Sunday September 13, 2015

It was raining when we woke up. However, the forecast was for it to be showers on and off all day. Matin had told us yesterday that if the weather was wet and rainy the wind came from the east, if it was sunny the wind came from the west. We were going to have headwinds again today and it was chilly. I wore my leggings and socks today and I wore my merino wool cycling top, it was chilly but the rain had stopped by the time we left the B&B at 9:45!

We headed for HI hostel in Riviere du Loup. It was really windy again, this time Ralf took the lead for the whole ride. It was a nice route but we didn’t stop because we didn’t want to get cold.

We did stop for about 20 minutes when we spotted Lisa’s trailer on the back of a pick-up truck. We had met Lisa on Manitoulin Island, she had her dog Sage with her in a trailer. We waved to the pick-up truck, and it pulled over. We was expecting to see Lisa and Sage in the passenger seat. Lisa’s head popped out of the driver’s side. She had run out of time to be able to cycle the rest of the way to Newfoundland. Her original plan was to rent a UHaul to drive back to Alberta, but she couldn’t get a one-way rental. She was going to buy a truck anyway so bought one in Quebec. Lisa is now continuing her journey by truck and will then drive back to Alberta.

I am so glad Ralf and I do not have a dead-line to keep. It has been so nice to stop an extra day whenever and wherever we have wanted to and not had to worry is this going to put us behind schedule. The only thing we are concerned about now is getting to Sydney and Halifax before it gets really cold.

We arrived in Riviere du Loup and settled into the hostel. We have our own room and bathroom, it is very nice. We had paid for dinner which consisted of squash soup, lasagna and salad and cake with ice-cream, very nice and only $11.00 each. Room, dinner and breakfast for the same price as we paid last night in our small auberge and a great evening chatting with fellow travellers.

We asked someone in the hostel what these signs meant. We have seen them often along the routes. I had translated them as do not pollute our place. They are protests signs against the pipeline from the tar sands in Alberta to New Brunswick.

Joy asked me about how we “lost” our food in the other hostel. Most hostels have shelves and fridges where you can put your food. The hostel will often provide a basket that you put a label on with your room # and the date you are going to leave the hostel. That way the hostel can clear the shelves and fridges on the date people leave the hostel. That food then gets put into another basket labeled “free food”. This basket often contains things like half bottles of oil, herbs, open packages of pasta etc. If you put the wrong date on your basket of food you may lose the food.