Day 51, Monday, August 21/06
Pokemouche to Miramichi , 100 km
I slept on and off through the night but didn't cough too much. I had 2 cups of coffee with the dinner last night so was buzzed. I was thankful to have use of the computer to catch up. We got up around 5:30 and packed up. Monique had prepared a lovely breakfast. She was familiar with Quispamsis as one of her sons, Pierre Napert Frenette, played hockey so she had been in our area. Pierre played on a team with Randy Jones, from Quispamsis, and she went to Prague with Randy's parents to watch them play hockey.
We were back to the church by 7, and the rain started. It appeared as if it was going to be a long day! I saw Bruce and John Best going over a map...and I was praying that perhaps they would skip going the extra 80 km around the coast of highway 11, scenic route. Turned out that Bruce arranged for a bus to take us to Grand Anse where a church provided a snack. There was now a strong head wind along with the rain and 15 of the hard core cyclists headed out from this point. The remainder of us enjoyed the comfort of the bus and went to explore the Acadien Village in Caraquet. We were able to play tourist for 1 1/2 hrs before bussing on to Pokemouche where the Catholic church provided lunch. The hearty soup was a great thing to warm us for the cycling from here to Chatham. Man it was wet. But not too cold. The highway was fairly decent and I ended up riding alone. My bike seems to work well in the rain and with the wind at my back cruised along at 33 kph for the 100 km ride. We did have a rest break at the Presbyterian church in Tabusintac. It was a good stop with a lovely array of food and HOT CHOCOLATE. Back on the bikes for the final 40 km. The rain seemed to let up somewhat and then we hit rough construction areas where they had scraped down the layer of pavement..so it was rough with grooves. I arrived at the meeting spot in Chatham and picked up shampoo, tooth brush and Hall's. We were then escorted by police across the bridge to our churches. One to store the bikes, the Anglican which was well prepared having plastic tarps on the floor and bags of rags for us to clean the wet and grit off. From there we walked to the United church for dinner and a service afterwards. This was very well attended by the church community who had been preparing for our arrival since last January. Quite awesome for us to be so well recieved. We were assigned with our billets, Bud and Audrey, along with Adrienne and Robyn Lloyd. They have a lovely home right on the Miramichi River. We are washing our wet clothes. I am coughing now due to the cold.
Tomorrow we cycle to Shediac and the following day we get to our church for lunch. It appears as if only half the group want to come to Saint John, so hopefully Paul Brown will confirm numbers with St. Luke's for meal preparation?
(Jean sez... St. Luke's Church are looking forward to the cyclists at 1 PM - any of Jill's friends are welcome to come and give their love and support in person)
I slept on and off through the night but didn't cough too much. I had 2 cups of coffee with the dinner last night so was buzzed. I was thankful to have use of the computer to catch up. We got up around 5:30 and packed up. Monique had prepared a lovely breakfast. She was familiar with Quispamsis as one of her sons, Pierre Napert Frenette, played hockey so she had been in our area. Pierre played on a team with Randy Jones, from Quispamsis, and she went to Prague with Randy's parents to watch them play hockey.
We were back to the church by 7, and the rain started. It appeared as if it was going to be a long day! I saw Bruce and John Best going over a map...and I was praying that perhaps they would skip going the extra 80 km around the coast of highway 11, scenic route. Turned out that Bruce arranged for a bus to take us to Grand Anse where a church provided a snack. There was now a strong head wind along with the rain and 15 of the hard core cyclists headed out from this point. The remainder of us enjoyed the comfort of the bus and went to explore the Acadien Village in Caraquet. We were able to play tourist for 1 1/2 hrs before bussing on to Pokemouche where the Catholic church provided lunch. The hearty soup was a great thing to warm us for the cycling from here to Chatham. Man it was wet. But not too cold. The highway was fairly decent and I ended up riding alone. My bike seems to work well in the rain and with the wind at my back cruised along at 33 kph for the 100 km ride. We did have a rest break at the Presbyterian church in Tabusintac. It was a good stop with a lovely array of food and HOT CHOCOLATE. Back on the bikes for the final 40 km. The rain seemed to let up somewhat and then we hit rough construction areas where they had scraped down the layer of pavement..so it was rough with grooves. I arrived at the meeting spot in Chatham and picked up shampoo, tooth brush and Hall's. We were then escorted by police across the bridge to our churches. One to store the bikes, the Anglican which was well prepared having plastic tarps on the floor and bags of rags for us to clean the wet and grit off. From there we walked to the United church for dinner and a service afterwards. This was very well attended by the church community who had been preparing for our arrival since last January. Quite awesome for us to be so well recieved. We were assigned with our billets, Bud and Audrey, along with Adrienne and Robyn Lloyd. They have a lovely home right on the Miramichi River. We are washing our wet clothes. I am coughing now due to the cold.
Tomorrow we cycle to Shediac and the following day we get to our church for lunch. It appears as if only half the group want to come to Saint John, so hopefully Paul Brown will confirm numbers with St. Luke's for meal preparation?
(Jean sez... St. Luke's Church are looking forward to the cyclists at 1 PM - any of Jill's friends are welcome to come and give their love and support in person)
posted by Unknown at 11:39 PM
2 Comments:
Welcome home! Sorry we won't be able to be with you at St. Luke's but will be on our way to Wolfville for our Church Convention. Hope the cold is under control by now. Sorry to hear about the problems in Camp'ton-- enough to reinforce the idea to the folks from "away" that we really do live in the boonies in NB!! Have followed your blog everyday ( or middle of the night as it now is when I can't sleep) and thoroughly enjoyed it having travelled by car many years ago much the same route. Safe biking and we'll soon see ya walking the block again! Norma
Hi Mom, hi Dad. Just a quick note - try to give us a call tomorrow (Wed) when/if you can, and let us know (as best you can) where you'll be on Sunday in New Glasgow. Nanny mentioned that they're going to try to come up for a visit as well, so try to get ahold of them too. I wish I could make it down to SJ for the lunch, but we'll see you Sunday. Get over that cold, have fun at home...see you soon.
Trev & Tam (&, of course, the brood - it's Sage's b-day today, one year old, but I think she thinks she just hit 6 months...)
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