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I had a week or two off, so I wanted to get a decent ride in. I didn't have any destination in mind, but wanted to avoid any tropical storms, so I figured I'd ride north. I like french food anyway.
Left Sunday morning headed for Quebec City. I'm not a big fan of "roughing it", so I made reservations at a hotel before leaving. I'd never been on many of the roads in the Quebec province. They're not the greatest sportbike roads; flat with very few curves. Nonetheless, its pretty up there are the roads are well maintained, so I enjoyed it.
I didn't take many pics on the way up, because its all the same - flat praries with immaculately maintained dairy farms:
I have to say, the Canadians do seem to take great pride in the appearance of their farms. No junk equipment, muddy fields, dirty cows, etc. A friend of mine who used to be a dairy farmer here in VT said that this is because they have a quota system for milk productions in Quebec, and it keeps milk prices up.
I arrived in Quebec City after about 8 hours of riding and took a walk around. Its a pretty interesting town with a bunch of old European style streets, a fort, and some giant castles and cathedrals. Not necessarily my cup of tea, but cool to look at anyway.
Samuel DeChamplain and a little of Chateau Frontenac.
Guess I didn't take as many pics as I thought of the sites....oops.
Had dinner at a French place. It was good, although I felt like a creeper in there all alone.
Chateaubriand and merlot:
The next morning I decided to head to Montreal, with no route in mind other than staying north of the St, Lawrence. Again, a very pretty drive, but not big on twisties.
I didn't look at a map, I just rode south and west.
I ran into this fellow at a gas station. Very friendly, spoke only a little English. His name was Olivier. He was riding a Raptor 700 ATV, and says that for $160 CDN you can buy a pass to ride thousands of kilometers of ATV trails up there. No dirt bikes allowed, though.
I sweat this barge was going 25 MPH, and it was huge. You could've waterskied off the back of it, it was going so fast. I didn't think boats that big went so fast.
Ended up in Montreal after 3 pm. Hit the gym to work off some of the french food, and then walked around. Met this guy, and gave him $5 for being honest:
That night, I couldn't sleep. The room at the hotel was too hot. At 3am, I said screw it and headed out. In retrospect, this was not solid judgment.
It was slightly drizzling when I left. The forecast had called for on and off showers all night; this started as a drizzle and became a driving rain. It was also dark out, and the headlight on my Bandit sucks. I found myself crossing a steel decked bridge in pouring rain in the dark; I just knew I was going to fall, get ground up like a cheese grater, and fall into the St. Lawrence. Thankfully, it didn't happen.
My IXS gear kept me dry until just before the US border, when the seat of my pants started getting wet. (I think it was from the rain, but I was pretty nervous.....). The Border Patrol agents thought I was nuts.
Georgia Mobil at 5 AM - got lots of strange looks from people.
Made it home by 6 AM, and saw the wife and kid off to school.
All in all, a good way to spend 550 miles and three days.
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You are right about the roads and farmland. From the border to Quebec City itself was fairly boring until the waterfalls and river outside the city.
Originally Posted by highsider
I like your style man..
