Thursday, August 15, 2013

Day 57 - Quebec City - Riviere Ouelle

Last night was our last indoor stay until we are done the trip!!!!!   Oh my goodness - it seems to be coming to an end rather quickly - but WAIT - there are still a number of riding days left!!!!

Up at the usual time, however I could have slept in. You see there were hundreds of Rovers or whatever the older boy scouts are called and some of them were rather boisterous in the night and making a LOT of noise so I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked. Got everything on the truck - not necessarily in the right spot, but on the truck and then headed off to breakfast.

This was a cafeteria, but you were allowed EIGHT items. The big issue was - what counted as an item. I never figured out if toast and jam was one item or two and how many pieces of toast counted as one item???  Oh well - I didn't go hungry so that was OK, but it was a bit confusing.

Neil and I were off late - well it was 7:45 AM or something like that before we headed out. I was a bit apprehensive due to the traffic around the university that we dealt with on the way in. But other than having to deal with a detour - we did just fine. The detour added about 2 - 3 K to the length we had to ride, but we ended up on a beautiful bike path along the Saint Laurence. I have to say - the bikes paths in Quebec are the BEST!!!!!!

Then it was another ferry to Levis where we hopped on another fabulous bike path and followed that for some way before we hit the highway 132. This was a gorgeous road - flat for the most part, wide shoulders, a bit of sun, but the temperature was perfect for cycling and we had a TAILWIND. Couldn't ask for much more!!!!

We stopped at a little bakery for our morning coffee (tea). Found some yummy blueberry and maple cinnamon buns. The buns were HUGE, but I had no problem eating the entire thing myself. Then back on the bikes where we were often zipping along in the mid 30s with little effort. Now if I had that much power all the time!!!!   Alas - it was mostly the wind!!!!!   No worries - I will take a tailwind whenever I can get one.

A bit later (after we had digested the cinnamon buns), we found a little cafe for lunch. The cafe used ingredients that were local and fresh. I had a delicious soup, salad and an open faced ham and cheese sandwich that was to die for. It was YUMMY.

Back on the road - we stopped to take some pictures. Near the end of the day, we came upon a MAJOR detour. Hmmm - can we go around it (through the town)? No. Can we go through it? No - so we ended up taking the detour which added almost 10 K to the day and even worse - it took us over some crappy roads and into that wind that we had been enjoying as a tailwind all day. Eventually we made it back onto the right road and into camp. Where we discovered that some of the folks went THROUGH the construction zone!!!!!!   Good grief - there was mud, they had to carry their bikes for part of the way - I am sure the construction workers must have gotten a few laughs over that!!!!!   Anyway - even though we had an extra 10 K for that detour - I am glad we took it. Made the tailwind seem even better knowing how bad the headwind was!!!!

My tent was still wet from the night of rain a couple of days ago - I did NOT dry it out on the rest day. So I set it up and let it dry. Then we had a great supper and reviewed where we are going over the next couple of days. I had no idea that we were going so far north of Quebec City. I haven't been in this area in YEARS!!!!!

All I can say about this group is that they are totally crazy!!!!!!!   And what happens in camp stays in camp!!!!!    But I got some good pictures of people and they of me (happens when I leave that darn camera lying around!!!!)   Can't wait to go through all the pictures. Lots of great memories in there!!!!!

Just crawled into my tent and I hear pitter patter. You are kidding me - it is raining????   Yup - well it is raining even more,  but not that bad - it always sounds worse in the tent. Good timing though - as long as it stops before morning - I am OK with that. It was cool in camp tonight - and while I would rather have cool than hot - a couple of degrees warmer would be nice.

I have a small book light that I use in my tent to read my book at night. I had it in the room over the rest day (no lamp in the room). I didn't put that little light back where it belongs and so popped into the truck just before getting into my tent to find it. I couldn't find it and I was wondering out loud where it was. Larry said - "is it this???" and there is was in the lost and found. I guess it had fallen out of my basket when I was looking for something. What a coincidence. Larry saved the day as I would have been ticked off to be in my tent  -  awake and not able to read!!!!!!!

152 K for the day - was supposed to be 140K, but the two detours added 12 K.

On that note - I am out of here.

Have a great day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!!!!!!!

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