PS Home at last

After making it to Cape Spear, because it is the easternmost point in North America, we wanted to see a bit of St. John's, bike to kilometre 0 of the TCH, and figure out how to fly our bikes back to Halifax.  The first two were easy; we walked around Halifax on Sunday evening and had some seafood, including cod tongues.  The next morning we walked around then up and over Signal Hill.  It gave us a great view of Cape Spear, which is only a few km directly over the water.  We watched a coast guard ship enter the harbour.  Just after noon we biked out to the TCH and looked for a monument that might have read Km Zero of the Trans-Canada Highway.  It was not to be all we found was a sign saying TCH west as shown herein.

After that we biked to the airport and eventually checked in with Porter Airways.  After Blair had been in touch with a friend who flies for Porter, the arrangements for our bikes went very smoothly.  I made contact with the right guy who loads baggage on the planes;  he instructed me and the checkin clerks on how to prepare the bikes.  The clerks were terrific.  In no time at all I had the pedals offs, deflated the tires and loosened the handle bars.  They then put the bikes in three plastic bags each with lots of tape to hold things in place.  The bikes went on as our check baggage and our panniers comprised our carry on items.  Thus, there wasn't even an extra charge.  The aeroplane that we flew in was a Bombardier turboprop that seated about 70 passengers.  There was ample space, especially for and aft, which obviated the feeling of crowding that we sometimes get in planes.  We had significantly more space here than in the Air Transat plane to Scotland.  I was really impressed with this aircraft; it was quiet, smooth and powerful.  With the wings mounted high, we able to see the terrain below unimpeded.  Significantly we saw some of the TCH that we had just ridden over, including Kelly's Mountain in Cape Breton.  After landing in Halifax, we walked a long way to the baggage claim area, and in minutes our bikes came off in perfect condition.  I could then reset the handle bars so that we could mount the panniers on the bikes and push them out of the airport.  Blair met us outside with his pickup and drove us to their place.  After another fun evening of visiting with Blair, Krista and the kids, we headed off home.  While driving through New Brunswick, we finally got to see the animal that was missing- a nice healthy cow moose.  Our trip was complete, in addition to meeting lots of great, friendly people, we had seen a moose, a wolf, two bears, a beaver and two or three whales.

We tell everyone that bicycling across Canada is a great way to see the country and to appreciate it for what it is- a great country.  We are so lucky to be Canadians.

We made it!

Cape Spear1387 km since Halifax.

We made it to Cape Spear, NL.

We were on George Street.

In order to avoid the wind today, we decided to get an early start, which meant waking up at 5 AM, having a quick breakfast at Robins next door and getting on our way by 6.  The day was cool and clear with no wind to start; and this allowed us to make good time.  As the temperature was in single digits, we wore extra clothing for most of the day.  Susie was handicapped by her bike's tendency to jump gears especially in the smaller rear cogs.  By three hours we were up the major hill, just before the 40 km mark; it wasn't bad because it was fairly long and there was no headwind.
 

  Before noon we had exited toward Cape Spear or so we thought.  As it turned out, Blackhead Road (to Cape Spear) runs right under but is not accessible from route 2.  As result, we had to enter St. John's and then switchback on to Blackhead Road.  It is not governed by the rules for the TCH so it was steep; we walked up the first section and several sections there after.  Finally we made it Cape Spear, which was actually quite full of tourists, like us except smarter- they drove.  While we were having our pictures taken with the t-shirts that Linda and Jerry Oleschuk gave us two years ago, several people asked us about our ride etc.  We could have stayed and talked for hours had we wished.  Lots of people wanted to know how many days it took, how far we had ridden and how much we would ride in a day.  As it turns out a rough calculation gives us 62 days (over 4 years), 8157 km, 131.6 km/day.  After that it was leisurely ride back to the city and our B&B.  After arranging for a flight to Halifax, we had supper downtown, for me that meant a fisherman's dinner including some cod tongues.  Actually it was a huge serving of salmon, halibut, cod, shrimp, scallops, cole slaw, and the best fries on the island.  Although Susie are some of my fish, I was stuffed, which is pretty good considering my normal appetite and my hunger on this day.  Now we are ready for home.

Day 10 TCH near Whitbourne

Today didn't start or end well.  Breakfast was available starting at 8 AM, which was later than any B&B on this trip.  Then they were a few minutes late opening, and the service was slow.  It was 8:30 before our food came; fortunately the food was fine- nothing special but fine.  The bike ride was a bit hilly but worst of all Susie's bike started acting up.  When I followed her, it appeared to me that the chain was bent; I know this sounds goofy but it appeared to have lateral waves in it.  For a while I thought that I was seeing things but then it started to shift up and down for no apparent reason; this could happen if the chain was wobbling laterally.  Between this and the headwind that came up in the afternoon, we decided to cut it short today at just over 100 km.  We checked into the Moorland Motel and got the last room available.  It's not a great motel but it's a roof over our heads.  In the late evening, I received a message for the Hometel B&B in St. John's saying that they had a room, so I confirmed it by telephone.  The I revised our travel plans for the final day by plotting a route to Cape Spear first.  We no longer had to visit the Information Centre to get help with accommodations.

Day 9 Clarenville Km 1175

After a good night's sleep in Gander at the Inn on Bennett, we were treated to an excellent breakfast-  orange juice, fruit salad with yogurt, mini-quiche with ham, croissant, orange slice garnish and coffee.  We got on the road about 8:15 and headed in a southeasterly direction, which meant wind in our faces for the first half of the day.  With the starting temperature about 8C, we didn't bake.  There were a couple of big hills just before Gambo, Joey Smallwood's birthplace.  The next place of note was Glovertown, and that's where we saw another bear.  This guy was much younger, smaller and skinnier than yesterday's bear; we have not yet seen a moose.  Not far after Glovertown, we stopped at the entrance to Terra Nova National Park for lunch.  Immediately thereafter the road turned south, which turned the headwind into a sidewind.  Even with many, many hills, we made good time to Port Blandford, at which point we decided to continue to Clarenville.  We arrived at the Information Centre just after 6 PM and thought that we probably just missed the open time.  Fortunately they stay open until 7 PM so we got then to call the B&Bs, which were full, so they booked us into the  Restland Motel which offers breakfast with their rooms.  We had dinner at a restaurant in the adjacent mall.  I started with their own seafood chowder, which was excellent, and finished with a double burger plate.  The latter was interesting because the chips come with a savoury dressing and gravy; it was surprisingly tasty but not what you would call health food.

Day 8, Gander

After a nice breakfast of ham and eggs, fruit salad, cereal, juice and coffee, we hit the road at about 8:30.  The temperature was about 15C, it was overcast and the wind was from the east.  Other than the odd hill there wasn't a lot of work provided by the road; the wind made up for that and more.  As the day progressed the temperature dropped a bit and the wind picked up significantly.  It took us until after 5 PM to reach Gander, probably a good 2 hours longer than it would have with reasonable winds.  We were told that there were moose hanging out beside the road between Badger and Grand Falls/Windsor so we kept our peeled for them.  Unfortunately, all we saw were moose footprints, particularly in the mud off the road, and highway warnings about moose.  Apparently there were 660 moose-vehicle incidents in the province last year.  Just east of Grand Falls/Windsor they have a series of detectors on both sides of the road and warning lights start to flash if moose are detected crossing the road.  The highlight of our views today came about 13 km west of Gander when a good sized black bear crossed the road just in front of us.  An interesting manmade subject was a rather large pipeline (?) that crosses under the TCH east of Bishops Falls; it must have been at least 3 metres in diameter.

We checked into a B&B, Inn on Bennett, then walked up town for dinner.

Day 7, Deer Lake to Badger

Caesar Salad to go?

After a good long rest in Deer Lake we set off eastward under ideal conditions, warm and sunny with no wind or hills.  This made our progress better than anticipated so we just kept riding and riding; finally at South Brook we made the decision to try for Badger.  We made it shortly after 6 PM or just over 10 hours to cover 187 km.  This compensates for a short day yesterday.  We had only a few places that required us to really gear down; for the most part we kept up a good pace for us.  At noon we stopped and ate the Caesar salad that we bought at the supermarket last evening.  It hit the spot, a family sized salad for just the two of us.

Day 6 Deer Lake

Along the TCH

View in Corner Brook

See the man

Today was an easy day with a ride of just over 50 km and the wind in our favour.  The temperature was warm and the skies overcast off and on.  Just outside of Corner Brook we stopped to see a rock formation that looked like a man's face, complete with cap.  He is just right of centre in the lower half of the picture.  In Deer Lake we stopped at the information office and decided to try Auntie M's Lucashouse B&B.

Day 3+

Day 3 North Sydney km 428, 144 km

Last night we checked into the Econolodge because of its location, close to the beginning of the 105 for this morning.  After a continental breakfast at the motel, we hit the road shortly after 8 AM to find our warmup for the day was a hill, which we were not ready for.  The day was warm and sunny, and what little wind there was came from our backs- good show.  The trees are busy showing their new-growth green and the lupines are busy lining the road sides.  It is incredible how well the lupines grow here.  Just before 11 AM we arrived at the small settlement of Whycocomagh, and pulled into a restaurant.  We decided to try having a hearty brunch to see how well it would hold us.  I had steak, eggs, toast, hash browns and coffee, while Susie had scrambled eggs and toast.  The experiment showed that more is better later in the day.  While passing through Baddeck, Susie became low on energy and enthusiasm and wanted to stop for a rest.  I couldn’t find a rest stop that she liked so, we finally just stopped and had some food.  This did wonders as Susie’s energy returned for the most part, and we continued on our way.  A while later, we saw a sign that read “Kelley’s Mountain- you will go up 240 metres in the next 7 km”.  This was the major bump that shows up in the TCH graph.  It was long but certainly tolerable, and it provided us with some great views on each side of the mountain.  The ride down the other side was fun but too short.  Crossing the bridge over the entrance to Bras D’Or Lakes was interesting because of the cross winds and the hill that it presented us.  After arriving at the ferry terminal, we waited in line with the freight trucks forever it seemed.  Eventually we got our chance to put it on our plastic.  The system for collecting fees seemed overly bureaucratic because the computer was slow, and required way too much information like our names, sex, address, etc and the attendant had to enter the credit card information by hand.  We left our bikes in a lane and left the ferry area for the town and found a Subway at which we had the best meatball subs ever.  The server really loaded the veggies on and did so happily; it was a great supper.  We had a nice chat with one of the other servers who wanted to know about the route we use to get from NS to Ontario.

After returning to the line, we started chatting with fellow from the area because he was a triathlete and was interested in our biking across the country.  He had lots to tell me about racing triathlons and bicycles; it turned out to be a good lesson for me about the strategy involved in bike races.  I was able to impress him  with saying that Simon Whitfield had visited our house as a pre-Olympian teenager.  After getting quite cool, this fellow invited Susie to sit in the car were it was warmer.  Eventually the loading attendants took pity on us and loaded us so that we could get warm.  The ship was really nice with reclining seats and lots of TV; the hockey game was on and NJ was winning 2-1 in the third.  They looked like they might make a series of it.  Susie fell asleep while the ship was still docked, and I dozed for a bit.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.  I wanted to send a message to Nicole but couldn’t get internet access.  Eventually I got up and walked around because I wasn't sleeping, and found a public terminal at which I could send a message.

Day 4  Port aux Basques to Midway Motel half way to Corner Brook

The night on the ferry was pleasant in the sense that we met some nice people, but it was not restful for me; Susie managed to sleep reasonably well.  We could have had breakfast on the ferry at 6 AM but were still full so we decided to stop for breakfast along the way.  That was a mistake because after leaving Port aux Basques the next restaurant was at 100 km.  Coming off the ferry the wind was blowing the flags straight out, which was a sign of things to come all day.  In the late morning we came to a convenience store and picked up some coffee and sandwiches which really helped.  The day was sunny on and off and warm and did I say windy; the wind was in our face pretty well all day after we the first few turns coming out of PB.  In the afternoon, I saw a wolf on an access road, and call for Susie to stop.  The wolf just stood there looking at me giving Susie a chance to return and see it.  No moose yet but this was our treat of the day.  At about 100 km we arrived at the Irving gas station and had lunch/supper.  It was a good thing that we didn’t depend on the restaurant that was listed as being nearby the motel because it was still not opened for the season.  We checked into the motel at 110 km, washed a few clothes and turned on the TV.  After only a couple of hours of sleep on the ferry, I slept really well and woke up refreshed and rested.

Day 5 Corner Brook 650 km

We got an early start and rode the 29 km to the restaurant, which was perfect timing.  I had there hearty breakfast of 3 eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, potatoes and toast, while Susie had just bacon and eggs plus one of my sausages.  While having breakfast we had a nice chat with the waitress and a couple from here who were returning to retire after several years of work in Alberta.  Everywhere we turn, we end up in a good conversations with nice people; it makes it fun to travel like this.  I’m trying not to lose weight by eating more at breakfast this trip; by convincing Susie to eat a sausage from my plate trying to maintain her energy.  By the time we got to Corner Brook we had eaten up everything that I was carrying except for the beef jerky.  The day was sunny and warm, even hot at times; I had to get down to just a  shirt under my safety vest.

On arriving in CB we stopped at the information office for advice.  We talked about motels and B & B and decided on the latter.  Another couple were on the phone to the B & B, and passed the phone to us after they made their booking.  Then it was a quick ride down the hill just a block off the main street and next to the hospital.  After checking in and getting cleaned up a bit, Sean, the proprietors brother, gave us a ride to the bike shop where I picked up a set of peddles for Susie’s bike because they have been squeaking.  I was concerned that they might soon seize up and cause more trouble  Then it was off to the bank, Sobey’s for food, a couple of drug stores and the liquour store for can of beer.  Tonight we had a huge salad and home cooked hamburgers because we had access to a full kitchen- a very good meal of the type that we have at home.  Around 9, Sean drove us up to a view point overlooking the town, where we were able to see the sun set over Bay of Islands; on way the to and back he gave us full tour of the town complete with social history.  This was a company town with Bowater being the employer.  He showed us the upscale area where the management used to live.  Now three of the big homes belong to the bishops of the main churches.  Talk about nice people and so helpful.  This B & B is isn’t extraordinarily elegant but is very clean and well equipped.  Making dinner in their kitchen was easy and all the dirty dishes went into the dish washer.  In the morning, it’s was self-catered breakfast with evervthing that we wantedl.  We planned to bike just to Deer Lake today because there is no convenient accommodation at about 100 km; Sean confirmed this from his personal experience and from the internet.  At any rate just over 50 km be good for our bodies.

Day 2 Port Hastings

Today we left the Tulip and Thistle just outside of Truro and rode route 4 to New Glasgow.  We tried to stay on 4 but the signage was not good so we ended up on the 104, which we rode through to Port Hastings.  The day started our cool and foggy but then turned sunny and warm.  The wind was not in our face today so we made much better time and distance.  Yesterday we covered 108 km and today 172.  We are in the EconoLodge close to the intersect that we will use tomorrow morning, and this limited our eating options somewhat.  Tonight we "dined" at the A & W next door, mainly because we were too tired to contemplate much more.

This picture shows a ship being loaded with ore at the mine located right at Canso Causeway.  It also shows the great weather we had today for biking.  The graph below shows that we had more hills than we anticipated; some of the locals said that there were one or two hills in today's section.

2012 June 07

This morning we left Blair and Krista's house between 7 and 7:30 after a very hearty breakfast and a big send off by the kids.  Blair plotted a route for us that avoided the traffic of the Bedford area.  The wind was in our face all day so we decided to call it a day in Truro; we stayed at the Tulips and Thistle B&B on Pictou Road, a few kilometres east of town.  It was a really nice place and the owners (Ann and Larry MacCormack) are really nice people.  The weather today was cool and mostly overcast.  When pulled into the B&B, I knew I had a problem with my right clip in, so I got off on my left foot.  The right shoe would not release so I had to take my shoe off and then diagnose the problem.  The clip-in attachment on my shoe had lost one of the screws and wouldn't release on twisting.  Removal of the shoe required dismantling part of the pedal and banging against an Allen wrench inserted against the clip-in.  After a good night's sleep in a really elegant house, we had a gourmet breakfast.  Susie had the chef's choice, which turned out to be eggs benedict.  We certainly would stay there again.