Day 23 - French River to Charlottetown

60.5 km - Total so far 1,732.90 km 

RDWGPS: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/15262166

Relive: https://www.relive.cc/view/g12233248438

The video below will give you some idea of the winds yesterday afternoon that forced us to throw in the towel and stop in French River Wharf.

We left our semi-wild campsite pretty early to get away from the mosquitoes. Interestingly enough, we were told that it was okay to put up the tent in the neighbours yard as they were away, home in Ontario. Guess what, they showed up. They did not approach us but I am sure they might have words with our host about it later. 

We believe this to be oyster farming. We repeatedly saw this as
we went over the bridges in estuaries

We were desperately looking for a restaurant and stumbled onto the Sou'West restaurant in New London Wharf. When I walked in, the owner told me that they did not open till 11 am and asked me what I wanted. When I responded 'just coffee" he said okay and put on a pot just for us. The owner was at work early in order to clean up and do the dishes as they had lost power the night before and had to send everyone home. We had a good chat with Alan (Brennan) and he told us quite a bit about his restaurant and the changes he had made since taking over. He stated that the place was really popular with the locals and that in turn brings in the tourists. He told us to just help ourselves to the coffee and enjoy the scenery. The restaurant faces the estuary and is next to wharf were the boats bring in all of the seafood on the menu. As we left and tried to pay for coffee, Alan wished us a safe journey. Well worth a stop, Lucy Maude Montgomery was born nearby in New London, just up the hill from the Sou'West.

The Sou'West Restaurant, New London Wharf .

One of five blackbirds standing on submerged posts taking it easy

We think those black boxes are part of oyster farms 

The Central Coastal Drive makes for a really nice bike ride. You get to coast down the hill onto the bridge across the estuary and up hill onto the next one. Repeated many times today

They have more than seafood and cottages for rent in PEI.
Looking at these guys we suspect they may also have a dairy industry.
We have yet to see a "fromagerie". 

For the folks in Building 34, this is the mandatory "Agriculture and Agri-food Canada" for this trip. The picture is of the Charlottetown Research and Development Centre.

 On the road where the R&D Centre is located, we were stopped by two avid cyclists (Bev and Jean) and had a grand chat about our trip and the trip they were contemplating. They are both looking at cycling from Ottawa to Charlottetown in the near future. We suggested that they consider doing the reverse as once you get past the midpoint, you trip ends up being all about getting home. Doing it the other way is all about new experiences right to the very last day. Decide what direction is best for you and enjoy it to the fullest. Above all be safe.

We had decided that while in Charlottetown, we would go to the UPS Store, get a big box and ship the trailer home. Guess what! They don't have boxes at the UPS store in PEI unlike the stores in other provinces. We were fortunate in that a customer could not load the items he had picked up if they remained in the boxes. So once again, we recycled someone else's boxes and built one for ourselves. We are getting so much better at that.

The last time we build a trailer box on this trip

We are taking a one day break tomorrow and will visit the sites in the birthplace of Confederation. 


37.59 miles - Total so far 1,076.77 miles