I awoke to overcast skies. It was actually cold, so I stood around drinking coffee and talking to people hoping that the weather would clear. I can prove that it was cold because even some of the folks from Maine were wearing long pants! We watched Le Grand Tour riders taking off. What an assortment of gear, bicycles and skill level. But everyone seemed to be having a good time and that is really what vacations are all about. Vince and Mary had the coffee ready every morning by the time I got up. It was really nice to be able to buy a cup of coffee without having to pack everything up and ride for a few miles. I'd have been a real grump if it weren't for that morning coffee. Vince is a fun person to spar with. He is quick on the comeback and can take as good as he gives. Mary is amazing. She runs marathons and ultras. She is a strong cyclist as well. They seemed to function on very little sleep for the entire trip.
The weather didn't seem to be cooperating so I finally started out. Gill was somewhere around for the first 2 miles, then I stopped to take off my jacket and she was gone. A rider was laying on his back on the grass and when I jokingly asked if he had crashed, someone said he had. I talked to him and he was a bit lightheaded and his ribs hurt. He decided to sag that day, a decision that I strongly supported. I was concerned that he may have broken a rib. Mary (another rider) offered to stay with him until the sag came by. I headed off to find the others.
I saw Gill's bicycle in front of a small restaurant. I parked and went in. She was just finishing and lent me some $$ so I could eat. I ordered french toast and coffee. Then I went from table to table talking to people as new riders came in and others left. This is the part of bicycle trips that I enjoy - socializing with the other riders. The coffee was good, and I wasn't in a hurry. After an hour or so I went out to my bicycle and there was a little stuffed puppy on my rack with a note: "My name is pookey pup. I want to ride the Moosa trip with a different person everyday." Share-a-soda Bob was there with his camera recording the whole thing, so I suspected him of planting the pup. He said he didn't. I was surprised, honored and thought it was a terrific idea. (Though I wasn't certain if the sign meant that I was different or what.) I never did discover the original owner of pookey pup. He (she?) rode with me that day, attached to my pannier. I passed pookey pup on the next morning and he/she made the rounds to the delight of the next selected rider.
Bob and I rode together for a while. I was having a difficult time getting into riding that day. It seemed that I stopped every ten minutes for one thing or another. Water, fix the pannier, take a picture, visit the bushes, look at the road markings, more pictures. We were still climbing and each vista was prettier than the last. There were a few "required" stops that day - the chocolatier being one. I wanted some candy as I was tired, so I stopped at the chocolatier to look. Nothing interested me - I don't have the chocolate gene. I backtracked a bit to a small store to buy some candy. A rider had crashed just by the store. She was OK, except for road rash. Her wheel had slid out on some gravel. Everyone was helping to patch her up and I realized that I had left my first aid kit in my bag on the truck. Not too bright. One more thing to get out that evening. I bought some hard candies and retraced my route. Back at the chocolatier, Debra offered me a piece of chocolate. It was *very* good.
We rode on to the snack van. But first we made a stop at Lac-Etchemin, where I finally found an ATM and got some Canadian money. On the way out of town Bob had a flat. When I reached him, "No Pay Ray" was there. No Pay is unique. He follows rides but doesn't participate. He rides a 1973 Schwinn that I wouldn't trust to ride on around the block. He carries all his gear and seems perfectly happy to be on his own among a crowd. I talked to him for a while. He seems to enjoy his nomadic lifestyle.
Since Bob and I were running late, I was surprised when we reached the location of the snack van, that they were still there. It was quite late, 1:30 or so. I had been dwaddling all day and figured that the van had left. I sat down to enjoy my pb2j (peanut butter, banana and jelly) sandwich when my rear tire suddenly blew out. :( This was an omen. I was not meant to ride today. Taking the tire off, I discovered the rim tape was shot (the wheel is only a year old) and the tube had punctured. I fixed the hole and used electrical tape to patch most of the spoke holes. Now it was really late, but Bob was patient so I continued on. We had some road work to ride through and it was a bit tricky to ride on the soft road and avoid the cars. More hills. More lovely views. Finally a steep (15%) grade and as I churned my way to the top, my rear tire blew again. Better on the uphill than the downhill! I was annoyed when I discovered that the same thing had happened - the one spoke hole I had neglected to patch.
As I was getting everything ready to repair the tube again, Don drove by in the sag. Forget it. I'm sagging. I don't trust this wheel to survive and the hills are very steep. Bob went on and Don and I drove back along the route I had just ridden. We stopped for an ice cream and chatted with some of the riders. Then we located the last riders out, made certain that they were OK and headed back to camp.
Camp was at a school up the hill from a graveyard. I toyed with the idea of camping next to the graveyard, but I was afraid that someone would come over during the night and play a practical joke on me. (I watched too many horror movies as a kid, and I'm still trying to overcome that silly fear of graveyards. When I was in Australia many years ago I decided to walk through a graveyard late at night. I was proud of myself for not being scared, until a flying fox took off about 3 feet away from me. Talk about your worst horror movie scenerio...) I decided to dry my tent and see if I could find a place to sleep inside. If I'm going to ever get an early start, I've got to figure out some time saving measures. Sleeping without a tent was one of them. The weather cooperated and the nights were generally lovely.
Jackie, our resident mechanic, fixed my wheel. I neglected to put my bicycle back together that evening, so I had a task to complete in the morning. Instead, I drank a coke, took a shower and ate dinner. I was trashed, not so much from the riding as the heat and lack of sleep. I was sunburned, inspite of using sunblock. Things were not as I had thought they would be. I was having fun, but I wish I felt better.
Dinner was acceptable. Lasagna and salad. I drank a lot of coffee to wake up enough to survive the evening. My sleep schedule was all out of kilter. I was getting up at 5:30 a.m. - 2:30 a.m. California time! I was sleeping soundly, but I really needed a nap every afternoon and I wasn't getting one.
After dinner I tried to get the group to bond by suggesting we go for ice cream. Someone seemed to think they knew where to get ice cream in town. Well, after a lot of discussion and walking we found a place that sold vanilla or chocolate soft-serve ice cream. Not my idea of real ice cream. I passed on dessert. The others seemed to enjoy the sundaes.
The big excitement of the evening (besides Steve's 8 p.m. meeting) was the race Ewan had challenged me to. There was a grassy slope in camp and Ewan thought we could slide down the hill on plastic bags. He said he was more aerodynamic than me. But I had *MASS* on my side! So the challenge was accepted and several folks came over to watch. The plastic bags didn't work as well as we had hoped, so the "lost and found" box was donated to the cause. Ewan and I had a few crashes and finally we had a successful run. A rematch was declared and I barely managed to defend my victory when Ewan fell out of the box. I had grass everywhere and was picking it out of my clothes for the next few hours. But it was great fun! (And we might have actually worn Ewan out for once.)
I slept quite well inside the gym. It was warm and dry! Breakfast was served close by so I didn't have far to get food. I packed and fixed my bicycle. It was a short downhill ride out of town 'til we hit the hills again. More climbing. The view was wonderful. Bob had a series of flats in a row. I went on ahead, up and down, down and up. We finally stopped at a small town where Gill, Lou and I went in search of a birthday card for Sam. I had overheard him tell Vince it was his 40th birthday. Well, let no secret go unannounced! We had a great time shopping for a card (in french of course) that was suitable. Then we bought him a small squirt gun for payback. I also bought a little sign that said 40 inside a gold circle. It was going to be fun to roast him after the meeting tonight. A group of us sang "Happy Birthday" to Sam when he rode up. The locals were amused at the going ons.
In order to improve my french, I bought a harlequin romance novel. Unfortunately, the phrases didn't help me much on the trip. It was fun reading bits out loud to others in camp. Who knows what I was saying at times.
Getting everyone to sign the card was tricky. I'd catch them at rest stops and then at dinner I picked up most of the rest. Occasionally someone would say "I don't know who Sam is." They would know after the meeting! :)
One highlight of the day was a stop at an ostrich and emu farm. The kids were selling lemonade and great spice cookies. There weren't any emus, as the last pair had recently been sold. But I did learn that I weigh more than an adult emu! Ostriches can weigh up to 450 lbs. Emus are significantly smaller, weighing in at 130 lbs. Just a bit of roadside trivia that might come in handy one day. (I discovered later that Bob caught me on video telling other riders that I weighed more than an emu. He has teased me about it on other trips.)
We found a flattened toad on the road, and Gill put it under her map cover. Since people were purchasing stuffed animals for their bicycles, we thought this would fit right in. Someone commented that all the legs had better be there when Gill arrived at camp, since she had eaten frog's legs a couple of nights before. When I asked her where the toad was later on, she said that she had thrown it away when someone rode by and commented "Oh, that's sick." So much for roadkill animal decorations. :)
It was a long day. I got separated from the gang since I was taking the card around. I stopped quite a while at the snack stop. More gatorade and pb2j sandwiches. I ate them everyday for nearly two weeks and I never got tired of them. I was enjoying the time talking with the other riders when Vince announced "How long have you been here, Susan? An hour?" Time to move on. I rode with Ian and his crew from Kentucky. But the others took off, so Ian and I rode together for a while. He knew Virginia Jerry, my friend who was supposed to be on this trip but wasn't here. I missed Virginia Jerry. He's quiet and very witty. I met him on the Santa Fe trip and quite enjoyed his company. He had done the Moose trip the week before, so people had seen him. Perhaps something came up that he needed to take care of. I was quite certain that he would show up for Lighthouse, next week.
Ian was a much stronger rider than I was. But he was polite and was willing to let me tag along. We found the group at the junction to a town. We decided to go and eat. We found a little place that had only been opened for a month. The food was good, though they were running short on some items. It seemed that every place we stopped to eat was understaffed for groups our size. Someplaces ran out of things and other times it just took quite a while to get served.
I didn't mind waiting as the conversation among the group was quite lively. Jim didn't ride the century the day before and no one would let him forget it! Earl was laid up in the van due to an injury he received the second day. You had to be quick with these guys. Comments were flying around like shrapnel. I got hit once or twice and managed to get a few off myself. It took a lot of energy to keep up with what was going on.
I stayed at the restaurant after the guys had finished. More card signing. I talked to some of the riders and finally started out again with Thom and a few others. We had some road construction to contend with. The new tarmac was so soft that I chose to ride the shoulder instead. The terrain was flatter but I was tired and so I just plodded along. Thom bought a basket of fresh blueberries at a roadside stand. He shared them with us. :) They were good!
We rode on through farmland and over hills. It was getting late, I'd spent a lot of time talking and getting the card signed. We reached the turnoff for the camp at Lac Aylmer. We had a dirt road to descend, not too steep but since I was tired it took some concentration. Almost everyone was at camp already, which made finding my bags easy. :) That evening we were using the shower trailer which Steve had built. I was impressed with it when I went inside. There were four showers, plenty of hooks for clothes, a removable wood floor that helped keep things clean, benches to sit on and a shelf that was easy to reach. We commented that Mimi must have had input on the shelf, since it was lower than men would probably have placed it.
Dinner was served at the restaurant in camp. I wasn't hungry so I just drank coffee. I could drink 4 or 5 cups in the evening and still sleep right through the night. Probably not the best idea, but I was so sleepy when I stopped riding that I was afraid I'd just go right to sleep if I didn't drink coffee. Some nights I drank coffee and then beer - the coffee to wake up enough to drink the beer. Go figure.
Steve held the 8 p.m. meeting on the balcony. Sam played right into our hands by standing right in the center of the crowd. The people in the restaurant had been very nice and provided me with a piece of cake and a sparkler as a candle. Lou and Tom were going to light the sparkler when we presented Sam with the card and "gift". Steve let me do the honors of roasting Sam. So after the important information had been distributed, I was accorded the floor. Sam was unsuspecting (I think) and as we started to sing "Happy Birthday" I could see Lou and Tom frantically trying to get the sparkler to light. They finally succeeded and we presented Sam with the whole works. Sam had said that he really wanted to go to Jamaica for his birthday, but the package was sold out. I guess that made us his second choice. :) Well, I think he will remember that birthday for a long time to come. And now *everyone* knew who Sam was.
Scott wanted to get a group to play volleyball. I went down to see how things were going and it was a pretty sad sight. A group of folks had built a bonfire on the sand and they were standing around. I'm not wild about the smell of smoke on my clothes so I went to talk with By and Bill. It looked like it would be a nice evening, so I just slept out on my "top". I watched the stars for a while before falling asleep.
My dream on any vacation is to get coffee in bed. I had chosen my site well the night before as I was about 10 feet from the morning coffee. As I lay warm and cozy in my down bag (and fairly dry even though the bag was damp) I debated the merits of getting up to buy a cup of coffee. Vince and Mary were having a difficult time with the electricity, so the coffee wasn't ready yet. I chose to stay put and watch the other riders milling about. I'm one of those people who is actually awake in the morning. That means that I talk in the morning (and throughout the day). I said a few "Good mornings" to people. Hmm, doesn't look like today is my "coffee in bed day". It was a bit chilly when I finally got up. The air was damp since we had camped by the lake. I packed up quickly and carried my stuff to the truck. The early morning ritual of packing and carrying all your possessions to the Ryder truck is a familiar one to cycle tourists. This Ryder truck was white, instead of the familiar yellow that I had bonded to like a duckling on the Santa Fe trip. It was rather amusing to find myself instinctively riding towards any parked Ryder truck for a few days after the Santa Fe trip. (It was even more amusing when a whole flock of us chased the wrong truck.)
I checked the pressure in my tires. The rear tire seemed to lose about 40 lbs pressure each day. All packed up and ready to go. Where is Gill? She must have left. We took off for the 6 mile ride to the first restaurants. We rode over the same hills we had ridden to get to camp. It certainly warmed you up. There were two restaurants to chose from. The first one we came to had some bicycles I recognized, so I stopped. There was a table for two next to By, Gator and Jan. I sat down just in time as a mass of cyclists pulled in shortly thereafter. Gill arrived a few minutes later. Oops. We had left her at camp. Sorry. As I sat drinking coffee, Ed from ?? walked in. "Morning, Ed.", I said. "My name's not Ed." He replied. Uh, oh. I've done it again. The only problem with trying to call people by name is that you occasionally get it wrong. On the last bicycle trip I had been on, I had asked another "Ed" how he was enjoying the day. "I'm not Ed." was his reply. It turns out I had mixed Monte up with Ed. Well Monte never was called Ed again. And by the end of the trip everyone knew who Monte was. :)
I whispered to Gill, "What's that guy's name?" "Ed", she replied. "But he told me his name wasn't Ed." Score one for Ed. It was his dry sense of humor that had totally thrown me. More cyclists came in and tables switched personalities. I was ordering in french and enjoying the morning. Another hour spent eating and socializing. Finally after everyone had eaten and put on sunscreen, we started off. There was a long climb this morning. We puttered along in low gear trying to talk without getting in the way of traffic. The scenery was nice and at the pace we were going conversation was possible. When we reached Nante, we crossed paths with Le Grand Tour again. I tried to check my voicemail but the 800 number didn't seem to work. Oh well. We rode on towards the snack van.
My right ankle was very sore and swollen. It was the recurrence of an injury I had about 1.5 years ago. I had gone to the doctor several times and had received the typical advice "Stay off of it." Impossible on a bicycle trip. My ankle hurt and the climbing was making it worse. I was trying to push easy gears but I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to ride next week's trip. Great! I figured I was home free since I hadn't been bothered bicycling for nearly a year. It was obvious that I was going to have to give it up for today at least. I kept going until we reached the snack van. Then I asked Vince if I could sag with him. Walking was more painful than riding. I'm trapped!!
I mixed some gatorade for the troops while I was waiting. There wasn't a lot for me to do but talk and wait. I didn't mind too much but felt quite left out when the others got on their bicycles and rode off. I wanted to ride but couldn't. That was very frustrating to me.
Don drove up a short time later in one of the sag vans. I asked if I could go with him. So I abandoned Vince and chased the riders down with the help of the van. At Scotstown, Don stopped for a bit to get something to eat. Gill and Bill were eating near the river so I went over to say hello. Other riders arrived while we talked. They were making good time! It was now a lovely day and I felt trapped riding in the van.
We drove the rest of the way to Notre Dame des Bois. There were some serious hills on the way to camp. OK, I feel better about my decision. I arrived in camp rather early by my standards. I dragged my stuff into the arena and staked out a spot for the night. Another night sans tent! The local people were very friendly at Notre Dame des Bois. Two men were selling beer for $2.00 at the camp. Perfect, I don't have to walk anywhere to get a drink. I tried the Canadian beer. Tasty. I was having a grand time talking to the riders as they arrived. A beer for the victorious riders. The conversation got quite lively around the beer sellers. Steve and Mimi were organizing a trip to the "Observatoire du Mont-Megantic". I decided not to go for several reasons, so I sent my camera instead. I asked Thom to take pictures for me. I haven't developed the film yet, so I don't know if I trusted the wrong crowd or not. :)
Back at camp we continued to put a dent in the beer. The local people were catering dinner and the menu looked really good - chicken, potatoes, meatballs, rolls, even the "chief's" salad and "desert" looked good. Dinner time came and the first wave went through. The tables had paper placemats on them, which had a quiz about drugs and healthy lifestyle choices aimed at school kids. I decided to try and answer all the questions, even though the questions were in french. While I was diligently working on the questions, I asked if someone had a pen. Wait, I had one in my pack and as I triumphantly pulled it out of the pack the top flew off and hit the ceiling. Behind me I heard "Where did that come from?". I suddenly knew that I'd better not turn around. I had no idea who was sitting behind me but I hoped they were a friend. When I did look, I saw my pen cap sitting in Sam's water glass! I was laughing so hard that I could hardly breathe. Poor Sam! He had just gotten the water and was all set to drink it when the pen cap splashed down in his cup. I think he believed I had planned it. I was still laughing at the irony of it all. I think it might have been a Kodak moment to catch his expression. Cenora kept trying to tell him it was an accident. I just couldn't help laughing. (I did get Sam another glass of water.)
After dinner, I walked down the hill to a house that had a display of Mars Rovers in the front yard. The people who had ridden into camp had seen it and told me about it. I had to see what this display was about since I work for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Whomever lived in the house was certainly interested in space. The displays were home-made. The Sojourner model looked kind of like the real thing. So after reading the cards I went back to camp to get my pictures of the rover and lander models from work. I recruited some others to go with me in case I needed to escape. However, when I knocked on the door no one was home. After looking around I left a shuttle sticker on a workbench. That should keep them guessing as to where the sticker came from.
Back at camp it was time for our nightly meeting. Steve told us that a couple of people had ridden their bicycles to the observatory! After the meeting we were treated to music by some of the locals. The people of Notre Dame des Bois were terrific! I think it was by far the best stop on the whole trip. The food was excellent, the people were quite proud of their town and everyone seemed to enjoy the evening. Smily was in the kitchen washing dishes with the local women. It was quite a sight to see this American lad chattering away with Canadian women.
When it got dark, Scott and I set up the fireworks we had purchased several days before. They are legal in Canada and since we were heading back into the States the next day we decided to set them off. The only problem was that I didn't want to wake the early sleepers. The entertainment was still going so we finally just set the things off to the enjoyment of the crowd that happened to be standing outside. The screamers got some people's attention and the roman candles worked fairly well. Not a bad little display. But not the effect we had hoped for.
The women's dorm that night (the arena) was warm and cozy. Gill had
located a small room with a private toilet! This is high class! We
even had a door to close so people didn't disturb us. I slept quite
well in our warm little dorm.
MOOSA Part 3