Back in early 2013, I twisted my right knee shortly before leaving for a trip to London. While walking — and mobility in general — was initially difficult, I recovered in several weeks, although I wore a knee brace for most of my time in London. Since then, I've twisted it three more times, once right before my 2015 bike tour of Southern Italy, last winter while on vacation in Martinique, and about 4-1/2 weeks ago in late May. I was, of course, concerned this would impact our trip, but I was hopeful I would be able to keep my schedule.

In the past, it has recovered relatively quickly. And though I purchased a knee brace on the way to the airport in 2015 for the Italy tour, I ended up not using it and felt I had a great ride. But this one is taking a bit longer, so about a week before our departure, I told Jerry and Lee that I would need to skip the first two weeks and meet them in Montreal on July 9th. That was disappointing for all of us, but I felt I needed the time to more fully recover.

I've been doing some cycling, lots of leg exercises, and more recently, longish three-mile walks to get my leg back into good condition. I actually biked about five miles two days after the incident to meet Jerry for lunch. Since then, I've slowly increased the distance and even did a 33-mile ride with 2000 feet of climbing. But I felt it the next day! At least my doctor did not cancel my trip! She also assured me I would not cause any additional damage, but that it would likely extend the healing time. Just take lots of ibuprofen!

So Jerry and Lee left on the 28th as planned, and I rescheduled my train ticket to July 7th. That will give me two days to bike to Montréal via St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, about 70 miles total. I'll arrive in Montréal on the 9th, which is when they will have completed their "loop" up to Québec City and down the St Lawrence River. I will post pics and whatever info they share with me via email and start my own trip diary when I depart on July 7th.

So my revised route, in green for the leg between St Albans and Montréal, will be as follows: