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Deb & Walt bicycle Nova Scotia! Starting in Portland Maine, and then continuing through Newfoundland and back! Page 6: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine Boston, and Alaska!! |
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got back to North Sydney, and then we had to rent a car to get started
back to Boston. We needed something big enough to hold our
bikes.
We planned to Drive back through Nova Scotia to St Johns, New Brunswick and start biking back to Mark and Eileen in Maine. Here Deb is calling all over trying to find such a vehicle. |
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We
finally found one in the main town of Sydney. That was about
twenty miles away, so we hopped on the bikes and rode over to get it.
We drove to across Nova Scotia and had to get gas just across the New Brunswick border. I was pumping the gas when I suddenly realized that is was being covered with mosquitoes! I was dancing around whacking at them, and Deb, still in the car, wondered what was wrong with me... I have never seen thicker mosquitoes anywhere... and I've seen a few mosquitoes in my day! |
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reached St. John's late. At this point, in the last three and a
half days, we had driven over 1200 miles, and taken two six-hour ferry
rides. We were ready to get back on our bikes!
It was quite foggy as we headed out of St Johns down the coast to Maine. |
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But the fog was only right on the coast... When the road turned a mille or so inland... |
| It looked like this. It was hard to believe it was the same day! | 
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The scenery was pretty and the Canadian roads were very good. |
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spent the night in St Stephen, right next to the border.
I didn't realize it before, but New Brunswick had been largely settled by Americans who, during the revolution, had remained loyal to the British Crown. When the war had been decided against their favor, many left; some voluntarily, and some driven; and settled up here. I am standing in front of a Loyalist Graveyard, where only such loyalist refugees were buried ... |
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In the morning we rode through Downtown St. Stephen, at the end of this street you turn left to go through customs.. |
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customs line... We actually didn't have to go through the line,
they motioned us forward in a few second. We expected to get
grilled, but they just asked who we were and sent us on our way....
I would not recommend Northern Maine for cycling.. Not on Highway One, anyway. Traffic was heavy, and shoulders were rare. Using all your concentration to stay alive detracts from your photography. We finished they day after about seventy miles at Machias. We were running out of time, so we decided to rent car there and drive back to Mark and Eileen's. |
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There
were no cars to rent in Machias, so we wound up renting a Ryder
truck! It did the job...
Here we are at Mark and Eileen's house posing for our 'after' picture! Click here, or on the picture to see graphic proof of how much darker we had gotten on the tour!! |
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boxed up the bikes, and Fedex'd them off to Anchorage. We rented another
car, an actual car this time, and drove down to Boston to fly home.
We had a day, so we toured Boston a little. Here is Deb next to the Boston Commons... |
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We drove out to Lexington to soak in a little history. Here I
stand on the Lexington Green where the American Revolution started with
Paul Revere, the Minutemen, the shot heard round the world, etc.
Its hard to believe such an innocuous place had such an important past. It looked like a great place to play a pickup football game. If only the Kennedy family had been around....
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| A torrential rainstorm hit us in Boston, only moments after we had gotten into the car. This is an actual photo of the rain.. | 
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Boston is a mind boggling place to drive anyway, and while the storm raged all we could do was go with traffic. Finally the storm abated somewhat, and we tried to navigate again. Lacking anything but a MOST rudimentary map, it probably was an hour before we really knew were we were again. |
| Eventually we were once again safe in our hotel room. In the morning we were to fly home. | 
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Coming into Anchorage, we had a great view! Dead center in this photo is Flattop Mountain which Deb and I climb a couple of times a week for exercise! |
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Anchorage, Alaska! Home sweet home! At top left is the airport... We swoop around, make a U-turn and we are down. Our neighborhood is below the airport, just a little to the left of the center of the photo. Another great adventure complete, and now recorded for posterity. Nova Scotia and Newfound are at the top of our Most Recommended list! We really want to get back to Newfoundland! Stay tuned for our next adventure! |
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