| Ted's
House - Motorcycle Trip Reports Canada, 1996 |
|
The wake-up call came when asked, at 11:00am J and I jumped into the shower after putting the coffee on. This is one thing I really like about some hotels, the coffee maker and selection of complimentary teas and coffee. I checked out and headed down to the center of Old Quebec City.
The mall was easy enough to find but the 1-hour eyeglass place had no optometrist on duty so I begged a pair of Accuview 2-week throw-away lenses off the french-only sales girl and was quickly on my way. "Carry this prescription card with you at all times" took on new meaning today! I jumped onto 40 towards Montreal, but immediately encountered an incredible headwind (45 mph+!) that blew me all over the road. Even when I stopped for gas it caused the bike to wobble uneasily on the centerstand it was blowing so hard, and Montreal was directly in the face of it. I passed at least four beemers returning I think from the Fredericton gathering. After about another 30 minutes I had my first real excitement of the trip as I was blown completely off of the road and onto the shoulder. I just let off of the throttle and coasted to a stop but it scared the hell out of me. I decided Montreal wasn't worth riding through that kind of hell (apologies to you Montreal denizens) and made my way up about a half a mile to a "No U-Turn" U with a red slash through it, and promptly made a U-Turn. I backtracked a little while and crossed the St. Lawrence forgetting about Montreal and seeking out some neat windy backroads. I ended up in Woburn, about 3 miles from the US border in the "Hotel Motel 3 Etoiles" whatever that means, in English it means $30 Canadian for a big clean room, hot shower, and TV and phone in the room. They need to build a few of these in Halifax, Cheticamp & Quebec! Tomorrow is the final run back to Islesboro, I plan on getting up early and making a whole day of it! Product Evaluation Of The Day Outdoor Research Small Toiletries Kit, about $13 from REI. 300 miles, some great French Coffee, Next
Day... |
All Photos and Text Copyright©1996-9, Ted
Verrill |
I went to France
many years ago when all I cared about was finding where the french girls would be. I now
know what I missed! This place is incredible, there are narrow winding cobbled streets
lined with shops and cafés, tiny specialty stores like the incredible old bookstore I
found after getting lost in a maze of narrow alleys, and the whole thing is topped off by
the looming fortress and government buildings. That is until you work your way up the
hillside to find small parks intermeshed with very old towering buildings, and at the top
the old Quebec Fortress and greens. I think that if I had to pick one city in North
America to visit for a week I would without a doubt be Quebec. As I left along the river I
passed the museums and wanted to stop again but doing so would probably have meant another
stay in the city and quite frankly neither my budget nor my calender would allow that! 
At the last set of stoplights before getting onto the "quick"
part of Rue Champlain, my glasses suddenly tilted to the right. When I went to reposition
them I realized that the stem had broken off of the frame at the hinge. What a bummer!!! I
dealt with it for about three blocks when it was obvious that the glasses would keep
tilting and needed to be fixed immediately. A block up I saw tow BMW motorcycles pulled
over, one a red K75S and the other a sort of pearl pink metallic R100RT, and stopped to
beg information from an always friendly source. Turns out they didn't speak English but we
were able to get "get your glasses fixed at the mall" with v-e-r-y broken
english and a copious amount of sign language. I tell you, those "Club BMW
Quebec" guys (and gals) sure have a great looking club shirt! 