Nelson To Merchison To Westport

I couldn't post my blog yesterday because we had no internet connection. Besides, I was wiped out from the ride. Today's blog will recap the last two days if I can remember everything. 

I seem to be the last one to start the ride each day. I can't finish my morning routine in time. This is typical of me on previous rides. I don't mind riding alone. In fact, sometimes I prefer it. The Nelson to Murchison ride was no exception.

The ride out of town had no tricky turns and I was following the route perfectly. After a couple of kms, a local cyclist caught me and asked where I was going. When I told him, he told me to follow him. He led me onto the cycle path which bypassed the busy highway. We rode along it for several kms until we met my original route. He turned off shortly and went his own way. It was nice talking to him and we didn't have to struggle with our accents to understand each other. He had just started riding again after having cancer and being treated with chemotherapy. His goal is to start racing in some local races once he has reached proper conditioning. I hope that he got a better workout after he left me because I was not able to push him much.

Vineyards leaving Nelson

So I was on my ride, a truly grueling experience. It was very long with a couple of hard climbs. Even though I had a couple of cafe stops, I limped into our motel very tired and sore.

Here is a link to my ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/255012511

Murchison is a very small town. It has a junction in the middle with buildings a half block in each direction. One of these buildings was the River Cafe where we had dinner. Ann had a Asian lamb salad while I had pasta with chicken in a cream sauce. It's good that I was going to ride the next day.

Because we had no internet, we went to bed early.

This morning we had breakfast at the River Cafe, an amusing experience. We ordered our meals as well as our drinks at the counter. Meals came out first in reverse order. Paul was one of the first to order and finally left when his meal didn't appear after everyone else was served. Our coffee orders came as we were finishing our meal. To be fair, we were not in a hurry and both dinner and breakfast were very good.

The ride today was sort of long, but it was mostly descending. The route went through a nature preserve alongside a river. The woods we went through were fairly dense. I could hear lots of bird calls. The cicadas were very noisy as were they on precious routes. I had a pleasant stop at a cafe where I had a banana muffin and the tastiest iced coffee that I have ever had. It had a couple shots of espresso poured over ice and it was topped with vanilla ice cream. 

I arrived in Westport slightly damp from a light rain shower.

Her name s the link to my ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/255012612

We sat with several of our riders at the Town House Reataurant which is rated #1 by Trip Advisor. It was the proper rating. I had venison fillets with a spicy pepper sauce. It came with a breaded stuffed eggplant with a butter/sour cream paste. Ann had pasta with monk dish and reported That it was excellent. I also had a large Liberity Sauvignon Bomb, a really good hoppy beer.

It is now getting late. I am shutting down for the day.