Saturday, October 29, 2011

Day 62 St. Jerome to Gatineau, Quebec

Day 62,  I was back driving the pace vehicle motorhome, not too many bonjours  left as we are inching closer to Ottawa

A little cool this morning, but clear and sunny, the weather is been in our favor most of the time

The medal bearers gather outside the start of day meeting place in St. Jerome ( the CEGEP school, aka the college)

A section of the downtown core of St. Jerome, population about 65,000

Most of the action on the relay is happening behind me!

The rear camera  is my guide. Like a defenseman in hockey, I need to have my head on swivel,  there is so much going on at the same time.
I will miss the french culture, I now understand at least half of what this sign says!

After leaving St Jerome, we headed down the main street of Lachute a town of about 12,000 people

The school kids in Lachute came out to see what all the commotion was about

Luc, normally one of the pilots that mark the route, was on escort detail today

They had their own sign made up

This medal bearer is showing Jim our CEO a picture of her and Rick Hansen 25 years ago.
Lachute even bussed in some seniors for the event

Our endutance athlete Joey gets mobbed by the kids who all wanted to see the medal and ask questions about Rick, and Joey


Every once in awhile we get stuck in traffic, and not even our police escorts can do much about it.

Another lunch stop another treat, this time at the Fairmont Montabello, an extrodinary log style hotel on the Ottawa River. Montabello itself is only about 1000 people, I'm sure this hotel holds more

Spoiled rotten!

another beautiful fall day


Lunch break over everybody back to work! We all joked about just stopping the relay there for a couple of days it was so nice
Another of our endurance athletes, Herve, at a school in Papineauville


Now the high school

Michel trying to talk the officer out of giving me a ticket! Actually, just a meeting on our plan of attack for the afternoon

Herve with the medal, he lost his leg in a car accident

When he is not on the hand cycle, he can easily re-attach his artificial leg.
One more day, and the Bonjour will be turned into hello, as we cross into Ontario for the next 3 months
end of day celebration at the centre de sportif, Gatineau, Quebec

Incredible gymnasium facility. They had a lot of demonstrations on for handicapped sports

There was even this amazing orchestra playing for the crowd, just another day at the salt mine!

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