Joel Perlish; USA/MEXICO/CANADA DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY & THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008 by Joel Perlish

Joel Perlish; USA/MEXICO/CANADA DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY & THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY -- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008 by Joel Perlish


August 11, 2008 - Monday - Day 42
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 318 - Total Miles - 9970
Mont-St-Hilaire, QC, Canada - to Edmundston,NB,Canada
(-staying at the Ritz Motel-)
(Ontario-New Brunswick)
- LAST FULL DAY IN CANADA -


And so it's down the last few days…. I know from past experience not to take anything for granted. And I'm as careful or more so, to make sure things are right.
***
It wasn't exactly sunny this morning, but it was bright. However, I still went out the door in complete raingear and expected the worst. As it turned out it didn't rain until the last ten minutes of the 318-mile day. But then it poured. And it was cool today, anyway, so it was good having the extra gear on me.
***
The last few days have nicely spaced themselves out at about 300 miles each. And that seems like a very comfortable distance for me. Again, it's about an hour and a half per 100 miles. So, what with breaks for lunch and gas, it fits nicely into the day. Knowing that, I just sit back, feet up on highway pegs, and let the day roll by not having to worry about the day's end.

Here are some more cute names I've run into lately…Rabbit Blanket Lake, Baldhead Creek, Wolf Camp Lake, Red Horse Creek, Black Duck Lake, Gully Lane (yep, it was a dirt road!)


On the way to Quebec I came upon another many mile long traffic back up - but it was going in the other direction and I was happy to breeze along. At times there was no one on the highway ahead or behind me. Couldn't hit triple digits today because of the wind and other factors but came close a couple times. I generally zipped along with all the rest of the traffic at 70 to 80mph.
At one point in a friendly gesture to a huge old tanker truck, and let him in ahead of me as he wanted to pass. It was a BIG mistake. The tank must have been filled of a year's supply worth of sewage and boy! Did it ever stink up the roadway air for the next number of miles. The fertilizer smell, wafting over from the fields just after I re-passed the tanker, seemed like the sweetest of Paris perfumes by comparison.
Stopped in for gas at mid-day. And then I went down the way to my normal comfy-feeling Subway. But it was different. It was all French. No one understood English. It was like being in a dream where no one understands you and you understand no one. Like those folks in a coma where language is a skill lost. It was very uncomfortable and perhaps a little scary for me. Everyone was friendly, but still. And it was like that all day with traffic signs, billboards, and everything written.

Just before Rivere-du-Loup there was a grey haired guy with a bicycle beside him standing on, and looking out from one of the bridges spanning the highway. I gave him a big wave, and he waved back just before I zipped out of view.

There were just some spectacular views of the St. Lawrence River.

Made the turn at just about 4pm. Route 20 turned into 185 South on the Transcanada Highway. It was shortly after that I gassed up and celebrated the turn homeward with a Hershey Bar. A Canadian French guy, Danni, was fueling up there, too. And as I shared my map with him his jaw dropped and he smiled broadly. We chatted awkwardly as best we could what with the language barrier. Danni was on a crotch rocket and lived in the area I think. He had a firm handshake.

There are a ton of All Terrain Vehicles in the area - and even special roads for them. Speaking of which I heard from our local Canada expert Jacki again, and she had this to say today about the ATV's:

I was looking through your last pictures and saw you had a picture of some pretty dirty quads (4 wheelers - called ATV's - all terrain vehicles). We call them quads up here and are recreation vehicles for going on trails and plowing through mud....not my idea of fun getting muddy but we do enjoy our quad to go fishing into lakes where there are no roads only bush trails. In the winter time we go on these same trails with the skidoo (snowmobiles). We also have a boat that we leave up at the lake.....we call all these items "the men's toys" lol. UP here if you don't have one of these toys at least then they say they are living in the wrong place lol.
Pretty soon we'll have to start calling this journal, The Joel and Jacki Report!

I would have loved to stay in the town St. Louis du Ha! Ha! (Really, no kidding! That was the name! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-du-Ha!_Ha!,_Quebec) I did get a picture of the town greeting. A huge road construction project was going on in town. The one motel seen from the highway seemed closed, and I didn't go searching. There was an unclear road sign near here, and I had to ask directions to make sure I was still on the correct highway.
It must be fertilizing time around here or something. The air was ripe today with the odor - and coming through one town it seemed like a paper ill processing plant was emitting plumes of smoke with that awful smell, and THEN came a newly fertilized field! Ugh. But the rest of the day was delectable with fresh air aromas and scents.
Toward the end of the day, every time I would put the camera away, another gorgeous scene would come up - either the view of the valley ahead, or the giant river to the left, or a farm scene. It was just amazing. And my poor little point and shoot wasn't up to the task. If I had my regular equipment, I don't think I would have EVER gotten through this section of the country from all the pictures needing to be taken.




Maybe it's just the way it really was - or - maybe I've just been on the road for too long - but there were a LOT of faces in the clouds today!

Got a tip awhile back about converting the kilometers to miles. Both readings are on my speedometer lining up with each other. So when I see a road sign, say reading that a town is 150 kilometers away, I just look at the speedometer and see which numbers it matches up with.

I rode under haze and grey clouds most all day. But finally, with ten minutes or so to go in the ride, the skies burst forth, the thunder rolled and the rain descended. I was ready for it though.
I came into the Ritz Motel in New Brunswick around 5:30pm or so. It was dark and pouring rain when I stepped into the motel office. The first thing I noticed was the clock. It read an hour later! Believe it or not, according to Ray, the grizzled owner of the place for 35 years, I'm again in a different time zone. New Brunswick is in the next time zone over, and so I'm now an hour later even than Eastern Standard Time. When I cross the border tomorrow morning, I'll be back to regular time. Don't know about you, but I can't keep any of that straight.
Ray was eating dinner and I felt bad about disturbing him. But he said not to worry about it. It's not the first time, and the other day he started dinner at 6pm and didn't finish until after 11pm because of people coming to check in, he said.

Ray was very excited about me doing the four corners of the US thing. And that meant going to Madawaska, Maine after crossing the border. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madawaska,_Maine) That's the most northern town and point in the USA. He was going to have a friend interested in such things there with a camera. He said there was some kind of marker there. That would put me into the States a little sooner and on a different road than I had expected.
I'm already feeling emotional about returning to the United States. I'm sure it will tug on me heavily tomorrow when I cross the border.

For those who haven't been to the picture site for awhile: I've culled what are my favorites from the over a thousand images now, and put them into a FAVORITES folder. If you have one that you think should go in there, please let me know. Otherwise, here's the same message: To view photos from today or the whole trip, you can check out
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=45&user_id=42473&event=196141
Also, you can check out the past day journal entries by going to joelperlish.com, and clicking on the appropriate trip down at the bottom on the left hand corner. Do this by hopping over to http://www.joelperlish.com/blog/blog.html... and/or you can just email me back and I'll put you on the daily send list. I especially recommend days 10, 12 (the sandstorm day!), 14 (the most nostalgic day), 32 (the best day) and day 37 (the most dangerous day).