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Red Sands and Roads of PEI

August 13, 2019

Today I biked to PEI - another new province! I stayed at the KOA campground for two nights as I decided it would be a good time for rest as I was getting very tired. At the campground when asked where I came from - I said "Uhhh I don't remember". The camp was 50 a night and more expensive than the HI hostel in Charlottetown . I couldn't stay at the hostel as they were full.

For my rest day I was drained. I did laundry and noticed that after washing that my clothes still had that smell in them. It was not at a bad bad smell but not the laundry commercial smell I was seeking. I threw them in for another load and even had a lady gift me some tide pods to me - they didn't really help. I wore my bright yellow rain jacket regularly during my trip and it could get really stinky. I didn't want to stick into a washer so I rinsed it in sinks with soap and water once in a while to clean out the armpit juice.

Laundry was the only real thing I did that day. I slept in till 1030 that day, ate, enjoyed the swimming pool a little, stretched, reorganized my stuff ... and nothing else. I did not even go out and explore the surrounding area - this is how tired I was. The campground was covered with wifi (this should be illegal) and from the last picture you can see it was essentially a field with trees.....OK I will confess - I am a little salty about 50 a night.

The previous paragraphs described my rest day (August 14) and not my journey there. I biked from Richibuctu to the PEI bridge. It was a little rainy here and there but not too bad. I saw many Acadian flags - people here are very proud of their heritage and identity - every house has at least one flag.

I took a detour route not far from the bridge in order to get there. There was this long, thin and dark cloud (like a wave) that was chasing me and as soon as I made a left turn off the main highway, the cloud caught up to me. It was very short rain and while the cloud was above me, the rain reduced the vision significantly. The rain was brief and I was cursing as right up until it started raining I was hopeful for an escape. I got a lot of insight into weather during this trip - clouds oftentimes travel at the same speed as you do and that weather prediction services are surprisingly bad at times.

I biked up to the bridge at Cape Jourimain where I had to wait for a shuttle to come pick me up. When he arrived, I asked the driver if I have to pay now. He said it is free to get to the island and you pay once you leave and someone at the back of the bus joked - if you ever leave - that made me laugh. The bridge took a long time to cross - very beautiful.

Biking in PEI was beautiful. The sunshine, rolling hills, red dirt was so beautiful - I would have loved to spend more time in this province. I hit the trans can and biked all the way to Cornwall.

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The bridge to PEI.
My tan was legendary as was my sun bleached moustache. I used sunscreen regularly for first few weeks of the trip ...and then got a little lazy. It's end of December and I still have the tan lines (the finger numbness described earlier from gripping the handlebar too hard is now gone).