Thursday August 16th
I had three bagels for breakfast and was off riding by 9am. I stayed on the coastal highway until it intersected with the Trans Canada heading South to Port Elgin. I was originally planning to stay off the main highway and stuck to my guns even though it had a beautiful shoulder. The coastal highway was really just a road from this point and it quickly got hilly and in poor condition but there was some nice farm land to take pictures of where the ocean met the edge of the farm.
A few kilometers in it was under construction and basically dirt and gravel. Hmmm a bad choice? I kept going and the eventually the road turned to this really old bumpy paved road which was slow progress even with out the wind. The scenary switched to small houses along ocean bluffs which was incredibly beautiful and wouldn’t you know it I got some inspiration. Off in the the distance I saw Confederation Bridge.
The road did get back to normal and I road to the information center before the bridge with relative ease. I called the shuttle which took about an hour to show up (you are not allowed to walk or bike across) and talked with the driver about PEI and how the bridge was built by creating sections on the PEI side, floating them out and adding them to the bridge. I was in luck because Kate who I had ridden with in Northern Ontario was in Charlottetown and offered up her parents place.
The ride on the PEI was wonderful. Farm after farm on the pinkish earth clung to the highway. The road was okay and very little traffic and essentially I stayed on it almost all of the way to Kate’s parents. Something about a new province always reinvigorates me. We had a steak dinner and watched some Jeopardy before calling it a night. Happy to be in Charlottetown for a couple of days rest before my final push through Nova Scotia and Newfoundand.
