March 24, 2017
Montreal: A day of small triumphs
When you try to keep your phone or tablet charged without that always available wall plug at home each evening, you come to appreciate some touring nuances that can be critical. The Galaxy Tab S2 that we just bought for navigation has been highly refined for speed, thinness, and light weight. However to achieve this they cut down on the battery. That's great, so it will not blow up like the Note 7, but how do you manage out on the road when the battery quits?
The snap answer to this is to connect an external power bank. But not so fast (literally). We found that the tablet considered a power bank to be like a USB connection from a laptop - that is, it could take 14 hours to charge. What we need is for the tablet to think it is connected to a powerful wall charger. We had that covered, we thought, because we have a little gizmo that adapts the USB cable to fool the tablet. Only thing, this tablet was having none of it.
What ensued, last night, was considerable brain wracking, internet researching, and soul searching - as to whether the new super tablet was even going to come on the trip at all. We tried all sorts of cables and chargers (even an "official" Samsung one from a Vietnamese man with a table in the Metro), and actually the tablet accepted not a single combination of charger and cable for achieving a reasonably fast charge.
Finally, a baby (6") USB cable popped out of Dodie's bag where it had been hiding and got an audition with the various powerful chargers and batteries. And it worked! So it showed that not all micro USB cables are electrically the same, and some will work for this, while others do not. A quick walk out into the snow here (yes, snow!) brought back a beefy and long Belkin cable that also works. Small triumph number one!
In small triumph number two, we walked out in the snow (same snow!) to La Cordee, the nearest bike and outdoor shop. We were greeted first by a little table with some books and stuff that the staff obviously thought would be a good attention and sales grabber. The biggest part of the display - a coffee table book about the Camino.
Proceeding down to the floor of bikes, I had a good conversation with a staffer about a Trek e-bike model prominently stationed up front. We agreed that especially when the bike has no throttle it is a great way to level the playing field between fit young cyclists (like him) and decrepit oldsters (like me), keeping the oldsters out exercising on the road longer. Actually I don't need this technology, yet, but anything electronic or high tech is fun to talk about.
Meanwhile Dodie came up with triumph number two - a cycling guide to the Camino, with horizontal (good for handlebar case) high quality daily stage maps and commentary in French. After so many German Bikeline books, one in French seems like a direct pipeline into our brains. Well we would have bought this one at almost any price, but mysteriously it had been marked down to $3. The same authors have two other similar books, one for the Voie d'Arles and one for Le Puy, each about $35.
We know other cyclists agree. A good guide book is like gold. We gloated all the way next door to the cafe, where we drooled over our new book, not to mention the lovely Tartes aux Poires!
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