Monday August 24 Antigonish NS

Got up early to no rain and a favourable forecast. With 3 flights of stairs and 1/2 dozen doors etc didn't get going until ~8:30. The route to the ferry was mostly along the TCH but there was very little traffic and very few trucks. Pleasant ride (could say that about all of PEI) until the rain started. It was coming down pretty hard at 11:30 when I arrived for the 1230 ferry. The employees told me I could take my time and get on the ferry anytime but the announcements told people to get to their cars to prepare to load. Everyone was rushing around in the rain so I inhaled some food and joined the rush. I got on the ferry first (like BC Ferries) but I could have waited and got on at any time. It is much like the Vancouver to Vancouver Island ferries - they turn them around every two hours, these ones are just a little smaller. The big difference is they have live music - East Coast fiddle music complete with PEI jabs between jigs and marches. Kept raining while on the boat and for a while after but stopped about 2:30. The InfoCentre people (one on the boat and the one near Pictou) here are not the usual 20-something year old girls but 50-something year old women that are genuinely worried about me and especially with me not making plans or reservations. I had to choose between stopping at ~2:30 or pushing on another 50 km to Antigonish. I pushed on and then it started raining again at ~4:30. On a busy TCH most of the time (the old highway for some of the time)with my MP3 earplugs today. Got into town, got a few groceries and tempted to camp but saw a motel and went in. Rain seemed to stop almost immediately but it was 6:30 when I checked in and it gets dark just past 8:00 pm now. I must change my schedule! Nice motel but the room has no fridge, microwave or even a coffee maker. Good thing I got my gas stove.

OD 7298.6 km, 6:47:01, 147.61 km, 21.7 ave, 53.3 max