Starting Over Nothing stays the same forever, and so the HOG toy parade through Ottawa is now history. In its place a new annual event was born, and after some debate was christened the "Mystery Tour." One thing that didn't change however was the weather. For as long as I can remember it has never rained on the day of the event.
It certainly was frigid though. Caroline and I rode up to the Tim Hortons on Walkley to register with all our cold weather gear on. Despite a single digit reading on the thermometer, we were kept toasty warm by all our high tech apparel. We also had electric vests on, but we both found that we never needed to even plug them in; a testament to how far high performance motorcycle fashion has come. We pulled into the parking lot to be greeted by chapter volunteers. We paid our fee, signed a waiver, and promptly headed indoors to receive our free cup of Timmy's tea. Then it was back outside to meet old friends, and watch other riders arrive. One new rider that caught my interest turned out to be an employee of a Harley shop in Maryland . He rode in on the new Buell Ulysses (actually borrowed from a customer) that had received such rave reviews in the motorcycle press. I learned from him that he had been planning to purchase one of the big touring Glides, but that after several hundred miles behind the Buell's handlebars, he was so impressed by the overall performance of this new model that perhaps this would be the bike for him instead.
As the sun rose, so did the ambient temperatures. The route for the Mystery Tour conveniently went by our house, so we decided to hit the road and make a brief stop-over on the way to change into some lighter clothing as we were starting to get a bit too warm. I don't think either of our bikes' saddle bags would have been able to accommodate the bulk of our well insulated riding gear later on. The Mystery Tour route was kept very simple, and though instructions were provided at each of the two checkpoints, none were really needed. The first stop was by the Rideau Canal in Merrickeville, a popular Ottawa valley tourist destination. Here everyone had an opportunity to improve their chance for a prize at the end of the day by trying out their luck on a coin toss. I tossed a loony towards the Salvation Army kettle, and overshot it by several feet. Caroline, having overheard that the caretaker of the kettle had been getting lots of practice, asked if he would throw her contribution in for her instead (for double the price). Sure enough he got it in, and she got a ticket that entered her for a draw later on. We picked up the route instructions for the next checkpoint which consisted of just two roads; from Merrickville we were to go south to Brockville , then turn right and head west for about twenty minutes on highway two. Even I could remember that! The second checkpoint was also a second chance at winning tickets for prizes. Here we could place our loonies on a checkerboard of coloured squares. A color patch would be pulled from a box, and if it and your selected square was the same color, you win. Seeing how my bike is purple, that was the color I bet on - and won! The final destination of the Mystery Tour was back in Ottawa. There were two suggested methods to get there: the scenic route that kept to minor roads and small towns, or the expedient route on the 416 highway. We were cautioned however to be aware of our time as food would be served at Capone's at 2 pm. We decided to stick with the small roads, and despite being one of the first going through the checkpoints, we didn't get to Capone's until 2:05 . In fact the parking lot there looked more than half full by then. Obviously many chose the major highway. It's a pity that the time constraint was so tight since there were many nice places that we could have, and indeed would have liked to have stopped that day. On the other hand, there was little time to get bored.
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