Today 130 Total 6210.2
Emotions today in order, grateful, bemused, choked, frustrated, thankful, amused, angry, pissed, happy, drained, awestruck, confused, appreciative, overwhelmed, content.
Are you ready for the long drawn out details? It was suppose to be a short riding day. A quick 60 km jont into Montreal get half a day of sight seeing in and then off to La Prairrie tomorrow. I was up early it was another one of those blustery half rainy days so I was making my breakfast hiding under my tarp.
The lady who was staying in the RV beside saw what I was doing and brought me over a coffee. Grateful.
So from there I was riding along when suddenly bump, bump, bump I realized I had this monster in my tire. Bemused.
When I went to replace the tube with the two tubes I had, the valve stems were too big for the valve stem hole. Choked.
Then the tube I had was unrepairable due to the nail almost sawing it in half on the backside where the nail point had hit with every revolution of the tire. Frustrated.
So I was standing on the side of the road to figure out what I was going to do (and trying not to swear) when a gentleman walked by with his dog. He asked what was wrong I told him and he went and got his car and then drove me to the nearest bike shop. It didn't open until ten so he took me for coffee and waited with me. His name was Bernard. My hero of the day. Thankful. 
When the bike shop finally opened it turned out they didn't have the right sized tube but tried to make one work for me until I could get to Laval and get a properly sized one. The town where the bike shop was twenty km in the wrong direction so I had to make up the time. Fate being what it is it started to pour. Even with the saddle bag blocking most of the muck by the time I got to a restaurant for lunch I was a muddy disaster. Oh well. Amused.
After my lunch I went to jump on my bike and you guessed it another flat. Angry.
I changed the tube. When the bike shop had replace the tube they hadn't booted the tire so where the nail hole was it had let something sharp in and it had punctured the tube. I replaced the tube sending kind thoughts to the bike shop. Because it was my day the new tube wouldn't hold air so I would bike for a few blocks and then I would have to pull over and re-pump up. Pissed.
Luckily I only had to do this for a few km before I found a bike shop. Finally a shop that had a decent tire selection so replaced both tires with decent ones, replaced the tubes bought a proper sized spare and was on my way in a relatively short amount of time. Happy.
Now I had been given a cycle trail map for getting through Laval to Montreal unfortunately the scale was terrible it was ambiguous. It had me literally biking in circles. Bike five blocks north, two east, then five block south. You get the idea. What should have taken two hours took five and that was after an already emotional day. Drained.
I finally made it into Montreal threw away the cycle map jumped on a street and just followed into old Montreal. When I got there I was totally overwhelmed. It was amazing I have never travelled to anywhere remotely historic before. The old buildings, the cobblestones, the churches, the whole atmosphere. Awestruck.
Now being the world traveller I am (not) I read the map and saw Auberge and thought Auberge de juennese. Apparently too entirely different things. I wander into this very high class hotel, I was mud spattered, I probably smelled and I was exhausted. I kind of figured I was in the wrong place when the security guard tried to hustle me out the door. Confused.
Fortunately the desk clerk was very nice when my mistake became apparent. It would have been easy for him to hustle me out the door instead he took the time to help me out, was extremely polite, then printed out a map of where the hostel was. Appreciative.
It was dark by the time I got to the hostel and being a Saturday night with a concert in town a few blocks away they didn't have any beds left. Overwhelmed.
Again out came the map and with some friendly directions I ended up at this gem of a place. 
Sunrise the next morning. Got to love the view.
It only cost ten dollars more to have the bathroom in your room so I jump on it.
Worth every penny.
I had a hot shower and then crawled into bed. Content.
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