Anticipation. Sometimes that is much worse than the actual thing. So it was still raining when we went to bed last night and whenever I woke up - I could hear the rain. When I awoke at 5 AM - still raining. ICK!!!! I always say that I don't mind to get caught in the rain, but to have to leave in the rain - I hate that.
I got bundled up - jersey, bolero and my big rain jacket. Put my knee warmers on as well. And my shoe covers. I took my rain hat but did not put it on. I should have!!!! It wasn't so bad when we left and we had a big hill to go down to get to the bike path. It wasn't as bad as I remember, but I still went slow as I am afraid of sliding!
Got to the ferry which crosses to Levi. I love that ferry - you get such an awesome view of Quebec City. Then we were on the bike path and we were off. It was a pretty direct route today - stay on one highway - 132 and turn to get to the camp site. Can't get much easier than that. The first part of the day was a bit slow - I was slow - my legs were slow? There was a bit of a head wind but not too bad. Kirk and I made pretty good time, but we got DRENCHED. Oh yes - the rain was coming down so hard - it was crazy. I think we had a crazier rain last year - but still - we were wet!!!!
I had one of those AHA moments today. I have been complaining about the ability to read the map with my presciption sunglasses on. Well - I had no choice but to take them off today because the rain was coming down so hard. OH MY GOD - I can read the map no problem!!! And then I had an even greater AHA moment because I can take the presciption lens OUT of the sunglasses and still have the sunglasses. The prescription part is behind the sunglass lens. Now isn't that a perfect solution. I don't really need them to ride - would be better - but I can see just fine - just not for super long distance. OK - that makes life a whole lot easier for finding a replacement pair which I will need at some point as these ones are fairly fragile
We stopped at TIm's in Montmagny. I wanted something that was hot and we had just gone through 10 K of horrible downpour so TIm's seemed like a good place to stop. Had soup and felt better. Leslie and Dave arrived shortly after us. Then we were back on the bike. Yikes - we were wet and it was cold. I had to stop and zip up some vents on my jacket because I was freezing. What happened to that scorching day we just had?????
After lunch we had the most amazing tail wind ever. My bike was like a prancing pony. How fast can we go and well did we go!!!!!! At one point, we were crusing along at 35 KPH. Hey - for me that is a great speed.
We came across one construction zone and the entire street was ripped up. There was loose gravel and other stuff on the road. Wasn't the best road to be riding on, but no choice. We made it through and no one fell.
After the big rain - we had drizzle and it seemed that we couldn't get rid of the drizzle all day. There were times when I had no idea if I was drooling or was that just rain. My face was wet all day until about 5 K from camp. I had rain drops in my eye lashes, on my chin like a goatee and on my nose. And because I didn't put my rain hat on - I could feel the rain pelting through the vents on my helmet and onto my head. Oh yes - an ugly day as far as rain goes.
Then just when it is starting to dry up and you think - OK - we can make it to camp without getting any more wet. NOPE - it dumps again. For about 10K. Well we are wet - no use stopping.
We changed directions to get to camp and those 4K seemed to take forever as we pushed against the full force of the wind. But we made it just after 3 PM which was good timing. I got my tent up in no time except that I had put the fly on inside out and had to change it. Then into the showers and Leslie was doing laundry so I got all my stuff washed and dried. Yeah!!!!!!! Chopped up veggies for dinner, made the salad dressing. Then during clean up - I realized that the syrup had spilt in the truck so I spent some time cleaning that up. Oh yeah!!!! I hate cleaning, but it was a mess and needed to be done.
There was a beautiful sunset tonight and a full arc rainbow. Hopefully that means good things for tomorrow. I don't think the temperatues is going to be very high so looks like more clothes on for tomorrow. Thank goodness everything is dry!! It is almost 8 PM and almost everyone is in their tent. I have to say that it is NOT warm tonight. I think the maximum temperature today was around 17 and it is obviously a lot cooler than that now.
I managed to finish one book last night before going to bed and then started another. I have TWO books left. Will I have to buy another one?????
Forgot to mention that we celebrated Peter's birthday today. It was a week ago, but dates got mixed up. So yes - cake again!!!!!
On that note - I think I am going to go to bed if for no other reason than to get warm!!!! Oh - I see Holly is sitting by the fire, Stuart is looking at Leslie's bike, and several others are hanging around, but me - I'm off to the Taj Mahal tent to read. Plus it gets dark early so it is now quite dark.
Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!
Ciao!!!!!!!!!
Ugh, I have generally been a fair weather cyclist and hate the idea of riding in the rain all day long. Hope you have better weather the rest of the way. I remember when I used to go whitewater kayaking on the Ottawa River. We would go regardless of weather since we had driven a long way to be there and had a limited amount of time to stay. The anticipation of being out in the rain all day was generally worse than the reality once we got going.
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