Hi Everyone,

I have to say something that I keep forgetting to mention.  Several days, 
maybe a week, ago I did something that I had decided not to.  I looked 
at the map and tried to calculate how far I have to go to complete the 
trip as planned.  It is a daunting task and I didn't know if I had time 
to do the whole trip by Oct 1.  It is much easier to look ahead a couple 
of days at a time.

This morning I left Granby on the Route Verte trail.  It was all paved 
today to Waterloo.  At Waterloo, I lost track of the trail and asked a 
local cyclist (older gentleman) who pointed down the road I was on.  I 
went on it for a while and then met a younger, fast cyclist who gold me 
it was about 25 km to Magog on Hwy 112 and that he was going that way.  
It took him no time to drop me.

After 5 km, I saw the Route Verte sign where the Route Verte crossed Hwy 
112.  I knew that it crossed the highway eventually and I took the opportunity
 to ask the gas station attendant about the route.  The Route Verte map shows 
a 54 km distance from Waterloo to Magog and the road signs said 25 km.  Then I
 looked at the convoluted path that Route Verte uses to go through Mt Orford and 
decided to stay on Hwy 112.  Besides it is faster to ride on the road.

The road signs also said 44 km to Sherbrooke but I didn't know if that meant going
 on Hwy 10 which is a freeway that parallels Hwy 112.  Once I got to Magog, 
I checked the map for the Route Verte versus the highway signs.  Again, the 
highway signs were much shorter so I took Hwy 112 all the way into Sherbrooke.

I had studied the maps of Sherbrooke to find out where Arkel is so all I had 
to do was to find the Hwy 10 freeway bridge and then cross over on the next 
bridge.  I didn't realize how spread out Sherbrooke is.  It seemed more 
compact when I drove through in 2001.

I found Arkel and pushed the doorbell, but nobody answered and then somebody
 finally entered the sales showroom.  Then other employees walked in from a break.  
I then realized that the front door had not been locked and I could have just walked in.

I showed Yves, the person that I had communicated with by email, my pannier rain 
covers and how the rear ones did not fit properly.  He looked at the front ones 
also said that they weren't the proper ones either.  I admitted that they were at 
least 5 years old but that the rear ones had never been used until this trip.

He went to the back room (factory) and came out with two pairs of rain covers and 
showed me how they fit properly.  I asked him how much it would cost me and he said
 free.  That anyone who would ride a bike from Washington (state) to visit Arkel 
deserved to get them free.

I told him that I have a testimonial on the Co-Motion website and that I was going 
to send a new one to Co-Motion and I would make sure that Arkel got endorsed.

So I expected to get to Sherbrooke tomorrow and I got here today.  I expected 
nothing from Arkel (maybe a small discount on new rain covers) and I got free new ones. 


The Statistics:  62.22 miles and 1748 feet of climbing.


Steve in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
 

Sent from my iPad