July 15, 2014
Pulling up behind a car at the first intersection this morning, I got a sharp rebuke of sorts for my griping yesterday. The motto on the New Brunswick license plate was “Be…In this Place” (and the French version which I didn’t memorize). It was like the universe tapping me on my nose to remind me the whole point of the trip was to experience the different parts of Canada. Sometimes what you wish for entails a little more than you intended. New Brunswick certainly falls in that category. I tried my utmost to settle into the idea of cycling through this province but it is darned hard. The hills are unrelenting and frankly the communities are rather threadbare around the edges. The roads along the river are dotted with the remnants of a more prosperous past: grand old homes constructed primarily of wood but now falling apart or boarded up, a variety of old graveyards though often the churches are no longer standing. I read someone online describe New Brunswick as the Deep East. It feels right but Appalachia has come to mind numerous time. Many of the newer homes are trailer homes, which gives you some sense for the scene.
The province dropped the phrase in 2011 as people were not resonating with it. Be…In this Place is probably not the best tourism slogan but as an invitation for contemplation not bad. It’s no easy task to just be, even on the bike. My problem usually involves becoming obsessed with reach my destination, especially today when I wanted to get to a bike shop in Fredericton before it closed. I wasn’t completely oblivious to the places I traveled. There’s quite a bit of wind damage the further south I go. Thankfully the roads have been cleared by now. Not everyone has their power restored and some community centres and fire halls remain open to the public for showers and charging cell phones and the like. I could have used that on a few occasions.
Road Report: 126km.
As already noted, this is hill country. The shoulders on the highway come and go. On the sections of the old Transcanada highway there’s usually a shoulder but the conditions vary. New Brunswick doesn’t have the best roads. They have an interesting way of patching the pavement so that it looks like a giant spread the asphalt on the road with a butter knife over multiple years. At least the transport traffic is on the Transcanada, leaving me in peace.