Day 87: 15 km past Trois Riviere - Quebec City

*The reason why we haven't posted for ages is that we thought blogger was down as it wouldn't upload any photos. We now know that the actual reason is that it has just decided to stop uploading our rotated photos. So you will all just have to put some effort into rotating your heads or your computers for the rest of the blog.*

km today: 125.5
total km: 5922

Grey, but peaceful.

Like we said, 3 months ago this would not be the sight of rejoicing over the prospect of a shower.

Not since our day going from Moosomin, Saskatchewan to Brandon, Manitoba have we had a day of solid rain. Unfortunately our record was broken today. Luckily for us though, the rain started only after we had finished packing. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop until we arrived in Quebec City.

Today was one of our most rigorous. The headwind combined with the rain and the chillier temperatures made for a labourious and draining day. It didn’t help that 10km of our trek was spent retracing our steps retrieving the, again, forgotten cell phone from our campsite.

We stopped for lunch at “Bistro H2O,” a cute little bistro with an open air patio (though rain proof siding was up today) and not an Enlish speaking person in sight to provide insight. “Le Table d’Hote” du jour (the lunch special of the day) featured the exotic “Hamburger Americane” (if you say it with a French accent it sounds all the more exotic). With soup, burger, frites, dessert and coffee for $7.24, we are now on the lookout for lunch table d’hotes.

Our second lunch required a trip to the grocery store. The only problem was, that when we asked a cute local old woman where the super marche was she directed a ways off the highway. Seeing as how all we needed was bananas, Katie thought that she’d get to the point. “Je suis chercher pour les banane.” Or, in English, “I am looking for the banana.” A little rough around the edges, but it got us to the depanneur (convenience store).

Entertaining oneself on a labourious day.

Lucky for us, a last minute request to take up residence with a warm showers host (www.warmshowers.com) was answered by Roger and Christine who, coincidentally, happen to be the managers of the international organization. Needless to say they’re good hosts. After coaching us through the darkening outskirts of Quebec City they provided us with, big surprise, a warm shower, some refreshing melon, good company and a warm and, most importantly, dry bed.

B&K