Day 38 – July 19 – The “Guy” leg

FROM: Best Western St Jerome, St Jerome
TO: Days Inn, Trois Rivieres
LEG DEDICATED TO: Guy Van Orden – We are riding this leg for Guy, whose heart has been broken so many times that a heart attack is out of the question – “That which does not kill you only makes you stronger.” (Conan the Barbarian, played by ex-Governor Arnold, and maybe Neitsche) That, alas, is a censored version of a comment from Guy. Wish I (Nancy) could claim it as my own but I’d be lying. I have only had the pleasure of meeting Guy a few times, so maybe it is just a coincidence but on every occasion he has said something so astoundingly witty that I can only shake my head in awe and envy. One of the times I met him was in Montreal, and I know that he loves the city so that is why he gets this leg. Guy is American, by the way, which makes his donation to the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation all the more generous. I think he secretly wishes he were Canadian though .

EXPECTATIONS: We will cycle along the north shore of the St Lawrence Seaway, so not too much in the way of hills on this day. And the weather should be fantastic – sunny and dry (0 % POP and 0 % chance of overcast skies, according to historical records that Prof Van Orden would probably tell me aren’t really significant because they only go back a couple of years, but hey! I am not getting a mark for this work). With a light breeze (7 km/hr) at our back and very moderate temperatures throughout the day (high of 23 °, low of 14 ° C) and low-traffic roads to ride on, we will have a dream day. In fact it might be so nice we repeat it.

ELEVATION: start 97 m, highest 103 m, ascent 192 m, descent 210 m
DISTANCE: planned 146 km, actual ________, lost > 5 km detour _______
SPEED: average _______ , top (downhill) ______ top (flats) ________
WEATHER: rain _______, temperature low ______ temperature high _____
headwind _______, tailwind ________ other _____________
FLAT TIRE: Lori ______ Nancy ______ other mechanical ______________
PROBLEMATIC ANIMAL: wild ____ domestic (dog) _______ human _____
This is going to be short as I am falling asleep over the keyboard. Our day started with a trip to the bike store and although that took a couple of hours it was worth the stop since I was starting to have a hard time pedaling. My crank was sticking and I couldn’t really shift nicely. Bruno at Cycles Cadieux fixed me up with new bearing and it felt great. I have been working too hard.
We ran into Ian Dave Gerald and Trevor as we were heading out of town so we joined them for lunch at the Scottish restaurant with the free Internet. It was nice to see them again but we were even later getting away from St Jerome. We stopped again 25 km down the road and when I got back on my bike I noticed that there was something odd about the pedals. Had to tighten it up. Dave had a tool but we went to a garage and the guy there had a bigger one so now the thing might never come off. Guess that is ok.
With all of this we didn’t have much time to photograph so you will excuse me please. Tomorrow I will try to do better because it really is lovely here.