7/25/09: Off day in Quebec City, Quebec.
Slept off the the headwinds, the 116 miles of riding, the smell, the sweat, the hills, the effort. Woke up at 7:15am, and felt like I had just gotten my ass kicked by Mike Tyson. My legs are sore to the touch, with the right patella tender. I stumbled out to the continental breakfast and munched on muffins, made a waffle and guzzled OJ and coffee while Barney tried in vain to get his computer to take the hotel wifi. I got on the computer several times to check email and blog to hear from Ryan, but nothing. It rained last night and this morning, so I feel pretty damned happy to have made the big push yesterday on a rainless day. Battle both rain and headwind – God, I couldn’t fathom that this morning!
So Barney finally got the wifi issue worked out, came back to the room while I was working on my computer on client workouts and we, after a ton of BS with both of us going from website to website, finally pulled up the live feed on the Tour to listen and watch. I was pretty exciting to see that final climb with attack after attack. At the end of the stage I finished working, got up and just did a faceplant onto the bed and took a short nap. Around that time Barney’s luggage arrived, as that totally relieved him to finally get all his gear and have this trip on line now. And goes out and comes back in and low and behold, he tells me that Ryan is in the lobby doing email on the hotel computer. So I stumble out, still groggy and Ryan tells us of his adventures over the past couple of days. And as Barney remarked: “the three musketeers are now together again!” So all is good on that front. I’ll let Ryan catch you up on his adventures over the past day. It’s crazy as only Ryan can make it, that’s for sure.
Listening to the Verve right now on my Ipod as Barney is putting his bike together and Ryan’s reading the paper. That’s it for now. More on the rest of the day this evening.
Couple hours later Barney and I took a spin down the local bike shop so I could get some spokes – for what I foresee as being a LONG trip with spokes popping on this new wheel! We got on the local bike paths, which are quite extensive out here in Quebec City, and thanks God we did…….these Quebec drivers are aggressive and very impatient drivers. For instance, we were trying to cross a mall entrance on the bike path, and the drivers were trying to squeeze 3 cars in to a 2 car entrance, honking, going bumper to bumper, totally oblivious to poor cyclists trying in vain to cross the entrance. I finally had to just go our between bumpers and weave through the freaking mess. I mean these folks wouldn’t budge an inch, not for us, not for each other, not even for ambulances – and I’m not kidding here. I’ve seen it twice where an ambulance was racing down the street and several people wouldn’t even tap the brakes. They’re bloody CRAZY!
Anyway, Barney did the navigating to the bike shop with our bike path map, and did an outstanding job jibbing and jabbing all over the place, on and off paths, over RR tracks, across dirt roads, down a main thoroughfare. As we were riding the headwind was just howling, just like it had yesterday, and Barney kind of remarked how that could be pretty nasty to ride in. All I know is that I was very happy NOT to be riding a fourth day into that crazy easterly for a whole day. We got to the shop and it was just busy as hell. Waited for about 20 min before someone was finally available, but the guy spoke English, and was very prompt on getting me taken care of. I ended up buying a freewheel tool with the grip, rather than continue to carry around a crescent wrench, and I got 20 DT spokes with nipples (yea, that’s how confident I am with this new wheel).
We motored out of there and were back close to our hotel asap. I hit the beer store, right next to the Subway I ate at yesterday, and low and behold, who did we see in there wolfing down a sub – Ryan. So we stopped and BS’ed with Subman. Barney bought his first sub of the trip, a mere 6-incher, and I openly predicted the day when he’d be contemplating buying 2 12-inchers. It’s in his future once old Gremmy begins to bounce around in his tummy. Now I didn’t have a sub because right next door to our Super 8 is a Chinese buffet. And I had a big hankering for a solid, concerted effort at nailing down a 3-4 plate dinner. So I passed and went back to the hotel to nap and let the Gremlin get more and more agitated for a feast.
Barney and I finally went over to eat at the buffet around 6pm, and the place was just packed. It’s the size of a bloody mess hall, and the people are waiting in a line that can go out the door. We made it in in about 10 min. I managed to eat my way through 3 full plates and 2 soups and 1 small dessert plate. Barney did pretty damned good himself, going through 3 plates and 1 dessert. And then my bonehead move: I paid the waitress, as she takes the bill up to the cashier, and I told her to keep the change. Problem was that the bill was 25 bucks and I thought I gave her a 20 and a 10……..and she just cracks this big smile and says, “REALLY, why thank you so much.” And I’m thinking, damn, I mean it’s only a $4.25 tip………until I look at the tray where I placed the money. AHHHHHHHHH. I had put down 2 20-dollar bills, and just told her to keep 15 bucks! Now, what would you do? “Ah, excuse me, I just F’ed up, I only meant to tip you 5 bucks, so sorry, bring me back my ten bucks.” I just swallowed and smiled, thinking to myself, “you bloody knucklehead!” And I told Barney as we were leaving what I had just done, and I kind of look at it now as giving back some good karma that’s been given to me. Hell, over the course of 3.5 months…….10 bucks. It made someone’s day. I’m ok with that.
Came back to the room and I just lay on the bed with this massive clod of food just festering in my gut. Ohhhhhhh, felt like I was going through a bout of impacted bowels for gosh’s sake. Took me a good 40 min of laying down to finally feel as though the food was beginning to digest and my Buda belly was going down. Then I had to get that spoke changed out. And that turned into a massive headache, as the spokes I was given in the Soo with the new wheel, and which were used as a match at the Quebec City bike shop………they’re too small. Didn’t come close to fitting. So Barney gave me one of his spokes and I got the job done. Now I have to go back there tomorrow and exchange the spokes. And, I’ve noticed that my rear tire is really beginning to wear at the bead, just as the rest have, so I figure that I have maybe 300-500 miles left on that pup before it goes poof.
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