Day 17, August 4th

Today is a happy/sad day. Happy because I'll be home by the end of the day and sad for the same reason. I don't want to stop riding. I feel like just getting back on the bike and riding across Canada. not gonna happen as I have to work to support this addiction.

I rode through Levis/Quebec and decided to stay on the south shore of the St Lawrence as I stayed on the north shore from Ottawa to Quebec city on the way to New Brunswick at the start of my trip.

I crossed the St Lawrence at Trois Rivieres and rode through the town. Nice town actually and saw a few picture worth things. A monument to the dead, the eternal flame which has the famous slogan "je me souviens" meaning "i remember". The internet says it's a political thing, but as seen on this pillar, i'd like to think it has more to do with a memorial to the dead in a long forgotten war in 1634. this was erected in 1934 i believe.

What was really neat in this town is that they had dedicated motorcycle parking!! The downside to this is that motorcycles aren't allowed to park in regular parking spaces or else they'll get a ticket. I wasn't so fond of that. I saw a bunch of places i would have stopped to take in the sites in Trois Rivieres, but gave the city a big F.U. and left. they don't even treat motorcycles as a regular vehicule, and i wasn't about to take a 15 min walk where cars can park right out front. not very fair. the Smart thing to do would be to spilt up regular parking spots and have three meters. 2 for bikes and 1 for cars. Why I like monuments for the dead, i don't know... I figured that if someone erected one for a reason, the least i could do it read about it and pay my respects for war veterans, fisherman, et al.

The quebec side of things were starting to piss me off. not one sign was in both official languages, only in french. Why stop at a historical site when everything is written in french?? All the signs in french only and the motorcycle parking fiasco pissed me off, so I left Trois Rivieres and took the country rodes south west, leaving the St Lawrence and taking a more direct route to Ottawa. Along the way i stopped for a coffee and there were quite a few bikes there already. A few more came and the riders came over to talk to me. He knew all about my bike, which is odd, since most harley riders know nothing about it. It turns out his riding buddy had a 2005 red M50 which he bought in 2005. The sad part was that in 3 years of riding, he covered only 4800km wow. I was at 29,000 at that time and mine was just over a year old. Guess he just rides from coffee shop to coffee shop. :) The harley guy did the same trip i did, but in 1977, which I found kind of neat.

The ride home was quite nice on the country roads and only had about 60km left till I got home. I stopped over for a smoke, in a little sightseeing spot which is just a little gravel patch. It's pretty much just the river and bogs which i've seen countless times riding past this point.

I got back on and tried to start the bike. No go. I tried to push start it, but i think i screwed something up and the back wheel locked up. I pushed it up the hill (seen over my shoulder in the picture below) unloaded everything on the bike and pushed it down. booya it started!

Road all the way home and i was having big problems with the headlight, the console and the signal lights flickering and mal-functioning. Once home I figured out what the problem was...loose wires going to the battery.

Took this picture before the 2nd try to get the bike started. I wasn't in a good mood and the sun was going down fast. Over my shoulder you can see the little gravel slope I got the bike started on.

In all, I had all kinds of weather, all kinds of terrain and saw all kinds of things. Now it's time to go through what I brought and what i needed on the trip so i'll be ready. I'm thinking of bringing a battery, just in case :)