Day 94

This morning, Michael and I decided to sleep in. We only had to get to St. John's, which was only 110kms away (maybe a touch more, but not much), so we could afford to take our time. Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep in past 8am, and no one else in the house was awake. Michael woke up when he heard me move around, but fell back asleep. I then decided it was a good time to go grocery shopping (Michael said he woke up soon after I left because he was having problems falling back asleep). I know I start every blog with what time we get up, which might be kind of boring for people to read, but it really is an important part of our day and evening. Every night we always have big discussions (and sometimes even arguments) about what time to wake up. Every morning, I struggle to wake Michael up. Michael likes to sleep in and I like to wake up early. For a trip like this, waking up early is key to get all our cycling in, and then have time to enjoy and relax and see things. We only have daylight hours to work with, so early wake ups are essential. Michael is well aware of this, but REALLY doesn't like waking up! The funny thing is, that a lot of his plans involve waking up early, and at these times I question his self awareness. But, when it's necessary, he will get up, and he will be moving, but he will be relatively unresponsive for another three hours. It's also a fine line because if we wake up too early, we aren't well rested, and will therefore be slower on the road, but if we sleep in too late, we miss solid cycling hours. So, as it's a big part of our day, I will keep mentioning our wake up times (but feel free to skip over the first sentence or two if you get bored of it! ....which you may have been doing all along as I'm only mentioning this now, in our last month!).
We spent the large part of the morning eating, hanging out with Maggie, and using the internet (to book our ferry to Newfoundland, book flights, figure out where we'll go and what we'll do for the next few days, get in contact with Lilia's family, work on the blog, and Michael did some school work). We lingered longer than we probably should have because of these errands, and because it started raining outside (which is never a pleasant way to start a cycling day!).
Finally, after a really nice morning, we said our goodbyes to Maggie and her housemates and hit the road around 2:30pm. We had to climb the really big hill we were able to avoid yesterday, and it really wasn't bad at all! It was a low grade, so wasn't a problem! We made it out of the city, and the met up with the Trans Canada. Along the Trans Canada, before we went south on highway 7, we had a wicked tail wind! The clouds started clearing and it turned into a really nice day (there was only one 5 minute period of light, sun showers)! Unfortunately, when we turned onto 7, the headwind started. It sucked, and by now in the trip, we are so used to headwind that it barely phases us anymore. It's now as much a part of our day as waking up and getting dressed! Since we weren't in a rush to get into St. John, it really wasn't a big deal! Earlier we were toying with the idea of not going to St. John, and just heading to Moncton. We decided to go to St. John in the end though because we're in New Brunswick, and have time to cycle down (as we will be meeting Agnes on the 6th, we have time to get there), so might as well see as much as we can!
The road down was really enjoyable, with really nice (not steep, but consistent) ups and downs. We had a really good time cycling, but because of the wind got into St. John later than we wanted to. It was around 7pm when we rolled into the info centre. It was closed unfortunately, but we decided to camp there for the night. We originally had plans of going downtown and having a beer, and maybe some fries for dinner (as potatoes are the things to eat here. It's home of the infamous McCain brothers, who supply 1/3rd of the world's potatoes (ie fries). Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be! The fog fell and it was SO thick! I have never seen such thick fog in my life and it really wasn't safe! I did not feel comfortable on the roads, especially as it was getting dark (although our lights would be more visible, I don't know if the cars would expect to see cyclists on the road, so might not be looking for them through the fog. And I really don't want to get hit!). So, we camped out for free at the info centre, made some dinner (sidekicks), and ran into the tent as fast as we could after brushing our teeth to avoid the swarm of mosquitos which have been attacking us for too long already! We passed right out, and set our alarms for 6am, so we would have time tomorrow to pack up our things and leave before the info centre opened in the morning (which we assumed to be 8am).