Introduction

After learning in March that ExperiencePlus’s bike ride from St Petersburg, Russia, to Istanbul, Turkey, had again been cancelled, Suz Cowley, a new friend, and I began to think of somewhere else exotic we could ride. The Dalmatian Coast was tempting, but Suz was a dirt road mountain biker and needed to gain some experience riding a road bike and riding on the roads in and with traffic. She had spent many of her early years in the Canadian northwest and wanted to see Canada’s Atlantic provinces and also visit a  son in Montreal. I wanted to cycle somewhere it was cool. Thus, we settled on the east coast of Canada for our ride . . . but of all the tours we explored, none but that in Newfoundland worked well with our other commitments—both of us needing to be at a family reunion, me in late July and she in August.

So, we joined an Atlantic Canada Cycling tour of the west coast of Newfoundland with a day trip to Labrador. This was to be a 10-day tour through Gros Morne National Park and to the tip of the island and L’Anse Aux Meadows with its remains of a Norse village and connections to the attempted settlement of Vinland by Lief Ericson in 1000 AD.

BTW: According to Wikipedia, the name “L'Anse aux Meadows” made its first appearance as Anse à la Medée on a map of 1862, when it may have derived its name from a ship called Medée. This was then modified by French-speaking fishermen during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, who named the site L’Anse aux Méduses, meaning “Jellyfish Cove.” The modern name is an English corruption of the French name, from Méduses to Meadows, which may have occurred because the landscape in the area tends to be open, with meadows.

Our tour was to run from July 2-12, but we wanted to visit relatives and friends, so we left Stillwater, OK, on June 14 for a combo road trip-bike ride. This blog, created three years later from the journal account, recounts and illustrates our adventures.

The best I can do to show the routes of our road trip (black) and bicycle trip (red)

Day 1--First Day on the Road

Day 1—Monday, June 14
Stillwater, OK to St Charles, MO
470 miles

Suz arrived with the loaded Volvo a little after 7 am. We loaded my stuff in the back and my Specialized bike on the bike rack, and were off a little after 8:30 am.

I had been training on my Bike Friday touring bike, but it did not have enough places for water bottles and other touring necessities, its configuration simply would not fit the bike rack, and while we could fold it and squeeze it into the back of the Volvo with our camping gear, this would require a bit of disassembly, taking the rack off to get at it, and too much reassembly each time I wanted to use it . . . so I left Redbud behind.

Suz drove the first part of the route in pouring rain and a lightning storm. I drove the final miles, and though the skies all around were stormy, the rain ceased before we got to St Charles and our Best Western Motel about 6:00 pm.

Our motel was in a shopping plaza and right next to a Bass Pro Outdoor World, so after we cleaned up we went over to the BPOW looking for silk long underwear for Suz. Didn’t find the long undies, but Suz bought a black Under Armour^® v-necked, long-sleeved top like mine.

We then walked to Old Town (Historic Main Street) St Charles and ate at the [Katy] Trailhead Brew Pub where we shared a seared tuna sandwich and each had a cup of seafood bisque. I had eaten here before on one of my Katy Trail rides. It is a fun place with a bicycle built for 7 hanging from the ceiling.

We walked the streets a bit taking photos. It was very HOT, and my spine was giving me trouble. While escorting some Audubon campers around Sanborn Lake on a muddy trail, I had fallen hard on my tailbone the Wednesday before we left. Though I'd had it x-rayed and the doc said he could see no fracture, I think that it is fractured. It is VERY painful — way too painful for a bruised rump. Shrieks when I sit on it, climb stairs, walk, or otherwise put any stress on it. Not too bad on the bike (we tried it for a hilly 22-mile ride before leaving) unless I am climbing or putting pressure on it.

Back at the BW, we hooked up our computers, read our mail, talked to our spouses via cell phone, took showers, and read in bed a bit before going to sleep. I am reading The Outside Boy a very good novel about the Irish “Travellers.” It’s a coming of age tale, the main character an 11-year old boy. 

Day 2--Allegan, MI, at Suz's Son's in-Laws

Day 2, Tuesday,  June 15
St Charles MO to Allegan, MI
433 miles

It was raining when we awoke, so we pulled the car under the hotel portico to load the bikes. The bike rack straps are rubbing on each other, causing them to fray. With so much rain, we protect our underseat bags and bike saddles with plastic bags. No matter how many rubberbands we use to hold them down, the bags are usually shredded by the time we reach our destination.

Breakfast at the motel was meager to say the least. To say the most, the biscuits were hard as rocks, they had little selection, and though we filled our thermoses with coffee, it was undrinkable. We threw it out later.

We got off at 8:30 am. I drove all day—mostly metro driving north through Bloomington and around Chicago, etc. It rained most of the route, and then we had lowering storm clouds and were in and out of rain splatters the rest of the day.

Though we stopped and ate lunch of cheese and crackers and got out of the car a bit, I was very tired at the end of the day. I am standing and walking with much pain and look like a ninety year old getting into and out of the car or a chair.

We arrived in Allegan about 6:30 pm. Our hosts Paula and Ryan Mintek, Suz’s son Austin’s in-laws—were not due home until 1:30 am, thus we unloaded our stuff and then drove into town to find some supper. I was too sore and we were both too tired to ride our bikes.

Paula Mintek and Suz  before the Mintek's large home

Everything was closed. We ended up having blah spaghetti at a Pizza Hut—the only place open in the little Kalamazoo River town—and then going to bed as soon as we got back.  

Day 3--Visiting Cuz Hansi in St Catharines, Canada

Day 3—Wed. June 16, 2010
Allegan MI to St Catharines, ONT, Canada
395 miles

Suz and I were up before our hosts who were sleeping in after an exhausting rainy ride from NYC. We brewed ourselves coffee and had a bowl of cereal on their screen porch. They are nearly on the Kalamazoo River and have a large backyard, shaded by enormous tulip trees. While eating breakfast, we spotted a red fox at the edge of their yard. Eventually it saw or heard us and slipped back into the woods.

When Paula and Ryan got up, we visited until 10:30 or so and then Ryan had to go to his clinic. He rode his bike—all duded out in a yellow rain one-piece and an ancient helmet. We spent more time with Paula, and she and Suz got caught up re their mutual daughter and son. It was noon before we left. Rained most of the day, though never heavily where we were.

I drove the whole day again, and we arrived in St Catharines about 6:30 p.m. Hansi was at chorus practice, but Rob was waiting for us. He immediately sat us down with a cold beer (me) and a glass of white wine (Suz), and he and Suz began to trade stories about mutual Canadian cities they’d lived in, books they’d read, and Rob told stories of his travels in India.

Cousin Hansi and her husband Rob before their St Catharine's house; is that an aura Hansi is sporting?

Hansi had prepared a great meal and the table was set, so with a little prodding on my part, we sat down to it—yam/apple/pecan casserole, cous cous with goat cheese and tomatoes, big green salad, cold salmon—red and white wine. YUM!

Suz was on her last legs so I excused her to Rob and she went to bed. I stayed up until 9:45 pm, ate a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie, and listened to more of Rob’s tales of India. Finally when Rob saw that I was doing more yawning than replying, I went to bed.

Day 4--Motel on the St Lawrence in Cornwall, Canada

Day 4—Thur. June 17
St Catharines to Cornwall, ONT 
346 mi

Awoke to a great breakfast prepared by Hansi—scones, English muffins, fresh fruit and yogurt, granola, & coffee, etc. Visited with Hansi, Rob & Nick most the morning though Rob had to run out for something. While he was gone, we revised our NF ferry schedule to give us a few more days in NF at the end of the ride and revised our Nova Scotia stay at ferry’s end as well. Then we printed out some Google maps for our next legs to Cornwall and Montreal. When we entered Canada, we'd had to say goodbye to “Greta” as our GPS was not loaded with Canada maps/directions.

When Rob returned, he led us to an ATM and we converted some money to Canadian. While we were doing this, Hansi packed us a lunch of cheese sandwiches and other goodies. She must have taken some lessons from Lucy Schuyler because she sure does know how to pack a picnic lunch! Mother was famed for her lunches.

Without Greta, we missed our turn for 401, so I drove through the center of Toronto—great glass skyscrapers, the CN tower, bridges. Back on 401, we were three times gridlocked in a 45-minute crawl by construction. At the last of these stops, we got out our binocs and watched an osprey family on a roadside platform.

This was to be our first night of camping, but we didn’t get to Cornwall until after 7:30 pm, so opted for a motel instead. Looked and looked for a motel and finally settled for the run down, private Monte Carlo right on the St Lawrence River.

The creative way the Monte Carlo management accessed its meter boxes

We ate dinner at J & T (Japanese & Thai) restaurant. I had a Black Dragon roll—California roll with eel on top. Suz had a green curry dish the exact color of her tee.

We walked a distance on a paved trail and explored the Monte Carlo's dock before bed.

Day 5--Morning Bike Ride in Cornwall

Day 5—Fri June 18
Morning in Cornwall 

Since this was a short day, we got up and decided to ride the Riverside Trail into town and to breakfast at Tim Horton’s. The trail was lovely and right along the river. Tim Horton’s was only a coffee pick-up drive-through however, so we asked a man leaving it with three cups of coffee where we might eat breakfast. Right in the building we were standing in front of he said. So we ate at the King George—I had blueberry French Toast.

We wanted to buy a lock for our bikes. We were in a quandary when we wanted to enter the restaurant because there was no place to park our bikes where we could see them. The man with the three coffees invited us to leave our bikes in his furniture store which was across the street, while we ate breakfast. Very friendly people we’ve met.

The guys at the table near us were bikers (motorcycle) but we asked them if they might know where a bicycle shop was. They (one of whom owned the Best Western that we’d been unable to find) directed us to the bicycle shop. So, after breakfast, we retrieved our bikes and rode the trail to the marina and then down the street to the bike shop. Bought the lock and rode back to the motel, which little ride was only 7 miles long.

Back at the hotel we packed up and got on the road.

Day 6--Visiting Suz's Son & Montreal's Jean-Talon Market

Day 6—Fri June 18
Cornwall to Montreal, QUE
75 miles

After our little trail ride, we gassed up the car and were soon on the 401. Got to Luke’s apartment around noon. Luke lives in a second-floor apartment in a cute tree-shaded street of row houses, the second floor apartments of which are accessed by spiral wrought-iron staircases.

Suz and Luke near his apartment; Suz's wrist was injured on one of our training rides when she fell, so the two of us are the walking wounded

We lugged our bikes and most of our bags up the stairs (very painful maneuver for me) and then took off the bike rack and left it in the back of the car. I reminded Suz to grab the GPS, but in the rush of things it was forgotten. We locked the bikes to the second-story railing and then had a great lunch of mushroom lasagna that Luke had prepared just for our arrival.

Oscar

Charlotte

Oscar the Grouch

After lunch we went for a long walk to the Jean-Talon Open Air Market in Little Italy where all the produce and flowers dazzled the eyes. Suz bought two wedges of cheese. When she exited the store, she found that she’d been charged $80 rather than $19. It took a bit for the proprietor to straighten things out, but eventually he refunded her card $60 and we left the store . . . without the cheeses. Suz returned and the man gave her the cheeses and said, “All these mistakes and all on one person.” We wondered.