A second homecoming in Metis-sur-Mer

One of my absolute favourite places in the world is my Martin family's summer home on the St. Lawrence in Metis-sur-Mer.

It's hard to describe, but families from all over Canada and even overseas take time every year to make the pilgrimage back for a weekend, a week, or a month or two to see friends that they only see there and have known all of their lives. Life is slow, limited to golf and tennis on the country course and courts, walking along the beach, and plenty of cocktail parties and bonfires in the evenings. It's akin to Never-Never Land from Peter Pan, because nobody in Metis ever grows old, returning to a perpetual childhood state whenever they come down for their summer holidays. It is a very special place indeed.

Yesterday, we left Trois-Pistoles with more of the same brutal winds we'd seen the previous two days. At the very least it was sunny, and we rode hard throughout the morning as we enjoyed the pleasant scenery along the shores of the St. Lawrence, much more beautiful in the sunlight than under the gloom of the previous days.

We made it to Rimouski for lunch, more than halfway for the day, and were met by my cousin Ted Savage who drove out to find us. He is part of Metis' volunteer fire squad and had recruited the neighbouring fire halls to help escort us from Pointe-au-Pere (just East of Rimouski) into Metis, about 50km of our day. It was pretty cool having them for such a long time, and along the highway people turned to watch and cheer us on. Once we hit the Metis Gardens, we were to switch escorts to the Metis team, and continue into town with them for the last 10km. Friend Peter Swinkels drove Ted's Mercedes convertible for my Mum, who videotaped us the whole way in. (A girl on her way home from work at the Gardens joined us randomly, and even made fun of us because she was faster than we were.)

What was waiting for us when we arrived was a most amazing scene, something I've never seen before in my 23 years of going down there, and totally blew me away.

As we came into town, the church bells started ringing announcing our arrival onto the main road through the village; my Uncle Kerry was ringing the Presbyterian bells himself. People were on their steps clapping and cheering, and as we made our way along and came up the hill to Town Hall, a crowd of 200+ people had gathered to greet us outside, almost everyone who is down here for the summer right now. It was extremely moving for me, because I knew almost everyone, and Metis, as I said, is an incredibly special place for my family and I. To be welcomed like that was truly amazing.

My cousin Ted had set up speakers and a microphone, and did all the announcements before motioning me to the front. I said some words of appreciation to the mass who had gathered, introducing the other guys to them and thanking everyone for coming out and giving us their support. We stayed briefly for a meet and greet (Mike and Pat recruited some of the kids to bike out with us), before a final escort through the rest of town and back home for some showers and some well-deserved rest after three hard days.

Today was a day of doing absolutely nothing. The most exercise any of us got was Pat, Brian, and I going out to play a few holes of golf with my Mum in a cart before going back home for dinner. After some spaghetti and an incredible dessert (ask Brian yourself), we got down to business, breaking out the shaving cream and the moustache dye. Our legs are smooth once more, and we are all sporting dark brown moustaches; hopefully people won't be too afraid of us as we near the finish line, and will still be willing to say hello.

Tomorrow we head off towards New Brunswick, hopefully with an escort of children with their bikes. Thanks to everyone for making the welcome in what it was, particularly to my fantastic cousin Ted for his help and to the Mont-Joli and Metis firefighters for their time.
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