Voices

Day 91. Truro to Pictou and Caribou Island. 69 MI. 5,402 MI TTD. 3,224 ft elevation. Weather perfect

Nova Scotia has what they call the blue routes. It’s a series of rail trails and designated roads for bicycle riding. Of course, all the trails are closed. Today, I left Truro and headed to Pictou on one of the blue route roads. These are pictures of the designated roads. The first 20 miles are the top picture. If that’s a shoulder, then I’m an Olympian. Underneath the blue route sign in picture two is a wide shoulder. It’s a fake-out because it faded just a few miles down the road. Thankfully, there were almost no cars, and everybody was polite. It was a beautiful and pleasant ride through rolling hills.

During my rides, I am always hearing voices. If I don’t have the Ride with GPS app woman chirping in my ear, then I have the Google Maps woman chirping. Sometimes, I have them both on at the same time, and I can tell them apart; I’m so familiar with them. Additionally, I listen to books and scriptures, and so someone’s always talking in my ear. There does not yet appear to be any schizophrenia because all of the voices can be accounted for at this point.

I also have my own voice in my head telling me what I should or shouldn’t do each day. Until today, that voice has always said to go to Newfoundland. After riding in Nova Scotia for the last week, that voice has slowly changed, and today, it started giving me a different message.

My ride brought me to the lovely little town of Pictou. The town and the houses clearly have a Maritime Heritage with lots of boats and plenty of seafood restaurants. It is beautiful. However, when I got here, it was only noon, and I had only ridden 40 miles. To maintain my self-respect, the voice in my head said I needed to go further. A little chat with my AI friend/voice revealed a neat little peninsula called Caribou Island, with a lighthouse at the end.

With everything at sea level or nearly sea level, it was a pretty easy ride out to the end of the peninsula. It was also very pretty with water on either side. The ferry from Caribou to PEI runs near this point, and I could see it just in the distance, although the pictures are poor.

At a narrow part of the peninsula, I could walk 20 yards off the road, and I was in the Atlantic Ocean. As I realized where I was, a voice in my head said I was done. I’d gone from coast to coast. I realized that I’d already been to the Atlantic when crossing the Bay of Fundy by ferry, but this was the edge of the Canadian mainland. It felt like I’d finished.

It wasn’t a time of jubilation. But the voice in my head telling me Newfoundland was the end was being drowned out by the voice telling me I’ve come far enough. I’m not really sure what far enough means, but I’ve been out here for a long time. It seems a bit odd that the voices most familiar to me now are computerized. I like to talk to my loved ones on the phone, but I hear my apps’ voices more than anything else. I’m almost to the point that I want to answer my spam calls just to talk.

The video above was a downhill stretch today where I used the center lines of slalom gates. I could see both directions a very long way, and it wasn’t dangerous. It was just something to make the ride different. And perhaps that’s the real story. The days are becoming too similar. Each province brought something new,  but the last couple of weeks, the new hasn’t been that interesting or different. And Nova Scotia has been a little annoying.

My family’s coming this weekend to ride across PEI with me next week. I’m very much looking forward to time with them and the many voices that aren’t computerized and that are loved. However, I think it’s time to go home with them and let Newfoundland alone.