After a lovely evening last night with Yvan and Carole, we crashed. Hard. It felt like a bit of a marathon to get here by our set date of June 9. We left a day late so we had to make up the time along the way which meant we had a bit of pressure and some longer days. Even with some riding beforehand, to pull 8 hour days in the saddle, 10 days in a row, was a lot to ask of our poor bodies. Plus, I think it’s just the psychological effect of feeling like you’ve “arrived”, your brain relaxes a bit and boom, done. We hit a bit of a wall.
I sure felt it this morning. We had good intentions of getting up at a decent time and getting rolling. Carole and Yvan were all ready to go but the reality was that we only had one speed and that was pretty much first gear. We all agreed it was a good idea to just take the time we needed without rushing which meant it was 1pm before we were finally on the road.
We decided our goal was just to get to the Canton des L’Est (Eastern Townships) which is a region east of Montreal. Yvan led the way and we backtracked to Hawksbury and then headed east on the south side of the river to bypass the mess of Montreal and all the road work that is happening over there. We found ourselves in some fairly big traffic and 10 lane highways but fairly quickly, we popped out on Highway 10 and zoomed our way over to the little town of Waterloo. It is one of the Coeur de Villes and, like them all, it is picture postcard of beautiful old brick buildings in the little downtown core and sweet little clapboard, brick or stone houses tucked into beautiful treed yards and acreages. One of the first things you notice, in Quebec in general, is that people REALLY tend their homes and yards well. Everything is trimmed, planted, neat and tidy. Houses are cared for and there are basically no mobile homes here. I’m not sure why that is but so far, we haven’t seen one. Most of the houses in the Eastern Townships are old (turn of the century-ish) and around every bend is a postcard worthy vista. Alas, one of the disadvantages of riding a motorbike is that it’s not easy to just stop and take photos so, like going through Algonquin Park, I don’t have a lot of photos but wow, just google the Eastern Townships of Quebec and you’ll get the idea...
We stayed at the Motel des Deux Lacs just east of Waterloo. It’s a little gem of a place. From the front, it just looks like a typical 50s style roadside motel but in behind the buildings is an idyllic oasis - a lovely little lake with a fountain surrounded by big trees with hammocks, gardens and lovely green lawns. Everything is so lush and green right now - there’s been quite a bit of rain here this spring.
We spent a bit of time walking the grounds, testing out the hammocks and enjoying the peaceful pond and then called it a day.
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