Quebec! Who knew!?

It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say I’ve said the occasional stupid thing from time to time – no, no, really. It’s true. This is probably another one of those times.

When I’m travelling I have a pretty big fear of being bored. As such I tend to fill my days biking, hiking, gliding – pretty much anything. Well, today I spent much of the day wandering around Quebec. Generally speaking I’m not big on just wandering around cities but I have to say I was more than a little stunned at how spectacular Quebec is. I mean, really. Who knew?! Okay, probably everyone knew and I’m just a little (or lot) late in figuring that out. Seriously though, as I wandered around (and most of the time I really didn’t know where I was or what I was looking at – a map probably would’ve helped) I just kept thinking, “Wow, Quebec is pretty cool!” (Yeah, I know. Those are some pretty deep thoughts I’m capable of). I spent much of the time walking on the Promenade des Gouverneurs. And no wonder they love their poutine here. With all the stairs and hills, you could eat it every day and not gain any weight (he says with a smile).

So after wandering around for about three hours I realized I hadn’t eaten since breakfast at the hostel – not much of surprise, I suppose. Probably would’ve been smart to bring one of my 27 water bottles with me too. But again, me and smart don’t always go together. I continued walking and along the way I passed a bike shop and I thought, “Hmmmm … I SHOULD look into getting some tools in case I need to fix another broken spoke along the way.” Needless to say, I didn’t go into the bike shop. I kept walking and instead stopped in at a local market and bought a small basket of fresh strawberries (or fraises, as the french would say – it’s like they have a different word for everything!). I realized that this really didn’t count as a meal but it tricked my stomach long enough to allow my brain to wander to other more interesting things. Yup, back to the spoke repair issue. Then it hit me (no, not a bus). I think there’s a MEC in Quebec (hey, that rhymes). I happened to be in a WiFi friendly area at the time and a quick Google search confirmed that not only is there a MEC in Quebec (hey, that still rhymes) but it’s literally 300 metres from my hostel!

With a new objective at hand I set out for MEC – not exactly a monumental goal considering its proximity, but it was a goal none the less. After perusing the bike section for a bit I found the tools I needed – unfortunately, they didn’t have the right size of replacement spokes. Once again, I found myself on a mission – to find the right spokes.

As I mentioned previously I passed a bike shop earlier in my travels – of course, I only vaguely remembered where that was. I headed out in the general direction and hoped for the best. Well, the “best” turned out to be a different bike shop along the way. Unfortunately, they too didn’t have the right spokes. On the upside, they were kind enough to point me in the direction of another bike shop – so the quest continued.

This might be a good time to note (although I probably shouldn’t) that I still really hadn’t eaten since breakfast. And just to be clear, it’s not like I PLAN not to eat – it just happens that I find other, more interesting things to do. But I vowed that as soon as I found the next bike shop I would address the food issue.

So, I found the next bike shop and surprise surprise they didn’t have the right spokes either. I gave up. I asked the guy at the shop to give me whatever spoke size he recommended and left it at that. I was tired, thirsty, and there was now a strange rumbling in my stomach that I can only assume meant that I was getting hungry.

There was a comment on a previous post that I might be goading people into telling me to eat more – including vegetables. I can assure you that my lack of eating has nothing to do with trying to generate comments – although, it might be a side benefit. As for the vegetables issue, well … last time I checked potatoes are vegetables. French fries are potatoes. With the amount of poutine I’ve been eating lately I’m practically a vegetarian.

That said, I think I may be developing a bit of an addiction – and it seems to be progressing rapidly. I mean, a week ago I’d never had poutine. Today I had progressed to “poutine avec saussices”, because apparently plain old poutine just doesn’t cut it anymore. Seriously though, the “saussices” may have just been a sliced up jumbo hotdog but it could just as well have been manna from heaven (or wherever manna-like products might come from).

It’s now 7:20pm. Not really sure what’s on for tonight or tomorrow. Technically I’m still a day ahead of schedule so I could stay here yet another day to organize my stuff a bit and perhaps even “practice” replacing a spoke. I’ll see what the weather is like tomorrow. The days of flat, easy rides are officially behind me and the BIG hills start as soon as leave beautiful Quebec.