. Like riding back in time...

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