June 23, 2017
Day 57: Blacks Harbour, NB to St. John, NB
Where is summer? We had another gray, chilly and damp day. We didn't get really rained on, but we had light drizzle for the last ten miles.
The day was saved by the people we met. It was an excellent people day!
On the way out of Blacks Harbour, we stopped for two pictures we missed on the way in. This is the sign proclaiming Blacks Harbour's status in the world of sardines:
And this is wood stacked outside a house. It doesn't show in the photo, but the wood coming out of the fish's mouth spells "fish stix".
The first part of our route was over old Hwy 1. It had a good surface, a wide shoulder and very little traffic. We met our first fellow Crazy Guy journalist cycling this morning. We saw a cyclist on a loaded bike coming toward us, so Kerry crossed over to say hello. It was Jane Hertenstein, whose journal here is "Merry Time". She recognized our Two Far, too jerseys and said she'd been following us. It was nice to meet a fellow Crazy Guy.
Kerry decided to start out in shorts this morning, but after a several miles, he reconsidered that decision. We came to a motel and he pulled in to see if they had a place he could put on his long pants. There we met Olive Smith who was happy let him use her lobby and then came out to chat. It was nice meeting you, Olive.
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Next, we stopped at Lepreau Falls, which Alex had told us about yesterday. It was pretty cool. There was steep dirt path down to the bottom. I didn't feel like trying to get down there, but I handed the camera to Kerry.
We had just finished our visit to the falls when Alex and Wanda drove up. They said they had estimated where we would be in two hours and came to see if we were there. It was fun to see them again.
Right past the falls, we went into a convenience store for you-know-what and met a delightful family. This mom and her kids were headed to a nearby music festival. The boy, Hoby, was full of questions about the bike and how we traveled. He was very friendly and engaging. We really enjoyed meeting him, as well as his sister, Mahala and their Mom. We learned that Mahala is a Floridian, having been born in Gainesville when the family lived there. She was dressed for Florida, too! (Remember, we had long shirts, pants and jackets on) Meeting you guys was one of the highlights of our day.
After that stop, there was nothing else to see, just 21 miles to ride to get to our hotel in St. John. Rain was forecast for early afternoon and we were trying to get here ahead of it. We put the magic rain covers on with about 12 miles to go. We got a light sprinkle the last several miles, but not too much. It was just getting cold.
We arrived at the Travelodge in St. John a few minutes before 1PM. Our room wasn't ready, but Kim, the front desk manager, was happy to let us park our bike in the lobby while we went to lunch. As we were bringing it in, the general manager came and wanted to take our picture for their Facebook page. By the time we had finished parking and posing, it was really raining, Kim offered to drive us to a nearby shopping center to eat and see what we could do about a cell phone to use while we're in Canada. (Ours don't work here at all.) Kerry at first declined her offer, but then looked outside and changed his mind. Kim very graciously drove us to the shopping center and gave us the number to call when we were ready to come back. After learning that Canadian cell phones cost a lot more than they are worth to us and getting some lunch, the rain had about stopped, so we walked back to the hotel. Thank you, Kim, for being so good to us!
Tomorrow we take the ferry to Digby, Nova Scotia and ride to Weymouth.
Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 2,322 miles (3,737 km)
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