I stopped for a break in the morning in Brockville, which seemed like a nice town, aside from all the conservative signs. The town seemed to have a lot of wealth, compared to the rest of the region. I hadn’t realized it was Saturday, and when I passed through Brockville, as well as a few other towns, they had farmers markets in the town centres, which was nice. Going through Brockville I also passed over the first railway tunnel in Canada.
After Brockville, I kept going until just after Prescott, where I decided to have lunch at the historic site of the Battle of the Windmill. In 1838, some American rebels came to “liberate” the loyalists from British rule, but then none of the locals joined the Americans, and the rebels were quickly being defeated. They retreated into the windmill, which the British forces couldn’t penetrate without backup, and hung out there for 2 days. Eventually they surrendered. 12 were hanged, 60 were deported to Tasmania, and the rest were freed. The windmill is now a lighthouse, but it was a nice place to stop for lunch.
In the afternoon, the highway stopped following the water so I was surrounded by fields and flatness. I figured this must be what it feels like to bike through the prairies. It was really boring. I was hoping to stop in Morrisburg for an afternoon break, but when I finally arrived there I found that the town of Morrisburg is nothing more than a Giant Tiger and a couple strip malls. I decided to stop at the Tims there as it was the only option. After leaving Tims though, I only made it a couple kilometres before realizing I had a flat! Lesson learned: if you stop in shitty places, shitty things will happen. So I pull over onto a nearby field to replace my inner tube.
Although I had taken a few bike maintenance courses before leaving Toronto, this was he first time I actually had to put theory into practice, and it took quite a while and a couple phone calls to more bike-experienced friends to get it done. So off I go, and about a kilometre later I get another flat! At this point I’m thinking I must’ve done something wrong when I replaced it, but as I’m inspecting this inner tube, I see that the valve was never properly sealed to the tube in the first place. Just my luck. But at least I had another spare tube, so I got to work replacing the tube again. This happened just as 2 parents were doing a custody exchange on the side of the road, and the woman saw this happen and stayed to help me replace it because, as she said, “us women gotta stick together!”
I was 40 km from Cornwall at this point, and about 2 hours behind schedule. I was supposed to be staying with a Couchsurfer in Cornwall, so I had let him know I was delayed, but I was determined to make it there that evening. So I got back on and forced myself to pedal as hard as I could to get me there before I lost light. I was flying, and I entered the outskirts of Cornwall. I passed this guy on an electric bike, and I was feeling great until suddenly I felt yet another flat tire! I was so frustrated at this point. I was out of spare tubes—I had a patch kit, but the sun was going down soon and the mosquitos were out and I didn’t really feel like trying to patch a tube right then.
The guy on the electric bike that I had passed earlier caught up to me and asked if he could help. He told me that he had got a flat tire in his car the week before and people had stopped to help him, so he wanted to pay it forward. He didn’t have any spare tubes on him, but he said he had his company truck in downtown Cornwall that he could go get and come and pick me up. I was a little weary at first, but he didn’t seem creepy, so I accepted his offer, and off he went into town. As I was waiting, I told my Couchsurfing host that I was delayed yet again, and he offered to come pick me up, but I figured the other guy was probably already on his way back at this point.
The electric bike man showed up shortly thereafter in a smartcar! He said his boss had taken the keys to the company van, but we could fit my bike in the car. So I removed a wheel, and with a lot of rope, somehow we managed to fit my bike, my panniers, and my tent into this smartcar, and he drove me the final 9 km to the Couchsurfer’s place. He was really funny, but also a slightly terrifying driver (he’s from Montreal), but I made it there in one piece.
Once I finally got there, my host, Daniel, came out to meet me and help me bring all my stuff in. He had dinner prepared for me which was amazing, and I got to have my first shower outside of a campground since I left Toronto. Daniel is originally from Trois-Rivieres, but his partner is from Cornwall, so they had been living there for the last 3 years. I was able to ask him about what to check out around Trois-Rivieres, as I’ll be passing through there next week.
Since Cornwall is so small, almost everything was going to be closed on Sunday, except the Canadian Tire. So he offered to take me there in the morning to get some more tubes to get me to Montreal. Although I encountered such bad luck in the day, it was really lovely to end the day with such a welcoming, warm person. And a real bed to sleep in.
Total distance: 118 km
Total elevation: 293 m
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