Another beautiful day! Up and breakfasted, I leave the hotel about   9:30. One odd thing occurred to me in the night - when I asked for the room I asked if I could have a king-sized bed.  The desk clerk responded "No. All our single rooms have two beds." What's up with that? And, may I say re the Montreal Weather Channel Girls - "Oh la la".

So, eastward ho.  I head on the familiar 20 Est, passing the Madrid east of Drummondville.  It's dinosaur collection has grown.  Just past the Madrid, there's usually a passel of Quebec Provincial Police cars.  There is only one today, but there is a QPP bike - it looks like it's a BMW RS1150.  Wow.  That's alot of police bike.

There's lots of traffic, but not too much.  Many motorbikes to wave at.  Someone on an RZ650,wearing black and white racing leathers, goes by me at 100 miles an hour.  He gives me a thumbs-up as he passes, because I saw him coming and got out of the way.

       


I pull over at the rest stop west of Quebec City.  It's a rest stop for doggies, too!

Unfortunately, the flying saucer rest stop that I wanted to see has either closed, or it was on a portion of 20 I skipped due to missing the bridge turnoff.

I do turn off 20at St-Alexandre, and head south on 289.  It's an interesting drive, but not one I'd repeat anytime soon.  The road is nicely swoopy, and well marked, but there's alot of truck traffic.  And it has pounded the road surface into ripples and ruts.  And the ripples are pounding my kidneys.

  Every little town in Quebec is dominated by it's own cathedral, and these little towns are no exception. Those Catholics, eh?

  Me and my kidneys finally make it to Edmundston, and turn onto route 2 south. Hey, there's the RZ with the dude in black and white leathers gassing up his bike.  This road has been changed alot since I was here last - it's now divided, two lanes each way, new and smooth, and check out that speed limit! As I'm taking this picture, the RZ dude goes by, giving me a puzzled look.

After 50k it turns back into two-lane blacktop, with access to anyone who wants to hook up their driveway.  After 200k of switching back and forth between these two extremes, I'm outside of Woodstock. It starts to drizzle, and I see another rainbow, so I turn off to see my older sister, Carla, and her husband, J.D. 

Given that I've seen showers and rainbows two days in a row, I decide to stay overnight..

Today's numbers- 712km today, 1354 total.  Cheated death - 1.  The narrow roads have passing lanes, usually on uphill sections where slow moving traffic will be even slower.  Just west of Hartland, I'd been trapped behind a truck and car for some miles, when I see the "Passing Lane 2Km" sign.  Eagerly I await this opportunity, and when it comes I drop down a gear and accelerate as fast as possible.  Except, as I'm passing the car, I see a sign that says "Lane Ends, 250m".  So this passing lane is only a quarter of a kilometer long? Dag-nabbit. I'm doing 140k, so I continue to pass the truck.  I'm about to pull in, but it turns out that the truck is being held up by a small red car, whom the trucker is attempting to "encourage" to go faster.  No way to pull in. Joy. So I lean over and move to the left side of the, now single, lane.  Everything will be fine.  I'll just crowd the red car a little, and Ill be past....  Did I mention we're coming to the crest of the hill? Oh, yeah.  And there's oncoming traffic - IN MY LANE. Joy. I squeeze past the red car and too the right of the lane, and gesture my displeasure to the person who is - to be fair -doing the same thing as me.  I have angered the red car driver, who now shows he now can go the speed limit.  Sorry, dude.  I scamper away.