The forecast for today was for a sunny (or partly sunny) day with temperatures rising into the 20s in the afternoon. The day dawned with gray skies and cool temperatures, but the ground was dry, a good start! My bike was ready to move, but she waited patiently while I headed next door for breakfast.
While the little motel that was my home for the last two nights provides a free continental breakfast in the summer, they lower their fees slightly and skip the breakfast this late in the season. The other motel in town - right next door - has a restaurant, so that was my breakfast spot both days. As I was sitting there this morning, three women walked in who were wearing what looked like cycling shoes. Of course I asked them if they were cycling, and the answer was yes. One of the women was from the Denver area, and the other two were from Texas. They are friends from many years ago who try to get together for a week or two each year to do a bike tour. This year's tour is riding end to end along the Confederation Trail. Although it's very difficult for me to guess people's ages, my guess is that these women were at least 15 years older than me - that's a good confirmation that touring can still be a part of my life many years out into the future.
Good breakfast conversation, a good way to start the day...
I headed out in somewhat cool temperatures, and although the skies stayed pretty gray for the morning, my knee warmers and wind vest were traveling companions only for about the first hour. There were clouds that looked somewhat threatening early, but they eventually moved on and the sun broke through for the afternoon. The wind was another story though. It was pretty strong all day - not as strong as two days ago when I had so much trouble riding and had to put off my visit to Greenwich for another day - but it was a strong and constant force. My route today was basically to the west with some twists and turns to follow the coast. The wind? It was coming out of the southwest, all day long. There were more than a few times that I really had to concentrate to stay on the road. When the wind was coming at me and slowing my progress, that was a little frustrating. But toward the end of the day there were several sections of road where the wind was coming straight from the left side. That was frightening - I almost was blown right off of the road more than once. Funny thing, I was so focused on staying on the road at one point that it took a driver waving at me to get me to notice that the water to the right of me had just opened up from a closed bay to open water. Beautiful.
It's now nighttime, and the wind is still blowing right now. I can only hope for a lighter wind tomorrow. It seems that when something is as strong as the wind was today that I should be able to catch it with my camera, even though that's probably not possible. I did try to capture an image of the wind by taking pictures of the leaves showing their undersides. I wonder if that will show anything...
It was a beautiful ride over rolling hills, through trees and fields, with cows that came waltzing over to the fence next to the road to watch that strange individual on two wheels rolling by. The llamas and goats did a good job of staring too. There were blue herons standing and fishing as I crossed close to the water - too far away to capture with my camera, but close enough to capture as a memory.
Hey look, it's another one of those biker things.
One of the interesting things about today is that I passed through many more villages than I did on previous days, and they each seemed to have their own cemetery. Houses, farms, cemeteries - and no visible stores or restaurants. There were also many more B&Bs or Inn / Cottages combinations. They were often in what seemed to be the middle of no where, with no other visible services in the area. That is, there were places to sleep, but no food choices anywhere in the vicinity. Very odd, and definitely not a good place to stay unless you were carrying more than snack food.
I had a repeat of a conversation about touring alone this afternoon when I stopped at a gas station convenience store for a bathroom and snack break. I asked how far it was to Cavendish - since the road signs almost never include the distance remaining to a town, and since late in the day I usually want to know - I often ask. This time another customer in the store overheard my question, and when she came outside (where I was standing and enjoying my ice cream sandwich) she started talking with me, asking if I was traveling alone and telling me she wouldn't be comfortable doing the same. I then asked her if she would have started a conversation with me if I was with a group of people. She looked a little surprised, and told me no. And for me, meeting and talking with people along the way is a part of my travels that I really enjoy. I think that maybe I am a bit more open to talking with strangers myself since I started traveling this way, that that may be a part of it too.
Oh, and something else I've noticed on this trip that really makes me laugh is the number of times I get an answer to my question in miles rather than kilometers. The younger people answer my "how far" questions in minutes or hours, as in "how long does it take to drive". The people who appear to be close to my age answer in miles, although kilometers are the measure used in Canada. I asked one woman about it, and she told me that the switch to the metric system happened right after she graduated from high school and that she never made the mental switch. She was 48, just five years younger than me. I don't really care if the answer to my questions is in kilometers or miles as long as I know which one it is. But I really prefer not getting the answer in minutes!
As I crossed into Cavendish, the view ahead opened up and included open water. It's a small town that is known for the house that inspired the author of Anne of Green Gables. It also contains the third part of the Prince Edward Island National Park. One of my goals for tomorrow is to ride along the coast in the park, taking me by Orby Head and Cape Turner. The route is supposed to give a good view of the red cliffs along the water. That means either an out-and-back ride in the park or repeating a section of route 6 that I rode today. The recommendation of the guy that I spoke to in the visitor center was to come back on route 6 - he thought that I might not want to do the hills along the coast twice. This park is in three distinct pieces, and apparently it's the second smallest national park in the country. I've already visited Greenwich, the eastern-most section, and tomorrow's ride will cover the western section.
My home for the night is the Shining Waters Inn & Cottages. I have a room in the inn, and this old building doesn't seem to have an even floor anywhere. The floor in my room slants in one direction, and the floor in the bathroom slants in another direction. Those middle of the night bathroom trips should be interesting... I checked in at the same time as two sisters from British Columbia - Karen & Lynn. We met when Karen asked me to join them for wine and conversation as I walked out of the little onsite laundromat - I figured drying my hand-washed cycling clothes would be a good idea. I passed on the wine, but conversation was good. I headed to dinner earlier than they did, but they walked into the same restaurant as I was finishing my salad - so we ended up sharing a table for dinner. That was a nice change of pace for me. Good conversation, good food.
What will tomorrow bring? More riding of course, but I can't tell you right now where my day will end. I'll be starting backwards, heading east for a bit before turning to the west again. I'm keeping an eye on the weather forecast and hoping that hurricane blows out to sea before it hits Atlantic Canada. Right now the forecast is for showers on Friday and Saturday. I'm really hoping for showers at the worst - not out and out rain.
In a day of interesting roadside sights, this mailbox and its "holder" really was a winner. I have to admit that from afar it really looked like a person was standing at the mailbox.
A very small boat - but I was left with the impression that it wasn't a toy.
