Sunday August 19th
Map my ride shows more because it was on for the ferry ride!
I woke up to another great breakfast at the Goddards. I can’t thank them enough and now it is time to finish the journey. Basically I am not planning on stopping until I get to St. Johns if I can help it since I will come back explore and take my time after. The road was quiet and in excellent condition along the trans Canada except for the last 20 kilometers which I took a country road which was good but hilly.
I arrived an hour early at the ferry and a live band was planning some Maritime music. I spoke to an older couple who had biked Canada 2 weeks at a time years ago. Basically this is the only time they could get off with the ir jobs at the time. The ferry ride was warm up on the top deck and a man was planning a free concert on the ferry as well. He planned a variety of instrument including a bow-something drum which you can see here.
On the other side it was quick ride to Phil and Heather Brown’s place who were putting me up for the night. Phil is the father of the lovely Shannon Brown who I intended to embarrass in this post but I couldn’t get any childhood follies out of her dad. Phil and Heather drove me around for a quick tour of Pictou which was a pretty busy ton up until they built the causeway to New Glasgow. There was an old American consulate building which is now used for other means that was built around a century ago as Pictou was a busy port at one time. More importantly though is this port was the main stopping for Scottish immigrants coming to Canada. In 1773 a large group of Scots braved the seas and landed here on the Hector which now has a replica in the harbour.
We came back and Heather made a wonderful halibut dish that was nice and light in flavour. After dinner we went down to the church where they were having a going away party for the pastor. Is was made clear that I did not have to go and that there was no problem if I stayed in but I felt it was going to be another experience to meet more of Canada and it didn’t disappoint. The Brown’s introduced me to several people who asked about the trip including Amanda Hill who asked to be there at the request of the pastor to hear her sing. Well sing she did, an old Scottish song “The Bonnie Banks ‘o Loc Lomond” first followed by Fairwell to Nova Scotia (I hope I got that right) which she encouraged the audience to sing along to which they did. What a wonderful experience and what a remarkable voice. I was really impressed since there was no back musicians, just her on her own carrying the song.
After the farewell party a few friends of the Browns came back including Amanda who helped with the route and Ann who may have contacts for me in Newfoundland. It was a good visit and I promised to come back for a visit on my way to Halifax after St. Johns.