Quebec City

Day 16 - Quebec to Edminston

Fortunately the rain had passed by the time I woke up this morning and it was actually a nice looking day. The sun was out, my tent was drying but the ground around me was saturated. I got the bike loaded up and headed out to the old Quebec.

Quebec celebrated its 400th birthday a couple years back and the "old" section is just that. The city was a fort in its early days and everything has been left in its place. There are the impressive fortified walls, the rows of cannons, barracks, munition stores, and even a Starbucks. Those Quebeccers really thought of everything! I walked around for a couple of hours to take in the sights and I've got to say the city is extremely pretty and hilly. I don't think I walked on a single flat stretch of pavement all morning.

As I was gearing up to leave, a family from Halifax, Nova Scotia asked me to take their picture. The father started up a conversation about my bike and asked if I'd ever have any problems with it. "Of course not" I replied. In the time that I've had this bike and the miles I've put on it the only work I've had to do it routine maintenance and replacing consumables. I left feeling like I did the motorcycling community good, hopefully inspiring him to pick up a bike the minute he got home.

Heading out of the city I just wanted to burn miles. I took main highways out of Quebec and, heeding the warning of several people, filled up in Riveiere de Lou (River of the Wolf, however you spell that) and again in Edminston. Coming into Edminston I stopped at a town that has a sense of humor. It's nice to see this on a trip like mine...

At the final gas stop in Edminston I talked to Woot to let him know I'd make it in to Halifax the next day and discussed routes. Weather was also a big concern as the clouds were rolling in and Woot said it got worse as I went. I wanted to get a few more miles under my belt today to make tomorrow a bit shorter.

I jumped on Highway 2 and started to cruise. 7.8 miles down the road I heard a "POP!" and I lost all throttle control. The bike was just coasting down to a stop. Was it the chain? No. Was I out of gas for some reason? I switched to reserve but that didn't help. Was it an electrical issue? I tried to bump start it as I came to a stop with no luck. Finally I came to rest at the base of an offramp. I called Wes for advice and things to look for but we were both stumped.

From the offramp I could see a school of some sort and decided to push the bike there to break it down and camp for the night. I wasn't looking forward to the lack of light that I'd be getting there though. As I was pushing my fully loaded bike up the offramp I saw a large Staples parking lot that was lit up like daylight and quickly opted to go there. The only fun bit of all this was that I got to coast down the hill on the bike. Now, if you've never coasted on a motorcycle then I highly recommend it, just find a better time to do it.

I struggled some more and got the bike set up in the parking lot and started tearing it apart. By now I was getting calls from Woot and Wes and there was an Emergency thread going on the board. Everything I tested proved that it wasn't the issue. I decided to take Woot up on his offer of picking me up in a trailer. The only downside to this is that he was almost 1000km away from me and he would have to drive all night.

I kept working on the bike late into the evening hoping that something would work. After playing with the California emmisions system I thought I had it going but had killed my battery trying to keep my cell phone charged. I pushed the bike out to the main road in the hopes of flagging someone down with jumper cables.

So here I am, in a foreign country, standing out by the side of the road trying to flag someone down at 12:30am. I've got a camping headlight on in the slow strobe mode, I'm jumping up and down waving my arms and car after car drives right by. I wonder why... lol Finally, the 12th car to drive by stopped. Unfortunately he was more familiar with the French language and didn't have jumper cables. Oh well. I waited a few more minutes to flag down cars and was trying to bump start the bike in the lulls. I finally gave up hope and pushed the bike back uphill to where I set up camp.

I've camped in some gorgeous places, even questionable places on this trip but this topped everything. I set up camp in the shadow of a rotting semi-trailer in a Staple parking lot. How much more desirable of a campsite can you get?

I finally passed out a little after 1am, hoping to get a few hours sleep before Woot got there. Around 2am I was awoke by my cell phone ringing. I hoped that it was someone with some great wisdom to pass on to me and help me get my bike started. It wasn't; it was AlanS. He was checking in on me from the West coast and being a friend. A friend that forgets timezones! Ha. That was the end of THAT night...

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