Day 93 Richibucto, NB

July 26, 2019

Just beautiful

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Today was the kind of day you go bike touring to experience. Every time I put the camera down, I saw another view I needed to photograph. Kerry added 13 miles to the original route to keep us out along the coast and we were so glad that he did. It was really a spectacular ride.

We got on the road about 9:30. We paid $6 each for the continental breakfast at the motel which wasn't really worth it, but it was OK. Our first stop was in the village of Cocagne. Traffic was backed up on the small bridge leading to the town. We could just see ahead of us, a large flatbed truck slowly negotiating a corner. It was carrying a small lighthouse laying on it's side. We weren't close enough to get a picture that showed the lighthouse. At our convenience store stop, we learned that it was an old local lighthouse being relocated to a more prominent place in the town in preparation for Le Congres Mondial Acadien or the Acadian World Congress in August. It's a huge event, held every 5 years since 1994, celebrating Acadian and Cajun history and culture. We've been seeing banners and signs for it for a few weeks. It has been held in various US and Canadian locations in the past. This year it takes place in PEI and New Brunswick.

Just outside of town, we saw this place billed as "Texaco Display". It wasn't open, but we stopped to look and take some pictures

There was another car inside, but the sun prevented me from getting a picture of it.

For the next 15 miles, we rode right long the Northumberland Strait. I'm just going to post pictures - worth thousands of words!

Prince Edward Island is in the distance.

The clerk at our stop in Cocagne told us that there was a bridge closed before we got to Bouctouche which would require a detour of a few miles. When we got there, Kerry, of course, wasn't going to let the detour sign dissuade him from forging ahead. We saw some workmen on the bridge, so Kerry pushed the bike up and asked if we could get through. One of the men looked at us and said that we were wearing hard-hats and Hi-Vis vests (helmets and jerseys) and to go on because they never saw us. We pushed the bike across and met another cyclist just coming through the barrier on the other side. He decided to go on across as well.

It was much easier than a four or five mile detour.

He was on a training ride for some long event in August.

We stopped for lunch in Bouctouche. We are traveling on what is called the "Acadian Coastal Route" and Bouctouche is very Acadian. Everyone we spoke with was bilingual, but most people are native French speakers. We had an awesome lunch at La Sagouine. We asked the waitress for the best Acadian dishes and she suggested that we have the fricot au poulet and tarte aux cognes to share. They were both so good! The fricot is a chicken stew with dumplings, potatoes, carrots and onions. The tarte is a clam pie - with house made crust - that was outstanding. We also had house made rolls and real mashed potatoes. It made our top five meals of the trip.

We needed some time after that big lunch before we were ready to pedal again, so we stopped at a local museum. The Musee de Kent is a former convent and school which operated from 1880 to the the mid-sixties. It has been restored as a museum of both the history of the convent and history of the area. We got a guided tour from Linda and she was a great guide. I was so interested in looking at everything, I forgot to take many pictures.

What appears to be wood mouldings in the ceiling is actually painted.

Another view from the bell room. There used to be a church between the convent and the cemetery, but it burned down.

Linda told us that ringing the bell was good luck.

Lynn took our picture in front of their Acadian quilt.

And this is Lynn. Thank you Lynn and Linda for a special visit to your museum.

After Bouctouche, we rode past more oyster farms.

These are the cages that house the growing oysters

We are in the town of Richibucto tonight. We saw this marina as we were coming into town.

It appears to be a busy commercial fishing community.

We had so much fun today, we didn't get checked in to our motel until almost 6:00. There was a restaurant right next door which was perfect for a long day. It was very good - not top 5 like lunch, but we enjoyed our meal very much.

It was a wonderful day!

Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 3,515 miles (5,657 km)

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