Québec City Road Meet - 11 OCTOBER 2014 - Dates and Announcements

[vdeane]

I'm in for the 11th.  Just booked my Fri-Sun hotel in Trois-Rivieres last night (and ordered a MapArt 2nd edition Quebec atlas with a ridiculous shipping charge), but it doesn't look like I'll be doing Sun-Mon around Montreal due to cost.

My travel plans:
-Friday: I-87/A-15 north, A-20 east, clinch A-955, A-55 north (possibly to northern end with turn around if I feel like driving an extra hour), clinch the Becancour section of A-30
-Saturday morning: A-30 west, A-55 south, A-20 east, A-73 north, possibly travel around Quebec City to get stuff not on the meet tour
-Saturday evening: straight shot down A-40, A-55, and A-30
-Sunday: A-40 west, clinch A-31 and turn around, continue on A-40, A-520 west with turn around, A-13 north and A-40 east, A-15 south, clinch western end of A-10 and turn around, continue on A-15 and I-87 south, possibly veering over to US 11 depending on the border (which would replace my fudged clinch with a proper one)

Food plans are as of yet undetermined.  I'd like to stop at a Jreck Subs on the Northway at some point, but if/when would be determined by timing.  Saturday I'm thinking of getting dinner in Quebec City.  Friday evening and Sunday morning are the wildcards.  It looks like the timing will be more convenient for getting meals in Quebec than NY.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Facebook page, if you want to stay informed without checking this thread every so often! https://www.facebook.com/events/711878042220859/

[vdeane]

Just curious, any ideas of what the tour will include?  I'm thinking about what I want to clinch before the meet.  I'm hoping to get all the Quebec City autoroutes and the county for Ili d'Orleans on Saturday one way or another, and of course there's no efficient way to do everything in one drive.

[oscar]

One thing that probably won't be on the meet tour, but people arriving the day before might want to do on their own, is a guided tour of the National Assembly building.  This time of the year, there are no official building tours on weekends (I don't know whether tourists are allowed to wander around inside the building, like I was for the territorial assembly building in Yellowknife), so I'm penciling that in for Friday.  Tours are available in English as well as in French.

Aside from that, I'll have an open schedule that day, and if needed could scout out stuff for the tour on Saturday (such as construction of a new A-73 segment south of the city). 

[Ian]

So I realized last night that this weekend is the meet, which happens to be a 4-day weekend for me for the Fall break. So, unless something really bad happens this week, I should be able to make it up from Orono on Saturday.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Woo!

vdeane, it will include a view of the two bridges, Vieux-Québec, the Dufferin tunnel portal (it's sealed and inaccessible and the ramps are gone but hey, it's still cool!), canceled autoroute alignments and extensions, the ÃŽle d'Orléans bridge (and a drive-by of the Montmorency Falls, while we're at it). And more stuff, hopefully. I'm still ironing things out on the itinerary.

[AsphaltPlanet]

If anybody is making the trek to Quebec City on Friday, and will be traveling during daylight hours, I'd strongly recommend the route through the eastern townships, as opposed to either A-20 or A-40.  Both 20 and 40 are located in pancake flat plains, and don't offer motorists much to look at.  Instead I'd take A-10, which is itself a delight, to A-610 and then onto either R-112 or R-108.  Both of these roads travel through the mountainous eastern townships, and will be alive with colour this time of year.  Both routes end in the vicinity of A-73, the southern-portion of which is itself a cool road.


http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/PQ/R/108/R108_fallcolours_24x16.jpg

[vdeane]

Woo!

vdeane, it will include a view of the two bridges, Vieux-Québec, the Dufferin tunnel portal (it's sealed and inaccessible and the ramps are gone but hey, it's still cool!), canceled autoroute alignments and extensions, the ÃŽle d'Orléans bridge (and a drive-by of the Montmorency Falls, while we're at it). And more stuff, hopefully. I'm still ironing things out on the itinerary.

In that case I might be able to eliminate the U turn on my pre-meet clinch-a-thon for ÃŽle d'Orléans, depending on whether or not we'll get on the island.  Or just keep it "just in case".  It's not like it adds a ton of time.

I'm thinking I should be able to get by until the meet on a single tank of gas (after topping off at the border), so I'll probably place my refueling stop after the meet at the nearby Esso station (or maybe before to be safe).  I need to check some mileages first to confirm though.

[Duke87]

the ÃŽle d'Orléans bridge

Cool, that's a county that I (and probably most other attendees) need, so that eliminates it from extracurriculars.

[Dougtone]

One of the extracurricular activities that I'm hoping to (quickly) do is snag some photos of the Quebec City skyline from the other shore of the St. Lawrence either before or after the meet.  I'll also be driving up through one of the Eastern Townships routes as I'll be taking A-20 to Montreal following the meet.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Well, the itinerary is nearly finished (with documentation, stops and all)! Actually, it has been for a while, but I had to make some revisions due to planned roadwork and such. I'll put the final touches on it tonight and post it.

If you haven't RSVP'd here or on Facebook, now is the time. I'll make the reservation this evening.

[oscar]

Just reconfirming my own attendance.  I just arrived in the Quebec city area, where I'll be staying until Sunday morning.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Well everyone, here's the final tour itinerary for Saturday, after several revisions due to road work.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t5n0t6dmpldv731/Quebec%20City%20Road%20Meet.pdf?dl=0
Same thing on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/ipbWq

The rendez-vous is at noon at the St-Hubert restaurant at 500, rue de l'Aréna, Saint-Nicolas, QC, just off of R-116 and A-20.

[vdeane]

Cool.  It looks like I can cut down on my pre-meet tour and sleep in a little (and probably get gas before the meet).

[froggie]

Carl, how long do you think the tour will take?  I have doubts (based on past meet experience) that we'll be out of the restaurant by 1 if we're not starting until noon.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Carl, how long do you think the tour will take?  I have doubts (based on past meet experience) that we'll be out of the restaurant by 1 if we're not starting until noon.

I estimate about three hours with stops, so it will hopefully be over before 5. What does everyone think?

[oscar]

Meet attendees who have time on Sunday after the meet might tour construction of a new A-73 segment in the Beauceville area, between A-73 exit 61 and the newest A-73 segment east of St.-Georges.  (That tour, earlier today, took me about four and a half hours round-trip from Quebec city, so you'd be really pushing it to squeeze this in Saturday morning before the meet.  That would mean getting up really early in the morning, which seems to be on nobody's agenda.)

I suggest three viewing sites, in addition to the south end of the main A-73 segment and the north end of the St.-Georges segment.  One is just south of A-73 exit 61.  There's a frontage road peeling off from the ramp to northbound A-73, which will give you some views of the construction zone, including a pair of new bridges under construction.  Second, Rue 20e south of Beauceville, east from QC 173 (which connects the two A-73 segments), takes you to a new bridge over a rough-graded part of the construction zone.  Third, Rue 34e east from QC 173 between Notre-Dame-des-Pins and St.-Simon-les-Mines takes you (after a ridiculous dose of traffic calming in a residential neighborhood) beneath an under-construction bridge high over Rue 34e.  The orange construction warning signs visible from QC 173 will help you spot both side roads.

QC 173 in Beauceville is speed camera-infested (there are ample warning signs showing a camera flash and the word "vitesse" -- French for speed), so don't try to beat my time by speeding through that town.

[froggie]

Meet attendees who have time on Sunday after the meet might tour construction of a new A-73 segment in the Beauceville area, between A-73 exit 61 and the newest A-73 segment east of St.-Georges.  (That tour, earlier today, took me about four and a half hours round-trip from Quebec city, so you'd be really pushing it to squeeze this in Saturday morning before the meet.  That would mean getting up really early in the morning, which seems to be on nobody's agenda.)

Except for those of us coming north from Vermont this morning...   Doug plans to check out A-73 on his way up...I'm vectoring over to Montreal and taking A-40 north.

[Dougtone]

I was only able to check out A-73 north of QC 112 in Vallee Jonction as part of my drive to the meet.  There is construction ongoing to twin A-73 through Sainte-Marie.  As for the meet itself, we really were able to cover a lot roads-wise in and around Quebec City.

[oscar]

Here are my group photos from the meet, with the Pont du Quebec (R-175) bridge in the background, and the newer Autoroute 73 bridge behind it.  The first two photos are from the same digital "negative", as are the last two, cropped differently to include all of the bridges or instead focus on the meet group.









The people in the last photo, from left to right:  Oscar Voss [oscar] (VA), Adam Froehlig [froggie] (VT), Valerie Deane [vdeane] (NY), Mike Tantillo [mtantillo] (DC), Carl Tessier [Dr Frankenstein] (QC - meet host), Doug Kerr [dougtone] (NY), Connor Lauzon [deathtopumpkins] (MA), Anthony Costanzo [Duke87] (NY), Serge [place-saint-henri] (NY).

One tidbit -- This meet continues the pattern of Mike and I, who live only a few miles apart, driving to meets separately via radically different itineraries.  We're pretty sure this is the most distant meet for which we've done this.  Since Mike is working, while I'm not, I can indulge in indirect, shunpiking routes that take more time than Mike can spare.  Indeed, I'm still in Canada, while I'm sure Mike has been back home for a few days.

[froggie]

As I recall, Mike didn't head back to DC...he's hanging around and working out of New England/NYC/Long Island until the Merritt Pkwy meet this Saturday.

[mtantillo]

As I recall, Mike didn't head back to DC...he's hanging around and working out of New England/NYC/Long Island until the Merritt Pkwy meet this Saturday.

I'm replying to this from Bar Harbor, ME. I came here Monday after spending 2 days in Quebec City. Tomorrow I head to my parents' house on Long Island, and I'll work from there for two days until the Merritt meet.

As Oscar said, I still work (and will be for a few more decades) so usually road meets are quick "out and back" trips. But seeing how far Quebec City is from DC, and knowing it was a place high on my list of places to visit, I took 4 days off from work. If I didn't have a major deadline on Friday, i would have taken the whole week.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Corrections: Connor is 'deathtopumpkins' and Serge is 'place-saint-henri' from NY (and formerly QC).

[hbelkins]

Connor is 'deathtopumpkins'

Nice to be able to put another name and face to a username here.

[oscar]

I'm replying to this from Bar Harbor, ME. I came here Monday after spending 2 days in Quebec City. Tomorrow I head to my parents' house on Long Island, and I'll work from there for two days until the Merritt meet.

Did you get to Bar Harbor via A-73/QC 173/US 201, and have a chance to look at A-73 construction between exits 61 and 48?

BTW, I noticed after the meet that the overhead signs on A-73 and A-20 at their junction, point to US 201 and Maine as A-73 destinations.  (A-73 stops 43 km short of the border, and AFAIK there are no plans to push A-73 south to the border from its current southern end in St.-Georges.  Nor is there any move by Maine to freeway-ize US 201 south of the border.)