Monday, August 23, 2010

Ottawa - Days 8 & 9

After our very soggy - wet 370 KM ride in to Ottawa we got to our hotel in West Kanata - 3.5 hours later that we wanted to - but we arrived in one piece!
 I really - really love the patio doors - man I can't express how easy unloading and loading back up is because of them!
tourism information
Again - tourism information is available in abundance.


The Breakfast Room - larger than at many of the Comfort Inns..
The Breakfast Room - larger than at many of the Comfort Inns...

 Comfort Inn - West Kanata

222 Hearst Way
Ottawa ON
(613) 592-2200
Make sure you tell them Belt Drive Betty sent you if you decide to stay there - and use your BDB Club card!

After we all got checked in, we got the directions to the Biker Church function and off we went - we were terribly late and it was raining but guess what - there were still about 200 - 250 riders present and the pig roast feast still had enough grub for a person to chow down - OMG can those women cook!

I found Pastor Rob and got a long awaited hug, then came his wife Heather and another really wonderful hug. Now I was in hunt of my sisters from the Chrome Divas - it did not take me long to find them! After hugs and kisses from Crystal & Danni we went off to find Scott from the Biker Coffee Company and some REAL coffee - I mean Timmy's is OK and the coffee at the hotels and many restaurants along the way has been passable but I wanted a Belt Drive Betty Blend cup of Coffee - their medium roast bares my road handle!

More hugs, my tour pack now filled with goodies - coffee (Road supplies!) Some Hogswipe from Good 'ol HG which I need to try out the minute the rain lets up...I was invited to speak to the riders who were present about F.I.R.R.E. and handed out phone books to those who wanted one - both Pastor Dave from the Kawarthas Biker's Church in Peterborough and Pastor Rob took membership forms and will be encouraging the members of their congregations to become F.I.R.R.E. members!
George Bushman
George Bushman was kind enough to provide me a picture of me talking to the riders!

We went back to the hotel to straighten out the reservations for Danni and Crystal - the first gal they talked to at the hotel did not want to honour our Conga Rate but again, that was quickly resolved with a quick chat with the gals at the front desk.  I am not sure where these guys find their staff - but other than the trainees - which is completely understandable that they are not polished - the rest of the staff have been incredible - efficient, polite and courteous - and all have had a great sense of humour!

We all went out to dinner at a restaurant called Tommy's right behind the hotel - the food was good and the company was superb!
In the morning we had breakfast together and Lou & Graham headed out for Toronto.

Riders

Danni, Crystal and Danni's sister Rose who lives in Oca QC and I smudged ourselves with cedar in a Cree clearing ritual, shared hugs and laughter and then soon Pastor Dave & Karen along with another couple came to pick the gals up.

 After they left - I buckled down to work on the paper for a while and then we had a visit from Mike Haufe and his gal Kaelen from XXX Chopper Works in Orleans ON. We had a BLAST visiting with those two - Mike loaded us up with tee shirts and sweat shirts and some booty shorts for my daughter and he became a member of our Rider friendly Business Association and is going to start advertising with us!
Mike & me
 Mike has an outrageous sense of humour and he kept us in stitches the entire visit - when he put on my old helmet backwards we decided it would make a perfect picture!

Kaelen, Mike and I
Kaelen, Mike and I
Mike and Kaelen headed out for a dinner engagement about 5:30 pm and again I settled in to work on the paper. I completed a 32 pager and turned in at about 11 am. I then got up at 4:30 am and started working on cathching up on all of my travel blogs - I know me - if I didn't do them now it was going to be a while as today is my brother's viewing and tomorrow is is funeral - I could see me getting into a funk and getting writers block so I steeled myself to the task and by 10:30 am I was finally caught right up! A little bit of book work and guess what - the sky has even started to clear up.

I know one thing - when we get to Montreal - I have a box to ship home. coffee, embroidered cleaning cloths from the Kawarthas Biker's Church, Tee Shirts from Hogswipe, and the Wounded Warriors - thanks Graham...yes, all of these great gifts made a lot of what we packed redundent - time t ship dirty clothes home...well not dirty caus ehubby was nice enough to do laundry while I worked on the paper!  

We might even get a chance to do a little bit of tourism stuff here in Ottawa before we head in to Montreal...I feel a smoked meat sandwich, poutine and maybe a hot dog steamee coming on!

Next stop - Montreal!
Until then...ride safe

2 comments:

  1. Glad you enjoyed your visit in Ottawa even in the rain. Enjoying your travel blog!

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  2. We are always thrilled to hear from our guests that have great experiences with us and this is no exception. We are pleased to know that our location suited you and that you were well attended to by our staff.

    It sounds like you were able to take advantage of some great events. Ottawa offers an incredible variety of popular and unique things to see and do. You may run out of time, but never things to do.

    We are glad we were able to provide you with a wonderful stay.

    The Comfort Inn Ottawa West Team

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