Day 78: Counting Beans (Red Lake – Badger)

July 26, 2014

Can you guess what this statue is? And no I'm not standing on the wrong side of it. (grebeci)
Can you guess what this statue is? And no I’m not standing on the wrong side of it. (grebeci)

Over the summer my thoughts would occasionally play with the idea of getting to St John’s. It was a fun diversion for the moment. Now I’m obsessed with getting to the end. I’m counting the days until I’ll get there, looking for ways to add a few kilometers to each day and maybe shave a day off the end, and imagining myself there to see if I can feel what it’ll be like. What a joyous occasion it’ll be. There are no shortcuts to St. John’s anymore but I’m mentally axing all the extras to get back to Boston.

I’ve committed myself to cycling back to Boston, which is a bit of a curse as the idea of just flying home is so tempting. That possibility has gotten quite a bit of airtime lately but I refuse to wimp out in the waning hours of this trip. I will persevere! In the meantime, the detour to Halifax is off the table. The side trip to St Pierre and Miquelon, the last French territory in North America, is definitely not happening as it’d add a week to the trip. Even the Transcanada highway back through Nova Scotia looks appealing from here.

Finally, a note about camping on weekends. I’m not fond of it. During the week campgrounds are relatively empty but for the seasonal RVs and a few people out for the week. But on the weekend they’re full of people doing this for fun, which usually includes a lot of kids. And the kids aren’t as bad as their parents. The people beside me are rather loud and talk about helicopter parenting. They’re yelling what the kids are allowed to do or not evening during play! How are these kids ever going to function on their own? There’s something to be said for a little hands-off parenting, at least for the sanity of the people camping beside you. Thankfully, I can sleeping through a stampede so they’ll be dead to me soon enough.

With open road like this, smooth pavements, and the wind at your back, it's a snappy 5k.
With open road like this, smooth pavements, and the wind at your back, it’s a snappy 5k.


Road Report: 173km
Yesterday’s miserable hills flattened out for some glorious long runs. With a tail wind, it’s almost like cycling in a different country. There are ups and down but a great day with excellent shoulders.

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