Day 7 in Baie-Comeau

Old Convent, now a Care Home

Mini Golf was invented here!
View of the Bay
Lovely sling. Hair by Brent. Quite the escapade, as he has never put anything in a ponytail before. I thought one time I was going to have to walk around with his hand stuck in my hair!
The one street in Baie -Comeau I have been able to see so far

Yes, we have been here a full week now. When we stayed an extra day a week ago due to the weather, we never imagined that we would be extending our stay this long. Baie-Comeau, at first impression is a "Power" town, as you drive into the city, all you see is large power structures, with huge lines running through the town and into the forest. I guess it is due to the 5 large power dams in the area, Manic 5 being the largest. We finally found the quaint waterfront area, which looks to be recently redone, but it is beside the large pulp and paper mill, which kind of wrecks the view. Fortunately, there is no strong smell from the mill. The quaint waterfront area consists of one street, anchored at one end by an interesting fountain that kids can play in, where water shoots up from different holes at random intervals. The other end of the road leads into a big park area, with trails, a small duck pond, a children's' play area and a view of the Bay. This is the town where Brian Mulroney was born, and is also the town where Mini Golf was invented. I think the later holds more pride for the town, as we couldn't find any information on the Prime Minister in the town.
All week, I have only been able to manage to walk to the end of the block and back, and, frankly, as of yesterday, was starting to go a bit squirley. I managed to get to the park yesterday afternoon, and do some leg workouts, which helped mentally, but zonked me out for a couple of hours afterwards. The shoulder isn't causing much pain, but I have had pain in my abdominal muscles, which I think were stretched a bit in the fall, along with some rib pain.
Today was the first day we walked all the way down to the Bay to see where the ferry comes in from the Gatineau Peninsula, and in the afternoon, we walked up above the Bay to see some of the neighbourhood and sites. Quite the accomplishment. Here I sit, writing about the experience, and Brent is napping! (he must be worn out!)
We hope to be heading out on Monday, but still haven't heard from the adjuster about the bike, which is keeping us here, so we can make shipping arrangements if it needs to go to the BMW dealership for fixing. Either in Quebec City or in Nova Scotia.

Bike photos

Full face, $800 helment pays off. No scrapes or damage to my face. Or head.

Missing front fender, mirrors, hand guards, and break lever, broken headlight and windsheild.

See you soon, bike.

We are still waiting in Baie Comeau for the bike to be assessed. We are hoping that it is only cosmetic damage. Brent had a look and took a few photos for me to see, and it didn't look as bad as we originally thought. As for me, I am feeling better every day. We were upgraded in the hotel, with a nice kitchenette, and a bigger room, which makes the waiting better. I have been sleeping quite a bit, which is helping the healing process and keeps me from moving the shoulder. Brent has also been napping sympathetically with me, and I am beginning to believe that he is kind of enjoying the lazy days. I have been encouraging him to go out at least for a couple of hours a day for fresh air, or a motorcycle ride, but he hasn't ventured too far.

Thanks for all the kind comments on the blog, and for the emails! I hope that I will be updating the blog with more interesting stuff soon.

Cheers for now.

N

Fantastic Morning Not So Fantastic Afternoon

Manic 5

Manic 50

We were up and on the road by 8:00 am as we had a long day from Baie-Comeau to Labrador City. 550 km's 350 of which is gravel. The first 200 km's were the best riding of the trip so far- lots of twisties and no traffic. We stopped at 200 km at Manic Five, a large dam and powerplant in Quebec, supplying the province with 25% of the Province's power. Once we left Manic five, we were on gravel. The road was good, hard packed. We were starting to feel out in the boonies, as we saw our first live wildlife since we left on the trip, with the exception of a few deer. We slowed to see a fox standing on the road,proudly displaying its meal of the day, resembling squirrel. The next animal we came across was a small porcupine and I was really surprised to see how small it was, and actually had a tail.

Then, after about 70 km's of gravel, I rounded a corner to see freshly grated,sandy road. I adjusted my speed, but my bike started to wobble in the sand. Then my rear tire swung out and I knew I was going down. Brent saw me in the rear view mirror and instantly was at my side. As I sat up, I noticed a few bike pieces scattered around me, and I had pain in my shoulder. I was not a happy camper and may have used language not suitable to children. A truck pulled up to help and we and decided to take my bike and me back to Baie-Comeau for repairs, and Brent tried to offer me my clutch lever as a gift, which he thought would make a nice necklace. The two guys in the truck were real sweethearts and were working in Labrador City, on there way to pick up an Jetski in town. He followed us back to town, where I had xrays to confirm that my clavicle (right collarbone) was broken. Fancy that, my first broken bone ever. We are currently staying at the Grand Hotel in Baie-Comeau sorting out what to do with my bike while I take the 4 weeks to heal the break.

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Quebec City to Baie-Comeau

Baie-Comeau Grand Hotel

Ferry Crossing

Beautiful ride mostly along the St. Lawrence River, with some offshore parts through farmland. I could have stopped several times to look at some interesting sites, but we were a bit pressed for time, as we were planning to head to Labrador to meet a ferry on Sunday. It was odd, as the temperature fluctuated per area, and really cooled off as we got closer to the river. I'm guessing as much as 10 degrees. The journey included a ferry crossing that took about 20 minutes. As usual, we had a bit of a challenge finding where we wanted to stay in Baie-Comeau, as we were sure there was a charming town by the waterfront, but either due to a language barrier, or hotel staff who didn't want us to know, we took about an hour in this small town to find where the waterfront is. Once we found the waterfront, we checked into a cool, revitalised old hotel called the Grand Hotel. Nice room, with character. Great restaurant, too!

We woke up to heavy rain, and decided to treat ourselves to another hotel night and restful day in Baie-Comeau, which included a walk, a small m/c ride, a picnic lunch and nice restaurant meal. The reason why we could afford another day, was that we discovered that we didn't need to take the ferry in Labrador, as they have completed a new gravel road, that saves us time and money to where we want to go to get into Newfoundland. Tomorrow is calling for sunshine. Yipee!

Inside the Helmet

Getting in and out of the tent:

An Art in Itself.

Every tent has it's own set of challenges, unique to it's design. Our tent has a nice big vestibule that provides lots of extra storage area for our boots, jackets and bags. I learned quickly that if you stand up too high when going out of the dome-shaped door in the morning, the dew that has accumulated on the top of the vestibule drains off and gets your back soaked. A lovely morning ritual that only took me 2-3 times to change the height at which I move through the opening. To get out of the tent is surely not a graceful venture. I start with scooting my butt to the edge of the doorway so that I can slip my shoes on without bringing dirt into the tent. Then, I ponder my tactic, depending on how sore or strong my legs feel that particular day. Do I rise slowly from a limbo position, or do I turn sideways and roll forward to a squatting position, both of which, I'm sure showcase my gracefullness and cat-like agility? Good thing, it's only Brent who has to suffer through this daily dance, and he is stuck with me...!

Quebec City

Brent, pretending to be French. But,really looking like a tourist!



Each piece of this stained glass window was brought over from England, in molasses, then re-assembled here.
Oldest house in Quebec City. Now a restaurant.


A guy too lazy to do anything more creative than dress up his dog for money.

Yes, I am a bit fascinated by this hotel, the most photographed castle in the world!


We arrived in Quebec City and got a bit turned around due to some construction and lost our way to the campground. It took us an additional 3 hours to find it, but it was worth the patience. We both had "serenity now" moments, as I had given the instructions to Brent on paper, and somewhere along the way, they blew out of his top pack. I didn't know the name of the campground, and I couldn't remember the street name that it was off. All I could remember was 155 off of Highway 40. But, even that was wrong. We did get good directions from a guy at a gas station, but still fooled around long enough to have to stop at Mac's for a refreshing iced coffee and calm down until we figured it out. I'm sure this will be one of many moments where we will be utterly lost, and will need to have patience with each other, as we really are our only friends on this trip, and you can't give up on your only friend!
The campsite is excellent. Only 20 minutes from the Old City of Quebec. Very well run, with lots of trees, a view of the city, and great facilities, like a pool, laundry, clean and well maintained showers. They also have a small restaurant and general store. The campsite is called Camping De La Joie- www.campingdelajoie.com They recommend reservations, as they seem to be booked up most weekends. We are paying about $30/night for a very clean site. They also offer a shuttle service into the Old City, which is very handy as parking is hard down there, and they don't allow motorcycles into the old city.
We took a day off, and did some chores, like buying new tires and having them installed. We used a BMW dealer in Quebec City, and they were excellent, fitting us into their busy shop the day we bought the tires, so we didn't have to be without the bikes for too long.
I did some laundry, shopping for some staples, and we generally relaxed for a whole day.
Yesterday, we took the shuttle at 9 am to the old part of Quebec City and signed up for a walking tour at 1:30 pm. This was a great tour that can be booked through the tourist information site across from the Chateau Frontenac. It gave us an idea of the sites we wanted to go back to, as well as some history of the city. Our shuttle picked us back up at 6:30 pm, and we were back, fed and in bed by 10. (party animals that we are)

Above: Here's some shots of the town.

Goodbye Ontario, Bonjour Quebec

We took the scenic route along the Ottawa river, on the Quebec side. We experienced our first taste of what it will be like travelling in a country where we don't know the language. All the signs are now in French, with the exception of Time Hortons, where we enjoyed a coffee. We doddled along today in the humid conditions and only covered 200 km, but seemed to eat up enough time to need to stop for the night. We found a nice campground in the city of Joillette, and set up the tent just before the thunder and rain arrived. Fortunately, it was short lived. We are the only tenters at this quaint campground, and it is quiet, although we are right in the middle of the city. We woke up to sunny skies, which we feel lucky, as there have been reports of rain all around us on this trip, but (knock on wood) we have avoided it so far.

Ottawa Tourist Day

We really enjoyed our day in Ottawa. Started off with watching the changing of the guard, which we both felt looked like a lot of marching around back and forth and and forth and back...Then we enjoyed the tour of the Parliament Building, including a ride up to the top of the Peace Tower. We have a shot from the top, just below the clock. We walked over to the Governor General's residence as well as the PM's. Had a nice dinner at the Byward Market, with all of the other tourists and called it a night. Brent is really fascinated with the locks, and luckily, there weren't any more boats going through tonight, or we would still be there watching them. They take about 1 1/2 hours to go through the section at the start of the lock, and he really wanted to see them all go through. Not just for the engineering of the locks, but for the cool variety of boats going through.

Ottawa

Chateau Laurier

Celebrating Jamie's Birthday

Supervising the Rideau Canal Locks

Brent posing as a tourist

What a great campsite last night. Very quiet and peaceful. We have settled into a bit of a routine, sleeping into 8 am, toast and coffee, and on the road by 10. Quite sane, actually!

We took our time and drove through Petawawa and Pembrook, stopping for a Timmy's along the way. Thanks, Grant and Arlene! We have been using the card lots!

Happy Birthday, brother Jamie! I hope you are having a great day today. I have been thinking of you often, especially when I hear some of the interesting tunes you put on my IPOD. Favorite so far is the Christmas music... Interesting. Not so fond of the punk stuff, however!

It is hot 30, and muggy here in Ottawa, and we scored a great deal at the Raddison on Hotwire. We are right downtown, blocks from the Parliament buildings for $85/night! We will stay until Monday. Once we settled in, we walked around downtown, and saw some of the sights. Tomorrow, we will take a Parliament tour and do lots of walking. Looking forward to it!

Still in Ontariario

Camping on the Ottawa River

After a great night's sleep, we hit the road around 10 am. Brent is really sleeping well and also enjoyed his TV fix, watching the golf at St. Andrews. It was a windy ride, just like the golf at St. Andrews, and frankly, not too exciting.
The weather was good, however, so we managed to put on quite a few km's.
We have passed about 50 cyclists so far, 99% of them are heading the same direction as us. It made me think about our cycling pals and I am in awe of the ones who have cycling this portion of our great country. Koodos to Rhonda, Roy and Hans- you are all amazing! I think we should all lobby the government to add to the shoulders on this highway, especially east of Brandon and well into Ontario. It's amazing how much safer it would be for the riders if they just had an extra foot or two of pavement on the side.
We skirted Sudbury and North Bay and headed towards Ottawa. We are currently staying at a campground on the Ottawa River in a town called Mattawa. Maybe Matt discovered this town, as Otto discovered Ottawa? (history, re-written by Nance...) Actually, Mattawa means meeting of the rivers.
Strange things seen on the road: 3 guys waling along the highway with the same white shirts, with red text on the shirts, holding water bottles...What's strange about that, you say? Well, they were spaced out about 5 km's apart. In the middle of nowhere...Maybe they had a disagreement and needed some alone time?
Between Blind River and North Bay, there are many farms, and a lot of them have these huge old barns, which are really stunning. I also noticed a lot of houses with front doors that had no steps going to them. I guess they just use the back doors around here... Maybe I have had enough alone time in my helmet...
My editor, Brent, tells me that I should let all know that we didn't need to stop in Thunder Bay for tires, as it seems like the tread is wearing better than expected. We will probably get the bikes serviced and new tires now in Quebec City.

Kakabeka Falls to White Lake

We had a short day, for no particular reason. The road was great, and the scenery was great, but we wanted to stop, so...we did!
White Lake is a beautiful lake, and has a nice beach area. Again, we are in a quiet, secluded campground- showers and flush toilets... What a treat!
About 8 pm, somewhere across the lake, there was a group of First Nations folks who started up the drums and the chanting. It was quite surreal. They must have been singing for rain, as sometime in the night, the thunder and heavy rain started. We woke up to rain and decided to sleep in and hope for better weather later in the day. I served breakfast in bed...Okay, toast and coffee, but it was still a treat. The weather cleared and we were on the road by 10 am.
We are now stopped just east of Sault Ste. Marie at a town on Lake Superior called Bruce Mines. Very pretty area, and, a bed and a shower! (and internet connection) Fantastic!

Thoughts from Inside the Helmet

Calgary-Saskatoon-Winnipeg:

It feels like we have been getting to where we are going....

Winnipeg onwards:

Now we are going to where we get.

Dryden-Kakebeka Falls

Kakabeka Falls

Ah, the camping life!

We got up around 8:30 am and were on the road before 9:30 am. Pretty efficient campers! We road for about an hour before stopping for breakfast. The road continued to be nice for riding, with very few vehicles, nice sweeping turns, and calm weather. Just outside of Thunder Bay, we stopped at a Provincial campground, Kakabeka Falls, known as Niagra of the North. The falls are 40 meters of sheer cliffs, and claim to be Ontario's 2nd highest waterfall. The campgrounds are nice, and hardly any people in them! Loving the size of the campgrounds in Ontario- they are well spaced out sites and lots of trees. The warden stopped by to warn us of a bear in the area and to chat about the bikes. He is trying to talk his wife into buying a 650 GS like mine...

Winnipeg to Ontario Somewhere

Watkins Acerage

We popped into the Pattison Winnipeg office this morning for some hello/goodbyes. Derek was just ringing the gong because of a 6 figure contract he signed this morning! WTG DJ!

It was great actually meeting the creative team, and putting faces to names. I'm sure they are looking forward to me being gone for a year. No more subject lines with: Sorry! Two day turn around please!

After the visit, we went back to the Watkins acreage to saddle up. Thanks, Brian and Tan for the hospitality- you have a beautiful place there.

Stopped for gas on the way out of town- thanks Mike and Cindy for the gas card. Not necessary, but much appreciated!The road started getting much more interesting just after we passed the center point for Canada.

Rode pretty much straight to Kenora, where we stopped for lunch and a peek at the Lake of the Woods. We stopped at the first Timmy's we saw, but we had to laugh as we drove down the road to see the main business section in Kenora, beautiful sopt, overlooking the lake with lots of flowers, interesting stores and restaurants! Lesson Learned!

First weird sight on the road, was a guy pushing a full shopping cart in the middle of nowhere...

Right now, we are about 400 or so KM from Thunder Bay at a beautiful campsite, called Aaron. (just outside of Dryden) Very quiet, and we are right on a lake. We will probably stop tomorrow in Thunder Bay, as it looks like I may need new tires. The last ones, I have had on since Whitehorse, so they are looking a tad worn.

Nighty Night to all!

Leaving Wolseley

The two white stones on the left are Brent's Grandparents' Gravestones.

St. Andrews

Brent has been teasing me that the blog COULD read in the future:

Dec 4: Bacon and Eggs for Breakfast. Shoveled the walk. Mom and Nance fine.

Dec 5: Bacon and Eggs for Breakfast. Shoveled the walk. Mom fine. Nance left me.

Dec 6: Shoveled the walk. Mom and Nance left me.

But, low and behold, we packed up the bikes and headed out this morning! The sun was shining, the wind was non-existant, and the road was straight. Very Straight.

We rode for about an hour and pulled off in Wapella, where Brent spent his first 10 or so years. Drove by the house he grew up in. It looks great- well cared for and a nice garden. We took the grid road south for about 1/2 hour to look for St. Andrews- where his family would go to church during the summer. What a beautiful spot. The church is stone, and the land is surrounded by farmland. We walked through the small grave yard and identified some of Brent's relatives, including his Grandma and Grandpa.

The door to the church was unlocked, so we went in and had a look around. Brent recognized some of the photos of past priests, and I was awed by the look of the inside.

We stopped in Mooseomin to see Brent's other Grandparent's graves, and then pushed through to Winnipeg.

We are currently staying with a friend of Brent's through work, Brian, out at his gorgeous acreage just outside of Winnipeg.

Beautiful Wolseley Buildings and Houses

The Wolseley Dam

Red Winged Blackbird


The Banbury Inn Bed & Breakfast
Original Beaver Lumber office
Town Hall/Opera House
Wolseley Courthouse; Oldest in Saskatchewan