RIP Leonard Cohen – A Favored Son of Montreal
The trip nearing an the end on day 41, I rode from North Bay, Ontario into Montreal, Quebec. It would be here that I would spend 5 days, four of them with my stepson Jason, exploring this beautiful, vibrant city. What a great time we had.
Jason arrived on a Friday afternoon and on that first evening we found that we could drive his car to a local metro station with free parking and catch the train. Actually, the “train” is and electrically powered, multi-car transport that travels primarily on raised platform rails. The stations that server the metro and the trains themselves were immaculate and they served nearly every section of the city.
Jason and I Riding the Train into the City
The first day we caught the metro into the city and walked all over for a total of 9 miles or so. And in that time we covered only a small section of the city. The city is vibrant and clean with a healthy scattering of greenspaces and parks. Newly constructed high rises shared the cityscape with buildings nearly 400 years old. Like Toronto, Montreal is a multicultural city that while primarily French speaking, is home to people from all over the world.
On Saturday we spent a good bit of time in the Montreal Museum of Fine Art and again walked a good bit of the city. That evening, determined to find some live music, we stumbled into a free concert: SOUL FEST Montreal. Though it started out slow, the main act did not disappoint! Dawn Tyler Watson along with a backing band and a side show of dancers framed in front of a stunning old cathedral keep the crowd on its feet. Definitely the highlight of the trip!
The final day explored more of the city and took a tour of the Montreal Botanical Gardens. That evening we said our goodbye’s over a final dinner and beers, hoping that we still have a number of cities we will still get to explore together.
On Tuesday, day 45 I head to Bangor, Maine. Main is beautiful, rural, quaint and very green.
Having crossed the US border in Maine I can feel the pull to make it home, but I want to spend one day traveling the main coast before beeline home. What I found is this – the road along the coast of Maine shares absolutely no resemblance to the Pacific Coast Highway! I was a real fight to actually the the coastline. I am sure had I done more research and planned my route out in advance I would have had better luck. But then this was my final leg home and I was really looking forward to seeing family and sleeping in my own bed. So the Maine coast can wait for another day.
After the Maine trek I spent the night in Rochester, New Hampshire. The next day I made it to Allentown, PA – through difficult traffic. The next day home to Willis, Virginia. Home at last!
Though I still really enjoy riding, especially on winding mountain roads, this will likely be my last cross-country adventure. All the the hotel points I had built up from working out of town for so long helped make this one possible, but unless you are willing to camp out a lot (which I am not) and eat on the cheap (which I did not), this is an expensive pastime. Besides, as far as just pure “riding” and beautiful rural settings, I have never found anything that quite compares to the mountains of southwest Virginia, Western North Carolina, West Virginia and Tennessee and those are in my back yard! I do want to spend some time in the exploring the west, but that is a longer trip for Thais, Cosmo and I and if the motorcycle is involved it will travel in the back of my truck while towing our travel trailer.
So, all’s well that ends well! Thanks for sharing the adventure.
Ed
Postscript – I do have a lot of GoPro video still to process from the trip but I am permanently retiring this blog and will post everything else on Facebook.
Adventures of an Old Man 