I was so tired last night that I was in my tent reading. I lay my book on my chest as I was falling asleep. Woke up two minutes later and shut off the light and I was gone. Pretty much for the entire night. I have to say that my thin little old Thermarest is pretty darn comfortable and now that I am using my sleeping bag as a blanket I am very comfy. I insert the Thermarest into the sleeping bag liner so I don't have to lie directly on the plastic. With two pillows I am set. Very comfy.
Anyway - it was wonderful to wake up this morning and it had NOT rained last night and the sky was clear. Well almost. WOW - what a difference from yesterday. However, the temperature was NOT warm. We all dressed in layers and kept those layers on for most of the day. The hardest is when you stop for any length of time. You get a chill and it takes a while to get warmed up again. But you don't want to over dress or you will be stripping layers and well - I have no place to store those extra layers on my bike.
Last year we attempted to take a small side trip through a small town called Notre Dame du Portage. However there was some major construction and we had to turn back. Well this year - no construction and we got to ride right through the town. Let's just say that there are some GORGEOUS bed and breakfast/auberge/inns along the way. Not just in this town - but all along the St. Lawrence. Just beautiful. I would love to come back - take some time and just slowly cruise - 50 KM a day or so and then relax in the inns for the afternoon. Yep - that sounds like a great idea!!!! I managed to snag a bike map (from the tourist office) of the area so it should be easy to plan. I think it would be loads of fun and knowing you only had a few KM to do each day - you could really have fun.
We stopped in Riviere du Loup (at Tim's) for lunch. I must say that after lunch I was so tired. I kept yawning on the bike and really needed to do something to get me shook up. I finally stopped and had a bit more to eat and lots to drink and that seemed to perk me up. We did have a bit of a head wind so that made the day seem a bit longer than it had to.
After Riviere du Loup - the main highway (20) stops and so all the traffic is on the same road that we are. Oh well - have done that before - just have to be extra careful. For the most part - the shoulder is pretty decent. We saw three parts of one of those huge wind turbines pass us. One of the blades which was incredibly long and two pieces of the mast part. Positively HUGE. I know we will start seeing the turbines either tomorrow or the day after. We shall soon be cutting down through the Gaspe Peninsula towards New Brunswick.
My silly Garmin stopped at lunch again today. I checked and it is on the proper setting so it wasn't my fault this time. I am getting pretty fed up with it, but at least I get the information I want. Just a pain when I have to restart it after lunch - then I have to manually calculate the mileage from stop to stop. Not that there is much calculating to do. It is pretty much - turn onto the highway from the camp site - turn off the highway to the new camp site. But it won't always be that easy. Anyway - I am sure I will figure it out. In the meantime - I am not happy with the Garmin.
For that matter - I wasn't happy with my bike today. However that is NOT the fault of the bike, but rather the owner (that would be me) who has been very neglectful in cleaning. I could hear the chain squeaking and that is NOT a good thing. So I did give it a good cleaning tonight. It would appear that so is everyone else. There was a major chain cleaning session going on after the tents went up. I was also having trouble with my lowest gear. Well at one point today I looked down and crap - I was in the lowest gear. Somehow the bike had changed gears. Then I had trouble getting into high gear. Well - after cleaning the chain -I took the bike for a test spin around the camp site and everything seems to be OK. I will give it a test tomorrow - we do have some hills coming up so it will be a test for the Cabot Trail.
My legs feel tired today - maybe I better eat more at dinner???? Or just rest up. Today was a short day at 117K, but tomorrow is a bit longer. Still won't be a problem. This entire segment has somewhat short days.
Tonight is the first camp site that I have been at that has bugs. I have mosquitoes already and other pesky little things. I may end up reading in my tent and well - that won't be a good thing. I will likely fall asleep which I don't want to do yet.
Today makes 10 days of riding! Still have 12 left. I am enjoying myself and remembering all the stuff from last year helps to pass the time of the day!
Anyway - on that note - I am off to find something to do while I wait for dinner.
Have a great day!!!
Ciao!!!!!!!!!
I like the idea of B&Bs instead of tents especially on rainy days.
ReplyDelete