After leaving Montreal I cycled for 100% next to the St. Lawrence river towards Quebec.
From time to time it led me on the Route Verte but sometimes it was covered with gravel or worse so I took the main road. Nice little towns along the river with a 'normal' church like the ones in Europe. If you don't speak any French over here it can be quite tough to find an English speaking person sometimes I guess. It's even a bit like in Brussels. I saw a dosen or so bicyclers doing the trail along the river. Only one was on a longer tour as I was, Sebastien from France.
The city of Quebec was so and so. The old city center was not so marvelous as expected.
It's very much alike to a city in France or the Walloon region, not to use the word dull.
The only positive side of visiting this city is that it had an excellent bikeshop where they replaced my gears and chain as it was worn out. Some of the guys in the shop spoke English but with hair up. Nice shop but pricey. I looked around for a new pair of cycleshorts, the one I wear were priced 199 dollar.. pfft..
I slept near a lake in Tue city under a big partytent that was set up for the weekend.
The road to the north brought me alongside nice little towns but once again with a majority of french look-a-likes in every form and style. Prices didn't went down, in contrary.
I took the small ferry to the other side of the river in Levis and cycled north again to Cap St. Ignace and and ended up in Riviere du loup the day after. I cycled along with a guy from Montreal for half a day and had a beer ion a microbrewwery near Rimouski that was opened up by a guy from Brasschaat, Antwerp, Belgium. I talked some Aantwaarps again and had a self=brewed beer over there. All the Geuze was sold out.. (after my visit hahi)..
Very much traffic on the road and weekend traffic was almost killing me. I slept alongside the route. Just out of Rimouski I slept in the garage of Ivon VA2YD, I saw his beacon of his repeater on the APRS. I got some leftovers of food from a party they were visiting and charged up the batteries. Cycling out to the north I took the road to New Brunswick and slept on the banks of a lake in Val-Brillant to find out it started raing 24/24 the next day.
The tent was packed in wet and that's not the way to go but wat do you do... I cycled for New Brunswick for the night and was ready to cycle under everything were my tent could dry until I saw 50% of what was the 4-band dipole antenna of Pierre VE1AXC. I slept on the couch and took a shower which was needed after this rainy day.
I was radioaktive again three days : 2 days on 20 meterwhen I worked KC8OYD, Lance KB0RGS and WA0HHN, also KE4TS Jim in North Carolina again and NS7P Jim in Oregon with 33. Rod NY4S was 59 from Tenessee. I just didn't make it in OE4XLC and PA3DHR I think but HB9RDE Rolf worked me with 52 ! On monday 15 I worked on 40 meter with KR4IS Jeff, KR4IS Jeff, VA2FSQ Tom, VE3SSR Eugene and WA2AKP Lou all with nice signals until the rain set in in the morning when I worked W1FC Fred, W3UX John and VE1DC Tom. In Quebec I worked on VHF KE4TS Jim on his way home.
I will try again on 20 when the sunspots go over 100 or I'm in a relaxed and good position to hang up the antenna. I don't like it to do it rush-rush.. If you want to stay informed on times and frequencies got to my twitter on
http://twitter.com/#!/rafvz
You can also - like the whole journey - follow me on the
APRS signal on the link in the menu.
I'm heading For Prince Eduard Island the next week and then up to Nova Scotia by the next and then one week to Boston from St' John in New Brunswick. The end is coming closer, I hope the weather remains dry and warm as it is today so I can camp outside as much as possible and do some radio-ing and enjoy the scenery without the need to go to a crappy motel !
As Google is messing things up since the last update on the droid I have problems to put pictures on this blog from the picassa account. You still can see ALL the pictures on the link to Picassa if you click on
the link in the menu on the right side of the screen.
