Leaving Isy and our luggage at the airport, I now had a 20 minute walk to go pickup the rental car. Scissoring a few jersey barriers until I finally reached a sea of parking lots, Montreal Trudeau was proving just as pedestrian unfriendly as any other airport. And now that I got away from the terminal, the winter and windchill hit me in the face and cut right through my insufficient outerwear.

Ducking down and fighting against the wind, I quickly had enough and settled on abandoning ever seeing the last three QMJHL rinks. Quebec had brought a -20°C/-4°F windchill and that's no great winter escape. Just 7 hours away was Philadelphia and it was 20°C/68°F there today - so why the hell were we spending this money and time for Quebec weather and not driving directly to Philly?

Walking across this cold parking lot, I totally had enough.

Instead of heading due south like the more intelligent Canada Goose, I stuck to our plan of heading to the Drummondville area, where I could also ride my bike indoors in Victoriaville for some of that winter escape.

Having just been in Drummondville a handful of months ago, we returned to L'Établi Brasserie Urbaine since Isy loved her meal back in November. This time, I was the one raving about my delicious cheesy gnocchi.

I'll be damned. Maybe my sense of taste was coming back?

Switching it up from that Drummondville motel with the heart-shaped tub, we instead went with an AirBNB that was the upstairs apartment of a duplex, with what seemed like the once exterior staircase now enclosed.

As much as I like the motels of Drummondville, I was excited for the neighbourhood feel that this apartment was giving us. Not to mention that none of the cheap motels are near the arena anyway, so it's not like they provide that advantage.

The two of us loved this spot and its style, and that's not even factoring in that it was only $73. It was a shame we'd be spending so little time here.

I also loved the balcony, where while Isy was getting ready, I stepped outside into the brisk air and appreciated that the wind had died off. Cracking a beer and taking it all in, this was what I was talking about.

Who needs Philly, right? LOL.

I was enjoying the balcony so much that I didn't rush Isy at all and we waited until the last minute to get over to the Centre Marcel Dionne for tonight's hockey game.

And that's when Drummondville's Taxi Central's poor reputation finally bit me in the backside. While we used this Taxi Central and they were punctual back on my birthday in November, we waited and waited and waited today, even calling back and being scolded about how they're busy during hockey games.

In the end, we missed the whole first period. This bummed me out because sure, I was going to a lot of hockey games on this trip because it was the playoffs, but I was especially excited for this one as Isy and I had been seeing a lot of the Voltiguers games and really becoming fans of Mercer, Comtois, Koltygin & Veleno. Where she was skipping the next game, I was excited for Drummondville as I know we always have a good time at the Centre Marcel Dionne.

We still had a good time during period 2 and 3, especially as Maxime Comtois potted two goals in the third to get his hat trick and seal the Voltiguers win over the Gatineau Olympiques.

And then we waited 55 minutes in the lobby for a cab back to our AirBNB, lol.

All the way to the point that families and girlfriends were coming into the rink to see the players post game, while we just sat on the floor of the Centre Marcel Dionne's lobby.

I now see why Taxi Central has 122 reviews for an average of 2.0 stars. Drive or allot the time to walk to the arena if you go to Drummondville!

The next morning we stopped at the National Museum of Photography, which you might not expect to find in Drummondville. This was right next to that bar where I watched the Chiefs and Raiders in the old hosiery back in December, and I'm not sure if the museum building was also a part of that old factory.

The guide gave us a thorough tour that showcased the history of photography, then let us go off to wander the museum and check out the collections.

Oh my! Look at this old picture of the old Arena Drummond!

I really like the Centre Marcel Dionne, but I gotta say that maybe I would have preferred the arena it replaced.

One of the Google reviews says this place has 35000 cameras, which seems like a high number, but these two collections alone are pretty impressive.

Regardless, it was overwhelming to enter these back rooms where we were told they try to have one of every camera ever made.

I almost felt bad here, thinking of how much Donnie would nerd out in this room - while I only offered, "Wow. Yeah. There are a lot of cameras here."

About the only thing in the world I could appreciate like this would maybe be BMX parts and I don't think anyone is starting a museum with KORE pegs and Mongoose triple clamps anytime soon.

Following the museum, the plan was to go to the indoor skatepark in Victoriaville or Montreal but I still wasn't feeling good enough to ride.

So we headed straight to Isy's cousins' house in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil, where we then went with their kid to one of those new age, fun centres with trampolines, soccer fields and giant slides. The place reminded me of when I was a kid & I'd get so excited about swimming pools or pool tables, that I'd forget about the other kids and run off by myself to keep swimming, or shooting pool, or whatever, haha.

Another thing that happened was Isy's personal stylist cousin complimenting my red Philadelphia Phillies sweater, saying that it's hard to get Quebec men to wear any bright colours. I appreciated someone noticing my Erik Karlsson level of style.

There may have been no more hockey games in Isy's near future, but there was a baseball game at The Big O, former home of the Montreal Expos!

Nothing like a freezing walk through salty streets to get ready for America's pastime.

I made sure to take a certain route to the ballpark that would allow us to check on the natural halfpipe at Olympic Stadium.

After searching for this stadium with Muggah & Ashley 10 years ago and failing to find it, clearly tomorrow wasn't going to be the day I ride it either. The covered part didn't have any snow, but Montreal's winter sun left it covered in frozen meltwater.

One-time Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau was set on bringing baseball to La Belle Province. He promised a new, covered stadium to house the expansion franchise, as it was generally assumed that Montreal was frequently too cold for baseball in April, September & October.

The mayor didn't have the pull to build an outdoor stadium on his own though, but once Montreal got signed up as hosts of the 1976 Olympics, Olympic Stadium designs were born and baseball would soon enough be played under it's retractable roof.

Except Olympic Stadium wasn't finished for the 1976 Olympics, and it took an amazing 11 additional years until they finally finished the roof.

It was a remarkable design though, as the giant tower you see (the 6th tallest structure in Montreal) has 26 cables connecting down to the 66-tonne Kevlar roof. As the cables are set to begin pulling, the roof folds and travels upwards, converting the stadium into an outdoor venue in 45 minutes.

I never really understood how the roof worked until I started researching it for this writeup. It's quite remarkable to see & I wish I could have attended a game at Olympic Stadium where they removed it.

My window for seeing the roof closed quite quickly though, as the roof only lasted 2 years before tearing and being rendered useless in terms of retraction. It was only successfully opened 88 times in total.

These tears meant that there were rain delays in a seemingly closed stadium for the next 10 years, until the province finally removed the old Kevlar roof and sold it to a company for $1 to get rid of it. The same company would later sell small pieces of the roof to citizens as a keepsake for $4.75.

The Expos played their 1998 season open to the elements before the province managed to install a permanent, non-retractable roof following the baseball season.

This wasn't enough. Back then, there wasn't revenue sharing and the owners weren't willing to spend enough money on the Expos. Anglos were the ones who liked baseball and Olympic Stadium was located in the non-anglo part of Montreal. Free agents didn't want to sign in Montreal and have to play in The Big O. And after a 56-tonne concrete slab fell on an exterior walkway in 1996, and then a piece of the roof fell during the 1999 winter and sent ice and snow onto Montreal Auto Show workers, there were citizens who felt that the stadium was unsafe and avoided attending games.

All of these were factors that left the Expos with terrible attendance numbers.

The league would buy the Expos in 2002, following management's failure to build a new stadium downtown. The team would play 22 of their games in San Juan Puerto Rico in 2003 to enjoy greater attendance and increased revenue, but after 2004, the Expos finally moved to Washington and became the Nationals in 2005.

In the end, a stadium that was supposed to cost $134 million, ended up being the 2nd costliest stadium ever built at $1.61 billion, due to cost overruns, accidents & interest on financing. The one thing Olympic Stadium has going for it is that teams now require these opulent cathedrals and the extravagant construction of MetLife Stadium (NY Giants/Jets), AT&T Stadium (Dallas Cowboys) & the New Yankees Stadium (NY) have all now pushed "The Big Owe" down to the 5th costliest stadium ever built.

(I also imagine the source on that list is outdated and the new Raiders and Rams/Chargers stadiums both cost more than Montreal's stadium.)

In 2014, the Toronto Blue Jays started playing 2 spring training games here in Montreal because they wanted to increase Blue Jay fandom in Quebec - meanwhile Montreal wanted to increase interest in stealing a team back from Tampa Bay or wherever.

While Montreal averaged attendance less that a million people over ever season from 1998-2003, these two exhibition games are now hot tickets and in just 2016 alone, the two games had a combined attendance of 106 000.

Our game didn't see that kind of attendance, likely based on a combination of the Blue Jays rebuilding and the fact that they moved the games from a weekend set, to our Monday & Tuesday offer. The stadium still felt jam packed though, as we must've grown used to attending games in Oakland. We also paid a handsome sum for some mediocre seats. Lastly, the seats were the old school design where they face forward into left field instead of being angled so you're not twisting to look at the pitcher's mound.

We eventually moved into the outfield and our experience improved tenfold.

Especially when you're talking about an exhibition game, we weren't so invested in the outcome that we were going to squeeze into those purchased and uncomfortable seats.

This all sounds like the makings of a stadium I'd love, but I didn't care for The Big O. Everyone complains about how far you are from the action in the concrete donut stadiums, but it sure felt like we were further from the action here than we were at the Oakland Coliseum. Maybe the Olympic Stadium seats are at a shallower angle?

Anyway, I also didn't like the concourses or the approach. It felt like attending a baseball game in a subway network or below a university campus. You would walk through strange areas with concrete columns and cinderblock walls, without any idea of the stadium existing. Was I taking some strange winter-avoidance tunnel between the chemistry and the health sciences building? Was I in one of those elaborate underground food courts in Toronto?

I suppose one thing I liked was how the field view felt like that scene in Independence Day where the spaceships come down and sit ominously over NYC, LA, and the White House...

A couple of days ago I told Isy about a Twitter thread that upset me, asking, "Which sports venue is the biggest dump you've ever visited?" with all of these people responding places I love like the Colisee Laval, Joe Louis Arena and the Oakland Coliseum.

I didn't think Isy would have that great of answer since she liked the Oakland Coliseum and she's only been to nice QMJHL arenas, but then she interjected with, "you know what my answer is? It's that stadium in Montreal."

Well played.

I felt close to riding shape on day 5, but of course it was the planned rest day as the indoor skatepark was closed.

Finally ready to give bike riding a go, day 6 involved driving from Isy's cousins over to her father's near Ottawa (Gatineau). Once we passed Montreal and I decided against trying to find anything to ride near their white elephant airport Mirabel, I knew that the towns dropped off quick on this rural route to her father's.

So we stopped in Lachute, a town I'd never heard of that thankfully looked big enough to have something. Except it didn't really. The best dry and quiet BMX spot seemed to be this abandoned Tigre Geant (Giant Tiger), where I exhaustedly panted and rode two stupid yellow curbs and a pointless bike rack for 45 minutes.

Texting Shelloo back in Corner Brook, of course they weren't getting too much snow. I would have probably rode more there than I was managing by bringing my bike all over Quebec. Oh jeez.

I was pretty excited with how things were working out in terms of the QMJHL playoff schedule, as we now found ourselves in Gatineau while their series with Drummondville had moved here for a Wednesday night tilt.

It was time to finally return to the Centre Robert Guertin, which was one of the first QMJHL arenas I visited and one that cemented my love for this league.

On that trip, I wondered why I hadn't seen these handrails in any videos, but then of course I saw Chris Silva grind them in a section a couple of years ago.

Gatineau hadn't replaced their lights with harsh LEDs like everywhere else & I have to tell you, it was an enjoyable throwback viewing and photography experience.

Sadly, the likely reason they haven't made improvements is because they're moving into a new arena by the name of, lol, the Centre Slush Puppie. That's why I was so happy to find myself here in Gatineau tonight, because I wasn't sure I was going to get another opportunity to take in what I thought was such a fantastic, disappearing hockey experience.

Tonight was a bit different though. Especially for a playoff game the attendance was pathetic. Was it because powerful Drummondville made this a lopsided matchup? Was it because it was a Wednesday? Had people grown tired and soft about attending hockey in an actual arena?

While those factors might've come into play, recent articles also point to the Olympiques struggles in terms of winning, as well as an owner that people resented and didn't want to support. The Olympiques had some rumblings of failing entirely as a franchise, but recently ex-NHL players came on as owners and things have improved.

If this was the pros, I'm sure this turnaround would all be sold as happening solely because of the new, $79 million dollar Centre Slush Puppie ($52.7 million coming from the government).

The Centre Robert-Guertin was a good lesson in getting things done when you have the opportunity. 2019-20 was supposed to be the last year, and even though that stretched into 2020-21 with construction delays at the Centre Slush Puppie, the City of Gatineau went ahead and started using the Centre Robert-Guertin as temporary housing for Gatineau's homeless in the time of COVID (the local homeless shelter also caught fire around the same time).

Now, even though the Olympiques are playing again, they're are instead playing in the small, neighbourhood Arena Baribeau and will be headed to the Centre Slush Puppie next season. They plan and hope to play one last game at "The Bob", but I wouldn't like my odds of getting to that one game from Deer Lake.

Anyway, the Voltiguers from Drummondville again dispatched the Olympiques. The highlight being Maxime Comtois getting 4 minor penalties and some fan harassing him to the point that Comtois sprayed him with water. As I moved over for a closer look and a laugh at how the now-Anaheim Ducks leading scorer had to put up with this in Gatineau, the arena finally brought over some guy (security?) and he stood between the fan and Comtois.

Good times.

Continue to Part 4