Day 20 - The Atlantic Ocean! And, some days we win!

miles today: 71 total miles: 1,236 km today: 115 total km: 1,989

Today was a day of transitions - moving from our last rest day to our final 5-day push of riding, starting to ride in New Brunswick, leaving the Appalacians and the St. Lawrence for the Atlantic Coast and the Maritimes, entering a timezone (Maritime!) that we didn’t even know exists (!). The road signs even knew to remind us.

We awoke to the sound of heavy rain as we hit snooze on my phone and luxriated in a warm comfortable bed for just a little bit longer. After coffee, straightening up at the AirBnB, and packing up, we headed to a bike shop for just a couple more tubes. Talking to the guy working there, we shared a knowing laugh about potholes in Quebec - “Of course you got loads of flats there”. To be fair, the bike infrastructure in Quebec was insanely great! But wow - when the roads were rough, they were really rough! The roads here already seem smoother. As we mentioned before, we’ve found the rain forecasts to vary quite a bit, but the wind has been really accurate, and what we saw was a 12-18 kph tailwind forecast for today through the next two days - so even getting a bit of a late start, we were stoked to get out into it!

The riding along to Restigouche River from Cambellton was gorgeous!

At Dallhousie (northernmost point in New Brunswick, for those tracking such things at home), even though we were tecnically in a bay (Chaleur Bay, so-named by a Jacques Cartier in 1534) we declared this the beginning of riding along the Atlantic Ocean (so-declared by Mike and Chandra in 2023). They even provided a super-cheezy picture frame for photos which, naturally, we jumped on. We also enjoyed an early lunch, including the world’s longest gorp bag and a little sample of the tailwind.


From there, we hugged the coast going southeast and ultimately more south (just as the wind was switching from WNW to NW). Check out how effortlessly we are maintaining 29 kph in this video on a straight, flat, perfectly smooth road!

We saw very few Maple Leaf Flags in Quebec, but in New Brunswick we are seeing them again, but often paired with the NB flag. More importantly, they are flutter in a favorable direction for us!

So we made insanely fast time along the coast, arriving at camp before 5pm even though we left after 1030 am. To paraphrase something I’ve said before (from our old friend Coach), you can’t hate the hard days. That doesn’t mean you can’t like the easy days more, but you have to find ways to embrace the hard days. We’ve been loving all the days out here - hard and easy, headwinds and tailwinds, smooth sailing and mechanicals. It’s all part of the journey, and the journey is why we are here.

We realized today that, save for our 2-month ride from San Francisco to Madison nearly 20 years ago, this is the longest bike trip we’ve been on. It’s winding down in ways, topics like bike box logistics, airport taxis, flights, and even plans for next week at home creep into our conversations. But, at the same time, we are in the rhythm of the road. We are dancing together among logistics of packing and loading, setting up camp, fixing the bike, cooking - all these things. Some we have kind of distinct roles, and some we just pass back and forth as we go. It’s a simpler existence, sprinkled with complications and challenged, and we are our best selves and our best team on the bike together. Beautiful Teamwork. So we allow these end-of-trip convesations to make their way into our life, but we also relish every hour of being here, discovering, solving problems, and celebrating the beauty around us.

Speaking of beauty around us, Chandra picked up this beer for a happy hour cribage game this late afternoon. In addition to reminding us of a nickname for our great friend Tom, it was quite refreshing as well!

So it’s off to sleep with predictions of no rain and tailwinds for at least the next two days. Always waiting for a curveball, but also happy to consider getting good days to enjoy as well!