Day 14 - Some days go late

miles today:83 total miles: 860
km today: 134 total km: 1386

Getting going after a rest day is often difficult as is far to easy to snuggle a little longer in bed, to have that extra cup of coffee, to decide to daydream under the shower’s warm water . . . not to mention that there’s still bike repairs, packing and cleaning up after ourselves. In this morning’s case, Mike fiddled with the bike – adjusting the derailleur, changing the front brakes, and cleaning the chain. The brakes were the main thing as we were squealing like a banshee everytime Mike slowed down. And no wonder . . .

Mike was able to jerry-rig a bike stand which made things easier . . .

By around 10 am, we were finally ready to go and get breakfast. Unfortunately, the restaurant (which looks like it does a nice breakfast) below the loft is closed Sundays through Tuesdays. We planned ahead and found a place (Buffet L’Antiques) on the way to the ferry that looked good. And it was crowded, which is usually a good sign. As Mike was parking the bike along the patio railing, a gentleman seated on the patio leaned over and started asking Mike questions. It turned out that he and his three companions were from St. Cloud, MN. Our Badger W flag had given us away. Our table turned out to be next to theirs, and they were curious and asked a lot of questions. Such a small world. I suppose when anyone is out traveling, one walks past people from the same city, state or college or who are in the same type of work or other randam similarity or coincidence, but the connections are rarely made. Bike touring, especially on a tandem, naturally draws questions which lead to connections, even if the connection is feather light and temporary. Even so, it constantly reminds me what a small world we live in.

Between them, a busy restaurant, and a hilarious old woman server who spoke mostly French, breakfast took some time. And yes, we did have eggs benedict again.

We thought we still had time to catch the 11:30 am ferry, and we did get on the ferry, but for some reason left unexplained the ferry did not push off until 11:46 am. This left us plenty of time to park the bike, explore and take final picures of Quebec City and the famous Hotel Frontenac.

It was past noon, by the time we started biking in earnest and we had 134 km to make before sunset. The riding was easy and varied between flat and rolling. Cool things we saw included

. . . a pretty church. (There are actually a lot of similar churches dotted along the road)

. . . and some rock statutes doing our warrior pose strectch

Even though the kms were short(ish) today, we were feeling as though we’d been riding all day, instead of just the afternoon. Finally it felt, we pulled off the road and unto a beautiful cruched gravel path with the mouth of the St. Lawrence on our left.

Thinking that we were close to the end, we pulled off the path to get dinner supplies. At the turn-off, we could see a long steep (10%) hill leading up to the town of Riviere Ouelle. I asked Mike if the grocery store was up the hill. He said no, that it was just a few blocks ahead of us. So we biked a few blocks, no store. A few more, no store. A little googling and Mike groaned. We did need to climb the hill, plus a little more and a descent, which meant we would also have to climb the hill (at least in part) on the way out of town. Groan, but we press on.

We eventually found our campspot which would have been one of the most beautiful we have stayed in as it is located on a spit into the mouth of the river. Unfortunately, we arrived after dark under heavy cloud cover. Still, Mike caught this final pic of the day while making dinner and I was setting up the tent.

Tomorrow will be an early start as we need to make 65 km before catching a 11:15 ferry, so heading to bed early.