29th
For those still wanting to know… Day 10!
Day 10… we traveled from Riviere Bleue, QC, to Woodstock, NB. Today was a fabulous day for food! We started off the morning at an actual restaurant in Riviere Bleue - what a great way to kick off the day after so many days of bagels, bagels, and… bagels ;)
I didn’t start off the day as I would have liked… the first 5 km or so of the ride was through a construction zone in which the road was EXTREMELY bumpy. I rode a kilometer or so before someone told me how far the construction went, and promptly decided to get into the van to save my hands from swelling up again. I had spent a lot of time the night before taking care of them, and I certainly didn’t want to have to get off the road again that day! Thankfully, this seemed to have been the right call - the whole rest of the day, my hands felt fine, and I got to ride the whole day without any major issues.
The scenery as we passed into New Brunswick was just beautiful!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a place so green in my life. I had plenty of time to appreciate it when we stopped for lunch at a park, where we were once again served some hot, homemade food. Our hosts had made pasta for the riders, but very kindly made me some rice so that I could eat too! I took a few moments to wander off and enjoy the scenery by the river before we left. During the morning, we also had the pleasure of visiting Edmunston, NB, where we were kindly received by the mayor and city hall. There were some really cool things around this place… pics to follow!
Overall, it was a great day for riding. I was so happy to be able to ride the whole day, tackle a few fun hills, and then have some challenge in the wind later in the day. Towards the end of the day, we started to get hit with a pretty crazy crosswind (can you believe that this entire trip, we never ONCE had a tailwind??!!). This was the kind of wind that forced me to ride leaning over to one side, just to stay upright! We set up a rotation, and pretty soon we were pulling at 32 km/hour, even in the crazy wind! It was quite a workout for me, as at this point I was having a hard time keeping my bike on the road, but what fun! The team was working really well together, and it was a great way to see the strength of our team. What cyclists!!
We really appreciated the dinner we received after that ride… we were greeted with homemade stew and soups at our next stop. Now I know why people on the East coast are so well known for their hospitality! We ate so well this day, and we were all incredibly happy for it.
The day ended off with a little more hill climbing than we had anticipated.. heading into Woodstock, we made a wrong turn that took us down a rather long hill. None of us were too happy to hear the honks from the support van that meant “stop”. We all just KNEW we were going to have to go back up that hill! Thankfully we were well fueled today, and made it up just fine.
Overall, it was a fabulous day. Good food, incredibly scenery, and a few challenges make for very happy riders! I finished off the day happy that I’d been able to ride, but I found myself starting to feel a little sad that the ride was going to be coming to a close so soon. I was starting to realize that we only had one major day of riding left, and then a short ride into Halifax. As frustrated, tired and hungry as I had been on parts of the trip, I was really starting to enjoy myself, and didn’t want it to be ending so soon. After 10 days on a trip like this, your teammates become your family. The ride becomes your life. The cause - the kids, the families… they become more important than ever before. And it seems crazy that a journey that has lasted 8 months, will be coming to a close.
I went to bed that night, vowing that we would make day 11 the best yet!
