Priscilla meets even more really lovely people

So Priscilla sent a few more details about yesterday.

Total distance covered: 94.06 miles

Total ride time: 8:39:43

Average speed: 10.99 mph

Maximum speed: 33.9 mph

And more about the yard in which she camped: after biking for ages and butt-numbing ages (she didn't complain or seem to see a problem with this-- that negativity is my own added slant), she decided to carry on to the town (I think) of Bible Hill, and specifically a street called Mulberry Terrace on the far side of the town so as to get a head start today.

When she actually reached Mulberry Terrace, it was growing dark and Priscilla was growing tired (ya think?!?), so she made up her mind to stop at the first house she found with a light on, knock on the door, and ask permission to camp in the yard and maybe use the bathroom. So she found a light, she stopped, she knocked...

Meanwhile, inside the very same house, the MacDonald/Comeau family was merrily going about their business (which, on this Thursday night, consisted of baths for the children, Nicholas and Lilly), when there was a knock at the door. Colin, their dad, went to the door and who should he find standing on the porch, but our very own Priscilla Driscoll! She explained her situation, and he invited her inside. Mary, their mom, sat Priscilla down to supper, put her dirty clothes in the wash, and lent her their internet connection.

Nicholas and Lilly were pretty excited about their unexpected visitor, and from her tent this morning Priscilla heard a small voice saying he wanted to see her again. She crawled out of the tent and looked up to find two little faces peering down from the window. As you can imagine, Priscilla felt very welcome and set out a little late but very cheerily for Pictou and Caribou and the ferry to Prince Edward Island.

Now, Priscilla doesn't have a GPS, and she doesn't wear a watch much, but she had checked the ferry schedule before leaving, and has some excerpts from a road atlas to find her way there, plus that famous gut instinct. So she had a general idea of which way to go, and she set out. Up some flat terrain, down some flat terrain, up some more flat terrain... it was fairly quiet for a long time. A smidge dull even, as the road was actually rather flat in the usual sense of the word, and stick straight, and the friendly trees were all back a ways from the shoulder, and so it was just the road alone for miles. And then, out of the blue, swarms of cars materialized What was this? A road rally? A funeral procession gone seriouly amok? Rush hour? Before Priscilla had a chance to find out, she was confronted with a dilemma. The road diverged, and it was really hard to tell which one was less traveled. There were signs, though, one indicating the way for pedestrians and one for vehicles. Priscilla looked at the signs, looked at Woodrow, and sighed. Such a tough little bike definitely qualifies as a vehicle. So she took off along the vehicle route, the flock of cars now lost in the distance ahead. She passed a little guard station or something, the guy sitting there waved her along, and soon she rode from the end of the road onto the ferry itself. It waited a minute for one last car (full of dawdlers, probably), and then set out for Prince Edward Island.


And it was free! But only in that direction. Why is that the case? It's not that hard to figure out, really. Obviously the current is very strong in that area, and flows in a Prince Edward Island-erly direction, so the ferryboat just floats on over and doesn't need a crew or fuel or anything. On the way back, however it must fight the current all the way to Nova Scotia, and you pay through the nose.


And guess what? Whales were sighted from the ferry en route (albeit not by Priscilla)! Just like in a National Geographic special or something... Priscilla did eventually sight land-- Prince Edward Island, to be exact, and you can sight it too if you scroll back up to the top of this post.


Upon arrival on PEI, Priscilla biked some more, this time on roads that are purported to be even flatter than those in Nova Scotia (yet she also pedaled up the steepest incline she's ever encountered... it's all very fishy). And she arrived in some town and began looking for a place to camp.


She saw a house that looked like a likely candidate, but noticed a car with Massachusetts plates in the driveway and changed her mind. So she crossed the road to knock on the door of a house over there, but no one answered. By this time the lady in the first house had noticed Priscilla traipsing around outside, so she came to the door and asked if everything was alright. Priscilla said that it was, and asked for permission to camp in the yard and use the restroom. The lady went in, checked with her husband, and then returned and invited Priscilla into the house. She and her husband showed Priscilla where to find a bathroom with a shower and brought her an egg salad sandwich, cranberry juice, and cake. A little later Priscilla was out in the yard, scouting out a campsite, when she was told not to worry about camping, and shown to a bedroom. She is probably asleep there right now, and should be waking bright and well-rested tomorrow morning, ready to explore PEI at last.