A blustery day of sorts, with rain coming and going, was the backdrop
for our last day in Ontario. Having entered the province exactly one month ago,
this was a fairly major milestone for the trip. Our progress was most visible
in the worn treads on my back tire. It was starting to resemble a big round
slice of dirty swiss cheese. I’m not sure how I let it get to this point, but
it suddenly became imperative that we change it. We were able to find a bike shop in Cornwall, where an eager salesman was happy to get rid of some summer stock as he went about rearranging the store for a new season of sports and leisure. This, too, was evidence of our progress. We started the trip in the height of summertime; now it was practically fall, and merchants were gearing up for winter. The salesman noted that he’d never seen a tire in worse shape. I took no small amount of pride in this. Caroline thought I was stupid.
The Waterfront Trail brought us right to the Quebec border, where it
promptly started to pour. This was a sign of things to come, as Quebec was
perhaps the rainiest province of them all on this trip. We huddled in a
neglected gazebo, eating homemade granola bars and wishing we had some of that
Spider-Be-Gone mixture. After plucking up the courage to get back to it, we had
a short ride to Les Coteaux, a funny little town where we set up camp for the
night. The campground itself was divided by a canal, and connected by an old,
worn bridge that was slippery due to the rain. The bathroom was in a horrid
state of disrepair, probably because everyone at the campground had a fancy RV
with private bathrooms and Jacuzzis. We had dinner at a pizza joint where the
waitress asked us: “Butter for your crusts?” Vive le Quebec.
Av. Spd.: 19.4 km/h
Mx. Spd.: 43.8 km/h
Odometer reading: 5442.1 km (or 6/7ths of the trip complete…)
Welcome to Quebec sign: Not actually the one on the Ontario border, but rather the one on the NB border (note the sunshine and blue skies vs. my above description of pouring rain). Because we took a back road into the province, we didn't get to feel the elation of taking our picture next to the border sign (which was on the main highway). So we took one on our way OUT of Quebec hoping that no one would notice. But now I've spoiled it by drawing everyone's attention to our deception.
No comments:
Post a Comment