Day 83: Moncton, NB to Amherst, Nova Scotia (70km)

I often tease Alex about his frequent 'landmarks' but today I think we both felt a surge of adrenalin when we crossed into Nova Scotia, our final landlocked province. Throughout our trip we have met a number of other cyclists touring all or part of Canada. Many of them were stopping in Toronto, Montreal, or Quebec City but of those doing the full crossing most were ending their ride in Halifax, some in Sydney. But as Alex says, "you don't quit your job to stop in Halifax." Halifax is a full coast-to-coast trip but we are really excited about a visit to St. John's via leg power. We have two more days until we reach Halifax, a rest day/rehab centre visit, and five more riding days to Sydney where we'll catch the ferry to Newfoundland. Recently we've learned that Marine Atlantic has generously agreed to sponsor our ferry tickets to the Rock. This helps enormously in making the island accessible to us!

Back to today, we started with another great visit with Cardiac rehab staff and program members at the Moncton Hospital. Thank you for your kindness and attention! After our visit, we left Moncton on the hilly 106 highway until we caught up with highway 2. We continued with gentler grades that felt a little bit rougher than necessary on account of strong winds. Thankfully we only had a short distance to cover, which allows for things like headwinds, and long lunches with ice cream.

At the Nova Scotia welcome sign we were impressed by the ornamentation and felt a strong desire to climb the lighthouse (see picture). Unfortunately, this dream was not to be had since the structure actually serves as an office. We saw someone peering out with binoculars, scanning the highway toward New Brunswick. At first we thought this might be a performance piece and joked that 'there are cars on the horizon.' Later, after Alex's tire tube blew as we walked across the grass back to the road, we had the chance to speak with the lighthouse worker and learned t she was recording traffic for tourism statistics.

A little ways down the road we found our way to our first campsite in Nova Scotia. We are again hanging out in the laundry room, this time to avoid ferocious mosquitoes rather than rain. Alex is reading the newspaper as I tend to the 'office' all while people come in and out to ask us where the bathrooms are or how to dispose of garbage. This is the life!