Day 54 - Mont St. Hilaire to Trois Rivieres

If there is one thing we have learned on this trip - it is if you start the day with a dry tent, then you are pretty much guaranteed to have rain in the day!!!!   Now why is that??????

Anyway - Neil and I got off to an early start - we left at 7 AM. Now there was a great bakery just three K from the campsite. We did not stop - first it wasn't open, we did not want to wait and we were on cook duty so we had to get to camp and REALLY - how could we justify stopping just 3 K into the day!!!!!!

We had a beautiful trip along the Richelieu River. It was beautiful, the roads were pretty decent and it was FLAT. I don't think we have ever had such a flat day. There was also a bit of a tail wind so that made us cruise along at a pretty good clip - I saw the low 30s for quite a bit of the day. I can't believe how well I am cycling - I have never done that before. Do you think I am becoming good at this?????  At one point during the day we had stopped and someone thought we were "professional" cyclists!!!!!!   I got a good laugh out of that!!!!

There are times when I wonder!!!!!   Take for instance my little fall yesterday. While no skin was broken, I did manage to bruise a muscle in my leg - high up on the inner thigh and while it didn't really bother the cycling, I could feel it nag a bit throughout the day. Stupid stupid stupid!!!!!!   I am sure it will be fine in a day or two, but what a dumb thing to do. I am lucky it was just a bruise!!!!!

We stopped after 60K (took us that long to find some place that was open) for our mid morning snack. Now we were just going to have toast, but when we saw crepes with fresh strawberries - well we had to have that!!!!  And with the maple syrup - it was so worth the stop.

Then pedal to the medal and we were back on the road, but not for too long as we had to take a ferry across the river. At this point, quite a few of the group caught up with us and Megan, Greig and Bill had already passed us when we were in the restaurant. We weren't as lucky with this ferry and actually had to wait about 15 minutes for it. It was quite a big one compared to the others that we took yesterday. On the other side and back to the cycling.

We left the others behind as we settled in our crazy pace!!!!  Actually not a crazy pace - I love riding that pace. We were now on a route called Chemin du Roi. It was a small winding route, but had some interesting places along it. We came across a general store that also sold antiques, did dinner theatre and sold food. So we had a fresh squeezed lemonade with our peanut butter sandwichs and lets not forget the maple cookie. Yum!!!!!!

While we were eating, several others caught up to us. We took off before they were finished and we learned later that very soon after we left, the heavens opened and it poured!!!!!!   You see we had been dodging a HUGE thundercloud all day. Yet part of the sky was blue. So we headed out from the general store and although we got a bit of rain, it wasn't that much, although we did put our rain jackets on. Apparently some of the others got drenched!!!!!   Although it rained for about 45 minutes, my shoes and feet didn't even get wet. Then all of a sudden we had blue sky and the thunder cloud was behind us. It was very weird and I tried to get a picture, but how do you get a picture of the entire sky???????

There were LOTS of twists and turns today and several people got lost. Hmmmm - trying to take a shortcut and not actually paying attention to where the campsite was. It is NOT in Trois Rivieres, but close to it!!!!!!   Of course, Neil had no problem finding the way, although I did correct him once or twice. I am starting to feel like a back seat driver, but mostly I just keep quiet and ride!

We were on cook duty tonight and we had a complicated recipe. Beef bourginon. Yikes - we started at 3 PM and didn't have dinner ready until 7, but by the time we cooked the meat, chopped the vegetables and let it stew for a bit - well it wasn't ready until then. And then by the time we got things cleaned up - well it becomes a late evening.

OH yes - you will NEVER guess who joined our trip. So we knew that Mary Kelly was going to join our group in Toronto. She had dropped off her bags, but never actually joined us until last night. I didn't see her because I had already gone to bed, but this morning when I got up and she popped out of her tent - I almost died!!!!   Mary and I rode together on Tour Arctic!!!!!   I KNOW - who knew!!!   But I didn't remember Mary's last name so it didn't sink in. That was pretty funny.

We have a pretty nice camp ground tonight and for the THIRD time, our cook group got a nice shelter with a concrete floor to cook in. That is very important and helps to not work with grass underfoot. After we got into camp and got our tents set up - we had THREE rain showers and I mean it POURED each time. We arrived at 3 PM and the last people didn't arrive until 6 PM - those would be the lost ones!!!!!

And we have so many family and friends coming out to meet the folks from Quebec. I think Michel is out for the THIRD night in a row with his friends or family. We have met Danny's friend, Carole, but the best was when we arrived at the ferry. The lady at the ticket booth told us there was a car in Lane 5 that was waiting for a group of cyclists. When we looked at the car - we didn't recognize anyone so didn't think it was for us. I mean - it was a car!!!!!   But when we got on the ferry - turns out it was Jacques' sister!!!!!!   She had tried to hook up with him at the campsite, but that didn't happen, so she got one of our maps and met him at the ferry!!!!!!   How cool is that!!!!!!!!!!!

We are getting a bit more adventuresome with our detours. There is loads of construction around and as a result, there is lots of construction. Lots of constructions equates to detours!!!!!!   We came across one fairly early in the day that announced the road was closed because a bridge was out. Hmmmm - it is only two K away. Do we tempt fate and see what the situation is?????   Last time we didn't take the closed road - we found out that we could have. So we forged ahead. We arrived at the bridge and it was GONE - and a full crew of workers were doing something to make it better!!!!   Almost ready to turn around and Neil noticed a small road to the right of the bridge. Hmmmmm - it says Cul-de-Sac, but we could see what is on the other side. Well - turns out that this little road just went around the bridge and met up with the highway we were supposed to be on. HMMM - DONE!!!!   We were through the detour in sno time.

And YES - I want to move to Quebec. Buy a little house on the Richelieu River. There were so many pretty ones - cute little houses with loads of detail. Big verandas and great views!!!!!!!!

On that note - got to get up to get breakfast ready.

Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!