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.