Day 26
I woke up to the sound of rain on my tent. So I went back to sleep.
Later I woke up to the sound of Collin saying good morning. He brought me a plate of eggs and veggies as he was off to work. In all my days of touring I’ve never had breakfast served to me as I lay in my tent.
A little later the rain moved away and Halifax was covered in sunshine. A truly beautiful day. On my way to downtown I saw a messenger I’d seen yesterday and said what’s up. Got to chatting with him for a min. His name was Philip and I took a few pictures of him on the street. Has 2 kids and said he’d get 90 runs in a day sometimes. That seems crazy to me. The most I ever did in NYC was 41.
I rode to the same cafe as yesterday for coffee and a muffin. Post a bunch of “tent tweets” from last night as I tried to sleep. Also catching up on my notes in my notebook. Watching my bike just on the other side of the window, two white guys on minimally loaded road bikes lean theirs near mine and walk in. I was at a booth alone. So I walk over and say if they would like to sit with me that would be fine. Really they were just asking the barista for some info but they did sit for a min. Then both ordered coffees. Their names were Michael and Joel and they were riding from Vancouver to Saint John, Newfoundland for ALS. I will have to look up their site als100daybiketour.blogspot.com they only had 14 days left on their tour. It’s so cool to see and talk to other tourist.
Said bye to the guys in Ideal Bikes. Too bad I’m sticking to this schedule of not staying in one place for more that 24 hours. But by the sounds of it, not much was going on tonight. I did see Christopher messengering and stopped him for a chat as well. We played pol0 together last night but I did not realize he was a messenger also. Got a couple photos and then he was back to the streets.
Walking around I saw the same recycler, scout, can-man, I’d met outside the bike shop yesterday. Talked with him a min. Gave me directions to a water fountain and bathroom. Finally got a bit of a wash/scrub in. So very dirty. Also thought to do laundry. Nah. Boring.
And walking around more (lots of girls to smile at in Halifax) I saw a homeless guy I talked to yesterday. We chatted more. Something about living off the bike. And having a three week beard and washing only in a sink for the last two, I guess we have stuff to talk about.
I thought I might meet a love in this city but my desire to carry on steered me away from her, if she is even there. I made tracks for the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge. Kind of one of those things. Very simple but now I can say I’ve biked over the bridge in Halifax. From there I went straight to Two If By Sea a coffee shop on Octerloney Street. Which conveniently becomes the 318 which becomes the 2 North. That will take me to Truro. Again. WTF.
On the road again I had a very pleasant stroll along a big river or maybe a string of lakes. Pretty. And basically flat.
I just did 42 km the whole day and that counts the walking around I did. Never even put on my road shoes. Still need to swap the wasted cleat for the new one also.
I thought about tenting up at a church in Grand Lake but opted out and pressed my luck to see what was up the road as it was getting dark. Riding at sunset is very beautiful at times. The sun setting over wooded lake areas along slightly curved 2-lanes. Its good. But not having a tent spot after sun down is not so good.
But up the road just 5 more min was an Irving 24 truck stop. Right where the state route 2 crosses over the 102 Highway (exit 7) from here north the highway will be West of me.
Tented up over on the side near an on-ramp. In the tall grass. Within a swarm of skeeters. The trick is to only unzip the lower length of the tent door. Not up the side were it’ll flap over and make a big opening for them to get in. With just the bottom open I sneak all my bags and such in, then I slither in real low to the ground. Of course I do a little de-bugging dance before I make my entry. Seeing 50 or more bugs blanketing the netting and trying to get in makes me thankful my tent is as good as it is.
The sound of many highway vehicles fills the air. Could be lots of jets up in the sky doing loops and flips and fly bys.
My bike is in the tall weeds keeping the mosquitos company.
I ate homemade banana bread(half a loaf) and cheese for dinner.
I think the sun will hit the tent in the morn. Hoping no rain. But seeing evacuation tweets about Red Hook, BK. Mandatory. Saying sat and sun will be the worst.

I have thought that if this trip continues past my return to NYC. I might make a little stamp with the PB&J URL and actually start telling people about it. Up to now there are only a handful of people I’ve mentioned it to.
Also need to permanently turn off all comments. On tour I like twitter and email only. No phone, hate texting, too many event invites I’m totally not going to make of facebook. And comments on a blog is just more time online. Reminds me of the debate I was having about doing any online presence. But with no phone, twitter is an easy was to let friends know I’m alive.
And doing a blog that effectively no one knows about makes it easy to have my mind think of it as a digital notebook and double that because all this is written in the Notes app on my iPod.
An equivalent would be changing cash money for chips at the casino.
It’s different when the medium is tipped to a less direct to online form.
The next step is to copy and paste in a cafe somewhere down the road. Where or when that is, I don’t know.