The Last Ride

Our friend, Eric, is heading to Calgary for work. To send him off we thought we'd take him out to eat. He had other ideas. Instead he wanted to round up the old gang and head up to Hardwood Hills for one last ride like we used to do back in the early 2000s.

When we were younger we used to go somewhere to mountain bike nearly every weekend in the summer. Hardwood Hills (just north of Barrie) was one of our favourite places to go. It's a bit out of the way, but they have a lot of great trails there.

Not everyone was available to ride that day. I went up with Jim, while Eric took his son and picked up Kathleen along the way. Peter took his niece and nephew out.

I have to say this was my first ride of the year. It's a bit embarrassing I know, but age has started to catch up with me. Over the past few years my right knee has been giving me problems if I overdo it. So I really have to be careful.

The drive up the 400 was slow, slow, slow. We headed up on Saturday of the Thanksgiving Day long weekend. The same time most cottagers were leaving town for possibly the last outing of the year.

It wasn't overly busy when we arrived at Hardwood. The parking lot was less than half full. We got a group rate from the girl selling the day passes (normally around $13 per person) and soon were off.

We rode the 8-km Fun Trail first. It was relatively easy. A good way to warm up.

Next was the 11-km Serious Trail. It was enjoyable. Though, by the end, most of the guys were drained. I don't think any of us had done much riding this year. I was most concerned about my butt. Normally if you haven't ridden much that's the part of the body that hurts the most after your first ride.

My rear end actually didn't cause me any problems but, once again, it was my right knee. I was beginning to feel it near the end of our second run. Still I felt fairly fresh and after taking a short breather decided to go out again.

Everyone else was too tired to ride except for Eric. He decided to join me on the 8-km Crank'd Trail while the others rested.

I have to say, when we first started up the gradual incline at the beginning neither of us had as much energy as we thought we did. It was a slow ascent. Still we rode through the trails until I noticed my Cannondale HeadShok fade to nothing. Fearing I might damage my frame we stopped riding the trail and took the gradual hill back to the start/finish area. That was that.

In the evening we met the others for dinner at Frankie Tomatto's (on Woodbine north of Steeles) to pack on all the calories we had ridden off during the day. Marilyn, Jan, Rob and Lester joined us there. And Dennis made a surprise appearance with his girlfriend having already made plans beforehand.

Pomodoro Italian Restaurant in Wellington

The foodie group really lived up to its name this weekend. Doing the extraordinary for great food we made a 2-hour (each way), nearly 200 kilometre trek (each way again) out to Wellington (near Trenton/Belleville) to go to an Italian restaurant, Pomodoro, for dinner.

Out of the six of us, I believe it was just Peter and Janice who had gone there before. It was a first for Brenda, Gabe, Fiona and myself.

The plan was constantly in flux. We picked up Gabe right after texting him to see if he was available to go. He had just finished having dim sum with his family at Metro Square up in Markham.

Next we met Brenda along the way in the McDonald's parking lot off the 401 at Brock Road and Consumers Drive in Whitby. She lives out that way.

Since there were now six of us we split into two cars. Peter drove Fiona and Janice. Brenda took Gabe and I. Peter gave us a walkie talkie so both cars could keep in touch with one another.

The drive should have been uneventful, but it wasn't. As usual, there were idiot drivers out there. Before long we were waist deep in an awful traffic jam that blocked the eastbound 401. Stupid drivers running into one another.

At that point we were ahead of Peter. We radioed them and told them what was going on. In the jam they managed to catch up to us. They told us we should get off the highway and take a side street. We were in the left lane right by the exit as we saw them getting off. It was too late for us. We had already passed the off ramp. Now we were stuck.

Peter had made reservations for 5:30. It was already 5:00 and we were at least an hour away from the restaurant. We radioed Peter's car and suggested they call the restaurant to ask them to change our reservations to 6:30. They said they could only hold our table until 6:00. I guess they were quite busy.

Anyway, Peter's car managed to avoid most of the road problems and get to the restaurant by 6:00. We followed about 15 minutes later. Not too bad all things considered.

Pomodoro is not very large. It's quite nicely decorated though with its tin ceilings and mood lighting.

Currently they have their summer menu. From it we ordered a number of appetizers including the Caesar Salad - croutons, pancetta, medium boiled egg, reggiano; the Fritto Misto - vegetables, crispy calamari, shrimp, fish, wild leek aioli; and Antipasto Platter - marinated vegetables, olives, prosciutto, cheese, grilled bread if I remember correctly.

For the mains we ordered the Veal Parmesan and Spaghetti Pomodoro; the Slow Smoked pork with romesco sauce, grilled potatoes & vegetables, the Fresh Fusilli al forno with 4 oz. lobster tail,shrimp, scallop, tilapia, cheese sauce; and Spaghetti and Meatballs. Brenda ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio to go with our meal.

For dessert we had Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with strawberry compote, toasted walnuts; Chocolate Cake, with zabaglione, fruit compote; and Raspberry Semi Freddo with biscotti, raspberry sauce.

We shared everything. It was all very good.