Day 101- Help from a French policeman

Day 101 Tuesday, August 17, 2010 Distance 80.72 km. Time 4 hr. 55 min. Total so far 7221.64 km. We were up and gone from the Motel Bel-Eau Inn at 7:30 this morning after a pretty good sleep. I didn’t even hear the traffic from Hwy. 148 which is practically right outside the door. Diane had left a message to see if we could pick up an item that Gordon had left at a store in Papineauville but when we got there at 8 am. there was still an hour and a half before it opened so we kept going because it was supposed to get very windy today and we wanted to ride a lot as early as possible early to miss it. Later we passed through Plaisance. At Halte Canton de Lochaber, we stopped for a snack. Then from there we rode into Turso. The traffic on the road was very busy there with trucks and I got into the intersection at the same time as a big transport that had its right hand turn signals on. Because he veered way over to the left, I thought he had put on the wrong blinkers and was going left so I proceeded into the intersection but then he turned right trying to make a very wide turn. I almost got creamed and unclipped from the pedals and backed up as fast as I could. When I finally got through the intersection, I couldn’t see Dave and assumed he had gone ahead out of town. I took a photo of the church and the pulp and paper mill and bicycled ahead. I didn’t see Dave and thought that maybe he was getting fed up again with my stopping to take photos and was going ahead to encourage me to move faster. BUT I went several kms. and still didn’t see him which was unusual because usually he’ll go a certain distance and then stop and wait. After a little bit, a little thought went through my head that maybe he had stopped for water, so I stopped twice on long straight stretches and looked behind me but I didn’t see him so I assumed he was ahead and kept on, even yelling at another dog that came as far as the end of his driveway on my side of the road. MEANWHILE, Dave was back in town and had stopped at a Subway store to get water. When he didn’t see me, he thought maybe I was back near our snack break stop ( which is strange because we both left from there together) and he bicycled 4 km. back to it and then back to Turso without finding me. MEANWHILE I was getting concerned and decided to flag down a motorcycle going toward Turso. It stopped but at the same time a police car came towards me in my lane and I waved for him to stop. and waved the motorcycle on. Parlez vous Anglais”, I said “Un peu “ he said. So between my French and some English, I tried to explain that I had lost my husband and didn’t know if he was behind me or ahead of me. Mr. Policeman replied that he had passed a man on a bicycle with flags about 5 km. back. Then I tried to ask him if he could go back and let Dave know that I was ahead. He told me to bicycle ahead to the next intersection which would be safer than the passing lane area where I wads at and with lights flashing, he did a U turn and headed back to Dave. MEANWHILE, Dave assumed that I must be ahead of him since he hadn’t seen me yet and was riding along when a police car with flashing lights pulled a U turn and stopped in front of him. At first Dave thought, I might have been in an accident. The policeman indicated to him that I was ahead and Dave said that I should just keep riding on. MEANWHILE, I had made it to the intersection and soon flashing lights approached me from behind and he told me that Dave had said I could go on but he suggested that I wait there until we were together again. Another U turn and our helpful Quebec policeman was gone. Merci beaucoup! I compromised and had a snack and did my stretches and then rode slowly ahead but only until the next set of houses at Masson- Angers, the very outskirts of Gatineau. After we finally got together and explained each other’s stories, we stayed closer together for the rest of the day. I didn’t want to get separated in Gatineau. We had lunch in Parc de LaVerdiere and continued on. We met a tourer later called Yvon who started in Vancouver, bicycled parts of BC for a while and came across Canada to go to Quebec City where he is in charge of a nursing home. He has a little daughter called Marianne. This is his second trip and the longest. He has done over 5000 km. in over 50 days so far. He said he only had 4 more days to go. Later we passed a house with outer space things in the front yard and on the garage roof and the owner, Jacques, came out and talked to me for awhile. Dave had done good research and when we came to a certain street, we turned and went onto a bicycle path and followed it down many streets to the Olonzo Wright Bridge over the Gatineau River and into the municipality of Chelsea. Dave stopped at one place and saw a man pull over with his car and thought he was lost but it was Pierre who moved here from Belgium to Quebec 10 years ago and was interested in our bicycles and flags and where we were from and where we had been. A few more streets and we reached Solitude drive and around the loop and down the hill to a beautiful, brick house. It belongs to my daughter, Sarah’s in laws who are a wonderful couple. Diane was inside studying for an exam that she will take on Friday evening. She greeted us warmly and showed us the beautiful bedroom we would have for a couple of days which had a very nice vase of fresh flowers for us. We chatted for only about a half hour when our daughter, Sarah, arrived with our youngest granddaughter, travelling Tryne. They had left her sister’s house in Roseneath that morning and will also be staying here for a few days until they can get back into their apartmemnt in Ottawa. At first Tryne made strange a little but she had just been awakened and after a while her big smiles started. Her hair was really curly because she was warm so she and I went into their little pool for a bit of fun and that cooled us both off. When Gordon bicycled home from his work as a lawyer for the government in Ottawa, we all gathered around the table for conversation and a nice meal of roast beef, baked potatoes and Greek salad and banana cake and ice cream for dessert. We headed for a nice sleep in a big bed, and looking forward to an actual rest day tomorrow.