Day 13. Weather happens

Pura Vida Lodge to Danville, Quebec

8/30/23. (3 hrs of sitting it out in Tim Hortons’s. 9am -12 noon) 29 miles. AIS: 2:57 9.8 mph. Elev. 761 ft.

I have to apologize for the headline with the wrong day count yesterday and for all the typos (pretty sure my sisters noticed them all…haha. We were in a cabin near the River at Pura Vida Lodge and the wifi is not great. I went up to the entrance building where the wifi is good to post it last night (in the rain), kind of in a hurry and didn’t proofread. I know you don’t really care right??

Weather forecast today is dismal. Rain all day and increasing by noon. They’re expecting 1.3”. We left the cabin trying to make some progress forward. Right away it started to rain again. We made it 3 whole miles to Windsor. Stopped at the ubiquitous Tim Horton’s fast food for breakfast. Coffee, donuts, breakfast sandwiches… you get the idea. As soon as we sat down the first downpour hit. We sat in Tim Horton’s for 3 HOURs and watched it pour rain outside!!! Looking at our weather apps and radar for the storm surges. We finally saw a window of rain break and headed to our bikes to “suit up” and ride.

We had parked our bikes out of the elements under a fruit vendors stand. How handy was that? So we put on our full rain suit set including boot covers for me and water proof socks for Jim. I had pulled my bike out into the parking lot behind a car, then decide to put rain pants on. So I had just pulled on my pants when the lady in the car backed out into my bike. Yikes!! It tipped over and she stopped. I jumped into her drivers window and told her to stop stop stop! Everything was okay… just knocked it over. The panniers saved it from actually banging the ground. Phew! I didn’t realize she was in the car. Could have been bad bad if she didn’t stop. She got out to make sure it was all okay. Bike was fine, no damage.

Off we go riding in light rain. Our first goal was 10 miles to another campground. We didn’t have to ride very far before the rain stopped and we stripped the rain gear. The trail was paved road to gravel road to trail then back to gravel. Following the now very muddy River then climbing into the farmland. The mosquitos by the river were fierce…. Not quite Wisdom MT… but a close second! It had rained so hard that our entire ride we noticed all the little streams were running muddy and swift. In one place the trail even washed out a little. Eventually we came across some pretty heavy flooding.

After the 10 miles the weather window still looked decent for another hour or so… we pushed on to Danville. Jim called the Auberge Jeffrey Bed & Breakfast and they saved us a room. Just another 20 km. Easy enough.

As we arrived it started to rain again pretty hard. The house is nice and the room is great! The douche, you will be glad to know… is top quality😊. Everything is hung up to dry…we are warm and happy to be here. Now for short walk to grab something to eat.

Little Marche du Carre (convenience store…mom and pop) just two minutes walk away had small homemade meals packaged and ready to heat and eat. Beef ravioli with sauce and chicken with pasta. Perfect and good. Add a bottle of rose and the US Open Tennis on the bedroom tv. All’s good in our world today!

Tomorrow is expected to be sunny good weather. We want to be in Quebec City on Friday so we’ve got some distance to cover tomorrow. Hoping to get into another Bed & Breakfast tomorrow. The Labour Day holiday is coming quickly and all the rooms will be full for sure by Friday but fingers crossed and hoping we can get a room for Thursday night. We will call in the morning before we set off.