Fredericton NB. The Capitol of the province New/Noveau Brunswick
9/13/23.
Today was a good day. It’s all about perspective, right? As one of my followers reminded me… there are days when it’s all fun… and there are days it’s fun when it’s over! Yesterday felt like the latter. It’s nice that our plans are not set in stone, so we can switch up if necessary… like we are about to do.
Fredericton… population about 61,000. The rain didn’t start until about noon today. We had already decided to layover and take the 11am bus on Thursday to St John’s. (It’s a 2 day ride to St John’s. There aren’t any towns of any size. We don’t want to camp in the rain and couldn’t find motels where we need them). The bus will take our bicycles in a plastic bag we buy from the Maritime Bus Co for $10. We’ll need to remove the front tire… we were told by the bus company guy (who does not love his job)! So that’s tomorrow’s plan! Once we arrive in St John’s early afternoon, reassemble our bikes and ride (in the rain most likely) to a hotel near the St John’s-Digby NS ferry terminal. We will catch the 8am ferry to Digby on Friday.
Jim hunting and pecking the taxi can
Montreal Air Bnb! See how nice the LVP flooring looks?
The ferry ride takes a couple hours over The Bay of Fundy. The hurricane Lee is expected to land near the western Coast of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It will bring heavy rain. We hope to be in Digby by then. We will “hole up” in Digby for a couple days. Everyone says it’s a great little town and area. Famous for sea scallops. Not sure what it will be like in a Hurricane! Stocked up on some food in case there’s no power. Prepared campers🤣
So today we poked around downtown Fredericton. After we checked with the bus guy we walked downtown. It’s right along the St John River of course. Plenty of old government buildings. Went to a local brewery for lunch. Had my first poutine! Hearty rainy day type of food. Beer was good! While checking out the town the rain went from slight drizzle to downpour. Always prepared now with rain jackets.
We taxied downtown and back as our hotel is about 10km away (6 ish miles). There’s a bike trail I think we’ll try when we head to the bus station in the morning. Stay off the busy road we came in on yesterday.
like this one
But, narrow and 2 story.
This is the side of the house.
Religion…
It’s time to address the subject of predominant religions by Province… as seen by bicycle. In Quebec, it was predominantly Catholic. I don’t really recall seeing any others because the Catholic Churches are so visually dominating. Now in New Brunswick it has changed. In the northern Francophone towns (the Saint towns… Leonard, Anne, etc) it was still Catholic by far. Now that we are in the Anglophone towns there is more variety…there’s Anglican, then ALOT of Baptist. Mostly I’ve noticed the Baptist… they are just small buildings, nothing architecturally interesting about them. All substance… no style, if you will. Now I wonder if Nova Scotia will be Presbyterian?…Methodist? I shall see soon.
Common commercial businesses. Fast food, gas stations etc
Let’s start with Tim Horton’s. Until this trip I had never really heard of it. It’s the biggest fast food chain from Ontario east. HQ is Toronto.. No hamburgers or fries but wraps and bowls and sandwiches. AND… donuts all day long! I guess they are famous for their coffee… it was decent. Tim Horton’s is sometimes the only game in town (or Subway). They are near the TransCanada highway exits and in the downtowns.I guess they get their donuts frozen and reheat them just before they put them out. There must be a dozen varieties if not more! We’ve gotten to know Timmy’s this week.. having no choice but to eat there two nights in a row! That’s one too many. Btw… Tim Horton was a famous hockey player. Of course he was!
We’ve also seen several Dairy Queens but honestly there are ice cream cone shops galore. Dairy country! A&W Rootbeer stands are still popular too.
Gas stations… Irving’s. Nothing too exciting or cool about their stations, except Lisa from yesterday. She was also in charge of the post office in the Irving’s! Apparently Irving Oil in St John’s NB is the largest oil refinery in Canada. Irving family is one of the 5 largest landowners in North America! They employ 1:12 of the people in NB! We met another Irving employee today… now I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Irving could use a little Town Pump/Cenex style infusion…. they can certainly afford it.
Tonight’s objective
Eat leftover Thai food if I get hungry after poutine!
Book a hotel in St John’s.
Book a hotel in Digby, Nova Scotia
cinnicrew 
Dang hurricanes! Don’t they know enough to keep to the Caribbean?!!!
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Hope your bus 🚌 travel went well.
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