Day 41: Edmundston, New Brunswick - Rest Day

Day 41: Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada

July 23, 2016

Miles: 0
 
Edmunston, NB

  
Today was a much needed rest day. We woke at 10:30a this morning, then checked out of the hotel by 12:00pm. We stayed at the Four Point Marriot hotel last night to only check out this morning and to check into the Comfort Inn later in the afternoon.  A grand wedding was happening and the guests apparently booked most of the town's hotel rooms for Saturday night.  I say grand because there is also a Best Western in Edmunston that was fully booked, so I have deduced that the wedding was very large.  At least that is what the woman at the Marriot told me.  We had no choice but to move hotels, otherwise, we would have preferred to stay in downtown Edmunston at the Marriot.  We are now at the Comfort Inn, which is located 2 miles away from downtown.  The upside is that it offers a self-service laundry room where the Marriot did not.  Even with the convenience of a laundry room available to us, we would have prefered to stay in the Four Point. Basically a nicer hotel with a restaurant and located in the center of town. I guess we only have ourselves to blame since we made a Friday and Saturday night reservation only one day prior.  We should have known better!

A few interesting things about Edmunston. It is less than 1 mile away from the Maine border and it is 22 miles away from the Quebec border, and it is the first Canadian town that we have visited so far that has French as it's first language and English as its second.  All other towns had English as its first language and French as its second. Street names, signage and menus are written in French, with the English translation second.  As we continue into Quebec, we have been told, this will be more prevailent.  We were also told that we will find much better food in Quebec as well.  This we are looking forward to!

This is a view of downtown Edmundston from our Marriot hotel room.

Edmunston, a great little town

Now after 41 days on the road, a routine has set in.  Particularly, on rest days - we do laundry; we find a cafe with good coffee; we find sustenance; we play cribbage; and we explore the town.  Not necessarily in this order. 

Our first and only stop today was here at the Lotus Bleu Cafe.  It had all that we needed.  Great coffee, breakfast food, lunch food and a great environment to play cribbage.  And since it was located in downtown Edmunston, we explored what we could from our seats.

We both had falafel sandwiches; for breakfast we had bagels

After we ate breakfast, we did nothing but talk about Trump's speech, the republican convention, Hillary's choice for her running mate, and what Hillary's strategy should be while debating Trump.  After we ate lunch, we settled into playing a game of cribbage.  Steve reviewed the rules and point system with me once again, then we agreed this game counted.  

Hey, I'm getting good at this.

Now we both agreed, that winning at cribbage is all about doing two things well.  You have to know how to play your hand best to rack up the most number of points, and second, well basically, you have to be dealt a good hand. And sometimes you win because you have out strategized your opponent at playing your hand, and other times you win because you were dealt the best cards.  

So what does this face tell you.  Steve's favorite color is green, and mine - hmm ... I don't have a favorite color, but I do like blue so my peg color was blue.  I guess I was dealt the best hands!

Steve has taught me well

I know it is just beginner's luck, so I celebrated a little. And Steve really didn't appreciate my cheers and victory dance afterward, but I really didn't expect to win. When Steve said to me 'now, don't rub it in', I quickly got the hint. Perhaps, I went a little too far!

Shortly after finishing the game, we hopped on our bikes and headed over to the Comfort Inn. This is a view of Edmundston from the Comfort Inn.

Edmunston, a hilly place

Since I have posted this blog entry early tonight, and it being before dinner, I cannot describe or write anything about our dinner.  I can only tell you that it will not be room service, and that I know because the Comfort Inn doesn't offer room service.


We are off to Cabano tomorrow riding 39 miles, the first town we will stay in Quebec.