Wednesday, Aug 19
Temperature: High 72°F / Low 66°F
Conditions: Cloudy; slight drizzle at times
Distance Walked: 20.9k
Experience of the Day
We spent three nights at the North Lake Beach Motel with our hosts, Tracy and Dave. Tracy did an excellent job of managing all of the rooms; they were spotless and had nice personal touches. Dave shuttled us to the trail and gave us a nice commentary along the way. As it turns out, one of the only other small motels I've stayed at in Canada, the Erie Beach Hotel, is one of their all-time favorite places. It's funny how you can meet people and once you get to talking you find out you have things in common.
I checked the weather, and it looked like we would be mostly okay, but it did say 97% humidity at that moment. Dave dropped us off at Elliott's General Store in Bothwell and we started for Souris. Therese rode the bike, Kate took the lead with her quick stride, I was next in line, and Linda and Nina meandered along taking photos along the way. Not one to refuse a museum, I decided to head down to the Basin Head Fisheries Museum where I met up with Therese and we explored the docks and looked out at the ocean together. I stayed for the tour, which was made by Hunter who did an excellent job. He was extremely thorough and taught me a lot about lobsters and the canning industry. As it turns out, back in the old days fisherman could barely get a penny of lobster. Some people bought lobster to feed to their animals, it was not something that was desired. But all that changed at some point and now lobster fishing is big business. The B-52s came to mind even though I know Rock lobster is not what you find on PEI!
Taking a few minutes to chit chat with the people at the front desk and to eat my lunch inside out of the mist ended up being quite fortuitous. Janine, the lady in charge, was ever so kind and after she heard what I was doing was more than happy to drive me back up to the highway so I could continue my Island Walk. I was pretty happy about that because I still had a long way to go today and I knew at some point I would hit rain.
Janine had kindly described the roads I would be walking on, Therese had sent me a text telling me about the wet red road, and Linda texted me to warn me about how slippery it was. So I cautiously made my way down the red road. For some reason I started thinking about a song, "Red, red mud...."
At one point there was what appeared to be a big field with nothing in particular growing on it. But there were a lot of scarecrows out there. I couldn't figure out what it was until I got up close and then all of a sudden I could see there were a million blueberries. They were growing right into the road, so I stooped over to look at them and tasted a couple. They were so wonderfully sweet. Sweet! I could not imagine why they had not been harvested as it seemed that they would spoil. Another song came to mind: "Blueberry fields forever..."
Made it to Souris and found the others all settled in at the Shanty Stay. The other day I had asked a question on FB about the ceilidh that was being held tonight in Souris but I hadn't heard anything back. We had stopped at the drugstore looking for motion sickness pill and two locals were helping us decide what to buy. We made our decision and then chatted for a few minutes with a lady. She mentioned the music tonight. I said yes we planned to go. Then she looks at me and says:
What's your name?
Lynn
She got very excited because she had just responded to my post from yesterday with the location.
Next thing you know, she wants to know where we are staying, and so forth. We told her about the walk and how Billy in Charlottetown had taken such good care of us.
I said: you don't by any chance know Billy B do you?
As a matter of fact I do!
And then she told me the story of how she knew Billy.
Someone told me there are only 2 degrees of separation on this island. I believe it.
We had dinner at the Tipsy Farmer and stopped in for music at Silver Threads. We really wanted to get back to the Shanty Stay because we were so.tired, but I had purchased two 50/50 tickets and our new friend Shirley insisted we stay. I was already outside with our friends when Therese walks out and announces that we won $40!
 |
| Day 24: Bothwell to Souris, 20.9k |
Meals & Accommodation
- Breakfast: Yogurt, blueberries, roll, peanut butter, banana, coffee
- Lunch: Roll, peanut butter, banana, apple, cashews, Gatorade, blueberries
- Dinner @ The Tipsy Farmer: Roasted Mushroom Ravoli with a Toasted Walnut, Sage & Parmesan Cream Sauce with Garlic Bread, side salad, and the Sticky Toffee Pudding served with homemade rum caramel sauce & vanilla ice cream (Lynn). Classic Hamburger with Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato & Onion on an O'Dough's GF bun with a Caesar salad (Therese).
Lodging: Shanty Stay