Day 24
Another long day of mostly rural riding. I stopped at a very nice (best I've seen in NS) convenience store in Port Dufferin to stock up on ride food in anticipation of long stretches without services. This store is run by an Egyptian family that emigrated to NS to get away from fast track culture. They certainly suceeded. The owner told me that I could leave my bike leaning against the front of his store for six months. Nobody would touch it. This is also where I experienced the ultimate NS car-bicycle behavior. I had just come around a curve and was headed, slowly, up a hill. A car was coming down the hill. I heard a terrible sound and, looking in my rear view mirror, I saw a small car ( a Geo Metro) sliding to a stop 50 feet or more behind me. The front wheels were locked and the tires were emiting clouds of smoke. I didn't feel in danger, but I did wonder why that small car didn't simply pass me without slowing down. It would have been safe, but, by NS standards, rude. The car stopped. waited to till the other lane was clear, and then gently passed me in the other lane.

Then I rode on to The Liscomb Resort for lunch. This is a fancy resort with great beauty and excellent services. Rooms are $100 CD a night, but the restaurant is reasonable and good. The resort is about 35 miles from Sheet Harbor. There were several tour buses stoped for lunch and one of the bus drivers offerred to take my bags on to Sherbrooke so I could ride unloaded. I didn't take him up on it. but I did see him again at Sherbrooke.

I stopped in Sherbrooke, which has a neat historical town reconstruction, like Williamsburg VA, for desert and info about places to eat and places to stay. I explored the route possibilities through Antigonish as well as those continuing along the coast. In both cases it was a long way to the next services. I finally, at the turnoff, decided to continue on the Marine Route.

This part of that route is very pretty and very rural. I'd ride for literally hours without seeing any people. More importantly, from Sherbrooke, it was 40 miles to the next place to eat. Riding to the ferry at Issac's Harbor, I felt very alone. I saw no signs of man, other than the road, for more than 10 miles. This was one of several times on this day when it was very comforting to know that I had my tent and sleeping bag. When I did run back into civiIization, 10 miles or so after that ferry, I was threatened by a dog for the first time in NS. I rode the last five miles to the B+B at dusk in dense fog with temperatures near 50F.

The B+B at Cole Harbor is inexpensive - I paid $25 US and got $3 CD in change for a bed and breakfast which I had to prepare myself. A good night, although my room had a thin curtain on an east facing window so I had bright morning sun at 5 AM. Unfortunately that was the last time I saw the sun that day...