August 9, 2024. Trenton to Cobourg, Ontario




 Because of the big day yesterday, we weren’t in a hurry to get started, and had planned a shorter route today after the longer one yesterday. We also wanted a shorter route because today was the day it was going to rain a lot. So we didn't get started until 11:00. We could tell it had rained a lot overnight, because the puddles were bigger and the little stream the motel driveway crossed had much more water in it. It was drizzling when we left but just after we crossed the town from east to west, it started to rain pretty hard. We're thankful we had a pretty reasonable paved shoulder because otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to continue until it stopped because the road was pretty busy.
 At one point, we saw some sort of shelter on the other side of the road, and pulled over to it to take a break and get out of the rain. It looked out on a wetland, and had placards explaining about the value of wetlands, etc, and how this was a constructed wetland for the treated wastewater to go into to become even cleaner. After we had been there a while and had a snack while the rain continued to beat hard on the roof, we decided that we better continue on. Just at that moment, the rain started beating on the roof even harder with a tremendous noise! Kay said, let’s stay put till it sounds like it did before, when it was “just” a heavy rain. So we hung out longer, and finally it eased off and the noise on the roof sounded like it had earlier. By the time we got helmets on and were ready to go out, the noise on the roof had quieted even more. 
     Our Shelter From the Storm

    We rode into Brighton just after that, and thankfully after that point, the rain never got quite as heavy.
  Jim had found a place to stay on Expedia that turned out to be a VBRO. It was in the basement area of a townhouse the family lived in, and there was also a washer and dryer down there that they let us use, so we were able to wash and dry our clothes and hang up all the other wet things to dry. 
 Jim went to a nearby small grocery store just before it closed and quickly grabbed what he could find from their limited selection: some cheese, ice cream, bagged salad kit and some bread. Lo and behold the cheese was vegan cheese that was all fat and no protein nor calcium, and the Ben & Jerry's dessert was just dessert, as it was non-dairy—so a lot of fat and a lot of sugar, and also no protein nor calcium! So Jim really didn't get very good nutritional stuff but the bread was good and the salad was good that we got from there.

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