July 24, 2017, Day 64, St Andre (at the Big Stop) to Hartland, New Brunswick. 107km

I’m a bit sulky today. Yes, I admit it. It’s one of those days. They’re pretty rare, which is good for everyone around me and for me as well, as I really do have to live with myself.

I awoke from sleeping in a tent ( for the second night in a row)  with a suitcase under my left eye. Not a bag. No, a giant puffy suitcase. Something bit me last night under my eye. Tonight at just past 8pm it’s still there.  It’s not itchy and it’s not permanent either, I know, but it bothers me that it’s there. 

I’m dirty. It’s 3 days since I’ve had a shower. I have a shower every single day and often a second one when I get home from work. I’ve slathered sunscreen all over myself every day. Oh, I have a good wash every night before putting on my (dirty) sleeping shorts and top but it’s not like taking a shower and washing my hair.  All my clothes are also dirty. I haven’t done laundry since Geri and Les’s home and that was ages ago. Whenever we stay in a hotel I hand wash everything but it’s been 3 nights! I’m wearing the same stuff!! 

My bike is not working properly.  The derailer won’t enable me to use either the mid or large sized sprockets. I guess that was ok today because we had hill after hill over super crappy pavement.  There’s no bike shop here in Hartland. There is one listed in Woodstock, NB, on the internet but their phone number has been disconnected. That’s not a good sign. I may end up having to hobble through all the way to Fredericton. 

We are camping again tonight. The only hotel in this little town is full. You can envision how excited I am about this. It’s cold again tonight and I just heard; it might rain!

Charlie is bugging me too because he’s so keen, so chipper and so positive about camping and saving money. 

Other than that, today was ok. Cool to start but eventually it warmed up. We rode into Grand Falls yesterday,    checked out he Falls then, because Charlie had heard there was a Big Stop truck stop back 3 or 4 km from town, we backtracked to go to it. He was envisioning quantity not quality food. In my head I sang : “Mr Bigstop, Who do you think you are, Mr Bigstop, you’re never gonna get my love, Mr Bigstop…..” all the way there and for several hours again this morning. 

Hills. As I said before, we had many hills before us today. These tended to be long, slow hills. We stayed on the Scenic Valley Trail all day, passing towns like Perth-Andover, Florenceville-Bristol, to Hartland. There are many farms, most growing potatoes. There’s a huge McCain plant between St Andre and Grand Falls and then another, even bigger, the original McCains in Florenceville.  That town’s claim to fame is “World’s French Fry Capital”.    There is part of the TransCanada Trail running from Florenceville to Hartland. It’s in terrible condition. We tried it out but left it on our first opportunity.

Hartland is famous for having the “World’s longest covered bridge”. I can see it from here but tomorrow we will cross it. Florenceville has one too but it’s much shorter.  

 Dinner was at a local grocery store. They had an area where people could microwave and eat their food and that’s what we did. Nuking our Stagg hot chili made all the difference.

I am losing it. I need to sleep and soon. Goodnight. I’ll be happier in the morning.