The days have been quickly rolling by; the day is fast approaching when my bike and I will board the ferry for Nova Scotia.
Although it's been several months since I set my non-plans in place, it feels like it was just yesterday. I have to admit that knowing this trip is just days away now makes it a little easier to deal with the (always unexpected) change of the seasons here. My commute-to-work-by-bike days have come to an end for this year, chased away by the quickly retreating daylight hours. I'm hoping that our cooler than usual temperatures as August rolled into September will help me get accustomed to the weather that will envelop me as I roll into Yarmouth.
A map of Nova Scotia remains open on the floor in the room where my computer lives, with its ever-present companion books Nova Scotia by Bicyle, and the Doers' and Dreamers' Guide from Nova Scotia Tourism. I'm not planning day-by-day, but I am reading about places I'd like to see. Funny, but my assumption that I will do essentially a circle tour is being challenged as I seem to be very attracted to sights along the Bay of Fundy side of the province. While I have enough time to do the circle route with longer riding days, I'm going to let how I feel dictate how far I ride each day, as opposed to committing ahead of time to a set number of miles. A circle, or essentially an out-and-back ride with loops in interesting areas? Only time will tell where my bike and camera will lead me.
I'm booked on the 8 AM ferry on Thursday, which gets me into Yarmouth at about noon. Rather than start traveling immediately, I am going to spend the day wandering in the Yarmouth area. And since I'm not moving beyond Yarmouth, I also made a reservation at a B&B for that night. I chose the Guest-Lovitt House, which is where I was planning to stay on the first night of my canceled quick trip to Nova Scotia back in 2004. When I called to check availability, my first question (after hearing that there was a room available) was whether there was a safe place for my bike. There is - or I wouldn't be staying there. I told Twyla that I would be arriving on the ferry that morning and that I planned to do some wandering in the Yarmouth area that afternoon. Her first question to me was whether I'd like to drop off my gear when the ferry docked rather than waiting for the normal check-in time. What a nice welcome! And - to top that - when I gave her my name for the reservation, she immediately asked if I had booked and canceled a reservation in the past, remembering the cancellation of my trip after my crash. I found it truly amazing that she remembered me, a total stranger who made (and canceled) a reservation for one person and one bike over two years ago.
My little baby (handheld) computer will be traveling with me so that I can keep my journal up-to-date from the road. I added money to my iberPass.com account, and I went to their website to make sure that they have access numbers in Nova Scotia. I didn't think there would be a problem since that's the service I used when I was in Prince Edward Island last year - but you know me, I just needed to make sure. I'm not sure why I looked at the list of cities with access numbers once I verified the toll-free numbers for Canada. That little added checking made me a bit nervous when I couldn't find a number for Yarmouth or for Halifax. OK Denise, calm down, there has to be a reason why these somewhat major cities are missing from the list. It took me a few minutes to figure out the sequence of the list. It showed only the name of the city and the phone number. The toll-free numbers at the top of the list were (of course) for Canada. Instead of the list of cities being sorted alphabetically, they were alphabetic by province. Unfortunately, the name of the province is not shown. So Yarmouth - which I expected to find at the end of the list - was shown about two thirds of the way down the page. I suppose it is asking too much of a company that is based in Spain to understand that showing the provinces as well as the city names for Canada would be more than helpful.
As I was looking through the lists of access numbers by city, one name jumped off of the page at me. Did you know that there is a town in Newfoundland named Leading Tickles?
I need to close today's musings with an open letter to the weather wizard.
Dear weather wizard -
The remnants of tropical storm Ernesto blew through here today, giving me a good rest day. While I'm sure that many people are unhappy with our rainy holiday weekend, I have no complaints. I would like to place a request for dry weather for the bulk of my trip though. Yes, I know, there is a possibility of rain in the forecast for almost every day of the upcoming week. But could you please make that scattered rain as opposed to all day downpours? I'd love to see the sun during part of my tour, but gray, dry days are much preferable to wet ones. You're absolutely right - I certainly will make the best of whatever comes my way.
