Day 18: St. John

Day 18: St. John, New Brunswick, Canada

June 30, 2016

Miles: 46

Average Speed 11.3 mph

St. George to St. John


Di and I got up  at 7am.  We got up this early because we were anxious to leave St. George behind us.  I told Di I was reminded of those movies where folks from the city have to hide out in a small country town and they just don't know what to do with themselves.  That was us.

Di weeping with joy because she is leaving St. George soon

It was cool when we left the hotel, about 15 or 16 degrees, and also foggy.  Di had to put a jacket on after a few minutes of riding.

Di in jacket with horses and water

In case you haven't figured it out yet, that 15 or 16 degrees was in the Celsius scale. You'll have to remember your seventh grade science to recall the formula to convert to Farenheit.

We travelled mostly on two roads today.  The first was Route 175 and it was a great road.  There was a large, paved shoulder for us to ride upon and there was very little traffic.  It offered glimpses of the coast and small towns with convenience stores.  

A typical glimpse of the coast

Convenience store where you can buy all sorts of things

The second road was Route 1 and it, too, was a great road to ride upon.  It was a very busy road, however, and did not even provide the courtesy of a single pretty view.

Riding on Rt. 1 (boring, but nice shoulder)

What the two roads had in common in addtion to a wide shoulder is they were both flat.  Yes, flat!  We were shocked.  It seems as if we haven't had even a quarter of a mile of flat road since we left RI, but here we were with just about the entire ride on flat roads.  Wahoo!  We felt we were flying on those flat roads and by 1pm we were only about 8km from St. John (there's that pesky metric system again).  We went in to the visitor centor to look at maps of the area to make sure we knew the way into town and the place was so nice we decided to relax there for a while. 

Hanging at the visitor center (warm with a nice view)

 We had to verify the way into St. John because you can't ride you bike over the Rt. 1 bridge.  You have to take the old Rt. 1 bridge.  So, we had to make our way to the bridge where bikes are allowed, but this worked out great for us because that bridge is built right over the Reversing Falls.  The St. John River empties into the Bay of Fundy at low tide, but at high tide, the water from the Bay of Fundy flows upward into the river. 

St. John River flowing towards the Bay of Fundy

Apparently, this is pretty amazing and important stuff and people from all over the world come to witness and study this phenomenon.  You know it is important because a placard was erected that explained why this phenomenon is so important.  You can read the placard here:

Placard of important stuff

I tried reading the important placard but got bored about half-way through.  It seems like a very pompous way of saying: "At high tide the ocean level is above the river and therefore sea water rushes up the river.  At low tide the ocean level is below that of the river and therefore the river water runs into the sea."  There was only one other couple observing the Reversing Falls and they were really into it.  This was their second visit that day; they had come earlier in the day to watch the river during high tide and now had come back to witness it during low tide.  "You know", the guy said, "if I hadn't been here this morning to see the river flowing in a different direction than it is now, I wouldn't have thought this river so special.  It would seem like any other river."  "Exactly", thought I,  being there for only one tidal experience.  The couple insisted I take pictures of the river even though I thought they would be boring.  Later, when I looked at the pictures, I confirmed that they indeed were boring.  I will spare you the boring river pictures, but here is a picture Di took of the couple exhorting me to take more (boring) pictures.

Picture taking appeasement

We finally resumed riding and shortly after crossing the bridge found the Harbour Passage Trail, a red coloured  biking and walking path that leads right into town.

The bike path with Rt. 1 bridge in the distance (non-bikable)

The path brought us right to the Holiday Inn and we were checked in and in our rooms before 3pm.  That was some easy riding!  We cleaned up and went out to explore the city a bit.

Di and moose

Sculpture of St. John denizens

We found a great place for dinner: The East Coast Bistro.  They offered many locally grown dishes and for Di, organic beer!

Di is very happy to be in St. John and not St. George

Di got a veggie meal and I got me some lamb

We walked around the city a bit after dinner before wending our way back to the hotel.

Di is wending

 As we got closer to out hotel, we saw the road was blocked off because a festival was in progress.

That's our hotel in the distance

There was music

There was even cornhole!

We wondered why this festival was going on and learned that tomorrow is a very important day: Andy, Jen, and Ben are joining us here in St. John!  Okay, that is important to us, but that is not the reason for the festival.  The reason for the festival to to help celebrate Canada Day, which is tomorrow.  Canada Day celebrates the unification of their provinces and the signing of a constitution.  Its a very important day and it made me wonder if that means the coffee shops will be closed tomorrow.

View from the hotel looking at the Bay of Fundy

Tomorrow Andy, Jen and Ben will be here (Wahoo!) and we'll be heading to Nova Scotia.  I've always wanted to go to Nova Scotia and can't wait to get there.