View our route in a larger map

Day 80

Rohiths initial plan was to just cycle back home to Montreal today, but he instead to cycle with us all the way until Trois Rivieres. He didn't hit the city center because it never seemed to come! According to the signs, we hit Trois Rivieres MUCH before we actually hit anything that resembled a city! There seemed to be endless suburbs. Therefore, Rohith turned back after cycling about 60km with us, then headed back to do the 130km or so ride back. We continued onwards and stopped at a Walmart for some food. We had a quick break then hit the road again. When stopped soon after to see a really nice cathedral (as its Quebec, and there are so many, we thought it would be a shame if we cycled all the way to Quebec city without ever stopping in and having a look!).
All day Jimi was having bike problems (his panniers kept coming off, and his front rack lost a nut (we had one that happened to fit luckily), and his pedals kept coming lose. It was a hassle (more for him because he kept having to stop and fix it only to have to fix it 10-30km down the road again).
When we stopped off for dinner (in Donnacona), we were about 40km away from our Warm Showers destination. We went straight to a grocery store and Michael did a good job of buying out the place! (not exactly, but the expression his eyes are bigger than his stomach would fit for Michael, except he actually has a stomach to match). Right after we went in, it started raining. It didnt look like it was going to let up either (according to the weather report it was supposed to continue all night and some of tomorrow and even thunderstorm at times). True to the forecast, it started to thunder. We tried waiting it out for a good hour or two (eating obviously) but the rain didn't let up so we hit the road again. Jimi still had to stop often at the side of the road to fix his pedals (which sucked because it was raining consistently). That being said, the rain was nice. We were soaked, but it wasn't cold, so the rain made it the perfect temperature!
We didn't have a map of Quebec city, just a list of directions from Rohith's google maps iphone. So we weren't sure if we were going the right direction, but we found our roads and the proper route! When headed up Rue Saint Sacrement, there was a STEEP hill! I don't know the grade, but it was intense. Definitely steeper than an 11% (I would put it closer to 18). It was definitely on the top 4 steepest hills list! Don't know where exactly it would fall on that list, but it's there! After making it up the hill, we found our warm showers! We got a little lost (there was, what appeared to be a parking lot or a narrow alley, but which was actually the road we wanted to go down that we missed the first time through). At first Krystine wasn't home. We knocked on the door and left a message then decided to go to a coffee shop or grocery store to wait it out (instead of waiting outside her door like a giant creeper!). When we were just finishing eating, we got a call from Krystine saying she's now home. We arrived at their house and met both Krystine and her boyfriend Pierre-Luc. They were so nice! We put our things in the back of their apartment, showered, ate spaghetti (made by Krystine), had some beer and wine, and heard some amazing stories of theirs! It was a really nice night and we're really glad we stayed with them! It was nice meeting them, and nice to have a roof over our heads and beds to sleep in (although Michael and Jimi shared the bed and I took the couch)!