Day 24. Pounding the pavement

Edmunston to Perth-Andover, New Brunswick

9/10/23. 64 mi!! AIS: 5:38. 11.4 mph. Elev. 2151 ft.

Nice 8am rollout. We were planning to go about 40 mi to Grand Falls…. And camp. The forecast for tonight and all day tomorrow is rain. The road conditions today were really, really good. We were on single lane highway with a good smooth shoulder. Not the widest shoulder but about 3’ wide most of the way. There was a really wide gravel path to the side of the shoulder… we never rode that but the ATV’s and farm equipment used it.

We stopped in St Leonard for lunch groceries for the next few days. It was right on the highway so a quick and easy stop…. Meaning we didn’t have to climb a big hill (off route) for the grocery store.

Lunches seem to have the same pattern. Some kind of bread, first it was tortillas, then I started to find small naan bread in 6 packs. Today I had to settle for some small Italian rolls and try not to squish them! Then it’s a small brick of cheese… havarti, Gouda and cheddar choices lately. Meats have been proscuitto, salami or ham. I choose these because I don’t have to worry about refrigeration as much. Then if a farmers market is handy we’ll add a tomato to the mix. That needs to be eaten quickly because it doesn’t travel well. Todays fresh splurge was the delicious strawberries from Quebec. Their tiny and sweet! I also buy a package of these cute little cucumbers.. 6 pack… small and resilient. We eat these with hummus and a simple bag of crackers. The cukes, hummus, crackers and Boursin cheese are for post ride snacks before dinner. And how can I forget the highly necessary and treasured bar of dark chocolate to finish the day! Canadians like their dark chocolate… it’s easy to find lots of good choices right at or near the checkout stand!!

Back on the road to Grand Falls. The highway was pretty flat with a few simple rolling hills so we were moving really quickly today. We had Maine on our right across the River. A few little towns along the way with great big churches! It’s a Sunday so traffic is really light until about noon. I love riding Sunday mornings because it’s light traffic and quiet. The countryside was heavily wooded to start and as the day progressed it became more open with bigger farms. The only crop I recognized was potatoes. The farm yards were all huge grassy areas.

We pretty much made the decision we would try to ride further than Grand Falls at mile 40. But… we would stop at the campground and check on places to stay in Perth.

Grand Falls looked like a nice little town. The St John’s River was dammed right above a really beautiful gorge and falls. That’s about the only photos I took today. Today was a mileage day so I didn’t stop but a couple of extra times to take a picture.

We found we had a campground option and a motel option in Perth. We were hoping for a motel with all the rain tonight and tomorrow. Since it was only 1pm…we hit the road. Right out of Grand Falls we had a long gradual incline. You know it’s going to be long and a bit steeper when they give you two lanes to climb the hill! It was a low gear climb but not a grind! Spinning up. The remaining 24 miles were up and down in this same general manner. We had a very light rain at times but it never got us wet enough to put on rain gear. Just perfect temperature really! It took about 3 more hours to arrive at our little cozy motel. Happy to have made the big mileage today (64 mi) and arrive as early as 4pm! Jim says that will be our longest ride for this adventure. Quick dinner nearby and time to watch the US Open tennis finals… how about that?!! And it’s definitely raining now! Warm and dry.

Simple pleasures….

A shower at the end of a day long bike ride! It’s THE best pleasure. That’s why we like to stay at RV type campgrounds or motels. There’s always a shower/douche😊 btw.. I believe we are out of francophone New Brunswick now. Everything seems to be Anglophone (English).

Time Zones…

We crossed into the Atlantic time zone at the New Brunswick border. It also changes to Atlantic at the Maine border. My phone changed automatically when we left Quebec. Then yesterday morning when I woke up it had changed back to Eastern Time. I think since we were on the Maine border my phone was confused! It wouldn’t go Atlantic until today when we rode a littler further from the river.., then it switched back when we were by the river. Back and forth until the American border was at least a mile away! This didn’t really matter to us but we couldn’t help but remember when we missed a wedding in Mexico (by an hour) because my phone did the same thing! Some of my friends will never forget we missed the wedding😱😜🥰

Tomorrow? The plan is 50 miles… going to be wet. We shall see what happens. Decisions to make in the morning. There’s another Tim Horton’s across the highway… hahaha