Scott and Becky go East

95 km, 5.75 hrs

We finally managed to get ourselves organized enough to get off to a reasonably early start. Not having Internet in the room certainly helped with the process! It also helped that our bikes fit into the room while still loaded, so it took us much less time to organize and pack up our bikes.

We started the day following along highway 1, but Scott soon realized that Highway 1A would bring us back to the waterfront and would not have nearly as much traffic. We diverted to the 1A and stopped for a short coffee break (Becky really wanted a real coffee!). During our coffee break we met a couple of cyclists that were part of a 2000+ people cycle tour. Throughout the day, we were to see more cyclists than we’ve seen on our entire journey so far! We got lots of comments about how heavily we were loaded from folks on their <20lb racing bikes. Someone asked if we were carrying the kitchen sink, and Becky wished she could just pull it out, but unfortunately we left it at home.

Not long after we got back on our bikes and continued along the coast, we were passed by several different recumbent cyclists. It was interesting to see the number of different recumbents on the road. At one point, a couple of them slowed down to talk to us (Becky thought, what a sight, 4 recumbents in a row!). The ‘bent riders mentioned a “recumbent gathering” that was further along down the road, and it turned out to be right along our planned route! It was almost like they planned this just for us, so we had to stop in.

Lynette Chiang of Bike Friday did a great job of reporting on the gathering, so we won’t repeat her comments here, but it was certainly fun for us to meet so many other ‘bent-heads. We also got to try some very fast Bacchettas and Becky tried a Cattrike tadpole trike. “Just like driving a go-cart!” Certainly made us feel every ounce of our loaded HP-Velo Streetmachines! Becky won a T-shirt and Scott won a Route 66 DVD, produced by Lynette. Becky wore her T-shirt with pride, but the DVD will have to wait until we get home – no DVD player on our laptop.

At the gathering, someone mentioned to us that there were plenty of motels in Newburyport, Massachusetts. We passed several in Salisbury, but decided to keep going for another 10km and get to Newburyport. Tomorrow was due to be a long day, so getting more riding in today would certainly make tomorrow more bearable. Unfortunately, the information was not accurate. When we reached Newburyport, it only had a few high end B&Bs. When we inquired within one of them, we found out that everything in town was booked (it was a Saturday night after all!). With the help of a receptionist at one of the B&Bs we booked a room at the Marriott Fairfield in Amesbury. By now it was dark, so we dug out our lights, and followed her somewhat vague directions. This was only the second time on our trip that we have ridden at night. Fortunately we guessed right at the key decision points, and rode the 7 km north without further incident.

As a bonus, there were fresh-baked peanut-butter cookies in the lobby. This made Scott very happy! As a further bonus, our room was handicapped accessible, which meant there was lots of room for bike parking. We were even able to bring them into the room fully loaded! (Perhaps this doesn’t seem like a big deal to most of you, but it’s the difference between moving a bicycle, and moving a bicycle plus 6 bags – it brought a smile to our faces at the end of a long day).

(more…)

71 km, 4.75 hours

Our morning began with a wonderful breakfast at the Marrion Mansion B&B. Shortly after breakfast, Becky headed into downtown Portland to visit the visitor information centre and pick up some maps. Unfortunately, her visit was not nearly as successful as we had hoped. We had been taking for granted the visitor information services in the Canadian Maritimes, which are significantly more useful that those in Maine. The person was able to provide a free road map, but did not have any information on accommodations or bicycle trails. When Becky asked if they happened to have any tourist information (maps) of New Hampshire the comment received was “We are in Maine!”

Since Portland, Maine was not on the Adventure Cycling route, we needed to choose an alternate route. On the CAT Ferry we were told about the East Coast Greenway (http://greenway.org), intended to become an urban equivalent to the Appalachian Trail. Scott downloaded the GPS tracks for the Eastern Coast Greenway and the Adventure Cycling route. Between the two of them and the very rudimentary maps provided on the GPS, we hoped that it would be good enough to get us to our destination (Boston).

We found the Greenway without too much trouble. The first part of the path was The Eastern Trail, a paved bike path, which was nice and provided us with views of the Portland River, through a landfill-turned green space, and into the fields of a really nice recreation center. The trail then turned to crushed stone, and led through some nice wooded areas.

Since we wanted to see the Maine coast, we decided to get off the trail and head towards the coastal road at Pine Point. Once we reached the coast, we experienced culture shock. The main street ran for about 7 km, and contained only motels on both sides of the street. The motels were not spectacular, rather budget vacation hotels. We were dumbfounded by the sheer number of them. With so many motels, we could finally understand why the tourist office did not have an accommodation listing – it would be too long!

The ride through this “vacation” area was especially odd because there were very few people around. Many of the restaurants were closed. It was a beautiful (if not chilly 14 degree) sunny afternoon. We speculated that it was deserted because it was a Friday and the kids were all still in school. Come the weekend the place would likely be a zoo.

Every 5 or 6 hotels there would be a short street that provided beach access. From what we could see from our bikes, it looked like there was a nice long sand beach behind the motels. However, we did not get off our bikes to take a closer look, so we aren’t certain what the beach there is like, and whether it is all accessible, or split up into individual “beaches” for each resort and condo complex.

We pressed on until 5 pm, and started to look for accommodation. Fortunately, we were back on the Adventure Cycling route, so had some idea of the towns and facilities coming up. This reduced some of our stress, although we were beginning to get concerned as it got closer to sunset about how much further we could press on. Finally, we stopped at Wells, Maine for the night. We found an nice inexpensive motel that conveniently had a kitchenette in the room. It also had a hot tub two doors down and a laundry across the parking lot. Becky cooked a delicious dinner in the kitchenette, and we enjoyed a nice soak in the hot tub before crashing for the night. A bit pricy ($70 US), but the hot tub made it all worthwhile!

(more…)

48km, 2h50m

… your sea-bound coast,
Let your mountains dark and dreary be.
For when I am far away on the briny ocean tossed,
Will you ever heave a sigh and a wish for me?

This is the chorus of “Farewell to Nova Scotia”, which we have been singing all day. Scott misremembered the first line, thinking it was “Farewell to Nova Scotia, your fog-bound coast”, which was very appropriate for today. We awoke to a cold fog, but it lifted quickly, leaving us with a cool, overcast day. A beautiful day for cycling, especially since we had a the tailwind! Both of us were feeling strong, and it was great to have a nice fast ride for a change.

We made quick progress to Yarmouth , and found a lovely spot for lunch. The Old World Bakery & Deli has a wide variety of preservative-free breads and meats they smoke themselves. The breads are all baked in their clay oven, quite neat and good food.

We chose not to do any touristy things in Yarmouth – instead we’ve used the time waiting for the boat to catch up on email and do some more planning for our ride to Boston. Unfortunately the boat is late (due to a bomb scare in Bar Harbor this morning), so we won’t get into Portland until 10 pm or so.

The CAT ferry was quite nice – fast, and relatively smooth, although a bit choppy at the start. We had a chance to chat further with Bob and Joanne, whom we had met in the ferry line – they’re driving a 1961 Land Rover, so almost as distinctive as we are. Bob and one of his sons drove a rover around the Inca Trail (across South America, down to the southern tip, and back up again), which sounds like a fascinating trip.

When we arrived, the U.S. Customs agent asked some questions about our Syrian visa, but we made it through unscathed, and rode (somewhat indirectly) up to our B&B. Dave, the Merrill Mansion proprietor, had stayed up waiting for us, which was very nice, since it was now after 11 pm.

(more…)

67 km, 4.75h ride time.

We awoke to a beautiful day, but didn’t seem to move very fast. Our departure was much later than we had hoped, fortunately, we did not need to get too far today.

Prior to leaving, we headed out to do yoga on the boardwalk where we had dinner last night. Because we were so late (11:30), the tide had returned. The boats were almost high enough that you could reach them directly from the jetty. The caution buoy had repositioned itself to be right above the sunken boat – of which there were no signs.

Our ride was rather uneventful. The roads were rolling hills. We both felt that our strength was not 100%, but we were not too taxed by the ride. Becky noticed on several occasions that the roads here smell like apples. Scott noted that every time Becky commented on the apple smell there was a tree nearby littering the ground with apples. Amazing coincidence that! The apple scent was a nice change from the rotting ocean smell (which Becky also loves).
(more…)

We got up early enough to have a relaxing breakfast and enjoy the company of several of the other guests at the B&B.

Unfortunately, our departure from the B&B was a little delayed which put pressure on us to get to the ferry terminal on time. We had a quick stop to make at the HSBC to open a US Dollar account on the way to the ferry.

Our departure from HSBC would have given us plenty of time to get to the ferry if all the roads were open. We found ourselves being redirected on several occasions. At one point, Becky was wondering if we were totally lost! Fortunately, Scott saved the day and got us to the ferry terminal in time.

In the end, we arrived at the ferry terminal only 30 minutes before the scheduled departure. With many of the other ferries, this would have been too late; fortunately, this was not the case with the Digby ferry. We rushed into the terminal to have no lines and the lady calmly processing the fee for our bikes and printing out our boarding passes. We were then shuffled directly onto the boat and had plenty of time to tie up our bikes and prepare for the voyage (about 3 hours).

The stress of getting to the ferry on time took a lot out of Becky, so we decided that we would opt for a shorter ride and stay in Digby. There appeared to be a plethora of accommodations, so we could figure it out upon arrival.

We rode off the ferry and continued along Ferry Road to Digby. The map of Digby provided by the tourism folks is clearly not to scale, as the ferry road is much longer than the town. We stopped at the Nova Scotia Visitor Info Centre, and they were very helpful (as is typically). We were pointed to a nice clean hotel in town offering $49 rooms. Given that camping would cost us $25 and Becky wasn’t feeling 100% yet, we opted for the comfy bed and room.

We have been eating out or at other people’s homes since arriving in Saint John’s, Newfoundland (other than a couple of meals at the cottage in Shediac), so Becky was aching to cook. She did a quick side trip up to the Sobeys to buy veggies and we walked over to the fish market to buy some fresh Digby scallops. Becky cooked up a feast with our camp stove on the boardwalk behind the hotel, and we got to watch the sun set over the Bay of Fundy.

While eating dinner we observed the low tide, and the engineering required to maintain floating docks with a 15-foot tide. The combined staircase/gangway and the long posts for the docks to slide up and down as the tide changes.

We also noticed a sunken boat at the end of the jetty. Good thing for the caution buoy, or someone could tie up to the wharf at high tide, and get a nasty surprise!

Our hosts Jim and Carl were among the first same-sex couples legally married in New Brunswick, back in 2005. They are both quite active in the gay community in Saint John, and we had a long conversation with Jim after breakfast, hearing more about the Saint John community. We have a number of friends involved with PFLAG and Egale (formerly Canadians for Equal Marriage) in Ottawa, and it was interesting to find out more about things here.

Before Jim and Carl bought the Mahogany Manor B&B, they ran Bogart’s, a very popular gay bar and dance club here. This was in the early ‘90s when there were few support structures like PFLAG, so many people would come to Bogart’s for support if they had been kicked out of the house or disowned after coming out, which apparently happened with dismaying frequency. Jim is a retired United Church minister, and it sounds like he had lots of opportunities to use his counseling expertise. On weekends it was a popular dance bar for straight folks as well, and apparently 30-40% of the customers were straight. This is a higher ratio than we’ve seen elsewhere, and seems like it would be an excellent outreach and education to the straight community. There must have been a number of “Aha” moments for folks – “Wow, these queer folks aren’t so different from me after all!”

They were also among the first same-sex couples in New Brunswick to have their partnership blessed in the United Church of Canada. This was back in 1996, when the idea of same-sex marriage seemed impossibly far away to most, and the idea of the United Church solemnizing marriages was a topic of considerable conflict. (The Unitarian Universalists were on the forefront of this as well, but we’re a much smaller denomination in Canada, so our decisions resulted in much less publicity). The media got hold of the story, were going to publicize the ceremony (which to that point had been small and quiet), so Jim and Carl decided if their ceremony was going to be a public event, they’d reach out to the media and make sure their story got told. We found these stories very inspiring – it’s great to hear how one or two people can make such a difference to a larger community.

After this, we went on to more prosaic activities. Scott contacted several bike shops about his shock failure, but no-one locally stocks replacement shocks, and shock geometry apparently varies quite a bit depending on the bike. All sorts of interesting things we’re learning! The mechanics we talked to did recommend replacement rather than attempting repair though, so we got some useful information. We’ll follow up with a warranty claim, and Scott will deal with a somewhat bouncy ride until then.

We took the city bus in Saint John, which was surprisingly challenging. We managed to figure out what routes to take from the web, but beyond that we ran into problem after problem. We reached King’s Square, the Uptown terminus for the buses, and found a number of bus shelters, around the edge of the square, but none had any indication of what buses stopped at them, when they stopped, or any other useful information. We asked a few passersby, but they didn’t seem to know either. Finally a bus appeared for Scott on the West side, but Becky was waiting on the North side. After a few questions from Scott, and curt answers from the driver, it turned out that this was the correct bus. He was told to run to the East side of the square and pick Becky up on the way. This was great, except that Scott was barely half-way across the square when the bus went roaring up East side and continued on his route. We initially put this up to an unfortunate coincidence, but we witnessed two other drivers providing unhelpful answers or snarky responses to simple, polite questions, both from us and other passengers. Three for three indicates a pattern, at least to us. Sad to see, especially in a tourist town like Saint John.

The destination for our bus journey was the Parkway Mall, home of the Elections Canada Returning Office for Saint John. It was there that we were to get a special ballot and vote. We had to know the name of the candidate we were voting for because not all candidates have registered with Elections Canada yet, and a special ballot is a write-in ballot anyway. When we looked on the Elections Canada website, the only candidate for our riding that has registered officially is the NDP candidate. This is rather amusing as Ottawa-West-Nepean has an interesting race between Conservative incumbent and Environment Minister John Baird and Liberal ex-Defense Minister David Pratt; however, neither of them has officially registered. (Not to discount Marlene Rivier (NDP) or Frances Coates (Green) but I’d put my money on a Conservative or Liberal MP, at least in this election). In any case, we successfully completed our ballots, and sealed them inside their three envelopes. Interestingly, we had to mail them back to Elections Canada HQ ourselves, even though we had completed them at an Elections Canada office. I guess the intent is that delivering them to Canada Post is almost like dropping them in a ballot box? Perhaps we just don’t trust Canada Post as much as Elections Canada, but it felt a bit like dropping them into a black hole. At any rate, we’ve done our best to vote.

Becky is starting to recover from her stomach upset, which is good. She is limiting her food intake to mostly liquids today, hoping that tomorrow she will be in reasonable enough shape to bike. We don’t have to go very far tomorrow (either 10 km or 45 km depending on what accommodation and food options we find in Digby). Her comfort food of choice is Pho – Vietnamese beef and noodle soup (with very little beef and noodle, and lots of broth), so it was fortunate that the only Vietnamese restaurant in town was nearby.

This morning, we got up and had a lovely breakfast – fruit, exotic multi-layer French Toast and other yummy things. We are staying at the Mahogany Manor B&B and are really enjoying the luxury. The price is a fair bit more than our budget, but we felt the need to splurge for a day or two.

Shortly after breakfast Becky started to not feel well. Her muscles were exceptionally sore and her body felt feverish. It appears that the fatigue from yesterday was due to a little more than just a long bike ride. She thinks it might be a side effect of the second dose of Dukerol Cholera vaccine that we took on Thursday.

Despite Becky not feeling well, we visited the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Saint John this morning. It was really nice to attend a UU service. Becky especially liked singing familiar hymns. It was fun for both of us to meet people we knew from denominational events as well as meeting some new folks.

After church we returned to the B&B and Becky was happy to climb into bed. Her ailment appears to be a stomach bug of some sort. Scott isn’t feeling 100% but isn’t feeling as bad as Becky. Scott called bike shops and discovered that they were all closed on Sunday. So, given our current state of health and bike repair, we will spend another day in Saint John and plan to take the 12:15 ferry on Tuesday.

93 km, 6.5 hours

We actually managed to get off today at a reasonable time (for us anyways), slightly before 10am (even after a delicious breakfast and the requisite photos – this time by Morris and Elaine, the proprietors of the Step Aside B&B). Unfortunately, our early departure didn’t last long. After about 500 m we noticed strange noises coming from Scott’s bike. After further inspection we noticed that his rear shock was compressed (Becky’s was extended a full inch longer than Scott’s). With the rear shock compressed the rear rack was up against the fender and putting pressure on the rear tire.

Fortunately, Scott had commissioned an emergency shock replacement from his Dad – a piece of aluminum with UHMW polyethylene bushings which has the same dimensions as the shock. It is just rigid aluminum, so doesn’t provide the absorbency of a shock, but it does make the bike ride-able. It does mean that Scott cannot go speeding down hills at 60+km/hr because he (and the frame) feel every bump in the road.

So, after a half hour of mucking around, we were back on the road again. The forecast had called for rain, but it didn’t materialize. The day was grey and a little cool, but not wet – pretty much a perfect day for cycling.

It did not take long for us to discover that the flats we enjoyed yesterday were not to be repeated today. Highway 102 follows the west side of the Saint John River, which is rather picturesque, but not at all flat.

On several occasions today and yesterday we saw platforms on the top of telephone poles with large bird nests. In other parts of the world, these would be stork nests, but we didn’t think storks were common here. At one stop, Becky asked about the nests – apparently they are Osprey nests.

By the end of the day Becky was feeling exceptionally exhausted. It was a long day riding, Becky was surprised to find just how sore her muscles were and how tired she was. Fortunately, we have planned to take a day off in Saint John tomorrow. With the broken shock, we may need to also spend Monday night in Saint John so that we can visit a bike shop on Monday morning. Unfortunately the Monday ferry options are 9 am and 11 pm; neither of which is ideal. Since we have the extra time, we’ll likely adjust the schedule and aim for the Tuesday 12:15 ferry.
(more…)

68 km, 3.75 hours

As we left Fredericton, it felt great to be back on the bikes. Scott commented that it almost felt like the bike was pulling him along, but that could have been due to the maintenance and cleaning we just completed. We had a beautiful, fast ride to Jemseg along highway 105, wide shoulders, flat, little traffic; highly recommended!

We had been hearing about people who graze their cows on islands in the Saint John river, but hadn’t actually seen the cows until today. It’s seems like great idea, because many of the islands flood in the spring, bringing silt downstream to replenish the soil, but the cows also graze very near (or in) the water, so manure ends up in the river system. A mixed blessing in our opinion.

After Jemseg the road got a bit hillier, and our bodies started to remind us that we hadn’t been on the bikes for over a week. Nothing serious, but our legs definitely weren’t ready for any high-speed hill climbing.

We are in Gagetown tonight, in a B&B due to the threat of heavy rain overnight. We did stay in the tent last night though, so it’s getting a bit of use.

(more…)

We have been enjoying a week away from the bikes. In that time, we have done a fair bit of bike maintenance (oil change on the hubs, new chains and sprockets). We have also replaced some equipment, most notably Becky’s GPS was retired as well as her flaky computer. She now has a new computer which will hopefully last longer than her previous one.

A couple weeks ago, the freighter travel agent notified us that the boat no longer stops in Savannah Georgia. We had the option of getting on at either New Orleans or Port Everglades (Florida). We opted for the later, partially because the timing worked out better, but also because we were uncertain about visiting New Orleans with our bikes. This looks to have been a good call, with all the hurricane activity in the area.

There is no way we could ride to Florida from Fredericton in the time we have (we couldn’t make it to Savannah either), so we have decided to take Amtrak. When Becky researched taking the bikes on Amtrak we did not like what they said. They would take the bikes as freight, not guaranteeing that they would be on the same train, and not insure them. Given that, we have decided it would be better to Fedex or UPS the bikes while we take the train. It requires a little more preparation, but it will make the travelling a little less stressful.

Our current schedule is:
Sept 12 – Leave Fredericton, stay somewhere between Fredericton and Saint John.
Sept 13 – Ride to Saint John
Sept 14 – Stay in Saint John – visit the Saint John Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Sept 15 – Take the ferry over to Digby – will ride if the weather is good, otherwise we’ll stay in Digby
Sept 16, 17 – Ride to Yarmouth
Sept 18 – Take the ferry from Yarmouth to Portland Maine – Stay in Portland.
Sept 19, 20, 21 – Ride to Boston
Sept 22 – Pack up the bikes and ship them, stay in Boston
Sept 23 – Train to New York City (stay night in NYC)
Sept 24 – Train to Hollywood Florida (overnight on train)
Sept 25 – Stay in Hollywood Florida
Sept 26, 27, 28 – Do a circle ride towards the Florida Keys (maybe stay in Key Largo)
Sept 29, 30 – Stay in Hollywood Florida
Oct 1 – Get on boat