22nd
Day 10 - new day and a new province
Hello Blog Land: Greetings once again from RV 3A. We are at this moment heading for our showers after a rather cool and overcast day. Once again we have been experiencing less than great cycling weather. We have outrun or otherwise lost the warm sunny conditions under which we began this ride. We awoke this morning in Riviere Bleue where we were met with cool winds and heavy grey skies and the promise of rain. The day started differently for us. Instead of digging into our breakfast prepared by “Do it All Damian” and “Super Dave” we went up the road to a small little ‘cafe’ where our hostess prepared a ‘real, hot breakfast’ of eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. No offence to our crew, there was something quite civilized (and for us unique) about sitting down, indoors to eat a hot breakfast. The guys had actually brought our food to the place and asked if the cook there would prepare it for us as we had no place and no power at our camp site. This was certainly a nice start to the day. As we were about to set off on our ride we were joined by Michael, a local rider who was joining us for our trip into Edmunston. It turns out that Michael had been out for a ride on his own last year when he met the National Riders who were going through the area. He was so pumped by this that he had been following this year’s ride to see when it would come through so he could again participate and do a ride along with us. It turns out that Michael is a member of the Edmunston police force and so he arranged for us to have a police escort into Edmunston and to have us meet the mayor. So here we all were, the National Riders of Team Three, riding with our own police escort right up to City Hall! How cool is that? The mayor, M Martin, came out to meet us, chatted with us for a few minutes and had some photos taken. He gave each of the National Riders a hat and we gave him a 2009 Coast to Coast against Cancer dog tag. From city hall we again had a police escort out to a local park where the Manager of the local Sears store (and her sister) had arranged for a home made pasta lunch for us, complete with homemade bread rolls and cookies for dessert! Aw, the perks of being a National Rider! At lunch we also met Robert, a local father whose 14 year old daughter had just died from cancer. After chatting with many of the riders and crew we asked Robert if we could all hear his story and then dedicate the rest of the day’s ride to his daughter. This experience was yet again another real and tangible reason why we are riding. At lunch we were also joined by Roger and Steph who were going to be with us for the afternoon to provide some relief for our overworked crew and drivers. This was greatly appreciated. As we headed out after lunch for our next stop in Florenceville, there was a noticeable increase in the wind. No, it was not going to be a favorable tail wind, it was going to be a wind that threatened to blow us off the road. We responded by setting up an echelon line and off we went. Florenceville was a bit farther away than we had anticipated and so we were late arriving there. However this did not deter the enthusiasm of the Sears associates there who met us with hot soup (home made of course), a variety of salads and veggie burgers. Again we experienced the warmth and generosity of spirit of these folks. They also had home made desserts: apple pie, blueberry pie, and date squares. I learned two things at this stop, both courtesy of Terry. The first thing I learned is that date squares are always best when eaten in threes (apparently Terry has a ton of anecdotal evidence to back up this claim!). The second thing I learned from Terry was that one of the best things to wash down apple pie with is blueberry pie! After a short stop we again were on our way to the last event of the day in Woodstock. Wait a minute, were we not just in Woodstock? Oh, yes we were. This time though it was Woodstock NB and not Woodstock ON. Due to the accumulating lateness and the distance between events we arrived too late for the ‘event’ here, although there were still many folks around to welcome us in and cheer us on. I can’t say I was too disappointed to miss the bbq that was part of the event given all the other great food we had been given throughout the day. It is now Monday night and there are only two more days left until we arrive in Halifax. This has been a wonderful journey to date and I am so happy to have been a part of it, and especially a part of Team Three. We even have groupies who keep showing up at all the community events. Today’s kudos go to everyone on Team Three for not only knowing the words to countless musical show tunes, you are all not afraid to sing them, at the top of your lungs early on a wet, cool, Monday morning, as a distraction to the rain and hillls. Way to go everyone. You have earned your sleep. As I write this we are less than an hour from our showers and then about an additional three hours of shuttle until we get to our bunks. Until tomorrow, may your feet always reach your pedals.
Today’s mileage: 125km
Total mileage to date: 1630km
