Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Day 41 - Sunday July 11 - Hopewell Cape NB to Borden-Carleton PEI (133 km)


The nice part about these shorter days, besides having a chance to enjoy the sights along the way, is having fresh, ready-to-go legs every morning! As forecasted, it was pouring rain, but it was warmer than yesterday and the ride was awesome! Riding north to Moncton I could see across the Petitcodiac River, and the houses on the river bank in the fog looked like a model village in a snowglobe. We crossed the river at Moncton, and the tide was out, exposing impressive glistening red muddy banks. There was a bit of construction along the way today, and ~8km of graded pavement (ow!), but other than that it was smooth sailing to Confederation Bridge - the bridge to PEI and the longest bridge in the world (12.9km). There are "no biking" signs everywhere at the bridge, and I'd learned in advance that there's a shuttle that can take cyclists and pedestrians across. I decided to ask, anyway, juuuust in case exceptions were ever made (say, if I came across at 2am when there's probably no traffic on the bridge!). I ended up getting to go into the Bridge Control office, and chatted with Robbie, who was monitoring the bridge on several screens (so cool!). He'd seen me bike up earlier to take pictures... I almost wonder how far you'd get if you decided to make a run for it! So in the end, still not allowed to bike across for reasons of safety (nervous drivers on the bridge, narrow shoulders, strong winds etc), but at least I tried! It was really neat to see the Bridge Control area, and Robbie was a great guy. There was a lookout at the centre, and we climbed up to get a better view of the bridge - even in the fog, very impressive. Dad said, "Here, you drive across... Then at least you can say you drove it!" (So thoughtful; thanks pops!). In PEI (!!!) we went to the Visitor Centre and then checked into a motel for the night (so nice being able to get dry out of the rain!). Did some laundry, caught some of the Tour de France on TV, and then headed out for a famous New Glasgow lobster supper (delicious!). Hope to see lots more of PEI tomorrow!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

1 comment:

  1. Hi Veronica...so I know you like getting an early start on the day but 3:44 (time posted)!! Don't worry, I know about the time change, it just seems crazy at first :) I've sent a long distance hug with this comment.

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