Guess what. MapMyRide is working. They updated their database which is why I was unable to save . This is unbelievable really but I don’t want to get into it. What I can tell as far as good news is the live tracking feature is working meaning you literally watch my progress. When I start a tweet will go out with a link to the workout, please check it out and tell how well or poorly it is working.
150 kilometers ride details
I woke up with a little bit of a hangover thanks to Francois. I’ll get you back some day! I had a couple of bagels while trying not to disturb anyone’s sleep. It is basically a one room apartment where the bed is in kind of an alcove which is art of the living space. Eventually Francois and Maria got up and said their goodbyes. I will visit again I promise!
The road outside the apartment had a bike route and literally went straight up the island toward Trois Rivieres so I just followed that past the Olympic stadium which looks impressive still to this day. There was next to no traffic and I had a little tailwind going so other than the hangover things were moving pretty good. I crossed two small bridges to get back to the mainland and tried to keep a descent pace as I moved along the 138highway which is good road for you cyclists. It was supposed to be bad weather today and would’nt you know it started to sprinkle but I could sense something was coming. I pulled into a school under a little cover and it poored!!!! I waited about 10 minutes until it died down and got back on the road. A few kilometers up the road I pulled into a gas station as I wanted to post a picture for the road sponsor and it actually poored again for another 5 minutes. Timing is everything!
Eventually I came upon another cyclist who was moving pretty slow for having a tailwind. His name was Billy Carpenter and after leaving his wife because she had an affair (for nine years) he decided to drop everything and ride across Canada. His bike was massively overloaded but I guess he brought some creature comforts with him and he seemed okay with going his own pace. He was definitely a fast talker and I remember him talking about a coyote who had a cat is his mouth, someone dying from poisoning from weeds on the side of the highway and how expensive KOA campgrounds are in Quebec. I snapped a photo and rode off. A little ways further I was low on water and saw a bunch of people having some kind of gathering at a nice looking home with a few expensive cars out front. I figured why not so I went over and met a few of people who were here for a family reunion. I spoke to a couple of people about my trip but most of the time it was with the one women who spoke English. They were very nice.
For lunch I stopped at a roadside burger stand for you guessed it, a burger. It wasn’t bad and before I left I saw a couple of cyclist wizz by heading my direction. I got on the bike and caught up to them and it turns out it’s the nice French couple I met near Lake Huron who told me to take the 148 into Montreal. I thanked them of course and chit chat for a while before I headed back on the road and they went to have lunch. After that I saw several groups of cyclists heading the other way including a dual incumbent which is a bike you kind of lay down in.
All day today there have been dark grey clouds behind me that were slowly surrounding me from all sides. I picked up up the pace but to no avail and when I say it poored earlier that was a drop in the bucket. There was crackling thunder, torrential rain, lightening and gusting winds sweeping the water over the road. I had just pulled into Louisville when it started and ducked under some stairs next to a building. I have never seen rain like this and even cars were pulling over to wait it out. It stormed for good 30 minutes. The stairs weren’t that great of an umbrella so I went inside a stores across the street until they closed. At that point it was into the storm but up the road with the lightening flashing in the dark sky I decided to pull into a gas station where the power had went out. I waited there at least 20 more minutes to let most of the storm pass.
I was soaked head to toe but only had about 30 – 40 left in the day so I pushed off thinking I had waited it out. 5 kilometers later I caught the edge of it and stopped and waited another 15 minutes beside the General Lee!
I couldn’t wait forever because even though it was only around 4 pm it was a little dark because of the cloud cover. The rest of the way there was no rain and other than checking out a kite surfer I rode the rest of the way to Mylene Tracy’s home who is the sister of a co-worker I will be staying with in Quebec City. She had made me dinner and kept feeding me more food as I finished each dish. We even had strawberries and ice cream! Her boyfriend came over later and we talked about the trip. We were briefly interrupted by the reply of Usain Bolt ripping up the track – what an amazing athlete!
