Day 80- On and off, on and off, on and off

Day 80 Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Distance 104.81 km. Time 6 hr. 1 min. Total so far 5542.74 km. Talk about early birds, we were on the pavement at 6:30 this morning. Dave wondered if we should leave our sheltered spot between the trailers because the sky was overcast but the rule for us is that if it is not raining, we have to move. Yesterday was the same and it cleared nicely. We made it back to the main Hwy. 104. The wind was in our face again. We passed Kingsville and Queensville. It took us almost three hours to make it to the Canso Causeway to leave Cape Breton Island. We went to the Tourist Information building, stocked up on water and ate lunch there. The sky kept getting darker. We went next door to the gift shop and Dave finally found a black Southwester hat and I picked up some more for my grandchildren. As we crossed the Causeway, it started pouring and Dave had to put on his rain wear which he didn't do at lunch. I could hardly control my bicycle for the rain and wind as we went across. We stopped at the Irving gas station and it all stopped and got warm again so we took it all off. We met a young hitch hiker from Newfoundland who had a puppy and a kitten for companions. We wondered if he would ever get a ride. We headed up the same hill that was such fun to come down when we came a couple weeks ago. The wind shifted later from our faces to our sides. We were moving along really fast for awhile but had to stop several times to don our rain gear, suffer through a short shower and then take it off. We met Bill who was headed the other way to do the Cabot Trail in a ten day trip. He is from Summerset, Nova Scotia. He was also wet but near the end of his day. I didn't take many pictures as we have bicycled this stretch of highway before and we wanted to reach Antigonish. I did get run off the road on one uphill by a truck that wasn't going to move or slow down. When it rained again, we stopped at a motel but it was 8 km from the city and we needed groceries so after taking off our gear again, we headed on. We finally made it into Antigonish and to Sobey's just as a long line of customers were allowed back into the store after an hour long power outage. Outside the store, I talked to Angela, who bicycled across Canada 4 years ago from Nova Scotia. Her brother met her in Calgary and joined her to finish in Vancouver. She goes to Carleton University in Ottawa and is starting her Masters of Engineering. She works at Sobey's during the summer. We packed our food, bought fuel and headed down Main Street. Dave went on to the campground while I stopped at the post office to mail the parcels to Wisconsin and Sault Ste. Marie. To our great surprise, our neighbours at the Whidden Park Campground were none other than Wilfrid and Denise who we had first met on June 25th at Lake Breeze Campground, the first day that we were in Nova Scotia. After supper over ginger tea made by Denise, we visited and talked about where we have been the last month. They have also done the Cabot Trail the way we did. Wilfrid had some bicycle problems that needed repair and they have also used the bus to get from Halifax to New Glasgow. They have 16 days left on their tour of Nova Scotia. From Amherst they will take the train back to Sherbrooke and start planning their trip to France next summer.

Day 79- Wind in our face

Day 79 Monday, July 26, 2010 Distance 82.28 km. Time 5 hr. 3 min. Total so far 5437.93 km. Dave got up early from our beds on the floor of the barn and went off to the washroom building. When he returned, he said the sky was overcast and we would wait half an hour to see what would happen. Things cleared up so we packed and left this nice campground. We took a back road from it to get to Hwy. 223 which runs south of St. Andrew's Channel. Many people were out walking and I took a photo of a man with his two Great Pyrenees dogs. The road had no edge but there was very little traffic. We had nice views of the water at times. It felt good to be riding again EXCEPT that the WIND was in our face and strong. I wished we were going the other way. It was warm in the sun and cool in the shade. In the morning we went past many little places consisting of one or two houses and they had the Gaelic translation under the English on the signs. Barachois Harbour, Boisdale, Beaver Cove, Shunacadie were some of the names. At Christmas Island we mailed off a parcel to three of my grandchildren and she put a special stamp in my journal. At lunchtime we came to Grand Narrows and the bridge was up in the air waiting for four sail boats to come through. We crossed over and had lunch at the Iona fire hall. The ride after lunch included several Gear 2 hills and the wind was terrible except when we were protected by trees or hills. We could see Bras D'or lake on the right. After 5 hours, we turned to Portage Rd. which will bring us back to Hwy. 105 tomorrow. We rounded a corner and saw two unoccupied trailers sitting on a point of land going into St. Patrick's Channel. A perfect place to camp before getting to the busy highway. We set up between the trailers, did a journal, had supper, watched the sunset and slept nicely all night.

Day 78- Andy and Rika-Goodbye Newfoundland- Hello Nova Scotia

Day 78 Sunday, July 25, 2010 Distance 9.06 km. Time 25 min. Total so far 5355.65 km. I woke up early in my top bunk on Deck 3 of the ferry and forced myself to stay there until about 7:30 Nova Scotia time. I have never had a shower in a boat so off I went to do that while Dave and the couple below us were still sleeping. When I finished, Dave was up and waiting in a chair on Deck 5. We moved to the cafeteria to find a plug in for the computer. We could get the ships wifi but the boat was too far from land and could not get us on internet. So I started to type in Word Processor. There was a couple at the end of the table and I could hear them talking to each other. I thought the lady had a Dutch accent so finally, I asked if she was Dutch. It turns out that both Andy and Rika are Dutch and came to Canada in their 20’s, married in Burlington and now live in Langley, BC. They have three children and 10 grandchildren. They are on a 6 month holiday as a celebration of their 35th wedding anniversary. They have come across Canada to NFL. and will return through the USA. They are pulling a trailer. We found out that the whole family is very musical playing fiddle, flute, mandolin and other instruments. They love Celtic music and have made a CD with another family. On Andy’s 60th birthday everyone came dressed in kilts and they decorated their house like a pub and played songs all night long. Rika's hobby is knitting. She can do it in the car as they drive along. Andy is in sales for a big flooring company. They are foster parents and are very involved with their church. We took a photo and said goodbye after they were done their breakfast, Dave and I just had an apple and a couple granola bars from our food bags. We moved to another spot to see if it was better for internet as we were getting closer to land. While there, Andy and Rika came by again and sat with us and had a cup of coffee while we told them tales of our adventures. She and I showed each other photos of our grandchildren and she showed me how her iphone worked. They are great LITTLE things compared to our computer. She also showed me some of her trip photos. She has a digital camera with a strong lens. She has a real eye for taking beautiful pictures. I saw all her St. John’s photos which was nice since we didn’t go there. She is collecting pictures of windows and I told her I have been working on a collection of mailboxes and also fences. An announcement came that we were approaching the dock. We hugged goodbye and she said she would find our bicycles on the lowest level because she wanted to give us a copy of the CD that her family had made. As we left that room we also met Clara and Craig again and asked them about the ferry to PEI. and said we may look them up there. We changed by our bunks and went to the bicycles which were at the very back so we would be the last to leave. Rika was there with the CD and also a phone card for us to use. We wished each other safe and enjoyable trips. This 14 hour trip sure seemed to have gone by fast. We bicycled past one car that wouldn’t start and were off to the campground that we stayed at before. On the way, the second batch of vehicles from the deck above our bicycles passed by and Clara and Craig waved. At the Arm of Gold Campground, I got up the nerve to ask if we could stay in the basement of the “barn” (recreation building) again and he said yes. If we didn’t mind the music from a concert tonight above us that is. That’s great because then all our things will be dry and ready to go in the morning. We unloaded and Dave went off to do groceries while I did a load of laundry and a blog. After he returned, it poured rain for the rest of the evening. We had a nice bun with beef and cheese and had grape tomatoes and some small cucumbers on the side and butter tarts for dessert. It was our first full meal of the day and went down well. I did another blog and we went to bed. Dave fell asleep pretty quickly but I was awake until the music ended at 10 o’clock.

Day 77- ...and Back

Day 77 Saturday, July 24, 2010 Distance 47.29 km. Time 2 hr. 56 min. Total so far 5346.59 km. This is the second day in a row that we can sleep in a little. We are getting spoiled! It was a beautiful day outside and we set up the tent as well as our bicycle covers behind the motel to dry. I spent most of the morning trying to fix the order of my blogs and landed up having to redo them both. Although, I can transfer words from Microsoft Word Processor to the Blog, I can’t go backwards from the blogs to the Word program. This will be an all day process. We packed our bicycles a little different this morning to be able to access easily the items we would need on the ferry. We left the motel at 11 am and although the wind was pretty strong in our faces, it was a totally enjoyable ride today. The sun was shining, the edge of the road was about 5 ft. wide with no rumble strip, and I could take lots of photos because we didn’t have to be at the ferry terminal until about 7 pm. A lot of vehicles passed us and we wondered if they were lining up already. Mother nature’s flowers beside the road were beautiful today. We had several hills to go over especially in Argentia. As I was going up one hill, I looked off to the water in a bay on my left and saw a moose come out of the bush and enter the water and start swimming across. I rode across to that side of the road, took one picture and then decided a video would be better. It was quite a distance off and my camera doesn’t have strong lens capacity. As it exited the water, it turned and looked at me until I waved my hand at it and then it lumbered off into the bush again. Dave missed it all. Finally we reached the ferry terminal and were allowed in and we didn’t see any cars (they must have all been touring this peninsula). In fact we were the first ones to arrive and had to wait until they did a security drill before they opened the gates and let us in. That’s when we found out the ferry would be even an hour and a half later that night-10:30 pm. We had along wait ahead. Anyone in a car could go off and do more touring. I found three seats together and tried to have a little nap. Later, I finished correcting the order of Blog 71 and 72 by redoing them on their respective correct pages. We started talking to Clara and Craig and then the time and the work seemed to fly by. They are both teachers and have had their motorcycle trip interrupted by engine troubles on Craig’s bike. They seemed to be taking it in stride. They are very seasoned traveller’s and have been practically all over the world. This breakdown helped them to become intimately involved with a NFL couple in a small town and the generosity of the couple toward them by picking up their motorcycle on a trailer over an hour away and lending them a car to do some touring . She said that way was the best to really get to know NFL. At present, Clara lives in PEI. and has given us her address if we go by her way. Craig is from Maine and both will teach there come September. Finally, the ferry, the Joseph and Clara Smallwood, arrived and after waiting out in the cold and wind for over half an hour, Dave and I got to go on behind a big tour bus full of French speaking folks from New Brunswick that we have run into several times the last few days. We found out where our bunks were, changed from our bicycle clothes and went to Deck 5 for awhile. We bought supper. Dave tried cod and chips and I stuck with a hamburger. The boat pulled away and to us it sounded much louder than our first trip on it. Dave was hoping to watch a movie but it was almost 11:30 so there were none playing and we headed for bed. We were in a smaller room of bunks and the 2 people below us were sleeping already. Many others were empty due to all the rerouting of ferry passengers the last few days, many that were originally booked on this boat had driven back to Port Aux Basques and left from there. We went to sleep to the gentle swaying of the ferry.

Day 76- Those awful rumble strips

Day 76 Friday, July 23, 2010 Distance 73.55 km. Time 3 hr. 59 min. Total so far 5299.30 km. It rained a lot during the night which helped us to sleep better as the sound of the rain on the tent roof covered the sound of the trucks next door at the Irving station. The visitor center grass was nice and deep and level so for a change the floor of the tent stayed pretty dry. The night was cooler and I landed up putting on my toque and sleeping in all my clothes for the first time in weeks. We were waiting until the center opened at 8:30 to call about the ferry again. The rain changed to a sprinkling mist and gave us the opportunity to pack things up. They had no new news about the ferry. While I was eating my breakfast there a couple came in and were talking to the lady about how all the motels in St. John‘s are full this weekend due to a soccer tournament and a big running race and they had to book one an hour away. In the conversation, they mentioned that they were from Northern Ontario. When I asked where, they said they lived in Sault Ste. Marie. We all couldn‘t believe it. Mike and Joan live on McNabb St. not far from our house and we pass their house almost every day on our way to the YMCA or to do groceries. They have come through the USA just like us. They are visiting St. John's for a few days and are also booked on the Tuesday ferry. We had our photos taken together. It was 10:30 when we hit the road which is very late for us. It was foggy and drizzly and eventually turned to rain. The worst thing of all today was the appearance once again of rumble strips. We have had them off and on on Hwy 1 but today it was the worst. The guys who did the strip or the guys who did the side of the road must have been drunk when they were working. There is a definite zigzag to it. It should have been made to hug the white highway line but varies in distance from it. The side of the strip that the bicycler has to manoevre varies from two feet wide to 6 in. to nothing at all to some spots where even half of the strip has worn away. Most of the photos I took today in the rain were of these dangerous areas, so that I can complain to the NFL tourist bureau. It is dangerous enough to peddle them in good weather on the flat but when you add wind, wet weather, a downhill, debris from glass and truck tires and more traffic, it becomes crazy!!!!!!!!!. We had lots of hills after the first hour. At one point, I saw a tourer on the other side of the road but it was too rainy and foggy to cross so we yelled hello. His partner was coming up somewhere behind. They had flown in to St. John’s and had done one tourist loop so far. He wasn’t heavily loaded so they must be staying in motels. I took his photo from my side of the road and went on. I guess at the same time, Dave who was a ways ahead saw the female who was putting her chain back up on a sprocket. He asked if she was okay and when she nodded yes, he went on. I can sympathize with her as that happens to me about 3 times a day just as I am going up a hill. When I passed her, I waved but that made my bike hit the rumble strip for a few feet. That can damage your rims very easily. We stopped in the rain after 3 hours and had a very quick peanut butter bun. Instead of turning off to a shortcut road to Placentia which would be too far for today we decided to go on to the HWY. 100 cutoff where there was a motel. Dave said to start praying that there would be a room available. Well I was praying for our safety anyway so I added that to my list of requests. It is very easy to pray while riding a bicycle. There is all kinds of time. We arrived at the Moorhead Motel drenched and our prayers were answered as there was a room and we could move right in. Guess who we met there-none other than Mike and Joan from the Sault. After we got settled, they were nice enough to drive us to the grocery store in Whitburne for some items. I also visited with them when I was taking time from blogs to eat my supper. I published 4 blogs although later I discovered that 2 were out of order. We also talked to Sarah, and then Matthew on Skype. I LOVE SKYPE. It is so nice to see my children and grandchildren as if they were right here. It rained for the whole rest of the day so we would have been in a sorry mess if we had had to tent today. Just before bedtime, Dave called the ferry number again and found out that we wouldn't have to go by standby but could have a spot on the Saturday ferry and have top sleeping bunks as well. What a relief! Thank you, Lord.