Tuesday September 13th – Wednesday September 14th
Navigating through the city of Riviere-du-Loup proved to be an
interesting challenge on Tuesday. With it’s narrow winding streets,
and tiny rollercoaster sidewalks it has a very European feel, and it
is difficult enough for a sighted skater to get through let alone a
person who is visually impaired, but Mark and Cam rose to the
challenge, got through safely, and connected us to Highway 132 and “La
Route Verte.”
Mr. Francois Beauregard, of the Montreal Hiboux, was kind
enough to mail us out a book entitled “La Route Verte” (The Green
Route) which marks all the official cycling pathways through the
Province. This book has been quite useful in planning our trip down
the coast of the Saint-Laurence towards Quebec City, and then
ultimately Montreal. For this stretch the book has told us to follow
Highway 132 which for the most part has wide paved shoulders and is
relatively flat.
After a good morning skate we hit only our 3rd rain delay of the trip
exactly 1 month in, which really highlighted how phenomenal the
weather has been so far. We were only delayed for about an hour while
we had lunch, and then Mark and Matt hopped out and skated for the
afternoon. The 132 winds along the coast providing spectacular views
of the Saint-Launrence, and then dekes inland and zig-zags through
farmers fields. For the most part the road was as advertised with
wide paved shoulders, with horse manure being the biggest hazard we
encountered along the route.
After a good skate the rain decided to come back with a vengeance and
this time brought hail, which sent the skaters scrambling into the RV
to finish for the day. We drove to the nearest campsite and made
sausage linguini to refuel, took a quick walk along the
Saint-Laurence, and called it a night.
On wednesday we awoke to sunny skies and positive vibes all around.
We headed back to our marker, Mark and Cam headed out on the road, and
we put in a monster morning finishing with a Tim Horton’s lunch. In
the afternoon Mark, Phil, and Matt all skated along the winding
coastline finishing just shy of Montmagny. We are now in very good
position to get down to Quebec City at a good time on Friday as long
the weather holds, although there is supposed to be rain in the area.
This is why we have built in off days in the schedule to account for
weather, and we have our next day off scheduled on Saturday in Quebec.
At the end of our day we went grocery shopping, found a campsite and
made burgers, and then bunked for the night. The end of Wednesday
marks day 32 out of our 64 day journey, and we are now officially
passed the halfway point and entering the homestretch. Thank you from
all of us for the support from home as we continue on this journey, we
couldn’t do it without you!
In other news our reliable MIFI internet device has unfortunately died
and we will need to quickly rectify this situation as we are without
internet in the RV which we use for many projects including this blog.
Until we get it fixed we will be relying on campgrounds and hotspots
so please be patient – we should have it fixed by the weekend.
Voting has now concluded for the 2011 True Sport Community Give-Back
Challenge – thank you all for voting – be sure to check out CBC’s
Sports Day in Canada on Saturday to find out the winner.
Stay tuned…
