Happy Canada Day (And Beyond)

For the third time in as many years, I’ve celebrated Canada Day on the road. And each of the last two have been fantastic. Whether it was Ottawa in 2014 or Moose Jaw in 2015, both were great. For the record, Canada Day in Moose Jaw remains my favourite Canada Day, ever. So much so that I even sent an email to Glenda (my Warm Showers host in Moose Jaw) to thank her again for such a great day. I also contacted fellow cyclist and friend Moritz who was also there for the festivities. I didn’t contact Marie and Connor because, well … I don’t have contact information for them. By the way, Glenda responded quickly and mentioned that she too was thinking back to last year’s fun day.

This year’s Canada Day was noticeably less celebratory. Not so much because of my bike and my current situation but because, well … there aren’t a lot of Canada Day celebrations in Oban. Go figure. That said, it was still a good day and there was even quite a bit of sun to brighten the mood.

Essentially the day was filled with lounging around, going for a bit of a mini hike around the campground and, of course, desperately trying to get caught up with the backlog of daily updates. Spoiler Alert: I’m going to combine several days into this one update so I can finally catch up!

By the way, I’m trying something new with this update – at least, I think it’s the first time I’ve tried this. I’ve separated the weekend’s photos into multiple galleries – one for each day included in this update … well, each day with several pictures anyway. I did this not for any particular reason other than it seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course, whether multiple galleries on one page will work or not, well … that remains to be seen.

July 2nd was much the same as July 1st with the exception of the shining sun being replaced by the more typical overcast skies and more-than-occasional showers.

I won’t lie, I wasn’t overly active on this particular day but I did pedal to (and around) town including up the somewhat (perhaps even “rather”) steep hill to McCaig’s Tower for some beautiful views of the area. The tower itself is impressive too, although I personally think it’s most impressive as seen from the ferry – perhaps that’s because it was the first time I saw it and didn’t expect it.

I coasted my way back down to the main strip where I then pedalled along the shore out towards Dunollie Castle. Again, a mere five minute ride. It was mid-afternoon at which point I realized I hadn’t really eaten much (i.e. anything) today. As such, I returned to town and made my way over to The Lorne, a local pub, to have some lunch. I read about it on one of the local maps and decided to give it a try. I mean, it’s a pub in Scotland. How bad could it be? Spoiler Alert: Not bad at all!

It was pretty quiet at the pub while I was there – it was only about 3:00 PM – but it was a nice place to have lunch. As an added bonus, they had lunch deals from 12:00 – 5:00. That’s not why I went there but it was a pleasant surprise. And speaking of pleasant surprises, the beer I had at The Lorne was free! Okay, not exactly free but sort of free. The beer was courtesy of my friend Joanne who donated a beer to the cause. Thanks! It went very well with the Haddock & Chips (and peas). Side note: When did tartar sauce become so good? For reasons I won’t get into, I’m off ketchup these days (much to the amusement of some of my friends) and tartar sauce proved to be a good substitute … although, I think I prefer mayonnaise with the chips. Side-side note: I’m still a bit amazed how good fries (or chips) with mayonnaise is.

After lunch I eventually made my way back to the campground where I enjoyed a quiet evening of relaxation.

And that brings us to July 3rd. Sunday. After spending much of the morning in my tent hiding from the rain, I decided I really needed to stretch my legs. Rather than bike back to town again, I opted to go for a walk. Normally I’m not all that big on walking because, well … it’s slow. But since I have plenty of time on my hands, a walk seemed in order.

As usual, I didn’t really have much of a plan when I set out but after walking up and over a few hills and past more than a few sheep I found myself arriving back in Oban. I say that like it was a major hike. In reality, it was only about 5 km. While in town, I ended up stopping in for some more groceries – not so much for my remaining time in Oban but for whenever I get back on the road again. I don’t expect to see many big grocery stores once I leave Oban.

As one might expect, grocery shopping in Scotland is pretty much the exact same as grocery shopping in North America … essentially the same products with different brands. Given that I don’t really have any brand loyalty to food products (or any other product), grocery shopping hasn’t been anything to write home about (except that I guess I just did).

After grocery shopping, I walked down to the pier where I was tempted to try some of the fresh steamed mussels that were on offer. However, I then had a few flashbacks to my nights of working at Red Lobster oh so many years ago and, well … I just couldn’t do it. Ugggghhh. The other problem was I really didn’t want a FULL order – seriously, they give you a HEAPING pile of mussels for £3.75 … I suppose I could’ve asked if they would let me try one.

From there I began the 5 km walk back to the campground – a walk that was entirely free of rain, I might add. Along the way, I passed by a real estate office with a collection of current listings in the window. How could I NOT look? After scanning over a few uninspired offerings, I noticed one that was very tempting. Seriously. VERY tempting. As usual though, it was bit out of my price range … especially for a fixer upper. But you can check it out by clicking here (if it’s still available).

My evening concluded with the preparation of my usual attempt at pasta on my alcohol stove. Surprisingly, it was better than usual – although, I really should pick up some salt at some point. Just to be clear, the pasta was nowhere near as good as the fish and chips (and beer) at The Lorne. But, there’s a chance it was better than the mussels (admittedly, there could be a personal bias there).

And that brings us to today. The fourth of July. Happy Independence Day to anyone from the U.S. that may happen to be reading. If all goes well I’ll be completely caught up with these daily entries before the library closes for lunch at 1:00 PM. (Note: I had to return after lunch)

Hopefully, I’m now just one day away from finding out the status of my new bike. I’m still not sure what I’ll be doing with my old bike but I’d better figure that out soon. I still might have to spend Tuesday night in Oban depending on when (or perhaps, if) my new bike arrives. On the upside, even if it arrives late in the day there would still be enough daylight to hit the road for a few hours. That’s not to say I’m not enjoying my stay in Oban. I am. But I also really need to make some progress on my tour. There’s still a lot to see and do and my once leisurely schedule has now become significantly less leisurely. Worst case scenario, apparently there’s a ferry that will take me directly to Amsterdam from Newcastle.

And that concludes a long post for a long weekend – at least, it was a long weekend back in North America anyway.

As mentioned before, I’m hopeful tomorrow will bring closure to my current bicycle dilemma and allow me to get back on the road. Maybe tomorrow …