Day 51. Caught the bus!

10/6/23

After laying low yesterday and anticipating the day today we shut the tent fly doors early and curled up into sleeping bags in our comfortable little tent nest. Up early and made breakfast (the usual), loaded panniers… for the last time and pedaled the final 4 miles to our “favorite” gas/bus stop.

Jim felt bad about snapping yesterday so he apologized to the gas/bus people. The bus was relatively on time and not full… we were off to Halifax airport.

My WarmShower host Mike, that we never did meet, went all out kind for us and sent me this note when he had delivered the bike box goods.

Hi Suzanne

The boxes are in a locked room just off the main entrance There we’re several bikes in boxes to keep themselves company.

The guy at the bike shop said there would be no charges.

I hope you have a good flight home

Mike

Check that off the worry list!

We took the bus right to our airport hotel. Our flight is at 5am… bright and early. We can wheel our boxes and baggage right across the skywalk… super handy at 3:30am. Once we arrived at the hotel we showered and had pizza/salad at the hotel restaurant. We were pretty hungry after only eating instant mashed potatoes at the campground last night and quick breakfast.

Then we set to work on the bike boxing. Things clicked along pretty easily on my bike and we got it all to fit in… nicely padded we think. Jims bike turned into a problem trying to get the pedals off. If you recall he got new used pedals in Fredricton, NB. He mentioned how the mechanic had really cranked on them to tighten them on. Big mistake! Well we needed a hammer or something to provide more leverage to the task. I was sent to the hotel front desk. Nope… maintenance man is gone for the day. So I took the skywalk to the airport. Asked a security guy… he sent me to the other end to the Commissair?? No idea what that is, but I walked to the end near baggage claim. I ended up asking the baggage claim employees and they gave me a bike tool and big bolt cutter. I took them both and said I promised to bring them back. Lo and behold… the bike tool fit the pedal perfectly and after a few whacks they both loosened up. Yeah!! After that the parts went in the box easily and we are all set to go home! Another quick walk to return the tools.

We are so happy that we had such a good bicycle ride. It had a few blips but those all fade over time. I appreciate that we could take the time to see the country bicycle. It’s not easy but it certainly is rewarding. Life is very simple. Ride, eat, sleep.. repeat.

Thanks to everyone who reads this blog who encouraged us along the way and enjoyed the ride from their chair. To the Canadians we met that housed us and we became friends (Aimee), Lenore who saved my medical situation, Andre, who saved me from Cabot Trail meltdown and Mike, who delivered the boxes to the hotel. It was all a lot more fun because of you!

It’s trips like this that make me believe there are more nice people in this world than mean ones. That kindness sows kindness. That showing respect delivers the same respect in return. We have to put our trust in all kinds of people while riding a bicycle down the highway. Trust the semi- driver, the bus driver, the dump truck driver, the pickup truck, the delivery van, the car, the ATV, the kid on the scooter and even the pedestrian. We try to always do the best we can to follow the rules of the road, wear bright colors, use headlights and taillights to be more visible, make sure drivers can see us and give us room. So far … so good!!

Thanks for following the blog. I really enjoy sharing it with everyone. Jim will get his stats together and when he has that info I will be sure to share that info too!