Day 87: Jemseg, NB to French Village, NB

July 23, 2017

Well, today was full of bike touring experiences - most of them the good kind. It was a chilly 55 degrees when we left about 9AM, but clear and sunny with a light wind. A half mile into the ride we came to a "road closed" sign. The bridge we had to cross was gone! We turned around and went back to the motel. The owner said the bridge had been gone for about a year. Ride With GPS and Google Maps let us down on this one. It was a short 3 mile detour on the Trans Canada highway to get back to the route.

We rode along the St. John River most of today. It is a wide, calm, very blue river.

We followed the St. John River most of today

There are lots of homes, summer cottages and campgrounds on the river. We saw these guys enjoying their morning water break.

We stopped for breakfast at Casey's Diner in Sheffield and enjoyed talking with a very friendly family from St. Johns, NB who have a place on the river nearby. They winter in Pinellas County so we had lots of Canada and Florida things to talk about.

The next place we stopped made us think fondly of Team A. It's a place they would both have loved!

Coming into Fredericton, there is a pedestrian bridge over the St. John River. Bridge crossings on a bike usually require so much attention to the road and traffic that it's hard to appreciate the view. It's nice to be able to look around from the bridge.

View of the St. John River from pedestrian bridge in Fredericton

We spent some time in downtown Fredericton. It was a great place to visit. W just happened across this bicycle shop and found out it is the oldest bicycle shop in Canada and the second oldest in North America. The guys at the shop were impressed with our bike and our trip. We were happy to accept their offer to keep the bike in the shop while we went to lunch. When we got back, they had us pose for pictures - so we had to get their pictures too. It is fun for us to meet people who get so enthusiastic about our trip.

Savage's Bicycle Center, established 1897

Here we are in front of the oldest bike shop in Canada

After lunch in Fredericton, we had only 10 more miles to go. Just outside downtown, we came to another "road closed" sign. First, we looked at the detour route and saw a BIG hill. We thought we'd take the gravel bike path along the river, but that ended before the detour. Plan C was to see if we could get through. They had torn the road out to install new culverts. Kerry decided he could walk the bike through the construction. He made it with no problem and we were finally back on our way again.

Neither way around worked for us, so we just went through.

There were some hills and headwinds in the last several miles, but nothing too bad. We got checked in and found out they have fast WIFI, so we are happy campers tonight!

Tomorrow is a bigger elevation day than we've had in awhile - over 2700 ft. It's not my favorite thing, but Kerry is very good at encouraging me when we climb, so it will be fine. I'll be glad when it's done and I'm writing about it tomorrow evening :).

Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km)
Total: 3,579 miles (5,760 km)

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