July 8th, 2017, Day 47,  Rouyn-Noranda to Louvicourt, Quebec, 147 Km

Pie! Any day that starts with pie is going to be a good day, don’t you think?! The night before we had picked one up at the grocery store for $2.50. I’ve only seen Charlie eat dessert of any kind, maybe half a dozen times in the 13 1/2 years we’ve been together, and he suggested we buy a pie! It wasn’t strawberry rhubarb; they didn’t have that but apple is pretty good too. The night before we had eaten half, saving the second half for breakfast. If only every day could start that way….    Well, we had to have a bit of cereal too. I added my secret energy-boosting ingredient to my yogurt, which is Nescafe espresso powder. Vroom! (The yogurt by the way, is Liberte Maple Flavoured Greek style. I figured that when you’re in the  land of maple syrup, you should at least embrace the local cuisine. To my astonishment, there is no actual maple syrup in it, only brown sugar and “maple flavouring”.

Nine hours of solid sleep had refreshed us and we left, later than usual, but with wings on our feet. The day was clear, bright and warm, with the promise of even more heat as the day went on. It was nice to feel the breeze on my legs. I left my bug suit stored away. There was no need to wear it as there weren’t many bugs. The wind was from the north and we were headed south-east. Perfect! It helped to push us along.  

Thanks to Fran and Marc Delaplante  who suggested we cross into Quebec from Matheson, we found wide, well maintained shoulders and the famous “La Route Verte” #2, which has been designed with cyclists in mind. Quebec really takes care of its cyclists. This is our third summer cycling in “La Belle Province!”  

We rode hard, passing through several towns and villages. When we got to Val D’Or we went to a Shoppers Drugmart for Charlie to get a prescription filled.  It took longer than we’d expected, so I made sandwiches and we had them there.

Back on the road we met some other cyclists, Deni and Letitia,  from Switzerland. They had been cycling for 10 months and had covered France, Spain, Cuba ( for two months)  and were now cycling Montreal to Vancouver. Letitia’s left knee had been hurting her for 3 days and they had rigged up a system where they had attached their long strong chain locks together and had rigged it so that Deni was actually towing her rack to rack. For three days he had been towing her. She did what she could with her right leg. There were so many hills! It must have been crazy hard! We chatted for a good while and invited them to come stay with us when (if) they get to Calgary if we’re home. They were headed to a “Warm Showers” home in  Val D’Or and planned on taking a few days to rest. Bonne chance Letitia et Deni!                       (I have handlebar envy!)

Thirty more kilometres and we were in Levincourt, and at a small motel. Hooray for motels! We enjoyed a warm shower and then went to their restaurant for spaghetti.    Did I eat all of this? No, I put a good dent in it and Charlie finished it after eating his double order. Bottomless pit, that man!