Quebec to Boston - end of the ride

Mon 07/22Full day's ride to Victoriaville QC.  Some on bike path, most on provincial highways. A nice little town, whose main industry is a large dairy.  The Comfort Inn was great..  Free laundry, and a functional PC.

Good rides start at a good bakery.  Paillard is one of Quebec cities best... certainly the busiest.

Much of the ride to Victoriaville had dedicated
bike trails.  Took these until they turned to gravel.

Tue 07/23
Hilly ride to Sherbrooke.  Went into downtown (hotel was 6 miles SW of town) for dinner on the way, but both places I had picked out were closed for summer vacation... so I ended up adding about 8 miles to my ride with some extra hills.  That said, it's a lovely town with a vibrant downtown.  

Wed 07/24

-->Shortly before crossing back into the USA, stopped into Auberge Le Sunshine, a small french bakery in Stanstead, Quebec.  Crossed border at a very unassuming single-lane CBP station.  A small red building with a carport. Made my way to Barton VT.   Nice log cabin.  Met a nice family from Montreal by a fire pit next to the small river that runs through the property.
Thurs 07/25
Stayed at Nootka lodge in Woodsville.  Really nice place, constructed entirely of large logs.  Right down the street is a Walmart... so got my dinner there, since I ate a late lunch.

Fri 7/26
Weather getting warmer.  High 80's, low 90's and lots of hills.  A horrible Super 8 in Tilton. No computer, smoking room, Really shabby.  Another in-room dinner of cereal and milk.  Glad to be out of there.

Sat. 7/27
Kittery ME.  This is the southern-most town in ME.  Right on the NH border (Portsmouth).  Kittery is more a working town.  Portsmouth has much more tourist appeal.  Scored a great lobster dinner at Murray's Lobster House, which is about 2 mi. from my hotel just on the ME side of the bridge.  Dinner was about $36 for two 1-lb lobsters including potato and an extensive salad / soup bar. 

Sun. 7/28
Scored a nice croissant in Portsmouth, NH (Elephantine Bakery).  Then a pleasant ride down the coast.  Just north of Hampton Beach, I dropped into Ray's lobster house for lunch

Large lobster roll.  It's all lobster meat inside

But man... this was a hot ride.  By the time I stopped for dinner, around 6, it was about 94°.  I was still about 7 miles from Mechuen, MA... but the restaurant (Buono Bistro) had A/C, and by the time I left, the sun was not nearly as strong, and temperature had dropped to 87.

Fantastic roast duck with squash cubes under the duck.
So glad I ducked in to get out of the heat!

The next 2 days will be spent visiting relatives in the Boston area before taking the bike to Amtrak to ship it to SJ, and taking a flight from Logan to SFO on Wed. 8/1 morning.

Final map update:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.8259019,-106.2568096,4z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!6m1!1s1VcgH5E3nUHkroyi9MB-IqcSvNsCVAItp?hl=en

Ride Stats

Distance bicycled	Total Vertical
2,932 miles	73,000 feet

From Flint to Quebec - Viva la contrast1

See updated trip map at:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VcgH5E3nUHkroyi9MB-IqcSvNsCVAItp&usp=sharing
7/12 - Ride from Midland to Flint, MI.  Midland is home to Dow Chemical, and is pretty much a company town.  Flint was home long ago to Buick and other GM plants.  It's a hollowed out shell that GM abandoned... left behind decades of pollution.  It's a pretty depressing city. 

7/13 - Left the sadness behind and entered Canada by being driven across the Bluewater bridge (not allowed to ride bicycle on bridge) by the Michigan bridge patrol.  This is a service they provide to bicyclists who are going to Canada for more than just a day ride.  If you were just going for a short jaunt, you would have to go down to Marine City and catch a ferry across the Detroit river.  Picked up a Canadian SIM card and proceeded to London.
7/14 - Pleasant ride to London.  Stayed downtown near the university.
7/15 - Brantford - 

Humidity and more Donuts

Sat. 7/6
Got off a pretty nice 24-hour Amtrak journey in Columbus WI (about 15 miles from Madison) and proceeded to bike to Beaver Dam, about 1.5 hrs up the road.
Sun. 7/7:  50 miles north to Oshkosh.  The reward, frozen custard at Leon's, a branch (sort-of) of Leon's in Milwaukee, but without their best flavor (butter pecan).   Can't have everything.

Leon's looking good in neon at night

7/8 - 7/9  Finished with Wisconsin with a 30-mile ride to Appleton, then an early morning 43 mile ride to catch the 2 PM ferry from Manitowoc to Ludington.
7/10 ride to Evart.  A small non-descript town about 60 miles east of Ludington.

7/11 Picked up the Pere Marquette Rail-Trail just east of Evart.  This is one of the few Rail-Trail routes that's 100% paved.  Flat, straight, quiet and smooth.

 

Took the trail to Clare, MI, home of yet another Donut Mecca : "Cops & Donuts", which is a now-famous donut shop in Clare that was going out of business, so the local police force bought it out in 2009, breathing new life into it.  I was there before in 2013.  It's now 30% larger, and they have expanded to 5 branch stores.  An interesting engine of economic development... with some kick-ass baked goods

A really good sticky bun

Maple frosted cinnamon roll with bacon

Doin' Donut Time!

The 2nd half of the ride was the other half of the Pere Marquette Rail-Trail into Midland, which is home to Dow Chemical's headquarters, a huge complex that dominates the southwestern part of the town.  My hotel, "The H Hotel" was also really nice.  Lots of Dow people stay here. 

In contrast, there's Flint, where I'm staying tonight (Friday 7/12).  The closer you get to Flint, the more rundown the roads and buildings become.  Even though the water here in many places is OK now, trust in public officials is so low, that most restaurants still serve bottles of water at dinner.

SAD.

Going to the Sun

7/3 :  The rain came last night to West Glacier.  It kept steadily raining from about 6 PM through 10:30 AM, despite Accuweather and Weather Channel both putting probability of precip. at 35% for 7/2-7/3.  It let up around 11:30, so I made a break for the shuttle to go up to Logan Pass.  Even if it had cleared a few hours earlier, I could not have biked over Logan Pass, since no bikes are allowed from 11 AM to 4 PM.    The good news is that the shuttles are free, and they have bicycle racks.  The ride up is spectacular.

View of Oberlin Mountain... covered in clouds.

Logan Pass at the top of Going to the Sun Road

Since the weather looked good going east... I decided to ride down to Rising Sun. 

Looking across a canyon on the way down.

It's 12 miles, which would normally take me about 1:20, but since it's mostly downhill, I did the first 9 miles in about 1/2 hour.  Then the rain started and the road by that point was fairly flat ... so I put my thumb out at a turnout, and within about 5 minutes I was picked up by an SUV that had 2 Flathead (Native American) and a Crow woman .  They initially drove past...  then came back for me.   They were on their way back from a powwow.  Browning Montana is at the center of a large Flathead reservation just east of Glacier.

7/4:  Rising Sun (St. Marys) to East Glacier
Not a long distance (37 miles) but a challenging elevation profile (3300 ft)

Arrived hungry.  On US 2 there was an Indian Fry Bread stand.  Fry bread is like a pita-shaped donut.  I had an Indian Taco, which is basically chili on fry bread.  Very filling.

7/5:  Departed East Glacier Friday morning.  Arrived in Columbus (near Madison) early Saturday afternoon.  Amtrak now has bicycle hooks in the baggage car... so for some stations, you can check the bike without having to box it up.  Very convenient.

 

Idaho and Montana

Note:   Interacive map has been updated.  Click here

6/20  Connell to Ritzville

Gasoline is significantly cheaper.  Price dropped by over 30% as soon as I crossed the California-Oregon border.

Ride to Ritzville was hard.  Headwinds.  Wore me out.  Also, Google Maps sent me on gravel roads.  I later learned that it is legal to take the freeway (US395 and I-90) until you reach the Spokane suburbs.

6/21 Spokane :
Stayed at the lovely Montvale hotel.  Originally opened in 1899.  See photos and history here:         https://www.montvalespokane.com/   .  Had a pretty nice dinner at Steam Plant about 3 blocks away.

Scallops and Couscus with a hugh side of corn bread

6/22 :  On the way to Sandpoint, ID, met my friend Ron for lunch in downtown Rathdrum.  I used to work with him in the mid 1990's.  Hadn't seen him in about 20 years.  After lunch we went to his house.  Ron restores cars and has a huge workshop in back of the house and I got to ride in his 1907 Model A.

Ron's 1907 Model A - A thing of beauty!

6/23 - 6/26  Trout Creek (ID), Plains and Missoula MT.
Just north of Sandpoint, rte 200 runs along lakes and rivers to Ravalli, where it meets up with US 93 over the hill to Missoula.  Stayed with my 2nd cousin, Bert and his extended family.  Bert's mother (my mother's 1st cousin) is in her mid-90's and is still going strong.

6/27 En route to Allentown
I grew up in Allentown, PA.  Unbeknownst to mostly everyone, there's an Allentown Montana on the map.  First, you go through Ravalli, which was a challenge because it decided to rain all morning, even though it was predicted to be clear after 9AM.  There is no public transit in this area, and no cars available at the Missoula airport so I ended up taking Uber for the 30 miles or so to Ravalli, which was a "must do" stop.  Windmill is a wonderful bakery specializing in the owner's mother's recipe for donuts, made in small batches in what resemble a home kitchen.  It just doesn't get any better than this.

Best Donuts ever at Windmill Bakery

On that side of the mountain things were a little better, so I rode rode to Nine Pipes Inn in Allentown, which is located in the Flathead Reservation, home to Kootenai and Salish tribes.

6/27 - 28  Big Fork and Kalispell
A 50 mile ride around Flathead lake (where most of Montana's cherries are grown) landed me in Big Fork.  Nice little touristy town on the northeast shore of the lake.   On 6/28, short ride to Kalispell, where I'm in a Super 8 that has a good computer that I've been monopolizing while waiting for 7/2 when I have my reservation at West Glacier.  I made the reservation for 7/2 to account for rain delays.. which there were none of ... so I'm here a few days early.  It's a lot cheaper to stay here, about 40 miles west of Glacier.
Tomorrow, I stay in W. Glacier to attempt the big ride over "Going to the Sky road" which opened last week.  Last time I tried to go over Logan pass through glacier in 2016, they didn't manage to get it plowed out until 4 days after I came through, so I had to take
US 2.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow afternoon and for the next 2 days... as luck would have it.  We'll see what happens.