Day 11 - PEI to Grand Falls, NB

Today somewhat felt like a comedy of errors with crazy wind, an out of order bathroom, terrible back roads, a flipped over car, road construction, getting separated in a roundabout and the threat of rain without the benefit of radar.

We said goodbye to the Sonata Inn with sunny blue skies and a cool breeze in Charlottetown. We headed towards the Confederation bridge to cross over to New Brunswick.

On our ride over, the wind picked up significantly and blew us around. It was also fairly cold with menacing gray skies. We considered stopping to put on more gear for warmth but pushed on.

The toll booth lady asked where we were from and Rob replied by question if we get a special rate being from Virginia. She said no, but she only charged us the standard motorcycle rate, not the extra axles with the trailer.

On the bridge, the wind was not bad at all, perhaps due to the large concrete walls.

Soon we were back in New Brunswick. We like this sign warning of large moose.

In an effort to take the more scenic route, we rode up the Acadia coast (not Arcadia) for awhile. The roads were a little bad. We connected back up with Trans Canada Highway 2 and took a fuel break. The fuel stop was in the local grocery store and there were no bathrooms in working order, or so said the lady at the register. Jerry went across the street to the church and it was actually an art gallery, with a working bathroom.

We followed TC-2 for approximately 80 miles eventually. Our progress was delayed due to a car that had just crashed and flipped over on the highway. People were running from their cars to help passengers in the SUV sitting on its roof. All the airbags looked to have deployed and the passenger compartment was still intact so hopefully no one was seriously injured.

Then down the way was a bit of construction, and we couldn’t figure out why traffic was so slow. Surely drivers were not gawking at the highway workers? Upon reaching them, we discovered that the workers were hand-spraying the temporary white land markers on new pavement. And, to get the width correct, they would lay a long pole in LIVE moving traffic whenever there was a break between cars! Yikes!

We stopped around noon for lunch, hoping to find the Silver Fox diner, but it too was a wily fox and we could not find it anywhere. Subway for us. On our way out, Michele spotted a large silver fox statue and thought the diner could be at the other end of the same building where we just had lunch. Oh well!

After lunch we exited onto Hwy-105 which closely follows the Saint John River and Rob had hoped would be more scenic than taking TC-2 the entire way. Hwy 105 was more scenic but we were not blessed with good road fortune at all. These were worse than the previous bad roads. Patches over patches and invisible heaves. At one point, Rob hit a heave hump dip scenario, going only 35 mph (he says) and Hitched went airborne. Jerry said it was a good 8 inches in the air! So much for the breakable treasures packed inside. We slowed down a bit more and suffered along.

In the meantime, Michele caught pics of great scenery.

And many very quirky sightings, such as this spaceman on a stick.

And the large potato man.

We entered Fredricton and it is here in a rotary (traffic circle) that we got separated from Jerry. Rob turned right to take a fuel break and somehow we all missed each other. Jerry came on the CB and said “Where are you guys at?” Uh oh!! We got back on the route hoping Jerry had continued ahead. He did and had stopped at a gas station. We didn’t see his bike parked until we passed so we had to keep going since there was no safe place to pull off.

Continuing onward, we drove by and over the bridge of the Macequac dam. It was impressive.

Over the dam, Rob and Michele stopped at a gas station to fuel up and wait for Jerry to catch up. We synched up after just ten minutes and hit the road again together.

Not learning our lesson from the bad roads earlier, we got on another 20 mile stretch of atrocious road conditions (Rob used a 4-letter word to describe them that won’t be repeated here).

We hope this cow had a good afternoon nap and not a permanent one.

With the skies getting darker and our patience (and bike shocks) completely shot, we found a bridge and crossed over the St. John river to get back on the well maintained TC-2.

Rob was able to see the weather radar in Maine since we were so close to the border. We decided to gear up with our raingear. Good thinking, we did have light rain for about 20 minutes.

We got to our hotel much later than expected today, around 5:30pm and were fairly bedraggled checking in. The ladies at the Best Western Plus Grand Sault were super friendly and figured we needed a meal. They gave us food delivery menus and said the restaurants delivered. A kind gentleman who works in the area and stays at the hotel often suggested Pizza Boy, so we took his recommendation. With delicious fried chicken and a salad delivered, plus wine and beer from the hotel bar, we settled in the hotel dining area and had a great meal.

Tomorrow morning we hope to leave early to see the Grand Falls of the St. John River that runs right through downtown!