Just to let you all know, I have safely returned home after completing the 2022 version of Retirement Rides. Once I have tabulated all the information I will post a final instalment with summary information on distance travelled, etc. and overall impressions.
For now though I will just write a few words about the ride from Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, somewhere that probably few of you have visited, to Notre-Dame-du-Portage, where there is a really great Auberge with a dining room that never fails to impress, and finally Trois-Rivières, a great place to spend a last night on any eastern provinces return trip. Here is a view of the St-Lawrence from the balcony of my room at the Auberge in Notre-Dame-du-Portage.
While the weather has generally been very good for this year’s trip, there were a few times, including on Tuesday morning and again yesterday afternoon, where rain, sometimes quite heavy, made riding let us say challenging. For example when the water from the puddles on the road splashes up on your legs when you race through them, or when you have to ride through pouring rain with the four-way flashers on in order to be more visible, let’s just agree that it’s a bit of an adventure; but then again it’s also those moments one remembers most vividly.
I may have mentioned that the gastronomic dimension of this year’s trip was not uniformly great. I have mentioned some outstanding meals in earlier posts in this series and such was not the case in Kamouraska where I had a fantastic lunch of scallops and shrimp on rice at a poissonnerie, at the Auberge in Notre-Dame-du-Portage where both the dinner, a perfectly prepared piece of haddock with potatoes, pea pods, and a delicious sauce, and the breakfast were top notch, and at Épi, à Trois-Rivières bistro that focuses all its small-plate dishes on local ingredients that can be paired with interesting, in some cases Québec, wines.
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