Cycling with Meghan the vegan: And Julien the, erm, bike mechanic

July 15, 2016

I first met Meghan in October 2010. We were cycling in opposite directions on those great Quebecois cycle paths and for some reason she decided to turn around and cycle with me to Montreal. So we spent a few days riding together, as detailed in my enviously short blog posts on my old blog here. Oh, how I wish I could still get away with writing blog posts in three sentences! This one would be over already!

For a better account of our first meeting, you might want to consider reading Meghan's blog.

Assuming you took even a cursory glance at that link, and noticed the photo of Meghan in a hat covered in wheatgrass, or perhaps the mention of a rawfoodist farm in the second sentence, you will already have something of an idea about the type of person Meghan is. She took great delight, when we first met, in telling me she was 'Meghan the vegan.' "That doesn't rhyme" I said, but the point remained. And actually many of the environmental beliefs and principles that Meghan told me about must have rubbed off on me - within a few weeks I'd stopped eating meat myself.

If you made it all the way through Meghan's blog post, or perhaps just looked at the header photo, you'll also be well aware that she used to keep a bicycle garden. She grew many things on her bike as she cycled, mostly wheatgrass, grown in a variety of interesting ways on the frame, on mudguards, in water bottles and even in the middle of the wheels.

So it wasn't too much of a surprise to me in the present circumstances, when Meghan pulled up alongside me at our rendezvous point outside of VeloCentrix and the first thing that she did was tell me that she had a bicycle garden ready for me. She pulled out several bundles of wheatgrass that she'd already started off growing and asked where I'd like to attach them on my bike. I must admit that this wasn't a question I had really given much thought to before, but I settled for wrapping one around the headset and another on my front wheel hub.

"All we have to do now is water it and watch it grow!" Meghan exclaimed.

"Can you eat it afterwards then?" I asked.

"Well, you could. But I don't. It's kind of disgusting after it's been on the bike to be honest!"

Just then Julien pulled up. It was easy to identify him immediately as Meghan's boyfriend, even if I hadn't already met him, because his bike really had a phenomenal amount of wheatgrass about it.

I'm not sure what Kevin thought about it

We needed to take a short ferry ride over the Saint Lawrence to avoid a big detour back to the bridge, and so started our day cycling around to the ferry port on the other side of the city centre. It looked much nicer in the sunshine than it had in the driving rain. A ferry was just about to leave and we rushed to get tickets in time, but just missed it. But that turned out to be a really GREAT turn of events, because there was now thirty minutes to wait until the next ferry. I'd been disappointed to miss out on exploring the city the day before, and I now had a chance to do so. With just thirty minutes to make it happen I left Meghan and Julien and ran off around the wonderful old town centre. Up the hill I went, dodging tourists and snapping photos and marvelling at the magnificent architecture. It was such a European city, though I had the feeling that it was actually trying a bit too hard to be European. The tourists were lapping it up though, and so was I, as fast as I could.

The dominant feature of Quebec. Don't get too excited, I think it is a hotel.

I dodged my way past the tourists and made it back down to Meghan and Julien just in time to board the ferry with them. On board a friendly worker came over and asked about the grass. "You can eat it!" I told him, "Go on, try some!" And he did, and another woman came over to ask about it too. It certainly provided a talking point. I left upstairs to the outside floor of the ferry to watch the beautiful city slowly shrinking as we headed over to the eastern bank.

We rolled off the far side and started north on another great bicycle path beside the river. As I looked back once more at the city I suffered a moment of horror as I noticed a huge cruise ship docked up a little along the shore. It looked very much like the wretched ship that had carried me across the Pacific - the cursed vessel that had caused so much trouble for Dea. I had never hoped to see it again. What was it doing, following me now? But on closer inspection I could just make out the name. It was not the MS Noordam, but the MS Veerdam.

"Don't worry guys, it was just the MS Veerdam! Everything's cool"

None of us had had the good sense to eat on the ferry and so, after just two kilometres we stopped to take a break, eat some food, and admire the view over the river. Then we got down to the serious business of cycling. Two kilometres later Meghan spotted some Saskatoon berries growing wild at the side of the path, and we had to stop to pick some. Then we got down to the serious business of cycling. Two kilometres later we stopped to admire a waterfall on the other side of the river.

This was all very pleasant. I was extremely happy to be cycling with company, and to be taking our time. The only problem was that I did not have a lot of time to spare, and needed to try and maintain about 100 kilometres per day from now on. That was more than Meghan and Julien would usually cycle on their tours, and I certainly didn't like the idea to try and push the pace too much.

"I hope you won't blame us if you miss the boat though!" Meghan said, aware that we weren't moving as fast as we might.

"Don't worry," I said, "I've already decided I'll blame Daniel."

But then the paths ended, and we had to cycle on the shoulder of the #132 highway for a while. This wasn't idyllic, but it at least meant we stopped to chat slightly less, and cycled slightly more.

We followed the road for most of the day, making occasional detours through quaint little riverside towns. It felt great to be cycling with company again, to catch up with Meghan once more after all these years, and to get used to her little quirks again. At one point she was cycling just ahead of me and I saw her right arm move out. Without slowing down she plucked an orange flower from the side of the road and swiftly raised it to her mouth and swallowed it in one go.

A waterfall running down into the river at another rest area

We were traveling through farmland and there were no really good options for wild camping, leading us to eventually throw up our tents in a tiny little area of overgrown grass at the side of the road. Fortunately we had already eaten dinner in a rest area with picnic tables and toilets. There was also a walkway that led out into the river a little way. I walked down there on my own and looked at the river and the marsh beside it, and the sun low in the sky, half hidden by clouds and I realised that I felt really good about being here. The thought came to me, strong and real, that 'I really love traveling!' It felt so good to have that feeling, which had sometimes been forgotten amidst the repetitive nature of cycling, for example, across endless prairies. The past few days it had been so good to meet again with friends that I'd met six years ago, when traveling was still new and exciting, and to have this timely reminder. It was true. I knew it. 'I love traveling. I love this!'

Today's ride: 86 km (53 miles)
Total: 54,631 km (33,926 miles)

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