Prince Edward Island

The plan for the day is to tour a bit around the Acadia park peninsula and then try to get as far as we can. In the next 2 days we have to ride 685 km to Pleasant View on the west coast of PEI in 2 days time.

We set out from Bar Harbor south on the 3 and tried to stay along the shore road to Seal harbor.

From here we backtracked on the 102 and the 3 north to the Highway 1, then turned east to Whiting, and then north to the border at Saint Steven. We had a nice sunny, but warm day. The border crossing was just a 15 minute line up and then a few questions and we were back in Canada! First stop pita pit!

We still have 55 km to go to get to Moncton New Brunswick. We did try to stick to some of the coast roads on the Bay of Fundy after St John.

The highway driving is draining and we finally arrived to the hotel at 645 pm. We walked 2 km back up the road to the Swiss Chalet for the biggest salad you have ever seen.

We headed out at 9 for the 214 km to Pleasant View, but stopped at Canadian tire for a few needed items (chain lube, micro fiber cloths, and some oil).

We had a cloudy and cooler day today and rain was threatened. There was almost no traffic on the main roads, but we did some side tracking to the secondary roads as well.

The Confederation bridge to PEI is 13 km long and a return fare is 18.75$ for a motorcycle, which you pay when leaving.

We decided to stick to the main highway to get to our friends place earlier in the day, but stopped in Summerside at the Liquor store for some wine and bubbles. This island is SO green it is incredible. There are fields full of produce everywhere and of course a lot of potatoes.

It was so great to see Ed and Janice again and hang out at the cottage on the sea. They got a call at 4 pm that the YMCA camp their 10 year old was dropped off at 2 days ago was closing because of a Norwalk virus outbreak and they had to leave ASAP for the 4 hour drive to get him near St John and then drive back. We had the cabin to ourselves for the night.

Since the gang arrived back at 1 am we just lazed about all day today. It was hot and sunny so we managed to get laundry washed and hung to dry. The water temperature here is very warm and so a swim was in order as well. The water is incredibly warm here, which is astonishing for Canada. Ed used his new pizza oven for dinner and Janice served up her famous “Dark and Stormy”.

Today is a rainy day and we were trapped inside for most of it, but we did ride out to the Skinners Pond harbor to see the lobster boats being loaded for the first day of the season tomorrow.

Ed and Janice had to leave us again to get back to Charlottetown tonight and so we have the place to ourselves again.

We woke to a sunny and beautiful day for the ride south to West Point and then onto Victoria harbor to see the first of the lobsters arriving.

We continued on the back roads to Abrams and then Summerside for a lunch of chowder and lobster rolls.

Here we went on the 2 again north east until we hit the 6 and could head to the coast again. There are so few people here in PEI they only need 3 characters on the plates!

Then it was to book it to Charlottetown before the predicted heavy weather hit. We had just been inside 30 minutes when the sky turned dark and the thunder started and then amazingly heavy rain and wind started. The power was off in minutes and then the 3 cm hail stones started. This storm only lasted 20 minutes, but was very powerful and many trees and branches were down. We had put the bike covers on, but did not bother to clip them as we expected rain, but not a cyclone. We had to run outside to stop them from flying away and then clip them. The 90 seconds we were outside resulted in both of us being completely soaked to the skin.

It is lucky Janice decided to buy our lobsters fresh cooked at the fish market so dinner was not ruin for the lack of power. We cooked the rest of the meal on the Bbq and cracked open a bottle of Moet to celebrate our 30 years of friendship.