Day 96- Nothing ever works perfect for Mary Ann and Silver

Day 96 Thursday, August 12, 2010 Distance 69.83 km. Time 3 hr. 56 min. Total so far 6805.48 km. We stayed in the Hotel Gouverneur until 9:30 with Dave working on banking while I was doing a blog. Then we headed to the Bank of Commerce, riding on the side walk most of the way. After that we went to a bicycle store about 2 blocks away. It was very big and well equipped. Dave got a replacement front chain ring of 40 teeth that he has been looking for for a while. They helped him put it on outside the store which saved a lot of work. In the meantime, I was in a real quandary because I saw a small Arkel handlebar bag like Dave’s which I thought would be more sturdy on my bicycle than the setup I had that Gilbert did. Gilbert's setup was fine and level and out of the way of the cables but swayed up and down all day and was not removeable without unscrewing it. I didn’t know what to do and thought and thought about it and finally decided to try the Arkel. It was on sale and I told the guy I would take it if they charged no labour to take off the one and put on the Arkel. He said that would be fine. The only thing I didn’t like just then was undoing all the work Gilbert had done 2 days before. While they were working, I tried to sell the first bag to customers that came into the store but with no luck. WELL, things never seem to work out for Mary Ann because although the brackets did fit around my thick handlebar stem, the cables on my bicycle were getting in the way and the bag was not able to be put on level. SO, it is sturdier, does not sway, is removeable BUT is not level. The guy said if I get Scram instead of Sora for shifters , it will solve the problem of the cable from the shifters but I don’t know if we can do anything when I get home about the top brake lever cables. So now I have a new bag on the front and am carrying the other on the back of the bicycle. Now poor Silver really looks heavy back there. Now we headed out of the city on Rue Saint Louis. We came to the end of it to a part that was really dangerous. It’s a 20 degree downhill on a path where there are gates every 4 meters to walk your bicycle through . We had to walk zigzagging the bicycles from side to side and bracing the seats with our bums. The last part was made up of sections of stairs with a trough at the side that you were supposed to slide the bicycle on to get down. Well we both tried one section like that and I almost lost Silver forever. After that Dave had to carry each bike down step by step to the bottom. It was hot, sweaty work. Maybe it was retributive justice for not doing it at the hotel yesterday. BUT, we made it down. Thank the Lord that I have a strong husband! A short while later, we made it to our new route through this part of Quebec, Hwy 138 called Chemin du Roy which was originally the first carriage road linking Quebec to Montreal. It was first completed in 1737 and was 7.4 m wide and over 280 km. long running through 37 seigniories. It follows along the St. Lawrence River the whole way and most of it is also LA Route Verte 5. After 1 hr. on this Hwy., we came to Saint August de Desmaures, got groceries and had lunch. The wind was on our back today, there was a fairly good edge and even with our late start we made fairly good time passing through Neuville, past many vegetable farms and garden stands and very old stone houses and Donnacona where they were setting up for a town fair and I chatted with some old age residents in Residence Ste. Marie. All day long I practise my French by reading all the signs and remembering the words. We saw many cyclists again and some tourers but there are so many that our little chats of before are replaced by a wave. Later we cycled through Cap-Sante and Portneuf. It’s nice to have a little destination not far away. Just before Deschambault, I saw a camping sign to turn .5 km on the side road and I wondered why Dave passed it and kept going but I didn’t say anything because I figured he wanted to go farther due to our late start and the wind on our back. BUT, he had mistaken the sign and thought the campground was straight ahead. Before we knew it we were in Deschambault and found there were no campgrounds for the next 40 km. Since we never turn back, we filled up our water and moved on to find a stealth spot. We turned into a provincial picnic area but there was a no camping sign so on we went. Finally, I saw a patch of grass at the far end of a parking lot of a closed bar or restaurant. The sign was all taped up and there were no cars so we set up at the far end. There was a nice hedge of trees on one side and in the front so not too many vehicles could see us. Supper on the grass and to bed for us after a busy day.