Well hello everyone. It’s been two years since I have posted a Retirement Rides blog entry. COVID has no doubt affected all of you and I hope that you and your loved ones have all made it through those troubling times. While the pandemic is not over, far from it if we listen to the public health authorities, which we all should, I am now quadruple vaccinated and things (read restaurants and hotels) have opened up enough to make a long distance motorcycle ride a possibility this summer. Add to that the fact that there’s a CAT, not a Lilly-kind of pussy cat but a high speed catamaran service that has been reestablished between Bar Harbor Maine and Yarmouth Nova Scotia that I have been longing to experience. So, after having my BMW a serviced in Ottawa on Monday, I started my trip.
When I left home early Tuesday morning the skies were overcast and there were a few small raindrops falling. Given that weather generally comes from the west, and since I was headed west, I thought I might be able to stay ahead of the showers that were in the forecast. A faint hope that was; except for a few brief intermissions it rained, though not heavily, from just east of Montebello all the way to Québec City.
My, as it turns out very nice, room was in a small hotel just a few blocks from the Château Frontenac and the funicular that connects the fortress part of the old city to the lower part. As those of you who have had the joy of driving in Old Québec know a GPS is not very helpful in navigating a neighbourhood of densely packed streets, particularly when some of them are blocked by construction. Suffice it to say that I spent the better part of 30 minutes going up, down, and around streets before finally arriving at the hotel, only to be informed quite helpfully
gentleman at the desk that motorcycles were not allowed in the walled-in parts of the city. But, not to worry, I could just leave my bike in the underground city hall parking lot and probably avoid being
I had a really great dinner of confit de canard and wapiti sausage last night at Bistro Sous le Fort in the basse-ville. Both the service and the food were excellent. A great way to end the first day of my trip
This morning’s clouds dissipated and after a very delicious breakfast of crêpes with maple syrup and wild strawberries and thick-sliced bacon and great coffee at La Buche, I retrieved my motorcycle from the Parking lot and started off to Lac Mégantic in the Beauce, a region I had never before visited. While getting out of the city proved to be a bit of a challenge owing to the fact that the preparations for a music festival closed off a section of Grande Allée, the remainder of the trip was very interesting. The Beauce was, as far as I can tell, the most religious part of the province. There are Saints on nearly every hilltop, with churches with tall steeples lining the roads. The views from the highway are quite impressive. Here are a few.
I arrived in Lac Mégantic in late afternoon and was informed by the receptionist at Microtel Inn and Suites which is built on a small part of the site where the train explosion occurred on this day 9 years ago. As it turns out she was one of the survivors of that tragic incident. She, accompanied by her children, was supposed to be singing at one of the establishments that was destroyed that night. At the last moment she accepted the invitation of a friend to go to her home for a swim in her pool instead. She recounted the story and it felt like it was just yesterday, and meanwhile on a large screen tv not far from where she spoke a news report of a commemoration ceremony was airing.
Tomorrow, after a visit to the memorial, it’s off to Bar Harbor, my first venture into the USA since the beginning of Covid19.
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