Day 14: Friday June 29
Copyright(c) 2007, Jim Beachy
I don’t have a good route for today’s ride. I tried to create a GPS route but the intricacies of the route changes and trying to follow the Points East trail are finally too much for me and I succumb to digging out my old “$14 GPS,” a simple Hopnel tank bag map holder. I think that since switching to GPS, this is the first time I’ve actually using my old map holder. I always carry it with me on our two-up trips in case of a technology failure.
After breakfast, I fasten the map holder to the GPS mounting stalk and review the unfamiliar technique of actually reading a paper map. I will still use the GPS to see where I actually am, but will use the map for overall context. Under overcast skies, we strike off on Rt. 3 toward Georgetown and then double back on Rt. 342. The Points East route is marked by starfish signs, and we follow the starfish into every little harbor, nook, and cranny. Some of the road surface is rough, but we ease on through and are treated to some nice views of the sea interspersed with deeply-hilled potato fields and occasional hay fields. We see quite a few beef cattle, not so many dairy cattle.
Prince Edward Island, like Nova Scotia, is dotted with public Internet sites. Last night I took the time to program my GPS with all the locations in the province, so that wherever I am, I can find the nearest Internet site. In Souris (pronounced soor-ee) is one of those sites, so I copy yesterday’s report onto my jump drive and upload it using the Information Center’s computer. This creates formatting problems for the message that goes to the WOTI list, and I haven’t yet deciphered a way to avoid this.
I try to check my lights and tires at almost every opportunity. This morning both my low-beam headlights were working when I checked the reflection in the motel door, but now as I run into Souris behind a van, I notice that the left headlight is burned out. I dig out the Gold book and find one dealer in Prince Edward Island, in Summerside. Cell phone service is pretty much non-existent out here, but I will try to call them later today to see if they could replace the light tomorrow. I could do it on the road but having to dismantle the fairing isn’t something I’d relish with the tools I brought.
By chance, we happen into the Annandale harbor to find it teeming with activity. Prince Edward Island, like Nova Scotia, rotates its lobster season and tomorrow is the last day of the season for the eastern part of the island. The boats are hauling out their lobster traps for the last time and stowing them on the docks. We can scarcely see around the lobster traps piled 10 feet high or more. This is the first time I’ve had opportunity to have a first-hand close-up look at how all this works, and we spend quite a while talking to people and learning a lot about lobster-fishing. We talk to a man who I take as maybe the harbor-master, but he’s a buyer
here to buy the last catch of the season. He looks entirely Scottish; I fail to catch his name but he looks like it should be MacDougal or MacMillan (they always use the full “Mac” in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island) with his walrus mustache, red hair, and freckles. He says there are 39 boats in this small harbor, each with 300 lobster traps, hooked together in sets of six. Much of the catch is sent to Halifax, where 15,000 pounds of lobster are exported daily to Europe. I ask the guy how much a lobster boat would cost. He says about $100,000, then another $100,000 for the fishing license. This cost can be recouped, he says, in five or six years of good seasons.
After shooting about 20 photographs, one or two of which I hope might be photo quality, we ride on to the East Point Lighthouse, which is literally on the eastern point of the island. The temperature is cool and the breeze is brisk, but the cloud cover has dissipated and we are under an umbrella of blue for most of the day. At the lighthouse, there is no cell phone service but I can use their phone with my calling card to cal DBL Dream Machines in Summerside to see if they could replace my headlight bulb. It turns out they just used the last of their stock and aren’t sure when a new shipment might arrive. I will check tomorrow morning, but am resigned to riding home with one low-beam headlight. I guess bouncing around on these secondary roads for over a week takes its toll. 
It’s after 1:00 PM and we’ve barely started our route for the day, so we pull away and continue to follow the starfish.
Running along the northern coast of the island on Rt. 4, we are treated to many vistas of large fields of newly-planted potatoes against the deep blue backdrop of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. There are other crops as well but it clear that potato is king here. We ride for miles along a road that is sometimes long and straight and sometimes with sweeping, easy curves. This is not a challenging ride in any sense but is just a lovely slow-down day that infuses a sense of well-being and “country”
into the soul. Perhaps the constant presence of the sea, making an appearance around nearly every curve, adds to the peaceful feeling. The fields that are not planted with potatoes are filled with grass and hay crops, some of which are a brilliant, almost lime-colored green. I’m not sure what that crop might be. I’m starting to understand why the ads for Prince Edward Island call it the “Gentle Island.” It just feels good to be here, and Kitty is relishing the green country scenery.Without an active GPS route, and since I usually depend on the GPS voice to alert me for upcoming turns, I sometimes miss a turn, and I’m out of practice reading a paper map. I overshoot probably four or five times in the course of the ride and become rather adept at turning around the bike and trailer in the width of a narrow two-lane road. I get a good workout practicing what I learned from John Garner, which is to look where you want to go, not where you are going. So I practice snapping my head around over my shoulder, looking at a spot on the road where I want the bike to be, and simply riding it through the tight turns. Amazing as it seems, it works every time. Riding single, I could do this on a two-lane secondary road pretty much all the time. However, doing it two-up and towing a trailer adds a bit of uncertainty and saps my confidence a bit, so there’s a time or two that I chicken out, stop, back up the bike, and then finish the turn.
We catch Rt. 15 and roll into Cavendish, the home of “Anne of Green Gables.” Neither Kitty nor I are huge fans of the Anne of Green Gables phenomenon, but we stop at the visitor center for a few minutes before riding on to Summerside, still following the starfish, where on general principle we go to the information center located on the harbor waterfront. Right across the street is the Loyalist Lakeview Inn. By now it’s after 7:00 PM and without reservations, I don’t expect to find a room here, or at least not one in the price range we are willing to pay. But we have the reservations agent call the place and are pleasantly surprised to find they not only have a room but the AAA rate is less than we’ve paid since we entered Canada. (Most establishments in Canada give discounts for membership in the Canadian Automobile Association, but not all of these honor American Automobile Association membership.) This turns out to be the nicest room we’ve had, a huge room with a sofa and a spectacular view of the waterfront. There’s wireless Internet service. Sold!
We walk to the Lobster House at the Shipyard Market and have another lobster supper, just to verify that lobster is still the best food in the world. Nothing has changed. It is. Once again, the full moon casts nighttime highlights over the sparkling waterfront as I sit by the open hotel window writing this report. Another near-perfect day.
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