Province 9, Day 35

Hello from New Glascow. Wecome to our trip and Tom and I thank you for taking an interest. We are having a lot of fun and each day offers new challenges and new people to meet. Today we met 2 men from Quebec who are on their way to St. Johns as well. They are carrying a lot of equipment and have been 30 days on the road. Tomorrow we will be on Cape Breton and then on the Cabot Trail, one of the most cyced roads in the world.
Backing up a little. Yesterday we went from Miramichi NB to Borden PEI. The highlight of that run was Shediac Bridge. A small community north of Shediac, The river and area is beautiful. Bright , warm and sunny with wonderful flowers, wild and cultivated. Gardens both formal and informal, houses large and grand and smaller and charming. We had a great breakfast there. Usuallt this is after the first 100 km of the day so it gives a good break. Roads through this area are generaly poor and need resurfacing. We found a great rural road, 955, along the coast, almost no traffic and good climbs and descents. Pavement on the other hand was a chaenge. Stopped for fluids at a little stand at Murray Beach, had great spring with lots of cold clean water. Ok McLeans, no after effects. Another storey for another day.
Mid day Tom and I had the largest ice cream cones imaginable. The medium cone had 2 large scoops and then another scoop on top just as large as the first 2. Impossible to eat fast enough to control melting, even hungry and tired hot men coulnd't do it. Great!
Next across Confederation Bridge to PEI. 12.9 km long and 30-60 meters above the sea it is like any other stretch of road except the crosswinds are such that no bicycles are allowed and evn walking is prohibited.
It is 8-10 years since I last visited PEI and there are a lot of signs of economic hardship. Roads are poor, many tourist attractions are closed and there did not seem to be the expected crowds for a July weekend. My personal disappointment was to find that Woodleigh Replicas has closed. This was a wonderfull oasis of peace and quiet with immaculate grounds for 30 acres, grand shade trees, gardens and walks and amazing minature buildings, scale madels of famous cathedrals and castles in England. Some were 30 meters long and others as small as 3 meters. Today it is closed and for sale, we wandered the property, I sat on the grass under a great oak tree and tried to visualize a plan to reopen this area. It was so quiet and relaxing it is good thing and am about 5 million short or I might have bought it.
Even Geen Gables wasn't busy or as spify as usual. The island remains for me one of the most beautiful and inviting places to live. Wonderful sea scapes and equally wonderful agricultural lands are certainly chocolate for my eyes. Lots of great hills to bike. Today we biked acress the island from Boeden to Woods Island to catch the fery. A little detour on road 207 brings a recommendation avoid 207, terrible surface.
The second detour was to Murray Harbour, a fihing village on the south coast. Wonderful lunch, and Tom chatted up the local fishermen while I wandered around taking pictures and Jenny and Valerie did what? Shopped you guessed. Right. We also passed the only winery on the island, no chance to sample. Folks PEI has enough hills to challenge so when you visit make certain your bike has some low gears.
Ferry from Woods island to Caribou NS is 75 minutes and it was a very smooth passage. I slept on deck and Tom admits to the odd snooze. Back on the bike for about 20 km to New Glascow through Abercrombie a prosperous community with a great location on the Northumberland Strait.Good and tired today and in need of rest. Today got warm,and humid and we are glad to shower and change shorts.
Yesterday was about 172 km in 7 hours and today 134 km in 6 hours. Showing that numbers can deceive, these lower volumes were demanding and challenging due to pavement and traffic and terrain. Tomorrow back to the bigger numbers as we cross into Cape Breton. Also back into rain, the last 2 days have been essentially dry with only slight showers and presented no problems. This is certainly preferrable to the intense heat of Ontario. The fishermen tell us that this is as hot as it gets in PEI. I suspect that Cavendish beach gets a lot hotter than their end of the island.
Incidentally Cres and Rube are talking again. Rube had his nose out of joint after Cres got a second red tire and looked very spiffy. It is hard for the other bikes we meet to accept that Rube and Cres have come so far in this period of time. The others are heavily ladden and built more for strength and less for speed. Cres certainly gives them all the slip in a hurry. Going off the front which is the hard way. This means that the other bikes are drafting and getting a 15% reduction in work and therefore can usually keep up no matter how strong the front bike is but Cres doesn't mind he just powers away as comfortably as drinking a DQ milkshake. Hopefully as we hit the Cabot Trail they will tell us their stories and adventures.
Strong team, good effort and lots of fun. Special birthday wishes for Helen Bowes and Graeme Bews both working on the same decade. Good night, don't let the bed bugs bite. RRM