AN ATTRACTIVE DAY :)

​Well, I used to say that I don’t ride in the rain by choice.  If that were true, I would still be in British Columbia.  Now, the consideration is how soon and how hard will it rain?  Is there the possibility of a thunderstorm?  If there is a thunderstorm, is there a place to stop before it strikes?  These are the things I think about before heading out on a rain day. 
 
While it wasn’t raining when I got up, by the time I headed down to load up the second bag, a light rain had begun.  My first mission of the day was to get to Magnetic Hill before a bunch of traffic.  The place I was staying was only 7 kms away, so I got there by 8:30 a.m - before the attraction opened.  The gate to magnetic hill was open so I went over to check it out and it didn’t work.  Figured I must be doing something wrong, or maybe it just didn’t work on bikes.   I decided I would go over the little covered bridge into the Magnetic Hill Wharf where there were some tourist shops and cafes.  I stopped for a latte and a muffin before heading back around to try again.  This time, when I got there, the gate was down and admission was required.  When I pulled up, I asked if it worked for bikes and they said yes and bikes were free!  This time, with proper instruction from the staff, it worked!  I think it would be cooler in a car because it pulls you back up the hill backwards.  But it was still pretty cool to ride down to the bottom of the hill, turn around and put the bike in neutral, and get pulled back up the hill at a speed as fast as 18 kms/hr.  Neato!   Apparently it is an optical illusion but despite having read all the science around it, it is still some mystical magic to me. 
 
Knowing that I only had 2.5 hours on the agenda today, I intended to make my destination of St. George, NB for a visit with Candice and Greg.   We were only on the road for a few minutes before the rain started to mean business and came down steadily.  Fog settled over the road now and then, but didn’t affect visibility much.  The highway was twinned, so I stuck to the right-hand lane and kept my speed down.  Then it lightened up for a bit.  Just enough to lull us into thinking it might be a decent ride yet.  Then about 30 minutes out of St. John, the rain absolutely hammered down.  On went the hazard light and down came the speed, as did that of all the vehicles around me.  There was nothing to do but ride it out.   When I actually arrived in St. John, the rain lightened up again, so we kept riding. 
 
Arriving in St. George, I gratefully stopped to fuel up and headed over to Uncle Mayne’s for a bit of lunch.  I ordered some shrimp and coleslaw and it was pretty awesome!  Candice met me there and led me out to their house, which is a little way out of town.  Fury is in a garage!  Got unloaded and settled in some pretty nice digs. 
 
Greg made a great dinner of roast chicken and veggies and we went for a bit of a drive around St. George.  Out to the lighthouse and through the town, which like so many I have seen along the road, has lots of character in its buildings and probably its people too.  😊   Good thing we went on this little tour or I would only have had 3 pathetic pictures to post today, along with my magnetic hill video!  Looking forward to tomorrow’s explorations.