The alternative title for today could have been "Blood, Sweat and Beers".

Blood for the stuff that got sucked out of us by the quite nasty black flies at our campsite. All was great until the sun set, then they were out in force. Almost as bad as Manitoba and the UP in Michigan.

Sweat for the rivers of it that poured off us today. It was hot. Garmin reading between 38 and 41 all day. I know this reads hotter than 'in the shade air temps' but guess what? We weren't in the shade.

Beers for, well you know, the cleansing ales at the end of the day that wash away all the misery we've endured. And the real title for today matches up with the beers.

Ok, you've got to picture Humphry Bogart in Casablanca for this....

"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."

This is what must of passed through Mark Kraitbergs mind as he saw Kirsten walk through the door of Mike's Bar and Grill.

Mark was the first other cross Canada biker we met way back on June 5 as we were slogging up Allison Pass in Manning Park BC in high 30's temps. We ended up biking for a couple of days together and watching Stanley cup games over a few beers. We ran into each other again in Irricana Alberta and we've stayed in sporadic email contact since.

We knew we were in the same general area, but to walk into the same bar is quite a coincidence, and a happy one! We ended up having a few more beers and swapping road stories. To no surprise we've both met and cycled with a couple of the same cyclists at different times. This is one of the really cool things about this escapade. There is probably only two or three degrees of separation between all the people doing this ride. We're going to meet Mark tomorrow and cycle together to Shediac.

We'll be staying with an old friend of Kirsten's from her "little" days in Arvida, and Mark has got friends there too.

Why all this real estate about running into another biker? Well for one, we have become a tight community strung out across the roads of this country and its always great to reconnect. And second, it's a great highlight, and the only highlight of the day.

We sort of broke the L.T McLeod rules of cycle touring today. For some reason we got it in our heads that we needed to get to Miramichi today. We knew the weather forecast was calling for temps in the mid 30's with a 20 km/hr wind from the south, the direction we were heading. This is usually not a good recipe for putting in higher mileage days.

There were several route options for getting to Miramichi. One was along the coast.  It would be more than a day to get there, but probably very pretty biking along the sea side (with hills to get around headlands).

There was another alternative that went inland on winding backroads and another inland route on Hwy 134, a prairie-like road that went more or less straight across the country. It was about 15 km shorter than the other route. Against The Rules, we took it. It was hot. It was straight. It was boring (after Bathurst).

That was today.

No pics other than the sunrise I took this morning at our campsite. Our first 60 km of riding into Bathurst was actually quite nice, mostly along the sea side and with a slight tailwind. After Bathurst it was all about grinding it out on a straight road with scrub forest as scenery in searing heat. You could use our bike clothes as a salt mine by the end of the day. If that sounds unpleasant it's because it was.

Tomorrow promises to be more interesting riding, and we will make choices to ensure that it is.

Song of the day:

Nobody's Fault But Mine .... Nina Simone version

We tried to get around the touring rules and we paid for it. Nobody's fault but mine. It's a great song too.

No historical monument today... Could have had lots if we took the costal route through all the Acadian settlements, but we didn't.

Heart

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