After a light breakfast, we finally got on the road at 9:10 AM and drove to Moncton, New Brunswick, a real French-speaking area. Philip wanted to stop at his favorite coffee shop in Moncton, Timothy's World Coffee, which he discovered on his first Baton Rouge to Peggy's Cove cycling trip, and visited again on his later rides. We called my Dad to wish him Happy Birthday, and he and mom told us about Hurricane Earl moving up the east coast towards Nova Scotia. Hummmm.
I got set up to ride in Moncton, and rode from downtown Moncton to Dorchester, finishing with 22.33 miles. The temperature was in the upper 80s. The first couple of miles were on a four lane city street with no shoulder and busy traffic, but after the first turn off that road, there was a less busy two-lane road with a nice bike lane for the next 5 miles or so. The rest of the ride was on crappy road surface and no shoulder, but still the traffic was light. The terrain was like a washboard--continuous rolling hills, which were progressively uphill for the first half or the ride, and progressively down hill from there. None of the uphill climbs or down hill glides were too long or too steep, but I clocked 35 mph on the longest downhill stretch, which felt really good. At 22.33 miles I was at the base of a really long, steep uphill, and decided to call it quits. All-in-all, I think that today's ride was the best of the trip for me.
After I finished my ride, we found the Trans Canada Highway and headed for Nova Scotia, and exited at the Visitor Center. Philip wanted to hear the bagpiper who plays on the outside of the Visitor Center, and to buy an ice cream cone, as he had done of his previous trips. To his disappointment, the bagpiper was not playing because she had already gone back to school, and the Visitor Center no longer sells ice cream.
Philip decided to ride the last 14 or so miles into Halifax, across the McDonald Bridge on the bridge bike lane, through central Halifax, to the Chocolate Lake Best Western, where we're staying for the next 3 nights. Philip's sister Pam, who lives about 5 hours from Halifax, in Marion Bridge, NS, was planning to meet us at the hotel. Philip started his ride on Waverly Road, which is a beautiful but very narrow two-lane road that twists and rises and falls along a beautiful river. There is a lot of fast moving traffic on that road. Philip was nearly driven off the road and into the river by a bus that was moving too fast, the driver of which saw Philip but appeared to have no regard for his safety. Just after that incident Philip saw a police car parked off the road, and reported the incident. The police officer want to know the bus number and exact location where the incident occurred, but Philip could not provide that information. Nonetheless, the police office drove away in search of the offending bus driver.
In the meantime, I needed to find my way from where I dropped off, Philip, back to the highway, across the McDonald Bridge, and to the hotel, which should have taken me maybe 30-40 minutes. I am the first to admit that I am directionally challenged. I often say "left" when I mean "right", and vice versa, and I invariably choose to go north when I should go south, etc. etc...Today was a great example of my "disability." I missed the McDonald Bridge totally (I didn't see any signs for it), and took the McKay Bridge, which directs traffic to a different part of Halifax. It was rush hour, and traffic was miserably heavy. It didn't help that I couldn't find a street sign for many of the streets that I crossed. After driving for a short time, I did find a street that was familiar from my previous visits to Halifax, and I finally saw a directional sign for the street that would have taken me to the motel, but I made a soft left turn onto the wrong street instead of a sharp left onto the street that I needed. At least an hour later I was still searching for the street that I needed. Philip had already made his way to the hotel, and called to find out where I was. After driving past familiar landmarks 2 and 3 times, and after asking for directions twice, I finally, finally found the right street, and arrived at the hotel shortly after. I was tired and grumpy, but after getting cleaned up, I had a very relaxing evening with Philip and Pam.
Incidentally, Pam mentioned that Nova Scotia is experiencing its warmest ever temperature for this time of the year. Luck us...we were hoping for chilly weather.
Well, our total mileage today, 251, is a bit inflated because of the grand tour of Halifax that I unexpectedly took today. Total cycling mileage was 48.3 miles.
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