Day 52 - Perth-Andover to Fredericton

Perth-Andover to Lincoln
190 km, mainly sunny, hot and humid
Winds – 15-20 km/h, 1/3 headwind, ½ cross, rest tailwind

Where to start. At the start of the ride, it was raining a bit (drizzle), but subsided after an hour. The sun came out after that, followed by the hot and humid weather. Another scorcher, and the bystanders commented on it when I pulled over for a rest and such. It didn't make the roadkill smell nice.

There are 18 different ways to get to where I wanted to go today. This part of New Brunswick is weird. There are also 18 ways to get to Moncton from here. Yes, I am exaggerating a bit, but look at the map and you'll see what I'm talking about. Side-roads galore, but nothing straight-forward. From Hartland, I chose a route that seemed less humid after a while, but just trees and hills. I did encounter some construction for 5 km, and some fairly rough (potholes galore) roads in Millville. There, the hot topic was the roads. Tons of signs for “fix our roads”, sometimes spray-painted on the road, and also the topic of conversations in the little shop I stopped to fill up my water bottles, grab a Pepsi, and an ice-cream cone. The flavours were interesting. I only remember two names; Death by chocolate, and pineapple-orange. I had the latter. Quite tasty.

For the first part, as I was on the old Trans-Canada Hwy, the shoulders were nice all the way to Hartland. The big thing for that part of the ride was the tunes. On the mp3 player came a string of songs that I just got lost into them. Seductive Barry* (Pulp), September Lily (Hawksley Workman), Sergio's Theme* (Deep Dish), Seven Lonely Days (Patsy Cline), Seven Notes in Black* (Vince Tempera, Kill Bill OMPS). After a little interlude, Silverf*ck (Smashing Pumpkins) came on, followed by Sing* (Blur), Sing* (Dresden Dolls), and Sing For The Moment* (Eminem) (music basically by Aerosmith). The * indicate great tunes that I had to ride with my eyes closed for 5 seconds at a time. It was great. The Pumpkins song reminded me of the Texas training camp back in 94, where that album was the album for the trip (for all the boys in the van). Great day for tunes. Plus, add a Cure song here and there, some Radiohead, some Saez, and even some Dresden Dolls, and you've got a great mix. Near Fredericton, I popped in Dr. Dre's Chronic 2001, a very solid album (in my top 20, if not in the top ten). I think that was the big thing of the day – just getting lost in the music.

In Hartland, I rode (through and back) the World's longest covered bridge. That's basically the only touristy thing I did today. In Fredericton, it was too late to visit the information centre, and touristy landmarks seemed all over the place (that tower, the Universities), so I just kept rolling out of town heading East. I did notice a few little houses on the waterfront that I found had charm. Fredericton almost ended up being the city where I was going to start my new career. I would of left my home province, family and friends to come here. It was something I'd do for a girl I was dating. After the break-up, I still thought it was the place I was going to end up. But, Ottawa had a few tricks up it's sleeve. Family, friends, work opportunities, and the city itself all snuck into me a bit more and didn't want to let go. So, I am happily staying in Ottawa, where reside the majority of the great folks that I know.

Today was also the first time I got chased by a dog. Teeth were out, and the bark was loud. Big dog. They were just protecting their territory, and didn't come close. But, scared me though. My leg hairs were standing on end, felt tingly actually.

The word of the day that I heard: “feller”, as in “that feller engineer that fixes the roads”.

For sleeping, I didn't score a free night in a hotel, but did find along the road a business that was for sale. I checked out the back, and it was deserted, with nice flat area. I stopped, ate there, no one bothered me (pretty sheltered), so I pitched the tent up, and went to bed (nice run-on sentence there).

Tomorrow, off to Monkey-town, where I will spend two nights and a rest day. I shall try to fix the dish of my rear wheel, change my front brakes (they are worn out, all since Sudbury!), be a tourist, and stay with Smelly. Sweet.

So, that's another entry. I hope you enjoyed the not-so-long entry.

Tere naba. Head naba. Sinu Poorane.

Bonjour, salut la visite.

p2