Friday Aug 7 Joliette, PQ

Showers overnight so not in any rush to get out of bed. Windy this morning so everything dry and packed so on my way at 9:00 am. Route finding going well, kind of making it up as I go along. Changes from farmland to small town (church and hardware store only) to small city and back again very quickly. Roads are all good pavement, wide shoulders and drivers treat you as an equal. They even expect me to be assertive when I have the r.o.w. No English to be seen on signs, menu's or anywhere but people outside eating at 9:30 in the morning. I'm going to have to find the subtle differences between cafes, bistros, restaurants etc by stopping at as many as I can. Had crepes francaises for an early lunch, It was basically a fresh fruit plate with a little pasterie and it was fantastic. Like yesterday I am hiding from local showers. Seems to be a big one in front of me that I keep catching up to. Three guys on road bikes passed me in the afternoon and I caught up to them a few minutes later when they stopped for a break. They have small day packs, lots of gels and are going to Trois Riveries today and Quebec City tomorrow. A big ride today but easy ride tomorrow. They are drafting off each other and are probably doing 35 to my 20 km/hr. Later I suspect they may have been caught in one of the showers. I stopped in Joliette. Confusing lay out of the streets as they follow the rivers and the railway. Took me quite some time to find the InfoCentre. They showed me where the groc stores and campgrounds are. Talked to a guy outside about Quebec, politics, must sees and he felt I had to be on some kind of quest and if not I would realize it later. Got to the camp ground and settled in at 5:30. That's a civilized time to stop. I can't stop eating, I don't know what I would do if I were using the Warm Shower List. This town is very French, the InfoCentre (young girls) were stumbling with English and every one seems to be French only (like the campground owners).

OD 5392.0 km, 5:59:55, 122.42 km, 20.4 ave, 39.6 max