[ Day 34 ] Monday, July 20, Charlottetown to Rusticoville (33km)

Origin: Brittany Cole
Destination: Pines Motel

Route: (Presented as we read it today off the 'cue sheet' we prepared and printed before the trip)
NE on Nasau crossing Queen St.--300m.
L onto University Ave. which becomes Malpeque Rd., passing University--5.4km, crossing over TransCanada highway--Malpeque Rd/highway 2.
At Winsloe, slight right onto Winsloe Rd/PE223--12.8km
In Oyster Bed, L onto Portage Rd 400m
R onto PE 6--8.7km through Cymbria, Rustico
L onto Snowie Rd after bridge, destination on left 33m.

Weather: cool, cloudy, showers rain.

So here's how the day is ending. We just came back to Pines Motel with Pat and Bill. We had dinner with them at The Blue Mussel (Marney had scallops, Bob ate house salad with lobster mixed in.) We started to dinner walking the 100 yards from our room to the restaurant across the street. We never got there because we could see no cars, no lights. Hmm, closed Mondays. What to do? OK, we'll go back for our bicycles (reluctantly) and go to North Rustico (4.5 km) and get back before it gets too dark. That's why we travel with lights, right? Almost to our room a car starts up and almost passes us before Bob waves it down. 

"Do you know where the closest open restaurant is?"She waves a brochure out the window, "He told us this place up the road is good." "Well, um, could we catch a ride with you?" The driver is heard to say, "No!"

Yes, they are Pat and Bill from San Diego. We had a delightful dinner with them, our conversation finding many points of mutual interest, experience, and good humor. Often it pays to be needy.

As for the early parts of the day: Without the panniers on, we biked the several blocks to downtown Charlottetown, had breakfast at Casa Mia (owner Gina was born in Ecuador, moving with her family to Canada when she was 4), rode briefly around the historic part of the town, stopped in at a bike shop for bike lubes and to solve a squeak, and then loaded the bikes to head to the island's north coast. The rain started in earnest in Oyster Bay; we stopped for lunch in Rustico, after which the showers stopped and we completed the short distance remaining.