Day 104: Berthierville, QC to Terrebonne, QC

August 9, 2017

An easy, short, flat ride on a warm day turned a little more adventurous the last three miles.

We left Brethierville at a civilized 10:15 with only 36 miles to ride. It was already in the upper 60's when we set out, a real improvement over our recent chilly mornings. We rode along the St. Lawrence River through little villages and nice residential areas. Along the first several miles there were a lot of marinas with both power boats and sail boats. I wondered if this area is a weekend place for people from Montreal. The homes along the river ranged from comfortable middle class to very upscale.

We rode along the St. Lawrence River much of today.

We saw this one container ship in the river, but no other commercial traffic today.

The frequent villages gave us plenty of convenience stores for rest breaks. We really enjoy not having to go 20 or 30 miles between stops.

Since we had a short route, we decided to wait until we got to the hotel to have lunch. We came to a detour that took us less than a mile out of our way, so that was no problem. Then we rolled smoothly along before coming to a bike shop about 5 miles from the end, so of course, Kerry had to stop. It was a very nice retail shop with a large selection of bikes. However, we soon learned that this was more than just a retail bike shop. The owner, Oliver, told us that the majority of his business was building custom bikes for children and adults with special needs. Behind the retail area, and in the basement, was their production facility. They build each bike by hand, starting with the straight metal tubing. Oliver told us they produce about 20 bikes a week. I can only imagine the joy of a child with limited mobility being able to cycle for the first time. It seems like very rewarding work.

Kerry with Oliver, owner of Au Coin du Pedaleur in Repentigny, QC

Machinery to bend tubing for bike construction

Production area with finished bikes The red trike in the foreground was modified for a person who's had a stroke and can only use his right side. All the controls are on the right.

We left the bike shop with lunch on our minds. We were starting to get into a more urban area, but the traffic was not a problem. About three miles from the end, we encountered a map problem. There was no road where Garmin was telling us to go. We tried unsuccessfully to find a way around to our route. Trying to find our way, we came to a road that was closed. Kerry walked up and asked one of the construction workers if we could walk the bike through. He said yes and Kerry was able to get the bike through the mess and up onto the street.

Kerry was able to walk the bike through this mess.

We still couldn't see where we should go. We rode into a shopping center and stopped at a restaurant to see if we could get WIFI to check the map. Jonathan at Barbies Restaurant was great.

Jonathan at Barbies - THANK YOU for the directions!

He offered us water and watched Kerry trying to use his Surface to get directions. The Surface was the second device to let us down. It was not letting Kerry get to the site he needed and just doing crazy stuff. Jonathan asked where we were going. When we told him, he said "That's easy!" and showed me right out the window of the restaurant which road to get on to bring us straight to the hotel. After about 1/2 mile, Garmin picked up the correct route again. Once we finally got here and into our room, it was after 3PM. Our lunch was very welcome by then.

After we had a chance to rest and relax over lunch, we had to figure out what went wrong with our route directions today. It turns out that the problem was the mapping software used by Ride-With-GPS. It routed us on a non-existent road. No wonder we couldn't find it. But everything worked out fine and we're fed and happy and ready to ride again.

Tomorrow we ride to Sainte-Adele.

Today's ride: 38 miles (61 km)
Total: 4,167 miles (6,706 km)

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