Day 78 - Mapleton, NB to Borden-Carleton, PEI

July 30 (Thursday)

Start time: 6:15 am

Stop time: 1:30 pm

KM travelled: 104 km (102 km before the bridge and 2 km after the bridge)

Elevation: +545/ - 594 m

Special stuff: Riding with another biker, Shared experiences with Brian

Leaving the campsite this morning, I appreciate how much good a rest does for the body - I was exhausted when I got here, and now I'm ready for another full day of riding. I navigate the outskirts of Moncton and then make my way towards the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The highlight of the day is that I will be crossing the Confederation Bridge over to Prince Edward Island (PEI).

As I get close to the coast, I round the corner to a cute little town called Shediac and I'm overwhelmed with the smell of the ocean! Back in Quebec I smelled saltwater, but this, this is different - it is full-on ocean smell. It feels amazing! As I'm taking pictures of the Shediac sign a man who is out on a walk passes me and I share with him that this is the first time I've smelled ocean air since I left the Pacific. He gives me a big smile and says "Welcome to the Maritimes".

Shediac is full of seafood restaurants. Although I grew up not being particularly fond of seafood, I am thankful that my adult taste buds greatly appreciate it! I look forward to feasting on some Maritime seafood.

Along my ride, I notice lots of flags of Acadia being flown and I see a sign at a community centre announcing a New Brunswick Day celebration on August 3rd.

The churches here in New Brunswick are quite modest relative to the the Quebec churches. Interesting to see the difference.

When I was training for this trip, I had a yellow long sleeved shirt and that I wore with my suspenders over top (to make bathroom stops a bit easier). I finished one ride and my daughter said I looked like a minion - which I thought was absolutely hilarious. Today, I come across a giant minion on someone's front lawn and just had to stop to take a picture and send it to her.

I made a stop at a Tim Hortons with an intent for a bathroom break and a coffee. The place was so incredibly busy, that I took my bathroom break and figured that a coffee and doughnut just wasn't worth the wait. I headed down the road a bit and came across a bakery. It had the basic stuff and then I noticed something that looked like a cinnamon bun - so I asked if it was a cinnamon bun and the young lady said with a thick french accent, "No, it's all sugar." For today's ride, that is exactly what I need! Under normal circumstances I would call it a 'diabetes bun', but today, I need all those simple and complex sugars.

The environment is taking on a Maritime feel. I see many, many lobster crates and I smell fish in the air.

The last part of my ride it starts to rain - I don't bother to put on my rain gear as it just gets sticky and annoying.

At the turn-off to a secondary highway, I come across another biker and we ride together for 25 km. The time passes quickly as I learn more about this interesting biologist that does all kinds of outback biology work - like counting shorebirds in northern Canada. She started in Victoria a couple days after I did - which means we've probably been riding across the country in close proximity to one another for the past 76 days. We share about our experiences - she's around my age and has been wild camping the whole time - which I greatly admire (and know it's not for me). I'm so busy talking with my new acquaintance that I only get one photo of Prince Edward Island (PEI) and the Confederation Bridge that are starting to appear on the horizon.

My new acquaintance and I get to the highway and we go our separate ways - she goes to the bike shuttle shelter and I go off in search for Brian.

Pedestrians and bikers are not allowed to cross this bridge on account of the high winds. There is a shuttle service that is available (which sometimes requires a 2 hour wait). Brian and I agreed to meet up at the shuttle parking lot so we could cross the bridge together.

It is now pouring rain as I ride around looking for Brian. The massive parking lot has only one big rig parked in it. I ride to the end of the road, and Brian is nowhere to be seen. I call him on the phone, he sounds distracted, and then I hear him putting his computer away in the background (I can hear his thoughts saying "Oh shit!!"). It turns out that due to 'mis-communication' (the location was pretty clear on the map I sent earlier this morning...but whatever), he is 4 km away in a zone that I'm not sure I'm allowed to bike into. I'm cold, wet, and annoyed, but remember that Brian has a lot of balls in the air, so I cut him a bit of slack. I am mindful of the potential to develop hypothermia, so I reluctantly head over to the bike shuttle building for shelter. I meet my new acquaintance again and 3 other bikers (2 from BC and 1 from Halifax) who are waiting for the shuttle. This is the most long distance bikers that I have seen in one spot on this trip and I enjoy learning about their travels as I wait the 15 minutes for my personal shuttle to arrive.

The Confederation Bridge is an amazing feat of engineering. It is 12.9 km long. It's a pretty quiet drive, but it's great to be crossing the bridge with Brian. I'm glad he's part of my crossing Canada journey because now we have so many shared memories. Shared memories (even the ones where I get left in the pouring rain on the side of the highway) are the things we will talk about (and one day laugh about) for years to come.

We go directly to the campsite to check in. I'm now getting really cold, but I am obsessed about making sure I ride the entire way across Canada (no short cuts for me). When we get the trailer unhooked, Brian takes me back to the PEI side of the bike shuttle service where we see the last of the shuttled bikers departing. I re-load my bike and I finish the 2 km back to the campsite.

At dinner time, Brian's exhausted and I'm exhausted. We decide that since we are in PEI, we should enjoy the seafood. We zip back into town again and get some take-away fish and chips and seafood chowder. Comfort food.

In the evening, I look at my ferry sailing date and the distance I still need to travel to get to North Sydney (where I will catch the ferry to Newfoundland). I realize that I have more time than I need. Brian and I decide that we will spend some time during the long weekend to explore PEI. We may never get the chance to get back here...or...we may love it so much that this is an information gathering mission for a future PEI bike tour.