The
next section involved crossing into Canada, reading the cue
sheet (since the Canadian part of the route was not arrowed),
riding through lots and lots of corn fields, navigating our
way through lots of turns and stop signs in the suburbs of Montreal,
and going through US customs on the way back. I don't mean to
offend any Canadians but this is always my least favorite part
of the trip. The scenery is pretty monotonous with cornfield
after cornfield. The flat terrain usually leaves riders facing
headwinds or crosswinds, and then there are all those darn stop
signs going into suburban Montreal. There is literally one at
every intersection for the final 10 miles in and out of the
control. Two years ago, I somehow managed to injure my ankle
while negotiating this part of the route. Stop signs present
a special challenge to tandems, causing us to lose all momentum
at every stop.
Fortunately, after taking a wrong turn and saving them from
the same fate, we found ourselves in the company of a Mark and
Charlie on singles, who were able to roll up ahead and call
intersections clear. Now, I'm not advocating breaking traffic
laws and running stop signs, but these were just too much. It's
one thing I'd really like to see change about the route. Those
familiar with this area will understand exactly why we slowly
rolled through this section.
On
top of the annoyance caused by the civil engineers, John and
I were both feeling really bad. My digestive problems had returned
and his leg was getting worse and worse. I dared not to let
John know how bad I felt, and he did the same. At any point
if either of us had suggested stopping, that would have been
the end of our ride. Normally, our moods tend to compliment
each other, so that if one is feeling bad, the other is up,
but this time, we were both feeling quite bad and not having
a lot of fun. In this regard, Mark and Charlie saved our ride,
as they kept our morale up with their company and their high
spirits. And they didn't seem to mind taking it easy while we
all stayed together.
We finally reached the checkpoint at the halfway point. I tried
to eat, but my stomach was having no part of that plan. I made
several trips down the stairs and through the maze to the bathrooms
in hopes of feeling better, but it simply wasn't to be. I'd
practically been living on Pepto Bismal and while it helped
a little, it seemed I was losing the battle now.
John,
in the meantime was nursing his leg along, and then discovered
that the piece of leather he used to call a saddle had now turned
into a hammock and torture device thanks to the rains of the
day before. This was despite using a supposedly waterproof saddle
cover. In all his years of riding through wet conditions in
Ireland, he'd never had a saddle fail in this way. We took a
few pictures for posterity, and he tried to retension it to
lessen the hammock effect.
We began our journey back home along with Mark, Charlie and
Phil. John had met and ridden with Mark and Charlie earlier
in the year and had apparently encouraged them both to attempt
this ride. They were now blaming him for any pains they were
experiencing. But they didn't seem in any pain to me. They both
had great attitudes and were riding quite strongly. They were
definitely outriding us on terrain where we should have had
an advantage, but with both John and me feeling so bad, we could
barely hang on. They did their best to keep our little group
together, even waiting when I stopped a third time to go get
a closer look at the corn ! They really seemed to have a great
Audax-style spirit, and it really made a very painful part of
the journey quite enjoyable.
Shortly
before we reached the US border, Charlie broke a spoke. John
did his best with our spoke wrench to help get the wheel back
in true minus one spoke, and we pressed on toward the checkpoint,
where a proper repair could be made. Then came the border crossing.
John is an Irish citizen. He moved to the states last spring,
when he got a job and a three year work permit. But the way
things work with actually getting a VISA put in his passport
is that INS grants approval, then he has to go home and have
the US Embassy in Dublin grant the VISA. He had not made that
trip home, and only had his approval forms. Before the trip,
we'd both spent a fair amount of time on the phone with various
agencies trying to determine if we would be able to participate
in this ride. The final answer was as long as we didn't stay
in Canada for more than a month, John could return. He would
need only his passport and the approval form. John was only
delayed at customs for 15 or 20 minutes, while they tried to
decide if we really looked subversive. But my southern accent
got me across without so much as displaying a driver's license.
I'm trying to teach John a few southern phrases for our next
crossing ! We later learned that another foreign rider had crossed
into Canada knowingly without his passport. Apparently he had
lost it somewhere en route. He was ahead of us, and might have
even contributed some to our delay, since the officials were
now on the lookout for other "aliens" without proper
documentation.
(John has since returned to Ireland for a visit, and obtained
his VISA, so we can easily travel back and forth across the
border)
