A Quebec Cycling Trilogy: Part Three
By Rick Millikan
(This is the third and final installment of a three-part series on bike tours through Quebec, Canada by our resident independent bike tour expert, Rick Milliakan)
Travelers of all cycling abilities will find a “magnifique” trail eco-adventure just above Montreal in the Laurentian Valley. My wife Chris and I set out to explore a popular section of a rail to trail-way, enjoying stays at charming B&B’s along the way. The P’tite Tren du Nord ride begins for most in Saint Jerome, at kilometer 0.
At St Jerome’s old station we meet Christian in front of the caboose, his lineal parkway office. As director of maintenance, he assures us our venture is very do-able – as well as fun. “…As our 200-kilometer bikeway averages a mere 2% slope, it’s an easy breezy ride!” he grins. “In an hour or so you’ll be enjoying the linear park’s lower section…”
Leaving other cyclists relaxing at the station bistro or spinning northward, we depart for Labelle by shuttle, where our first stage begins. Above Iroquois Falls on Riviere Rouge stands a bronze statue of Labelle, one of Quebec’s enterprising priests. Father Labelle established the P’tite Tren du Nord in the 1800’s to carry wood to the port of Montreal. Inside Labelle’s train station museum hang photos showing early trainloads of logs and much later, grinning skiers as this region developed into a winter playground. Now cyclists exuberantly tour up and down this converted rail-bed trail, basking in dramatic scenery.
Removing racked rental bikes, our van disappears, delivering baggage to our first B&B. Carrying only bottles of cold water and cameras, we beeline southward through forests of white-barked birch, long-needled bull pines, stately maples and tall firs.
As the countryside opens into plush green pastures dotted with yellow buttercups, I spot some wooly critters. I’d love to take a pastoral photo, but a huge shaggy white sheepdog springs forward, woofing…and his sheepish flock flees. Next, when I see some udderly beautiful brown cows grazing on grassy knolls, I whip out my camera mooing, “Please stay!” Not hot to be shot, they trot. Finally, a brave Bambi stares at us, poses for a few pictures then bounds into the bush.
I pedal and ponder during this peaceful commune with nature, wondering about those early Iroquois who taught the first Europeans how to cultivate corn, squash, beans and generally survive in their new world. Just after French missionaries brought them Christ and French traders exchanged trinkets for furs, the Iroquois vanished.
Signs declaring Les Jardins de L’Achillee Millefeuille and Cyclists Welcome draw us into a rustic B&B along the trail. The smiling owner emerges, proudly telling us about her piece of Eden. A silvery Buddha statue sits above her flourishing organic garden. Resuming our pedal, we pass its campground complete with teepees. I wonder…
More on Soft Pedaling Quebec’s Laurentians: Chuggin’ the P’tite Tren du Nord T-Rail
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And yet cowboys aren’t exactly known for their flowery prose. That’s probably why poetry has been a part of the cowboy lifestyle for as long as cowboys have been riding the range.
Experience this hidden secret of the West firsthand at the Western Stars Cowboy Poetry Gathering on February 15-17, 2008 in Moab, Utah.
Cowboy poetry has always been a way for those who live and work in the west to express how they feel – think of it as a modified version of soldiers chanting as they march, with language that could only come from a life lived on the open range peppered throughout. The poetry has evolved to reflect the times — from early poems in the 1800s about whiskey or the open range to more contemporary poems that often reflect popular culture and modern cowboy life. In addition to poetry, the event will feature something for every age — from music to barrel racing, a cooking contest and square dancing, western art, vendors, workshops and lectures.
The event begins on Friday, February 15, 2008 with an opening evening performance featuring some of Utah’s best Western performers, like Ray Lashley, Peggy Malone and Paul Bliss. Saturday’s highlights include an opportunity to lunch with one of America’s most well known cowboy poets, performer Michael Martin Murphey. He is best known for his song “Wildfire” and is the author of New Mexico’s state ballad. He will also be performing at 7:30 p.m. at the Red Cliffs Lodge on Saturday night. Sunday’s events include a Dutch oven cooking contest, where contestants will have two hours to prepare and cook their entry cowboy-style (using a Dutch oven) in one of three categories: entrée, side dish, or dessert. Participants must supply their own Dutch oven, cooking utensils, and ingredients – the contest organizers will provide the fire pans and charcoal. Judges will have 30 minutes to taste and judge each dish. Cooking begins at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, February 17. The evening wraps up with a Cowboy Campfire Concert at 7:00 p.m.
Make sure to buy your tickets early, as the small, intimate venues sell out quickly. A weekend pass, good for admission to all events held at the Moab Arts and Recreation Center (except for Michael Martin Murphey’s Saturday evening performance), is available for $75. Discounts are available for members of the Moab Arts and Recreation Center. Visit MoabWesternStars.com to purchase a weekend pass, tickets for individual events, or for more information on the 2008 Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
The Moab Information Center provides complete information on the events, activities and lodging available during President’s Weekend. Visit it online at DiscoverMoab.com. The Moab Area Travel Council maintains the website to provide visitors to the Moab area with the most current, up-to-date information on what to see, what to do, where to stay and what to know.
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Get discounts on major attractions in cities all across the U.S. with GoCard USA. Now through the end of January, save even more with 15% Off Go USA Cards 15% OFF coupon code
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The Traveler newsletter had just released the third annual Fall Color Photo album for 2007.
Help us celebrate the colors of Autumn!
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I thought it might be appropriate this Halloween to recount some scary tales The Traveler has had in the sale of some Hawaii Timeshare property.
Don’t worry, it does have a happy ending, but there is a cautionary tale in the process.
Our timeshares had served us well through most of the 1990’s and early “aughts”. We were able to regularly visit Hawaii, and take trips to Fiji, New Zealand, Trinidad & Tobago, as well as some great areas here in North America.
But as our travel adventures widened, we found we were using the timeshares, points, and exchanges less and less. Once we converted the “weeks” to “points” it became harder and harder to decipher the process (for me anyway), and the maintenance fees, it seemed to us, could just as easily be used to simply travel.
And so this year we decided to sell our timeshares, and this is where the cautionary tale comes in.
First, we went online and found numerous websites offering to list our properties for an up front fee. One such site is SellMyTimeShareNow.com
The website gave a good presentation. After filling out an online form, a representative got back to me the next day – and kept calling until I returned the call a day or two later.
He explained that since SellMyTimeShareNow is such a highly trafficked site, it is was likely – though certainly not guaranteed – that our properties would move. And once there was an interested buyer, they had a real estate agency “next door” (or some damn thing like that) to handle the closing. No extra charge.
After telling the rep what it is we had to sell, he suggested an asking price of $24,000. (What we had to sell was 9,255 annual points for Shell Vacation Club Hawaii and some leftover points from 2006 and 2007).
The cost to place an ad on the site? $600.
After I paid the fee (yes, I took the bait) I never heard from the rep again. Despite fully explaining we had points based on three different Hawaii properties, they got the ad wrong, which they did correct when I emailed them. Other than that, I never heard a thing. And no takers, not even a nibble. Certainly not for $24,000.
Lesson: Never pay an up front fee to sell a timeshare.
Next, we responded to a postcard we received from Timeshare Acquisitions. They would be in our area the very weekend we returned from Alaska, so we thought we’d sign up for the presentation. I admit I had hopes that we’d walk away with a deal for them to purchase our timeshares. Perhaps at a wholesale price, but that would be just fine.
After their presentation on what a boat anchor timeshare are, and how it would make our progeny poor and destitute, they said it would only cost us $2,500 for them to take our timeshares off our hands. And they were giving us a break because we owned multiple properties in Hawaii.
Lesson: Never, ever, EVER, pay anyone to “take your timeshare off your hands”. This is at best highly unethical.
I may be stupid, but I’m not that stupid. So I looked around some more for a solution to our timeshare problem. I found a real estate agent that deals in nothing but timeshares: Smartchoice Timeshare Realty
After discussing my situation, I was told by Judy at SmartChoice what I had already learned. The websites that take up front fees are more often than not worthless and a waste of money (at least for sellers, and given that I was allowed to list at a hugely inflated and unrealistic price, probably for buyers as well), and companies like Timeshare Acquisitions that want us to pay them for the privilege of taking our assets off our hands are preying on ignorance and fear, and driving down the legitimate marketplace for timeshares.
So to make a long story not quite as long, I listed with Judy at just over $1 a point, and had a buyer within a couple of weeks. Judy will get her commission upon closing, but otherwise I have paid no up front fees, the buyer is willing to pay all transfer costs since I am willing to discount my asking price, and I am finally able to sell my timeshare property.
Lesson: Always deal with a reputable real estate agent when selling a timeshare. Don’t pay any up front fees. And don’t pay anyone thousands of dollars to take your property away from you.
And that’s my Halloween story on selling timeshares. Don’t make the mistakes I made. Be prepared to accept less than you originally paid, but don’t pay anyone anything until you have a closed sale.
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We Love Fall Color!
We’ve updated our Fall Color page at TouristTravel.com. You’ll find updated links to the latest news and conditions for autumn color in throughout the U.S and Canada, plus photography tips and resources to learn more about why leaves change color in the fall.
If you have any links or resources you’d like to suggest please leave a comment and let us know!
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When last we saw the streets of Skagway, it seemed like another world in the misty pre-dawn light; a world halfway between dreams and reality, skewing the boundaries of both. We emerge four hours later with only a slightly less shaky grip on either but with the added urgency (for me) of breakfast.
Preferably something with salmon in it.
In the gray mid-morning light the misty streets of hours before present themselves with more clarity, helping to chase away my lingering dreamlike trance.
Half a block to the east the railroad tracks and steep forested hillside mark the “edge of town”, and half a block to the west is the “center of town”, also known as Broadway.
Nothing but a deserted street before, Broadway now takes on a life of its own. Like a writhing snake, like the circuitous molecular flow within a cell, what was hours before complete deadness has come to twisting, moving life.
It is “The Broadway Shuffle”.
Our approach must be handled with care; timing our entrance adroitly we become two more cells in this living organism, this chain of tourists making the circuit, doing the Shuffle.
“Where did all these people come from?” I think to myself.
Just hours before the brumous streets were completely deserted. Now, up and down the wooden boardwalks, spilling out into the street, a constant stream of people stride steadily in a generally counterclockwise navigation (with a few mavericks daring clockwise) along the shops and restaurants of Broadway, with the occasional bar, post office, or museum sprinkled in the mix.
We pass by the stage door of a small theater, the jangly sound of a honky-tonk piano emanating from within – a “wild west” show in progress, even before noon; a scandalous, scurrilous, and unhealthy thing. Having worked in professional theater for some years, I am suspicious of any call time before noon, and am unhappy with any before 5PM. Theater is rarely something to be attempted in the full light of day.
A few blocks further up we disengage from the Shuffle and head toward the outskirts of town, about half a block to the west, and find a charming little café for breakfast. I have the Salmon Eggs Benedict. Now things are starting to feel just a little more civilized.
It wasn’t always like this. A bit more than a century ago I could just as easily have emerged from my tent into the cloudy dawn and muddied street only to be shot dead on the spot for the boots off my feet.
Hence, perhaps, the Wild West show that now entertains the tourists all these years later.
Today, when you take away all the tourists (read: “winter”) Skagway hosts a population of little more than 800 adventurous souls. In the Yukon gold rush of 1898 more than 8000 slopped through the haphazard, unpaved streets. Almost all were, in one way or another, greedy sonuvabitches that wanted nothing more out of Skagway than a means to get rich on gold.
Not that the gold was in Skagway, or even very near. The gold was further north up in the Yukon Territory, to which Skagway was the gateway and something of a base camp. From there prospectors had a treacherous slog through the mountains over the White Pass trail before they could stake their claim to the gold – or lose their shirts, as the case may be; even their lives if they were particularly unlucky. The slog was made considerably less slog-like with the construction of the White Pass & Yukon narrow gauge railway. Unfortunately, by the time the railway was completed, the rush for gold was mostly played out. The railway, however, is a big hit with the tourists.
The town was run by one Soapy Smith (a.k.a. Jefferson Randolph Smith II) and his gang of cutthroats and conmen – any one of which would probably have been the sort to shoot me dead merely for my boots.
As it turned out, that was the fate of Soapy. Frank Reid led an angry mob that had had enough of Soapy and his gang, and shot him dead on July 8th 1898; just four days after Soapy had stood with Governor John Brady on a podium at Skagway’s first Independence Day celebration. Reid didn’t fare too much better, dying from his wounds a few days later. At least he was given a hero’s funeral and goes down in history as saving the good towns people from the evil doings of Soapy and his gang. Nonetheless, it eventually takes the U.S. army to restore order.
The history of Skagway is of a town that was all about gold. Yukon gold. Today, Skagway is still about gold, if of a different kind: Tourist Gold. Each one of us a little nugget that keeps the town alive, here at the northern end of the Inside Passage.
We aren’t the biggest nuggets of gold, but we do our part, visiting the Skagway Museum, enjoying a hardy dinner at a friendly restaurant (where we have a chance meeting with a cruise ship ventriloquist), and topping it off by attending a presentation given by “Buckwheat”; a reading and “reenactment” of the words of poet and writer Robert Service (best known for his portrayal of life in the Yukon).
Afterwards, I leave Jayne to her bath and go for a walk. The moon casts a ghostly-white glow over the quiet and deserted streets.
Where did all the people go?
I revel in the solitude as I shuffle along Broadway.
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By Wayne Maher
The message of the center is that without ”We The People” there is no constitution.
Over looking the vast expanse of the Independence Mall, in Philadelphia is
The National Constitution Center which has just celebrated its fourth anniversary this July. The center is located on Arch Street near the Independence Hall Visitors Center and the new Liberty Bell Exhibit Hall. The location is an important reminder of the major role Philadelphia played in the birth of our nation and the writing of the Constitution it self.
The center is an independent non profit organization dedicated to the understanding of, and appreciation for, the Constitution, its history and its relevance to our contemporary life. One is immediately struck with the size and openness of the main hall. The center tells the story of the Constitution through extensive interactive and multimedia exhibits, photographs, sculpture, text, films and artifacts.
Your visit begins when you purchase a timed ticket for the Kimmel Theater to view the seventeen minute multimedia presentation of “Freedom Rising”. The presentation combines a live actor and video projections on a 360 degree screen. Before viewing “Freedom Rising” you visit the “Philadelphia 1787” exhibit which depicts Philadelphia at the time the Constitution was written.
At the close of the “Freedom Rising” presentation you exit the stadium style theater at the top arriving in the main exhibit hall. There are many multimedia interactive exhibits telling the story of the Constitution throughout history. There are also ten stations, in the exhibit hall that you can walk in and view exhibits on specific periods of time. You will be able to play an active role by e-mailing elected officials about current constitutional issues.
When you leave the exhibit hall you enter “Signers Hall” contained here are 42 life size bronze statues of the delegates to the constitutional convention. These are represented as they would have been, standing or seated in Independence Hall during their deliberations.
On a back wall next to “Signers Hall” is an original newspaper print of the Constitution from 1787.
There is also temporary exhibit space off the main hall. The current exhibit is “Eyewitness” griping accounts in the first person from the National Archives. With pictures, words and audio this exhibit tells the stories of some of most important events in American history. Here you can listen to the radio broadcast of the Hindenburg disaster or the Apollo 8 crew’s live Christmas broadcast from the moon.
The center is staffed by professional staff members an augmented with interns who provide general information and help run the many summer camps offered by the center.
If you happen to be hungry during your visit the center has a 225 seat restaurant with additional outdoor seating upstairs. I can recommend the Philly cheese steak which was inexpensive and very tasty; this is a good choice especially if you don’t have the time to run down to south Philadelphia to one of the more famous cheese steak stands.
The center also contains the Annenberg Center for Education and Outreach. The Constitution Center is a popular day trip destination for families, tour groups and students.
With easy access by plane, train and car there is no excuse not to spend a few hours at this wonderful museum.
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By Richard Nahem
After months of sleeping in and lounging on Sunday mornings, I made the extra effort to leave the house by 10:30AM to finally get myself to the Raspail bio (organic) market.
Located on Boulevard Raspail at rue du Cherche Midi in the chic upscale 6th Arr., I heard this was where snoby women in fur coats and bourgeois yuppie families did their weekly marketing. Truthfully, the motivation to go was the rumors of being able to spot Catherine Deneuve squeezing melons and tasting the chevre. So in my search for St. Catherine, I discovered my new favorite food market.
It was a crisp sunny day and the market was teeming with the above-mentioned crowd. The first food stand I came upon had a man making hot potato and onion galletes/latkes and I immediately joined the long queue to buy one. I ate it as fast as humanly possible, and it was yum, yum, yum, and yum. Sated from my latke, I was now ready to tackle the crowds and explore the market. I found another stand with a Woodstock hippie selling home baked pumpkin muffins and brownies in individual mini-loaf pans. I tasted, sniffed and perused the rest of the stands selling smelly cheeses, canards and turkeys, farm fresh milk and eggs, pumpkin tarts, squash, turnips, pressed apple cider, carrots with the dirt still on them, and warm bread.
One of the things I liked most were the stands that sold organic and natural products besides food, including hand milled soaps, homeopathic remedies, hand knitted scarves and gloves, and health oriented books and magazines, and organic wine.
I will now be a regular but will have to dress-up in Hermes casual chic rather than Gap & Nike.
Next time, maybe I can help Catherine pick a ripe melon.
Raspail Bio Market
Sundays 8:30AM- 2PM
Metro: Sevres Babylone, Rennes
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Richard Nahem is a regular contributor to The Traveler and is the owner/operator of Eye Prefer Paris Tours. Richard also writes his Paris blog EyePreferParis
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The most recent issue of The Traveler is online. Three new feature articles, our travel writing pick-of-the-month (also listed in the left sidebar of this blog), and the latest travel ideas, resources, and bargain. The Traveler
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