Report Rideau Tour—Ron Buck and Michel Bernier—August 10, 2024
As always, the most difficult task in planning a tour was managing the weather gods.
The Tour was planned for Saturday 10 August with Sunday 11 August as a backup.
Initially, the 10th looked good with the 11th pretty iffy. Then a ‘Special Weather Statement’ began to appear for Thursday evening and all-day Friday with extensive rain as a residue of Hurricane Debby. At one point it showed rain until 5 AM Saturday but then showed clear.
In the end, we caught a perfect weather window with clear and sunny skies throughout with perfect driving temperatures from approximately 17C through 27 C with no humidity.
The other planning issue was how to navigate around quite extensive roadworks both outbound and inbound without making the route unduly long. In the end, we had 18 cars in two Groups of 9 with a total of 32 members who met at the Swan on the Rideau at 0815 on a clear and fine Saturday morning all raring to go!
I would like to express my thanks to all who attended and, in particular, to Mike Bernier who took my route preferences and magically programmed them for Garmin and who also led one Group while I led the other. Similarly, my thanks to George Butts and Barry Rowsome who excelled as Sweeps.
The route was relatively long clocking in at just over 300 KM, but it included something for everyone. Five sets of twisties (southbound on Narrows Lock Road, Opinicon Road, Hutchings Road, North Shore Road and northbound on Narrows Lock Road), lunch at Stirling Lodge in Newboro, shopping at Kilborn’s and Ice Cream at The Opinicon. The folks at Stirling were very accommodating as they worked us in around 80 resident guests!
The timings worked well in that none of our stops were rushed yet we maintained schedule and arrived at our destination as planned at 5:30. We maintained a ten-minute Group separation outbound and until our afternoon bio break at the Tim Hortons on Highway 7.
Shortly thereafter, as cars peeled off for their homebound trips, we merged the groups into one of 12 cars arriving at the Swan as mentioned at 5:30. I greatly enjoyed organizing, planning and driving the tour under ideal weather conditions but mostly getting to interact with other Club members. It is my hope all had a very enjoyable day centered around our Miatas, twisties and, of course, Ice Cream!
Ron Buck