Day 27
Continuing on the 2 was a good road. Making good time for once in this part of the country. I feel like a never made any real stops, just snack breaks on the road side. There were towns where the map said they were also a first for NS. I did stop in Truro. Asked about good roads to get to the PEI ferry. And stopped at The Hub bike shop to double check the tourist info I got from the welcome center teenage girls. I doubted they bike on the road they told me to take. But the way they told me was backed up at the shop. And there they were nice enough to let me use their wifi password. The woman behind the counter was pretty and lots of smiles. There was sort of leads into a camping spot but I sometimes don’t want to be too much of a scrub when I should take the one in a million offers from attractive females. Stupid me. She even said she had a pump track in her yard. After I left I told myself she had to have a boyfriend so why fool myself.
Truro was surprisingly ok in the day time. But after a few photos of the 6 sections of the Berlin Wall on public display and on what might be permanent loan to the city from “some guy” (welcome center info for ya) I then stopped at the store for provisions. I bought pasta and a big bottle of water thinking I’d be camping in the sticks somewhere between Truro and Pictou. But today was an easy 128km and I made it to Pictou in time to ride around and make dinner before sun down. Watched the sunset over the water. Scored a second outdoor iPod charge on the dock while I made dinner at a table. A family unpacking from a boat trip chatted me up and gave me a grip of watermelon, some cookies and a couple cold beverages. Real nice people also chatted about camping and they pointed to a spot right near by, super close to the water and I’m guessing will get morning light. I’m tented up in that same spot right now.
As I was walking off the dock I found a place to dispose my garbage and inside the building there was the a couple things of interest (besides a restroom and water faucet). Inside there was a shower that seemed to be open for use. I plan on testing it out in the morning. And second, I noticed a schedule and fare sheet for the PEI ferry. $16 for me and another $20 for my bike. That’s a lot!

So now my thought is this. Maybe bike up the coast to the bridge (I hear it’s free to go to PEI and only has a fare to come back to NB) do a true loop on the island back to the bridge and then try to hitch back into NB to skip paying the toll.

One cool thing that happened to day was I met another fully loaded touring cyclist. He was on his way to Halifax and started in Vancouver. It was the last day of his trip. His name was Tyler Valiquette and his site is www.crossingcanada.ca we met at a funny ramp interchange thing in Shubenacadie aka “Shube”. We exchanged info and traded brief stories. Compared bikes and I helped guide him to the way I rode out of HFX for a nice ride along the lakes and river into Dartmouth. He said he was with a friend, who was somewhere else I didn’t recall, they had raised $10,000 to help end hunger. He was nice enough to let me take his photo.

Now that I think about it the riding to the bridge idea might add a half day or full day to my trip but on the good side it’ll eliminate Truro from being the only city I visit twice.

It’s getting to be close to one month in. About that time that I do a re-sort and ditch or mail some things back to lighten the load. I already know I could lose a couple pounds without even trying.