We made it...and nobody died!

Well this was the much anticipated day 7. We were told that it was 67Km of rolling hills with a handful of steep hills. When pressed to explain what a handful was, Gary, out tour leader said 10. 

Needless to say, Kelli and I tossed and turned all night in our beautiful campsite overlooking the Northumberland Straight and the ferry to Nova Scotia. 

We woke up bright and early to swarms of blackfies. Everyone was so bitten that we cleared out of our camp by 7AM. 

Kelli and I rode through the worst of the hills prior to it getting sunny and hot. We were really happy as we had thought we had finished steepest part of the trip. As we continued on and it got warmer and sunnier we realize that there were some very gradual but very challenging Hills to conquer along the highways at that point headwinds became really the biggest problem. With 20k to go, my front tire went flat. We camped out in the shade on a lovely lady's front lawn and availed ourselves of the home-baked goods at the little stand next door. Fortunately one of our colleagues on the trip who used to work for a bike store stopped off and helped me change my tire and even adjusted my brakes so within about an hour we are off again the last leg of our trip. We rode into Charlottetown through the tony neighborhood of Stratford along the edge of the water. Got back to our car at approximately 1 o'clock guzzled some fruit flavored water at the car and headed to our hotel where we have been hunkered down ever since happily showering and hanging out watching TV and playing with our electronic devices, eating fried clams and nursing our aches and pains and bug bites.

Kelli after she completed 473kms.

Me at the car wearing not one, but two pairs of cycling shorts...my butt was pretty sore! lol 

The view from our wonderful hotel room! 

We made it back just in time....

What an amazing day!

We started off early after a breakfast of a banana and cereal and headed to Murray  River. We cycled on what I would legitimately call rolling hills and stopped at Murray Rover for blueberry iced tea and a visit to a local general store.

 We continued on to Murray Harbour where we orders a Lobster roll to go from a restaurant reccomended by Megan and 

 We then continued up one of the many steep hills required to exit the harbour towns of PEI and collected food for our pot luck dinner back at camp. We then peddled to the Cape Bear Lighthouse and Marconi station where the first distress call of the Totanic was heard. 

We met up with Megan and Spencer there and heard stories about the shifting tides of the Northumberland Straight. We cycled on past farms and bee keepers and the distant view of Nova Scotia across the straight. We finally stopped at a delightful winery, sampled some wines and headed into our exceptional campsite for our potluck dinner and final evening together. 

With a view of the Ferry to Nova Scotia going back and forth!

Our pot luck!

Tomorrow is a 64 km day... With a "Handful" of steep hills... That means 10. Think of us as we toil  towards Charlottetown...our warm hotel room waiting for us! 

Mutiny on the bounty...

Apparently while we were recovering in our hotel, the other 14 members of our group asked for a revised plan for today due to their extreme exhaustion and the lack of sentry on the day we all "almost died".

So today was a mesely 38 k day complete with a visit to the Confedeation Trail ( our favourite) Montague and the  beachside Panmure Island.

We ate lunch at a fisher and wharf 

We visited two beaches

This one is for Brittany.,,

We had a delicious dinner at our camp which Kelli prepared. Now we are hanging out in our tent avoiding mosquito s.

Tomorrow is a beautiful ride to the Wood Islands and more beaches! Stay Tuned!

Our most challenging ride so far!

Today Kelli and I set out for our longest ride so far 73KM from Just outside of Souris and ended up in Brudenell  at Rodd's Resort.

It was beautiful and sunny and about 26 degrees. Our route was quite hilly and Kelli and I started to lose steam after 3 hours of up and down at our picnic spot in Bridgetown. We shared half a peanut butter sandwhich and an apple each and after chatting with one of our fellow cyclists, decided to soldier on. Ed, the gentleman who drives the support vehicle had been keeping all of us supplied with fresh water in the blazing heat. We headed out onto the second half of the trek, both of us feeling nauseous Nd worried that we wouldn't make it, when out of nowhere apeared Gary our tour leader an experienced cyclist and a man of few words. We began to follow him and we notice how much he glided, both going up and how the hills. He didn't attack the hills, running at them aggressively at top speed as we type As tend to do, but rather glided into and sometimes even up them for short strides. He built in breaks for his muscles during these periods of gliding. He said that he gets what's owing to him on the downhills. So we followed and copied him. Before we knew it we were gliding into the hills and slowly but surely (in low gear) making it to the top of each hill.  Before we knew it we were done and hanging out at our only non camping accommodation in Beudenell. We learned that cycling can be a great metaphor for life and that we need to tKe the time to glide and enjoy the scenery!

The little town of Cardigan...at 68kT

Kelli at a restaurant enjoying a well deserved cranberry and soda and basket of fries. Both tasted amazing after out long ride. Tonight wenare meeting Megan, my daughter and her boyfriend Spencer for dinner at our hotel...then an early bedtime...in a real bed! 3 more rides to go and more lessons to be learned!