Waking up at around 8am, I ate some granola bars, broke camp, and dropped into the cafe for a muffin and some tea. The pump for the watering station didn't seem to be working (it wouldn't prime, even though there certainly didn't seem to be any shortage of groundwater), but I didn't think to ask for an opportunity to top up my bottles; instead I just made sure to drink a non-caffeine tea, and top up my bottles at the next opportunity.
After a pretty good night's rest I got up, had my breakfast, and chatted with another cycle tourist who was stopping in the park for a snack. Having managed to carry on the conversation entirely in French, I felt that my shyness about my relative (in)ability to speak French was really slipping away, and almost regretted that I'd be out of the province in 2 days, so soon after starting to get really comfortable in Quebec.
As Gavin had to leave early, and there was a gate that was kept closed between the hours of 11pm and 7am, he parked his car just ouside the gate. There not really being any parking spots outside, he parked on the grass. So at I-really-wanted-to-keep-sleeping a.m., I was called from my sleep to help with a push, as the grass had gotten rainy, dewey, and otherwise wet and slippery. Eventually failing in this, I went back to bed while Gavin dropped in on the owner to get an address/directions/etc. to pass along to the CAA for a tow.
After another late night came another late morning, but with no wheelbuilding to delay things, we were able to get going at around 11am. With Gavin's car providing the opportunity not to have to carry my gear, it also provided the opportunity to make a substantial error in judgement. I tossed my raingear in the trunk, and it started to rain heavily while I was too far from the car to do much other than get really wet.
Having had a late night coming into Montreal, there was something of a late morning, and by the time I had eaten some breakfast and picked up the new rim for the rear wheel, it was already pretty much afternoon. Still having to rebuild the wheel with the new rim (a process which my host got a couple of pictures of), I wasn't really ready to go until some time around 4pm. By this point, I'd already asked my good friend Gavin to just meet me in Montreal instead of along the way. (He'd offered to join me for the stretch from Montreal to Quebec City in something of a support vehicle role--not quite hanging out behind me with his 4-ways on, since that sort of thing kinda creeps me out, but carrying the vast bulk of my stuff to prearranged meetup points avery 10-20km or so).
Having stayed up kinda late the night before, we rose a little late. our host then made us a nice big breakfast including sausages cooked in beer, and eggs with fresh spinach from his garden. Follow that up with more pleasant chatter and, needless to say, we more than a little late getting going (at least by my standards so far for days where miserable-weather-avoidance didn't influence the pace of morning activities).
