After two plus weeks of riding we are getting into a kind of rhythm of how to do the little things. Each morning we check the weather. If it is going to be rainy, we gear up and pack the rest of our rain gear and gloves near the top of the bags where they are easy to get at. If it is going to be sunny (which has been, what, 2 days?), we pack our rain gear away and go with warm but less waterproof clothing. And the same goes for the riding; we can manage our speed and how hard we work based on how far we are riding and how long and steep the hills are. Getting into a rhythm makes the work easier and the riding more enjoyable.
Today we rode from Charlottetown, PEI to the PEI side of the Confederation Bridge. It was a nice ride in beautiful sunshine after the clouds burnt off, with a bit of wind. We stopped by Victoria Harbor on the Northumberland Strait and had a nice lunch. Lorie had a lobster roll and I had fish tacos. The lobster rolls at this particular restaurant were voted the best on the island. We haven't had any others, but Lorie reports that this one was fantastic, so we agree with the vote.
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| The restaurant at Victoria Harbor |
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| Lorie's Lobster Roll |
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| My fish tacos - very good |
The route today took us in a westerly direction along the Northumberland Strait and a lot of the route was on dirt roads (the soil here is all very red colored).
When we made it to the bridge station at the PEI end we "hailed" the shuttle service from a little phone booth type of thing. They said that they'd be there as quick as the could be. And in about 5 minutes a pickup truck arrived; it had a conventional bike rack on the back. The girl that was driving looked at our bike and said, "Crap, I need to get the other truck. The one with the trailer. I'll be right back." And she was. We loaded up the bike (took the bags off first) and we were off over the bridge.
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| I had to give the bike a wash when we arrived at our destination for tonight |
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| Loading the tandem on the trailer and securing it |
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| The bridge is, IMO, scary! |
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| Looking back at the bike on the trailer |
The shuttle driver got us over the bridge in no time whatsoever and we quickly unloaded the bike. She was off right away to pick up the guy back on the other side who's bike wouldn't fit with our tandem..,
This was our first foray into New Brunswick. We had only about 10 km to ride, so we leisurely headed to Cape Tormentine, which is just east of our drop off point. It is kind of marshy here -- the locals call it muskeg - so I'm glad the wind is blowing (when the wind isn't blowing the black flies and mosquitoes are out in droves, which causes Lorie to hide!).
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| New Brunswick muskeg |
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Looking back at the bridge. The beaches here are the same color as the soil on PEI
Cape Tormentine, where we are staying, is remote by any measure. We have a tiny cabin close to the beach and it is just fine. The neighbor down the road said that there is a convenience store at the RV park that is about 5 km away, so we rode down there and got some stuff for dinner and even found a couple of beers (maybe convenience stores are licensed in New Brunswick?). |
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| Upstreet Brewing's Eighty Bob Red Ale |
I hope that you're all enjoying the long weekend and doing something fun!
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