Beach view this morning
Afternoon hills with west winds
Cycling to the west
Gray skies with filtered sunshine changed to sculpted white clouds against a blue background and then changed once more back to shades of gray. A beautiful day, with an ever-changing skyscape...
First though, time for another B&B breakfast. It started with fresh fruit, peaches, pineapple chunks, and wonderful tiny blueberries - the Nova Scota version of the wild Maine berries that I like so much. Joan was busy this morning baking fresh scones to accompany the fruit. Then I had French toast topped with blueberries and maple syrup. It was a slight variation though, with bread dipped in eggs & fried, and with the extra eggs wrapped around the bread. A good start for a riding day...
I shared the breakfast table with two young women from Germany. They chose eggs for breakfast, but one of the women wanted to taste maple syrup, so she topped her (regular) toast with butter and syrup. Funny, I never thought of applying that breakfast confection to plain toast.
We talked a bit about their three weeks in Canada. Even though the province they are spending the most time in is Nova Scotia, they flew into Montreal to take advantage of cheaper airfares. Their first day was short, traveling from Montreal to Quebec City. The next day was a drive forever day, going all of the way to Halifax. They will be spending only two days in PEI but hitting both the east and west sides of the province. It sounds like a whirlwind tour, with very little time to absorb the things around them. That's beyond my imagination even traveling by a fast mode of transportation instead of a bicycle.
Breakfast done, panniers loaded, it's time to head down the road and to a view of the Atlantic Ocean. Oh, there's a road leading to White Point. Do I need to turn, or will the water show itself if I head straight down the road I'm already following? I stopped to check my map, and the next thing I knew a friendly stranger was walking toward me from several houses down the road to make sure that I didn't need help. Nice. No turns were necessary, and soon a one-mile stretch of white beach appeared in front of me. Summerville Beach was a good place to stop to watch the waves, to see beach grass waving in the wind, to watch a kite dancing in the sky. Beautiful.
From Summerville Beach my bike rolled back onto highway 103. As I was heading up a shallow grade, I saw a cyclist on the other side of the road. I stopped to chat, and found that she and her partner are from Jamaica Plain, two more people escaping the Boston area for a while. They will be in Nova Scotia until October 15th when they will pick up ViaRail in Moncton, NB to get a lift to Quebec City. They will then ride west to Montreal and south to Albany. Funny, I never thought of using the train to link those locations. I'm going to have to keep that in mind as I plan trips in the future.
The entire day's ride was once again made up of rolling hills. They were very rideable though, in spite of the warning that I had from two sources about a very steep uphill along my route. The difficult thing for me today wasn't the hills, it was the wind. It was quiet as I rolled out of Liverpool, but a strong wind started blowing after about an hour, and it never stopped until well after I'd stopped riding for the day. Of course I was headed to the west and the wind was coming from the west. It's a bit disconcerting to see my speed at just over 10 miles per hour while I am pedaling as fast as I can in a low gear heading downhill. I thought that I would take the coastal route near Sable River, but with the strong wind blowing in my face I changed to take the most direct route to Shelburne.
It was a good ride even with the consistent wind. After my brief visit to the ocean, I was once again surrounded by tree-covered hills, with an occasional glimpse of water in the distance. The sky grabbed my eyes and my imagination. From a very gray morning, a blue background filled with sculpted white clouds emerged, waiting until late in the afternoon to morph back to gray. My camera spent the day focusing on skyscapes.
Shelburne loomed, and I headed to the waterfront where I thought I'd find Coopers Inn. This B&B had caught my eye when I was initially reading about the area, and I thought I'd treat myself to a nice place to stay tonight. A room was available, and I quickly settled in. As I headed out for a walk before dinner, I bumped into two cyclists from Switzerland in front of the visitor center. As usual, we spent some time talking about where we had been and where we are going. They started riding in Halifax and are headed to Yarmouth and the ferry to Bar Harbor. Next? A ride to Boston, from where they'll fly home. They don't think they have the time to ride the entire way and were quite happy when I verified that they can take the train from Portland to Boston. That made them happy, especially since they also want to spend a few days exploring Boston before they head home. As I started out this morning, I was thinking that it was odd that I haven't met too many cyclists here given that it's a rather popular place to tour. I know that many people tour during the more popular summer months, but I don't think I'm alone in preferring the edges of the season. It was good to meet some other cyclists today.
My feet were happy to continue moving for a while. My first stop was at the barrel-makers shop across the street. Fascinating. Then I walked along the waterfront for a while, allowing my camera to continue snapping skyscapes, devouring the time until my dinner reservation. Charlotte Lane was a small but very busy restaurant with attentive servers and wonderful food. I continued with my seafood ecstacy, starting with a curried cauliflower soup, and continuing with an Atlantic salmon fillet topped with sesame mustard glaze and a bit of cranberry ginger relish. Wow.
Are you tired of hearing about food yet? It's part of my trip, part of the memories, and part of the reason why I ride. Don't get me wrong, I love riding for the sake of rolling down the road and absorbing the beautiful sights - but it's also fun to be able to eat this wonderful food.What will tomorrow bring? More new scenery, riding, riding, photos too...
