Weather woes 2 - the sequel

August 1: Levis to St-Jean-Port-Joli (96.11km)
If I remember anything from this day in a month, it will be the wind. All day, I was struggling against a strong head wind from the St-Laurence. The road was often close to the shore and, as a result, nothing impeded its path. The howling in my ears drowned out the grunting noises that I was making.

I hoped to get further today, but alas, I decided this little town was good enough. And as it turns out, its probably a good thing. The town is quite pretty and seems to have a large artistic community as I see galleries all over the place. In fact, there is an "International Festival of Sculptures" in town this weekend and after I write this, I'll be heading off to the tent where all the activities are taking place to check it out.

I think I may have entered a new phase in my trip. At the beginning of my trip I was very enthusiastic and positive about anything that happened. Then when the roads became stressful in Manitoba, I started seeing everything through dark lenses. Presently, I seem to be neutral about the trip. Maybe it's because the roads have gotten better, but I'm not as negative as I was a few weeks ago and, as can be expected, the trips luster that was there in the beginning has passed. As I was thinking about this today, I initially saw this as being negative in that I'm bored with the trip because it has become routine. But then I thought that maybe it was just a different phase of the trip that one goes through.

August 2: St-Jean-Port-Joli to Riviere du Loup (95.87km)
I met a number of bikers today. While I was having breakfast at a restaurant in town, in walks another biker. This lady and I leaped-frogged over one another a few times the day before, but we hadn't spoken. As I was getting ready to leave, I went over to introduce myself. Hedy is 63 years old and is doing her second cross-country ride. A very nice lady and we spoke for about 20 minutes.

As I was leaving, I hear someone calling me. I look over and there was Jim and Mike, the two bikers I had met on my last day in Manitoba and whom I have mentioned on this blog. I was shocked. I hadn't seen them since Kenora and as they are faster and hardier than I am, I figured they had completed the trip or were nearly there. I chatted with them a while and we agreed to rendez-vous in Riviere du Loup where we were all planning on staying at the hostel.

So I was off. Shortly after I left town, I see two touring bikers ahead. The meeting with Jim and Mike made me think that it would be cool if I had already met these bikers as well. Alas, I hadn't. When I caught up to them, I met Erika and Marie-Anne. I had heard of them along the way because they were ahead of me by a couple of days and some people had remarked how they admired the courage of these two young ladies (they are both in their early 20s). I biked with them for a while and up ahead we saw another touring cyclist with a guitar on his back. This seemed curious so we sped up to meet Amira (I may have his name wrong), a young guy from Japan who only spoke broken English had been traveling all over the place. He started by planning to walk across Canada, but quickly realized that we have a vast country and bought a bike instead.

To look at Amira, my first impression was that he was ill suited for such a trip, because his bike looked to be in mediocre condition, he was biking with sandles, as mentioned he traveled with a guitar that he said he didn't know how to play and only bought it in the hopes of learning along the way. But, I clearly underestimated him, because he has come a long way (he started in Calgary and zig-zagged throughout North America) and he said his plan after this “warm-up trip” was to bike from Japan to England.

Later, the four of us (Amira, Erika and Marie-Anne) stopped for lunch in Kamouraska. After lunch we separated as we were all traveling at different speeds, but Erika and Marie-Anne were planning on going to the hostel as well for the evening.

The second half of the ride was marked by heavy head winds which slowed my progress considerably. For much of the afternoon I was averaging 14km/hr on flat ground which is nearly 10km/hr slower than I would usually ride. But I eventually made it to the hostel where all the above mentioned bikers reconvened except for Amira – I think he camped on the side of the road somewhere.

Last embarrassing note: For a good part of my ride today, the song that was stuck in my head was “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” by Shania Twain. I have no good reason to have this inappropriate song in my head except that it's catchy and I had heard it a couple of days earlier. Thankfully, it was later replaced by “Time After Time” by Cindy Lauper. Clearly, I shouldn't have left my Ipod in Ottawa:)

August 3: Riviere du Loup to about Saint-Honore-de-Temiscouata (about 50km – I forgot to put my bike computer on for the first couple of km)
The plan today was to make it to Edmonston which is about 130km from Riviere du Loup. As I was changing direction and would no longer be on the shore, I hoped that the winds would be less of a factor in today's ride. Luckily, I was right. However, it started to rain not long after I left town. For the first while, the rain was constant and not much of a concern. I stopped for my third breakfast after about 25km (my first two were quite small by my current travel diet). After I ate, I was a bit sluggish and thinking that maybe I should stop at the next motel as the weather was not getting any better. I reproached myself for being so lazy. However, in the following hour, the rain really started to come down. I no longer thought it wimpy to stop at a motel, but a necessity as visibility was becoming an issue. I was never in serious danger because the shoulders are quite wide here, but I still thought that it would be wisest to get off the road as quickly as possible. I had earlier seen a sign for the next motel and it advertised that they welcomed cyclists. I thought to myself that I would put that promise to the test as I looked like hell. I was soaken wet and dirty. True to their word however, they took me in.

Ironically, I'm looking outside right now and I see that the pavement is drying. The rain stopped about an hour or so after I arrived. The skies still look ominous, however. No regrets on stopping where I did though. I was cold and wet and, at the time, it looked foolish to continue.

A last note on the weather. With the exception of the Prairies, locals have consistently told me that the weather this summer has been the worst in memory. In fact, in talking to Jim yesterday, he said that they hadn't had two consecutive days of sunshine since Calgary. I was a bit more fortunate than them I believe, but in general, the weather has been exceptionally foul. When I stepped outside this morning, it felt like it was early October. I'm expecting the leaves to change colours in the next few days:)

August 4: Saint-Honore-de-Temiscouata to Edmonston (77.00km)
The day started out rainy once again, but the forecast was more favourable than yesterday. So I set off around 9:00. Initially, I was quite frustrated with the weather as it had been foul for several days and I again had a head wind.

At around 11:00, I had to stop to make an adjustment to my saddle bag that was falling off. As I was about to leave, I saw two bikers that were coming my way. I waited for them and then realized that it was Erika and Marie-Anne – the two cyclists that I had met two days ago. We biked together all day and the company made the ride much more enjoyable as I was no longer focusing on the weather and the kilometers just seemed to drop off.

Once I arrived in God's country (err New Brunswick), we decided to stop in Edmonston as it was starting to get late (another time change after all). We also noticed that the winds miraculously turned in our favour as we entered the province (God's country indeed:).

A few more pictures this time around.