Joining us are Con and Terri from last year, Jerry and his wife Thy (Jerry rode the Gaspe and Cabot Trail with us once before) and Terry who is a constant companion in our day trips.
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The night before we left, Terri and Con hosted a “get to know” each other BBQ at their cottage. We celebrated Thy’s birthday and everyone got a chance to get to know one another a little before we left.
The next morning we all gathered at our place with expected departure at 9:30 am. Everyone arrived early, which really spoke to the enthusiasm for getting on the road. So enthusiastic was this group that we had time for chats, pictures and still managed to get on the road a full 10 minutes before our agreed departure time. So for this trip, or at least the first part of it, we are 5 bikes, 7 huge smiles, and getting ready to keep counting the distance this trip will take us on.
Today’s ride would take us along the coast for the most part. We did have to move over to highway driving (yawn....bored) for a short time. Although it was a hot 31 degrees by this time and the ride was slow (traffic) it did not dampen the enthusiasm. We stopped for a great lunch in Neguac, and continued on our journey...next stop Miscou Island and the Miscou Lighthouse and of course ice cream.
Just as we were leaving Miscou we received a severe thunderstorm warning for right where we were standing...we still had an hour and 45 minute ride to our final destination for the night. We headed out hoping to ride through the break in the clouds where we could see that it wasn’t raining. As we rode, the temperature dropped to 19 degrees, we managed to ride through a few sprinkles, watch lighting in the distance and find an overpass in the middle of no where, where we took temporary refuge to decide whether we gear up for rain or soldier through....instead we decided to have a couple of snacks, wait out a heavy rain and as soon as a sunny break came we headed out. Our luck continued as we got to our hotel not even 3 minutes before a tour bus (which meant getting checked in as the bus unloaded and filled the lobby), one of us got a drive up room so we parked all our bikes in front, we got into our rooms before the next rain and supper in another room hosted by the one in our group who managed to get a fine “suite”. All in all a great first day, 476 kilometres and lots of laughs...not to mention a great day with a group of our friends, who I hope find friends in each other.
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