Well, again, I had to finish off a visit and head out on the lonely road...this might be the last `real` visit I have for the trip. But, as the family was heading out to church, I packed up my bags and was off. Thank goodness I left when they did, as I was headed the wrong way from their place. But, got back on track with some redone directions, and off I went.
Stopped to pick up some fruit at a little market again - this time strawberries. They were delicious, but they made a mess pretty quickly. Nothing like fresh Canadian strawberries! Then, kept on the ride - beautiful morning for riding...slightly cloudy, minimal wind. The road I was cycling on was perfect for cyclist. As I came to the first bridge, I noticed a no cycling sign on it...but, the intersection I had passed was a long way back and it was short bridge, so I went for it. A cyclist followed up behind me and explained that bridges were only to be crossed if they had a bike path when in Montreal - pretty inconvenient apparently, as these often aren`t marked on maps. He wasn`t sure if we could cross at the next bridge - he was from the South Island and had been dropped by his riding companions (yes, he was maybe even more lost then me!). So, I continued down the road - this is where grandparents should skip to the next paragraph!! - and came to another no biking sign. Well, I like to obey the laws as much as possible, so I turned into a plaza to ask directions. The lady I spoke to seemed perplexed by the no biking, and suggested I follow the road out of the plaza and back up onto the bridge. Alright - she`s from here, must know what she`s talking about!!??!! Not so much - the road I got onto looked kind of like collectors lanes - and once I turned onto the bridge (no way out by this point), I realized I had made a mistake...all of a sudden I`m on an 8 lane autoroute (Quebec`s equivalent of the 400 series highways), pedalling my butt of to the first possible exit. It was about 4 km of awful before I got onto an off ramp. This was scary - my lesson is now learned!
So, eventually, found the bike path and way on my way downtown. Was headed to Old Montreal - apparently it`s where you can get everything in the smallest vicinity. Well, honestly, I was looking in the wrong place - all I found was the gay district and a lot of pubs, bars and restaurants. On the bright side, I felt quite proud of all the looks my spandex bike shorts were getting....I had an ok meal, with more poutine, with a couple of girls from Washington, DC before continuing in my journey.
In the end, made it to Repentigny - about 30 km outside of Montreal, after riding about 90 km on the day. It was starting to rain a little, so I decided to stop in at an internet cafè (trying to learn to use the french keyboard...no success) and hopefully wait out the rain with some good coffee and updating the blog. It turned out I waited out the light rain and ended up in a downpour. So, I biked just down the street and stayed at a little too pricey a hotel for the night...made up for it by having microwave lasagna for dinner! After a couple of beers, and a few episodes of Family Guy and Simpsons (it was kind of nice to have a TV), it was sleep time. Hopefully a big day tomorrow - want to make Quebec in 2.5 days.
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