June 14, 2015
Pembroke to St George, NB
We are back in Canada! And this time for good . . . or at least till we get to Yarmouth. Today we crossed (permanently) at Calais with little fanfare. The border guards are more like tourist guides lol. But they do ask lots of questions. And it led to a few good pointers for us.
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We started out "early"' (not by Jerry's standards but early enough). I sent Happy ahead without me to order coffee at the Pembroke Irvings, the only place in town to get "breakfast" (which pretty much consisted of coffee and a doughnut). It was also conveniently located at our first turn off Coastal US-1. I was still packing up the bike and liked my coffee to cool a bit, so there was no reason to hold up Happy.
Afterward, we headed north on ME-215, a fairly quiet road that improved significantly when we turned onto Charlotte Road.
Shortly after that last picture, we entered Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge and remained in it for about ten miles . . . until we intersected US-1 for Calais.
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We approached the border through Calais (pronounced "callous" locally). At that point, I eyed a True Value Hardware and thought, "I need to tighten up that left (front) brake handle." That led to a ten-minute investigation and analysis of how brake handles on my bike work. It had become increasingly loose after the bike had inadvertently fallen and landed (unfortunately) on the handlebar. I thought I had lost a screw but discovered it had only loosened to the point where my handle was twisting and turning (although the brake still worked). The only way to access the screw head was through a small pinhole in the handle (those clever mechanical engineers!). But I had no idea what type of head the screw had. So I'm fiddling with every "driver" I have: Phillips and multiple hex heads, but it was having none of that.
Finally, I turned to the star head drive on my universal bike tool and said to Happy, "I've never seen a screw head on a bike that had a star head" as I inserted it more out of curiously than expecting results. Damn if you don't learn something every day. Later research showed that Torx (or star) screws are commonly found on, among other things, bicycle brake systems . . .
With that resolved, Happy went first this time!
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Given our skimpy breakfast, we decided to hit a diner in St Andrew and test our credit cards. All went well (Citi knows my habits well), and we headed off into New Brunswick. This time with no plans to turn back!
And on nice, quiet roads. And along the St Croix River and Bay of Fundy a good part of the way. This made for very hilly riding . . . we climbed almost 3,400 feet today.
The only mishap was (again) a misdirection by RWGPS/Google a little past mile 35 where we were directed down a road but discovered it labeled "Dead End" and "Cul de Sac" (NB is bilingual). Happy and I consulted but were having data problems with our phones. Happy (at first) thought we should press on. My inclination was to continue on the main road and cut over at another point. Fortunately, a local who was familiar with the road network came along and advised us to cut over further south. The proposed route was an old railroad line that would require a four-wheel drive to navigate! This added only a couple of miles to our trip but I'm sure saved us vast amounts of time and energy.
Speaking of time, we "lost" an hour at the border crossing as we were now in the Atlantic Time Zone. But then, as we learned this evening, we have daylight till well past 9:00 PM now. In Maine, the further east we went, the earlier the sun was rising. This morning it was up well before 5:00 AM. Hard to sleep in when that happens. In Canada, hopefully it will be a bit more normal.
We finally intersected NB-1, and rather than follow the local roads on a rather circuitous route to St George, we decided to use NB-1.
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And it was easy riding. Only 15 km and very little traffic. Long, slow grades and long descents. The local roads would have been several miles longer with more hills than we cared to tackle at 5:00 PM!
Our accommodations were a step up over last night. Several steps up!
Dinner was at a local pub with decent burgers and fries. And a gorgeous view of the setting sun!
Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 2,816 miles (4,532 km)
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