Day 59 - Halifax!

Google maps said it was 160 km to Halifax, so I got an early start, snarfing down the free breakfast at the motel and heading out into the chilly 7:40 air.

The day had its share of surprises.  I took the 104 to Truro and then turned onto route 2 there.  Surprise number one came in Truro when I received a text message from Angela asking if I was going to be going through Bedford.  I had been planning to go through Dartmouth but I changed my plans because she said she was making a sign.

Surprise number two was all the construction going on on route 2.  I had to wait at a couple of construction zones, and after waiting there is always the exhilaration of getting through the zone before traffic starts coming the other way.

Surprise number three was all my former coworkers who came out to greet me on the Bedford Highway as I rolled through.  How's this for a warm reception!


As I was talking to the crew, I was boasting about how my rear tire had gone the whole trip without a single flat. Well, can you guess what surprise number 4 was? Yup, about 5 minutes down the road, I heard the dreaded pffft of air escaping from my rear tire.  But, surprise number 5 happened when Mark showed up on his mountain bike, having been tipped off my Angela that I was on my way.  We chatted for a while as I changed my tire and tried to pump it up with my woefully inadequate pump.  Surprise number 6 was that Mark had a real bike pump in his car, about 10 minutes down the road.  I made it there with 40 psi in the tire and topped it up to the usual 110 psi to finish the ride.  Thank you, Mark!


Coming into Halifax was great.  Riding down familiar tree-lined streets like Connaught Avenue, I had a real feeling of being home.  The final act was to take my bike to Point Pleasant Park and dip the wheels in the Atlantic.  A curious bystander was happy to capture this fantastic moment on my camera.


So, that's it!  There are a few things that were incredibly valuable on this trip.  First, I would like to thank the makers of Zincofax for (literally) saving my butt.  Also, I have to give a shout out to Subway restaurants.  And, last but not least, thanks to everyone who read and commented on the blog and emailed as I made my way across the country.  It helped a lot to share the experience on the blog, so I never felt like I was alone.


Today's track

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Day 58 - New Glasgow

Today's route was almost exactly the reverse of yesterday. I feel like a shark circling its prey (Halifax). The winds were high again today and for the first half of the ride I seemed to be riding straight into it most of the time. That foiled my plan to catch a glimpse of the tour riders coming over the causeway. They were probably long gone by the time I got there.


Riding over the causeway was not the most fun due to the extreme crosswinds and no paved shoulder. Fortunately, a truck driver was kind enough to to wait, holding up a train of cars behind him (or her).

Outside Antigonish, I stopped at the Dragon Fly Cafe, as recommended by a secret inside source. I had the ham and swiss panini and pasta salad, and it could very well have been the best lunch I've had this summer.

From there I continued on the same old 104 I had traveled yesterday. The ride was about 10 k shorter than I expected and that always makes for a refreshed feeling at the end of the day. Currently I'm relaxing at the Tara motel (it's on the rustic side but it'll get the job done), hoping for an early start to the grand finale tomorrow.

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Day 57 - River Bourgeois

It was a day of goodbyes as I left the Tour Trans Canada group to finish my personal goals. The gang of four did one last ride together to the Linwood campsite, taking the shortest possible route along the 104, shaving over 30 km from the Bud route. That made my total about 140 for the day. Here we are, head-on for once:

It was extremely breezy today and whenever we headed south we got one of the stiffest headwinds we've seen on the whole trip. Overall, it felt like a long ride. That's probably also because the roads were mostly familiar and not too interesting to me. It was a great feeling to finally roll down Boyd's Lane to the old homestead. My odometer read 10,076 km at the bottom of the hill. That includes all my training and about 1,000 km from last year. When I get back to Vancouver, I'll be able to figure out how much of that was since the beginning of the trip.

Now, on to Halifax!

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Day 56 - Lower Barney's River

Today we bid adieu to PEI and boarded the ferry for my home province of Nova Scotia. Before we got to the ferry, Rick collected this beautiful souvenir off an unfortunate fox on the road:

I must say, it's a nice piece of tail. After the frustration of not finding a "Welcome to PEI" sign, Nova Scotia delivered with this behemoth. If you look closely, you may see a happy Landon in the picture.

Isabel and I, the sightseers of the group, took a short side trip to downtown Pictou, which I had never visited before. It had some nice old buildings and a nice waterfront with a recreation of the ship, Hector, that brought in some of the first Scottish settlers to Nova Scotia in the late 1700's.

From there, we booted it to the campsite. It hit me that I was close to home when we got on the 104, a road I've traveled many times to get to Cape Breton.

At camp, I set up my tent for the last time. As per tradition, the girls got me a parting cake. It said "We'll Miss You Landon". I'll miss them too.

The girls, Chelsea and Nieka, have done a great job under sometimes difficult circumstances. Working a trip like this is no cake walk! Spending this much time with a small group, you get to see a few layers under the surface of people's personalities. We were tired most of the time, physically uncomfortable in various ways, bored sometimes and generally not at our best. We all had bad days, and that manifested in different ways.

Some people would retreat and lose the will to be social. Others might get fixated on certain details that weren't to their liking (e.g. powdered milk). Occasionally there'd be conflict over something trivial like who's turn it was for the shower. This would be a great trip for someone studying human social behavior. Unfortunately, at this point not everyone is talking to each other and I doubt that will change before the official finish in St. John's. I think we've all accepted that now and at the atmosphere is peaceful even if there is some underlying tension. I'll still miss the evenings at the campsite spent eating together and comparing notes about the day's ride - routes taken, animals spotted (dead and alive), people encountered, disasters narrowly averted, etc.

Although this is my last night with the group, I will be riding (and blogging) for three more long days. Tomorrow, to my dad's place in Cape Breton and then two centuries to my mom's place in Halifax.

Today's track

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