An Emotional Rollercoaster

On the road

Today’s ride took us to the extremes of the emotional spectrum. We began with the expected, yet manageable, headwinds along beautiful farmland and country roads. We meandered along exquisite backroads with hardly any traffic and then reached the shoreline of the St. Lawrence, where the road was dotted with quaint colonial-style homes. We had the road to ourselves, and despite the wind, it was a blissful start to what we knew would be a challenging 50-mile ride to Rivière du Loup, Quebec.

I spent a good deal of time thinking about how close we are to the United States, yet traveling in Quebec makes you feel as if you are a world away. We have enjoyed being immersed in the French language and Quebec culture. The ride filled my mind with appreciation for this tour and how fortunate we are to have the incredible opportunity to travel by bike. Then, the joyful feeling was obliterated by a massive blast of wind to the face, and it felt like we could be blown over as we tried to pedal forward. The wind direction didn’t change, but the speed and gusts sure did.

Windswept riverbank

We found ourselves on an unprotected farm road with no wind protection, just empty space that reminded us of the flatlands of New Mexico and Oklahoma. The wind was nonstop, coming at us between 20-30 mph, and as you raised your head to look for any wind protection ahead, there was nothing. The ride slowed from 10 mph to what was, at times, 4 mph. It was then that we felt a sense of despair, and the bad thoughts of “can we do this” began to enter our minds.

We finally reached a small town that had some wind protection and stopped for a much-needed coffee—an essential fuel for this kind of ride. We nursed our coffee and both delayed the continuation of the ride as much as possible, but we knew we needed to go and continue to face the wind.

Flat farmlands giving way to hills

We knew at this point it was essential to keep our spirits up and try to laugh at the situation. We decided to turn on the tunes on our little JBL bike speakers that hang from the bike and use the music to help us find the rhythm of the slow pace that we had no choice but to endure. It worked! We found the mind-set, accepted the slowness, appreciated the beauty around us, did the math to figure out how long it would take to get to our hotel, and decided it was just going to be one long day.

Then, like magic, the wind slowed, then almost stopped, and then shifted into a tailwind that actually propelled us down the road. It was a blast! We sailed all the way to our hotel with even more bliss than we felt earlier in the day. It was a ride that took us from despair to euphoria in less than five hours. Such is life when you travel at the pace of a bike!