Day 94-Meeting an Olympic Champion and his family!

Day 94 Tuesday, August 10, 2010 Distance 81.05 km. Time 5 hr. 4 min. Total so far 6634.98 km. We started at 7 am from the SEBCA campground and waved to the older couple that I had practised my French with yesterday. They were out for a walk along the road. Coming toward us a little while later on a mountain bicycle was James who had left Montreal a few days ago and doesn’t really know where he is going. All he was carrying was a little backpack with hardly anything in it. He sleeps in the bush or on benches and we're both worried as he is very ill-prepared and we don’t think he is going to survive if the weather were to change or if he had bicycle problems. He seemed happy and looked well fed and dry for now. We chatted for a while and said goodbye. There is lots of farmland here and the silos stick up into the sky in the country just like the church steeples stick up in the sky in every town. In Kamouraska, I took pictures of a cemetery, some old tractors, wood sculptures, an old general store, the church steeple and the church. I love to take pictures. My children would be disappointed to know that the camera has fallen three times by accident but happy to know that Melissa picked out a good one with anti shock so it still works and I am trying to be more careful with it. As we arrived near the outskirts of St. Denis, battling a strong headwind, and with me drafting off Dave, a man was standing with his bike by a bridge. As we went by, he joined our little line and Dave landed up doing all the work. He is a great windbreak! We talked to Mignault once we got to town and he had already done 44 km to our 22 km. He must get up early but he also goes fast. He does over 10,000 km. every year. In the 70’s he bicycled across Canada and he has also bicycled in France. He is an avid cyclist and must be in his 70's but looks great. A few kms. out of town, he passed me and went ahead and talked with Dave for a while again and then turned, said “Au Revoir” and headed back. We came to Riviere Ouelle, another resort town on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Later at a crossroads with Hwy 20 there was Tim Horton's. All these towns with their little stores BUT Tim's was busy like crazy. I went in for water and somehow also came out with an apple fritter for me and a muffin for Dave. Dave was out talking to a guy standing beside a small vehicle with a very long boat, all wrapped up, tied on top of it. Dave thought it was a rowing shell which would have interested Chris and Sarah who are involved with rowing and are actually in St. Catherine’s now finishing ten days at the national rowing regatta. This boat was even longer. It was a 20 foot long tandem outrigger canoe OC2 owned by Michael Forgeron, his wife, Kim, their daughter, Hannah and dog Cobi, named after the mascot of the 1992 Olympics. Michael hails from Cape Breton Island and was Canada’s first Olympic gold medalist east of Quebec when his 8’s team in rowing won the gold medal for the 2000 meter in 1992. He also competed in 1996. They now live in Mississauga, Ontario and were returning from a holiday in Cape Breton. We really enjoyed our chat with them. It was also nice to hear some good English for a while. The next village was Saint Roche Des-Auinaies where I took several pictures of wooden toy signs and a metal sculpture place and the La Route Verte 1 sign that we are following along Hwy. 132. St. Jean-Port Joli had a brick windmill and many art and sculpture stores that one could visit.- a good place for our daughter, Emily. We went to the information centre for water and maps and then to IGA for lunch items. Betsy asked to join us at the picnic table. She is a traveller of a different kind. She is a beautiful young lady who is a sales woman for a plastics company and her sales area is the Maritimes and Ontario and Quebec. She likes to buy healthy food at the grocery store and was enjoying her salad at one side of the table while we were eating our peanut butter and cheese buns and one bite chocolate cookies at the other side . We had a really nice visit together and during that time the wind became stronger and the sky became threatening. We parted with a conversation about how she doesn’t like bicycling because her bum always hurts. I sort of agree but told her you have to take lots of breaks, get padded shorts use butt chamois, and get a proper seat. We went on through the powerful wind to L’islet-sur -Mer. On the way, there was a sculpture store with big bird and butterfly sculptures outside. Dave saw a bicycle store as we entered town and we stopped in briefly. One street away was the municipal campground so we set up camp at spot 59 with a beautiful view of the St. Lawrence. Finally, the shower cost no money so I had a shower and Dave returned to the store. When he returned, he said they had handlebar bags and I needed one as my $2 Value Village vinyl cooler bag which has been good for two years finally ripped and has been sagging so I have had it tied with a rope for a couple of weeks. I think it’s from turning Silver upside down to change the tire. The store had a Louis Garneau bag BUT my Specialized bike is thick on each side of the stem and the piece for joining it to the handlebar wouldn’t work. It took Gilbert almost an hour to rig up a new system for me using two back rack brackets. It was just like being an artist. He talks to himself a lot also as he works. It’s not perfect and sways up and down, so we’ll see how much that bothers me. A late supper came next and then, although I should have blogged, I had Dave walk down t0 the park next door to watch the sunset. The wind died down, the stormy sky passed and it was a gorgeous evening by the St. Lawrence River.