Ride For Rand

Tuesday, 12 September 2017

Day 83 - Fredericton to Saint John

Despite the weather, today was a pretty straightforward day riding south down towards Saint John from Fredericton. I woke up to rain and left early to make it to Saint John in good time. I always wanted to get to St. John's on this journey, but I suppose St. John will have to do. I looked online and found a room on the local university campus in St. John for $35 dollars--same rate as it cost for me to stay in Quebec City. I'm telling you, if you want to have the privacy of a hotel with the price of a hostel, university campuses are the cheapest and BEST accommodation you can get in the summer. I never realized what a resource they were, but they are much cheaper than even most campsites.

Anyway, people say that hindsight is 20/20 and it was clear to me that the previous day was actually not too bad in comparison, but this day wasn't too bad either. Once the heavy rains subsided and I had a breakfast sandwich in me, the little drops of rain just glided off of me like... how does that saying go again? What I mean is that I felt motivated and the morning wasn't so bad, just a little refreshing--that's all.

Later on in the day, the highway I was on cut through a military training ground and the sun burned through the clouds. It was a pretty long stretch of road with constant signs not to stray from the highway, but after awhile, I made it through. I remember when I saw a little sliver of blue in the distance and felt like crying. Even though my trip hadn't ended yet, the blue symbolized the Atlantic Ocean which I vowed to dip my front tire into, so no matter what happened after this point, I knew that I had reached my destination in some way. Entering St. John, I made my way down through the highway and to the Reversing Falls and then gradually saw the get closer.

I took the long hill up towards the UNB Saint John Summer Hotel on the UNB campus in the mountains. After arriving, I couldn't resist going downtown to check out the sights and sounds. There were several live bands and I had some delicious food while I was there.

I went to sleep that night secure in the thought that I had reached the Atlantic Ocean. What a day!

Rainy bridge on the way out

Goodbye Fredricton

Clearing up...

Much better...

Clouds

Beautiful field

Water... is it the Atlantic?

St. John around the corner

I can smell the ocean

Narrow line of blue ocean in the background

Reversing waterfalls

St. John

St. John boardwalk

LittleLighthouse

Monday, 11 September 2017

Day 82 - Rest Day in Fredericton

Today I had a rest day in Fredericton. I considered waking up early and going to St John but I have decided to stay one more day to rest. Mostly it's because I thought that it might storm a lot, but it certainly helps that I'm with such friendly company in a great location.

Instead of continuing my travels, I decided to walk through Saint John and went to a café where I had their 'redeye' coffee. It was pretty good!

Next, I went to the local brewery where they gave me some beer for free as an act of kindness. I returned back to my host family happy and looking forward to the adventures that awaited me.

Walking over the bridge to town

Look at bike trail from bridge

Fredericton view from the coffee shop

Stopping for a pint

Thanks Graystone!

Returning home

Day 81 - Meductic to Fredericton

I woke up in my little camp on the hill, feeling refreshed and ready to go, but first there was the matter of stopping at the gas station for some breakfast.

There were a bunch of people there in the local coffee shop / restaurant. It seemed like a regular gathering spot that they had set up there. Before long we were all chatting and I had an opportunity to ask questions about the new route which I was deciding on to end the trip now that I had decided to end the trip in New Glasgow. After some contemplation, I decided that I'd take a roundabout trip around the Bay of Fundy and work my way up to PEI to spend a few days there before reaching Nova Scotia via ferry. In an act of kindness, one man gave me some pancakes and another gave me 20 dollars to go towards eating lobster. Thank you to everyone.

With that out of the way, I followed their route suggestion, going off the highway towards Kings Landing on my way towards Fredericton. While I was on the way, the weather was nice and soon I found it irresistible to swim, so that's what I did.

Eventually, I made it to King's Landing, which unfortunately appeared to be a tourist trap. Not to say that it wouldn't have been nice... but 17 dollars to go to a recreated pilgrim village is a little....

Anyway, I continued along and easily made it to Fredericton in the nick of time because the weather started to shift. Thank you to my hosts Mike and Kathy for not only letting me stay, but also preparing mussels and lobster for me--among the best meals in my life.

Today 100km was enough. I made it to Fredericton, NB!

My campsite: nobody even noticed I was there!

Goodbye Meductic...

River

Following the river along to King's Landing

Good spot for a swim.

And a post-swim dryathon.

So much hope...

The highlight of my stay at King's Landing

Almost there!

I thought the clouds looked pretty here.

Trail all the way to Fredericton

The parliament building

Happy to make it to my destination!

Bridge over the river

Dinner

Making friends

UVIC Side Blog Update! (The prairies)

Hi everyone!

Thank you for your patience while I finish putting up the rest of posts for the trip across Canada.
In this blog, I'm almost across the country, but some of you might be wondering what my over all impressions were and might want to see some of my favorite pictures from different areas.

I'm happy to say that I've completed this side blog and the posts should be released gradually over the coming weeks.

Currently there two posts after the introduction covering geographic regions of Canada (BC and the prairies), but there will also be three more posts coming: The Canadian Shield, Quebec and the Maritimes, and finally the conclusion.

For now, please take a look and tell me what you think of the prairies:

https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/myuviclife/2017/09/08/cycling-across-canada-the-prairies/

Thanks, more posts on their way !

Day 80 - Perth-Andover to Meductic

I woke up in the info booth area around 5am after only a few hours of sleep and made my way down to the Tim's close to there. I felt really tired from the last three days of hard riding and little sleep so I took my time in the restaurant. I also had a problem with my stomach feeling out of sorts; however, a little coffee and breakfast helped to settle things...

Once I was on the road, it turned out to be a scorcher and I enjoyed the heat radiating off the pavement.

For lunch, I stopped at a place called Florenceville-Bristol which is apparently famous for its potatoes. There was a chip stand selling intense poutines and I got one. It was about $12.00, but it had all kinds of meat and cheese inside. I ate 2/3 of it and then saved the last bit for later.

After lunch I continued on to a place called Woodstock and in the distance I saw some terrible clouds coming my way so I ducked into town and found shelter. It turned out to be an intense thunderstorm moving directly overhead. The ground shook and the rain wipped me at near horizontal angles until they finally subsided.

At this time it was approaching dusk and I was hungry again. I went to my home away from home, but realized that not only Tim's, but the whole town had lost power due to the thunderstorm.
While I was there I met a new friend, Melanie and her son. Thanks for your support you two!

I ate my twice-baked now souring poutine leftovers and continued through the Woodstock native reserve and then up from Meductic to the main highway again.

There was a gas station with power and everything I needed and so I found a place with the station near and wild camped for the night having done another 110km.