A PEOPLE-MEETING DAY!

It was nice to be able to sleep in a bit today!  After making sure we got pictures of Patricia with the Fury, I headed out to meet Art, who lives along the road to Peggy’s Cove.  He is my brother-in-law’s (Terry’s) brother.  I met Art and his son Trevor at their place and we had such a good conversation over coffee that I wasn’t paying attention to the time and more of it ran away than I had planned.  But it was totally worth it and I texted Terry’s other brother, Reg to tell him and Ella that I would be arriving at their place at the end of the day later than originally planned. 
 
Being already half-way there, it didn’t take long to get to Peggy’s Cove.  The road out winds through several small villages and has one beautiful view after another.  This is a good thing, because it is also covered with traffic – the views are so lovely you don’t mind going slow.  In the back of my mind, I could hear someone telling me “make sure you stop and visit the……along the way”, but could not recall what.  I knew when I came upon it though – it was the Swiss Air Flight 111 memorial.  On September 2, 1998, this flight crashed into the Atlantic between Peggy’s Cove and Bayswater, Nova Scotia.  All 229 people on board were killed.  The memorial stands atop a hill along a boulder-strewn path that looks like a Viking shore, overlooking the Atlantic.  Very powerful site. 
 
It was at this site that I met Mike, his daughter Stephanie and “the London giant” Alex.  😊  (He was a tall lad).  They were pretty stoked about my adventure and we had a great time chatting!   It’s always fun to meet people who are excited about the adventure. 
 
Carrying on down the road, I arrived at Peggy’s Cove, which was extremely busy with tourist traffic.  I found a spot to park in the lot fairly easily though, as there is always someone who parks over a line and leaves enough room for a bike where a car can’t do it.   While the lighthouse is very picturesque, it was not the lighthouse that made Peggy’s Cove special for me – it was the rocks and the ocean.  The massive granite shore is quite the site to behold and then walking up the rocks towards the lighthouse, you are greeted by the power of the ocean.  Then, as I walked further and over the other side, even more beauty.  As always, I was captivated by the surf crashing onto the rocks.  The Atlantic ocean has a very different feel than the Pacific – wilder and thrilling, while letting you know without a doubt who is in control in this environment.   I spent more time than I planned to just sitting on the rocks letting the ocean hypnotize me. 
 
When I came to my sense of time, I realized I would not make Lunenberg today, so I determined to ride onto Chester, which was only another 40 minutes up the road.  As we headed out, the fog rolled in and we darted in and out of the fog as we navigated the beautiful, twisty road to Chester.  It was exhilarating to fly along through all the pretty little villages, cloaked in fog.  I felt like a pirate – pressing through the fog to sneak up on the next village to fall prey to our adventure! 
Arriving in Chester, I thought I should stop at the Fo’c’sle, which claims to be Nova Scotia’s oldest pub, established in 1764.  While waiting for my bite to eat, I heard the people at the next table say something about travelling the country and one guy said “you should do it on your motorcycle”.   I inserted myself into their conversation by saying “It takes about 4 months!” and so met Sheldon, Ron and Cale.  They were also keen to hear about the adventure.  Cale and his girlfriend have done much more adventurous travelling through foreign countries – South America, I believe he said.   
 
While we were chatting, my small bowl of soup arrived, along with the carrot/cheesecake layer cake…..why have I never thought of this?!   Both the seafood chowder and the cake were delicious. 
 
It had begun to rain while I took my break, and the sky had darkened dramatically.   I looked at Fury and said “well, what do you think?”  She just growled “I am a dragon, with a pirate on my back.  Nothing shall bar our path today!”  (I might have been letting my imagination run away with me.  😊).  So we gathered our booty of twisty roads and beautiful views and pictures, and off we went. 
 
By the time we were back on the road, it had started to pelt us pretty good.  It seems Mother Nature sees fit to end every day with a soaking just to make sure we are paying attention.  After a few minutes, as we rode back towards Halifax the rain stopped and the roads dried.  And a dense fog settled in.  Welcome to the east coast. 
 
Arriving at Reg and Ella’s about 6:00 p.m., I called to tell them I had arrived and in doing so, realized I had texted the wrong number earlier in the day!  So I felt like a real heel because of course, they never got the message that I would be 2 hours later than expected!  Their grandson Logan is visiting and was probably cursing me for delaying dinner.  My sin was graciously forgiven and Fury is tucked safely away in the underground parking.  Since I had spoiled the plans for going out for dinner, Ella prepared an impromptu frittata with fresh tomatoes and all kinds of good things.  We had a good visit before and over dinner and then had a walk around the harbour front to walk off the day’s ride.   Fruit salad and frozen yogurt have proven a great way to end the day!  Time for some R & R now.  Until tomorrow, adventure-seekers!