Montagne, PEI to Fredericton, NB

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Odometer: 37375km

Good grief. Seventeen above, pouring rain, visibility down to half a kilometer and more promised for tomorrow - all of this forced me to make a decision to move on.

One challenge with the type of travelling I'm doing is that I have a certain duration and budget planned. Hanging around for one or two extra days waiting for improved weather is not an option. Sightseeing on a motorcycle when it is pouring rain is also not something I will ever do. As I rode through the fog and rain, I passed some cyclists out on the road and I considered myself lucky. They looked miserable and, having done that before, I'm sure they were.

The wind was blowing very hard. I heard that The Confederation Bridge closes if the wind is too strong and I was worried that would happen today. I wasn't looking forward to sitting around in my rain clothes in that high humidity waiting for the bridge to open. I pressed on through Charlottetown saddened that I missed some of the historic tours there celebrating our confederation.

The fog lifted a bit and I was able to see some of the PEI contryside along the coast. Organized farms, well maintained buildings and green fields all around was the normal vista from the road. The coastline was inundated with little alcoves and inlets. It truly looked as idylic as I had been told, nonetheless, I had no desire to try and trudge around in my raingear to try and see more. I was disappointed.

Crossing the bridge turned out to be a non-issue and I arrived in New Brunswick with the rain still coming down and some distance ahead of me to get to Fredericton. The rain and fog also convinced me to bypass Fundy National Park and the Hopewell Rocks which were a couple of key things in my travel plans so missing them was a setback. They will have to be seen another time. Thankfully they are close to Halifax and I know I'll go back there someday, only Les and I will be together on the next visit.

I went into the outskirts of Moncton for a coffee, ending up at Tim's again. It was a nice break for me as several people were drawn to talk to me when they saw my license plates. I enjoyed chatting with them. Outside was an inordinately large group of men standing around. I wondered if this was some different custom down here until I saw they were all smokers who were condemed to have their coffee outside. The difference from home was there were so many of them out in the wet.

I should have filled up with gas in Moncton. I didn't pay attention to the lack of population along the next stretch of road when I looked at the map and almost ran out of gas before coming to the next gas station a LONG way down the road. Riding along with my gas warning light blinking at me, I thought about how some of my group at work would have laughed at Mr. Project Manager running out of gas because he didn't PLAN AHEAD. I won't let that happen again.

As I approached Fredricton the rain stopped. I left the main highway and took a drive through pretty country along the old road into Fredricton. It winds its way along the north shore of the St. John River. After getting set up for the night at a motel, I went for a walk into the city centre. After a quick look around I knew I had to stay another full day so I booked another night and went to bed looking forward to discovering Fredricton the next day.

The country I rode through today has been variable. From the homes scattered along the St. Lawrence, to valleys with farms, and then to higher country of boreal forest; the province presented a much better visual treat than I expected, albeit through a shroud of rain. Along the river going in to Fredricton there was a poliferation of vegetable gardens and stalls for selling the goods from those farms.

Odometer at the end of the day: 37747 km

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