I wonder what all those signs say?

  The day started off cool and cloudy and pretty much stayed that way for the rest of the day.  As usual, I scouted out the side roads.  I found one that paralleled the TCH (Autoroute) but first I had to endure relentless road construction as soon as I hit the Quebec border.  I picked up Hwy 132 which follows the St. Lawrence River all the way to Montreal.  It turned out to be a popular tourist route with me and about 1000 other motorcycles.  It's also a popular route with cyclists being fairly flat and with short distances between towns. 

I stopped at the very trippy town of Montmagny to grab some lunch.  This posed a challenge.  All the signs, of course, are in French, no English at all.  I chose a nice looking "Bistro" that, for all I know, the sign could have said "the most expensive Bistro in town"  Most of the entrees were priced from $17 - $27, all of which I didn't have a clue what they were.  I asked the o-so-cute server what was the entrée priced at $9.99.  She said in broken English, Fish & Chips.  Done, I'll take that. 

 



Along the route there were countless rest stops with info signs telling you what you were looking at.  The scenery was good but I had no idea what the story was. This stop was some sort of wetlands with some shipping history thrown in.

 



Amongst the many various motorcycles, I saw dozens of Can Am Spyders which does stand to reason since they're built in Quebec by Bombardier.

Can Am Spyder

I continued along Route 132 by-passing Quebec City.  It was starting to get late and beginning to spit out so, once again, I went looking for a motel.  I spotted the Manoir de Tilly in the town of Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly which advertised $99 avec petit déjeuner.  Unfortunately, they were full but the Front Desk girl suggested I try the Econo Lodge up on the highway.  This is where things started to go wrong.  I couldn't get my motorcycle started.  It would turn over but not fire.  I had noticed it was getting harder to start during the day.  After trying and waiting for about 1/2 hour, it finally started up.  The Econo Lodge has two sections; a new hotel and a re-furbished old motel.  The only affordable room left was in the "motel" but it was a smoking room.  No choice, so I took it. As soon as I opened the door I was hit by a blast of smoke smell.  Disgusting.  Just then, someone came ripping around the corner and told me to contact the front desk right away. Seems they made a mistake and had already just gave out that room, so to make things better, they put me in a fancy suite with a jetted tub.

All this but it still hasn't solved the motorcycle issue, which, almost didn't start again after checking in.  This motel is in Saint-Apollinaire just off the autoroute.  As luck may have it, right next door and the only other business in site, is a quad/dirt bike/snowmobile dealer.  They were just closing but said they'll take a look at it tomorrow morning.   Failing that, as long as it starts, I'll ride straight to a Honda dealer in Montreal tomorrow, a 2 1/2 hour ride.