July 25, 2017
Day 89: Florenceville, NB to Grand Falls, NB
Once again, we left the hotel this morning expecting an easy day. Ride With GPS is seriously under reporting total elevation gain and grades on our recent routes. We had some steep hills today that we didn't see coming.
The continental breakfast at the hotel wasn't very appealing, so we stopped at Tim Horton's for breakfast. It was good, but SLOW. They need to take at look at how McDonald's moves people through the ordering and serving process.
We're still following the St. John River along the "old highway". It was prettier than yesterday without the unkempt houses and trailers.
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Not long after breakfast we encountered a group of three touring cyclists. These women had just started out on a one month trip to the Magdalen Islands which they would reach by ferry from PEI.
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We had lunch in Perth at Mary's Bake Shop and Lunch. There we met Dave Brown who's also done some bike touring. He was a real character and interesting to talk to.
A couple of miles after lunch, we came up on a dairy bar and had to stop for ice cream. We met another guy there who'd done a little touring before and wanted to hear all about our trip.
There were no stores or restaurants in the last 24 miles, but we had found a campground on the map about halfway. We stopped there to get a drink and find a place to rest for a few minutes. (We had gotten into some of those steep hills by then.) While Kerry went in the camp office to buy a drink, I sat down at an umbrella table where an older man was sitting. I asked if he were staying at the campground, but he said he wasn't a guest, it was his campground. He and his wife built the place in 1964 and are still running it. Tomorrow is his 85th birthday. Happy Birthday, Joe. We really enjoyed meeting you and Mildred.
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We rode the last 12 miles into Grand Falls up some really big hills and finally got into our hotel about 5:00. It's been a long day and a long 11 days since we've had a real day off. Tomorrow is planned as a rest day. The forecast is for rain all day on Thursday. I was going to ride tomorrow and take Thursday as a rest day, but Kerry is insane. He really wants to take tomorrow, while the weather is good, to explore this little town and then ride IN THE RAIN on Thursday. I figure that I am earning some big time points by agreeing to this crazy idea. And Kerry is so lucky with rain, we may not even get wet.
Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 3,694 miles (5,945 km)
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