2024-06-21 46 -71

Location

In a field off A. Jean-Lesage Hwy

Participants

Pedalpusher
J
J's Mom

Expedition

Continuing our Adventure deeper into Canada, we were on our way from Montreal to Québec City after a bit of a crazy evening the day before.

J's sister was driving up on Thursday with their mother, but a couple hours out of the Buffalo Graticule, they experienced some car trouble in the form of losing power and shaking when downshifting or trying to go faster to pass. Fortunately, they were very close to a dealership so were able to get there where they checked the codes and thought it was getting close to an oil change and a valve might be intermittently sticking. The dealership said they could keep going and ignore it if the light came back on, so they did. About an hour outside Montreal, it was happening badly again so they pulled off and called a tow truck. They eventually texted J and us being just an hour away, we went to get her mother for the rest of the trip. Depending on the outcome of the car being looked at again, her sis would determine if they would keep going or head for home. Getting to Cornwall, we all went out to dinner and the twins were behaving well given the circumstances.

We were able to find a room for J's mom down the road from our hotel and a street parking spot overnight. In the morning, we found out the car wouldn't be able to be fixed until at least Monday so J's sis rented a car and took the kids home thinking she could come back to pick the car up when it was done. At least J's mom was able to enjoy the rest of the vacation with us. To start, we did a free walking tour of Montreal in the morning before we got on the way to QC.

On the way, J checked out the Hash points along our route and finding one that was just off the highway in a field, we decided to check it out. There even looked like a road that went almost all the way to the hash, but I thought it might be 50/50 it was a fake road that google maps thinks keeps going through the trees, but isn't actually there. Sure enough, turning onto the hash-road, all we found was a narrow dirt road with a couple cottages along it. Asking how far we were from the hash, I was now very sure this little rough road was not going to get us the 2KM to the hash.

300 meters later, the road just ended next to the last cottage on the road. We got a couple pictures and headed back to the highway which ironically, would get us about halfway closer but still without any access to it. Since this was pretty much someone's backyard and the hash being in a field, I'm going to call this one No Trespassing, even if there weren't any actual Posted signs.

The rest of the hashes were about as far from Québec City as they could get, but going 1 for 2 on a road trip is still pretty good in my book. There weren't any other hashes on the way home either, but it was a great trip with an awesome food tour in the Old section of the city and then a private bus tour to visit some of the other landmarks around the area.

The car update: turns out the alternator was also going bad and that's what they replaced in Cornwall, but the car still shook and had issues on the way home where they then replaced the sticky valve and now the car is working properly again.