Baie Comeau

Well here we are motel sitting in Baie Comeau, Quebec ,a thriving little city on the north shore of the St Lawrence waterway. Unlike the communities we've visited the past few days, this a "normal" city with a McDonalds, several motels and more than one restaurant. Even has a Walmart. Now I'm not against "normal" little cities, but the point (to me anyway) of adventure touring is seeking out and exploring locales outside your sphere of familiarity and, believe me, Newfoundland, Labrador and the stretch of Quebec we traveled today definitely qualify.The rest of the journey home will be ,I fear, touring touring instead of adventure touring. Might as well be on Goldwings. The roads over the past week have been a challenge certainly but they were not built to entertain motorcycle riders or to transport tourists into the spectacular beauty.They are working roads that transport supplies into the iron ore mines and equipment into the huge hydroelectric facilities, and bring logs out of the north woods to be loaded onto ships on the St Lawrence. Work trucks inhabit these roads not tour buses.And we bikers are a bit of a curiosity here. We are tolerated, even welcomed as long as we don't get in the way and we learn that East Tenn. is not the center of the universe ,not by a long shot. I very much regret that the other members of our gang of rowdies was unable to make the long loop with us. but I definitely understand the work issues involved...boog