I am still finding it hard to believe how far we’ve come and that this is our last rest day. When you bite off little chunks at a time which don’t seem that bad (although some days felt pretty long) you tend not to think about the cumulative distance. But when you look at a map of Canada it is almost overwhelming. We have been to so many places, seen so much, and shared so many incredible experiences. It’s hard to believe that we only have 8 more riding days until we are done.

The question that comes up regularly now is whether I’m looking forward to being done. It’s a tough question to answer. Certainly I am looking forward to being home. 10 weeks is a long time to be away. Basically I have been away for the entire summer. And I haven’t seen Susan since Drumheller 7 weeks ago. Yet at the same time I continue to enjoy each and every day of this trip and part of me regrets that it is coming to an end. However I do think that by the time I ride up Signal Hill a week tomorrow I will be ready to go home.

This past week we left Quebec and entered New Brunswick. Overall I would have to say that Quebec has been my favourite province so far although it is tough to single out any one province. Even Manitoba with its crappy roads was still a beautiful province to travel through. But aside from being very beautiful, Quebec seems to have been the most bike friendly.

Today turned out to be a great rest day. I woke up around 7 am and spent the next hour or so uploading photos and publishing blog updates. It felt so good not to have to get up early and pack up the tent.

I got up shortly after 8 am. Since I did my laundry last night the only thing on my agenda for the morning was cleaning my bike. By mid-morning that task was done and I had time to sit and relax.

With Pat and Dave

Just after 11:30 my friends Dave and Pat arrived to take me out for lunch. Dave was my counterpart in Moncton before he retired several years before I did and we’ve kept in touch over the years. We went to a little cafe in Richibucto where I had my first lobster roll of the trip. I have been looking forward to a lobster roll for weeks and this one didn’t disappoint. We had a great visit and it was wonderful to see them again.

Back in camp I pretty well relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and worked on getting my blog posts up-to-date.

Around 5:00 sixteen of us rode down to a restaurant about a kilometre away. Dinner was pretty good.

Now back in camp I have fed enough mosquitoes so it is time to head to my tent for the night.

Total Distance to date: 6777 km
Total PBJ consumed: 84 (yes I’ve really slowed down)