Day 56: 124.43 km

July 1, 2012

Portneuf - Montmagny

 

The view I woke up to this morning

Today I followed the green route (highway 138) almost all of the way into Quebec. At about 1km I came across a detour that I had to take because highway 138 was under construction. So I turn right, bike up over the overpass, and down a decent hill to follow the detour routes. Turns out the detour takes you to highway 40, where bikes are not allowed. So I biked back up this decent hill, and down the other side of the overpass, where I ran into Rick. Rick is a newly retired principal that is also biking across Canada. Together we found a new route, and back up the over pass and down the hill I went again.

The new route took us right beside the river, and met back up with the green route. Rick and I chit chatted all the way, and then split up so he could go bike through the Plains of Abraham. I just looked up at them.

 

Then I entered old Quebec. It was stunning! I walked my bike through old Quebec and then sat down and had a very late lunch. 

 

 

After a nice lunch I boarded the ferry, and went across to the south side of the river. I biked along the green route on that side, and 44 km down the road I pull into coop des erables campground. I got their last open site! I am in a site for a large trailer so my tent looks out of place! I have such a lovely neighbour and after I showered we chatted and chatted. It was lovely! Now I'm sitting in my tent listening to peoples fires crackle as they play guitar and sing. I am loving camping tonight, even after the 50 some days of it! It's home. 

  

Day 55: 76.26 km

June 30, 2012

Tois Rivière - Portneuf

This morning I woke up surprisingly early for having such a late night. I blogged in the sun in Sam's backyard because I didn't want to wake anyone up. I seriously debated staying another day. I really did not want to leave. Then I hear my name, and Sam had cooked breakfast!! I'm really spoiled!!

After breakfast I packed up and Sam fixed his bike, then he biked with me for a bit. He took me down to la route verte (the green route) and I was off. The green route is especially for bikes, and it goes all the way to old Quebec!!! Perfect! 

 Thankfully I missed the lightning.

Today wasn't too eventful, but it was cut short because of the rain. There was a huge storm cloud overhead so I pulled into a cafe just as it started raining. I had the best chocolate cake! 

Then it seemed to clear up, so I hopped on my bike. Then it started to POUR. The rain hurt it was falling so hard. It felt like hail. It came down so fast and hard that the streets were flooding. I called it a day 60km down the road at camping panoramique, just as the sun came back out.

I admitted defeat because of the weather, and set up my tent. Even though it was 3 and sunny again. But the campground had a lot of trees and I couldn't see the next cloud. I set up my tent and went into the shower house just as thunder crashed and it started to pour again. Crazy weather! I showered and did laundry, and then it cleared up by 6pm.

I went to the restaurant and ordered pasta for dinner. Yes. There was a restaurant in the campground. And a library, and tennis courts and a pool and pretty much anything you can imagine. People lived there! 

It was a crazy good campground for $25!! They had a cyclist discount which was great! Other than the girl at the front, no one there spoke english, so I ate in my tent and watched movies all night. I ended up falling asleep to a movie. Good day!

Day 54: 63.1 km

June 29, 2012

Saint barthelemy - Tois Rivière

Other than my birthday celebration in Saskatoon, this was the best day of the trip. Without a doubt. And possibly of my life. I'll start from the beginning.

Today I woke up and saw another bike with gear!!!! I didn't recognize this bike, it wasn't any of the Quebec group, nor was it Annie, Thomas, or the Buddhist monk. I am really starting to recognize people's gear, bikes, tents, etc. this mystery biker was taking forever to get up, so I packed really slowly and completely wasted time, which was extremely creepy, in order to see who it was. Finally he got up. His name is Dave and he is biking from St. John's to Torino! We chatted for a long time. He had quite the experience. When he was just biking around, exploring this giant party in Quebec city a drunk driver (I assume) ran a red light and hit him!! He took 4 days off and had separated his shoulder, broken his nose and jaw, had over 30 stitches, and had a black eye!!! I am so impressed that he continued on! That would have been enough for me, he is such a trooper!! But it did made me want to avoid Quebec city.

After chatting with him for a while I left to have breakfast 30 km down the road in Louiseville. I get there and I am sitting trying to translate, via the Internet, what each meal is. Then I see "des hollandaise" or something like it and I was so excited! Eggs benedict!? My favorite! So I tried to say it to my lovely waitress, and that's what I ordered. When it came, I realized that is was definitely NOT eggs Benedict. It was the most incredible breakfast ever! The hash browns had bacon, sausage, ham, and hollandaise sauce with cheese melted On top. Thank you language barrier!!! It was amazing!!! Which really made me realize, the language barrier is half the fun of this province. It allowed me to try new things without me knowing! And I love the sound of French, I can just sit and listen without having any idea what is going on.

From Louiseville it was a pretty short stretch to Tois Rivière. I stopped for an icecream at DQ, and I have to say, it is so hilarious when I try to speak french when the person listening does speak english. It's kind of awkward! I was on the phone with mom and she complained about all my texting and biking. For the record, I slow right down, or stop for every text. And lots of times I just call the person back. So I promised mom I wouldn't text and bike. 5 minutes later, I am looking up across the street at these huge beautiful houses, and I crash. Well I didn't actually fall, but my bike did. My tire drifted while I was looking up and brushed the big curb. I hopped off my bike, but it crashed onto the sidewalk. All of the sudden I had two old French women all over me asking me questions in french. I thought they were asking if I was ok and I replied "oui oui" and then I heard a guy yell from across the street "they are asking if your hurt." there's my understanding French for you. " oh! No no no all good!" I quickly corrected. How embarrassing! It was too funny! That there is why i avoid cities haha. I right away called mom back and we agreed that texting may be safer than me getting distracted by houses. At least with texting I'm looking down and in my peripherals I can see the curb and the line! Too funny!

A couple other short funny things happened today. I raced a tractor down the highway. I won, cause he had to turn. I also had a fly go up my nostril! I sat there laughing for a long time at the word nostril.

I biked on, and had a delicious gelato break outside of Tois rivière. Then I pulled into town. Tois rivière is a decently big city, but not too much so. I felt like every restaurant had patios and everyone was outside enjoying the sun. 

 

St. Laurent river

It turns out the bridge I wanted to take to avoid Quebec city does not allow bikes! So Quebec city it is. As I am biking through Tois rivière, I pass a lot of construction. I heard my tube blow, but I was on a narrow bridge walking lane with another biker going fast behind me. I saw a gas station up ahead and decided I'd ride it out and park in there because I couldn't stop on the bridge. As I am crossing the street to get to the gas station, this guy, who I assumed was crazy, passes me and points at me out his window. He was driving alone and I was so confused? Maybe it was because of my tire? I pull into the gas station and he was there! He came running up to chat. His name is Sam and he speaks a little bit of English, but we do struggle to communicate with some things. But he is very patient and wants to learn. He just got back from Europe from a bike trip with his friend and next summer wants to bike down to Mexico! He has a b.o.b too! And his friend had the same bike as me! We chatted for a while and then we threw my bike in his truck and I was calling it a day! I figured if a guy shows me pictures of his tour bike all loaded up, and has a kayak in the back of his truck, he's a legit guy. But don't worry, I sent dad his license plate picture as well. Just in case. 

We had so much fun!!!! It turns out that my tire blew, not my tube! So I needed a whole new tire. He took me to his friends store and I got a really good one for a deal. Then we hopped in his all-terrain vehicle and ripped around for hours!!!!! I had so much fun!!!! I couldn't stop smiling! But I couldn't smile because bugs and dirt would get in my mouth! What a dilemma! It was incredible! And bumpy! And muddy! And fast! We took dirt roads through the forests down to the beach and then swam in the river. It felt so nice! 

 

Then we went back and showered and he made me dinner. Very French, with wine and cheese. 

I'm camping out in his parents back yard for the night and even though they don't speak English (his mom does a little) they are so nice and hospitable. Then, when I thought the day couldn't get any more fun, it turns out that there was a giant festival in town. 

 So Sam, his friend Kevin (who toured Europe with him and is planning his own trip across Canada), Jessie, and Jessie's boyfriend all went to this concert! And they were all such amazing people! So nice and including! 

And it was insane how much Kevin looked like a guy back in Saskatoon, Rory. Jessie looked like a girl I went to school with, (Lindsay) and Jessie's boyfriend (who is nameless because I forget... But a really nice guy) looks like Luke Monette, all friends back in Saskatoon. It felt like I was in Saskatoon! Except the music and language was in French. It was such a good concert. 

It is incredible how French is their provincial language, so this was a provincial band, and they were so popular. So many people of all ages were there, dancing and singing to everything. Then we all walked around down town and then Jessie and her boyfriend went home and Kevin, Sam and I went and hung out by the river and they showed me pictures of their bike tour through Europe, and the pictures of them skiing in the French alps! It looked like so much fun! Then I showed them all of my pictures.

It was nice to sleep in someone's yard. Even though I didn't know them, it felt very safe. I guess it was late, and I had my drowsy allergy pills, but I fell asleep instantly. I felt very safe. Such an amazing day!! And so incredibly random! One moment I'm pushing 130 km in the hot sun missing mom and dad and back home, and the next I'm cruising around in a buggie, swimming in a river, and at a concert with new friends.

Day 53: 116.53km

June 28, 2012

Montreal- Saint Antoine- Saint Barthèlemy

Today was interesting, but so much fun! I got a later start because the bike shop didn't open until 9:30am (which was AWESOME) but an even later start because there was an accident and so much traffic! There is 1.8 million people in Montreal, and I'm pretty sure the population of Cranbrook (25,000) was on that highway!!! Alain said that when he went to a hockey game there, they announced that there was 21,000 in the arena! It's so hard to picture!!!

We got to the bike shop, and not only did they babysit my bike for the night, but as I asked they had made sure my tires were good and also did extra to my bike! And it didn't cost much at all! I think they gave me a deal! Originally I had called and the person I had spoken to didn't speak English so I thought it was going to be tough to explain what I needed but the guys there that helped me spoke great English and were so supportive! So everything worked great!!!

I biked a bit down the road and had breakfast at Tim Horton's. It was my first meal I had to fully order in French. The lady helping me must have had extraordinary problem solving skills, but I finally spit out some words and got my meal. I'm so proud!! The language barrier is frustrating, but in a way, entertaining and fun.

I continued on highway 158, but knew I needed to eventually end up on highway 138 down south. So I went down highway 339 south. I passed through some of the most beautiful little towns I have ever seen! I loved it! They reminded me of the story the hockey sweater. They were all so colorful and there were so many flowers! I loved it. Small Quebec towns are not like small Ontario towns. It's the same sized dot on a map, but the towns have 1000 people in Quebec, where as in Ontario it's a town of 3 homes.

My future house. Not the best picture of it but it is the cutest little stone house with that twisted wood fence, and so many flowers on their fence!!

 

My favourite town ever. The buildings were so colourful.

 

 

As I biked into my favorite small town, l'assomption, I found out that I was lost. Turns out highway 158 goes through, and turns into highway 138 and highway 339 did not go to highway 138. I had to forage a way to highway 138. 3 highways later, I was on the beautiful highway 138.

It was so sunny, and I was biking right beside mansions backing onto a beautiful river. It was so nice! 

I also got to chat to Michelle, Andi, and Brittany! That took up 3.5 hours! It was fantastic to catch up with them!!! So occupying as well. I have a microphone in my headphone so it's hands free chitchatting. As Brittany and I ended our conversation I could tell I was bonking. I had no energy, the sun was setting, I had been out of water for a while, and I had no idea if there was a campground near by. I charged my phone and found out about a campground a little off the highway, and went there to set up. It was a really pretty campground, I went to bed early. Turned out to be a perfect day.

 

The water mill thing