Day 17: Mon., June 29: Moncton to Halifax, NS

Oh, I tell yez, dat Rhonda is soooo fired as Chief Navigator ... which I'm sure she'll regret, as it was the best-paid volunteer job around LOL

She bravely decided she would meet me in a place called Elmsdale and proceeded this morning to give me instructions by phone before I left Moncton. "Before yah yet to Truro, take the exit for Elmsdale, dat's the best and if yah see signs for Halifax airport, well, then ye've gone too far, and turn left, then go through two sets o' lights and Timmie's is on the left ... do this, and turn there and yadda yadda yadda.

'Cept it twern't true, as I discovered as I was riding along. I took the last exit for 'Halifax and Truro', the sign said. OK, I'm good, that's the first step. Riding along, see signs for Truro, 'Next 5 exits for Truro', OK, counting off signs, one, two, three, four, five. ACK Wait a minute, none of those was for Elmsdale??? Where the frack did it go??? What to do? Well, keep riding, I guess - eventually I either come right into Halifax, or I have to stop for gas.

Hmm, see exit for Stewiacke (which I STILL think should be pronounced Stew-ee-ack-ee!), take it and gas up. Then haul out cellphone to call Rhonda and discover a message from her which she left almost immediately after we spoke this morning, this time with corrected directions. Elmsdale turns out to be a lot further down the road, AHA! Anyway, get her on the phone and give her the gears, "Lady", I sez, "your directions are SHIT!" LOL "That's OK", she sez, "I'm a great cook!" "OK, you're forgiven!" LOL "But yer still fired!"

So, I carry on and meet up with her at the Timmies in Elmsdale. Oops, I see I've gotten ahead of myself as I've neglected to say that it was absolutely pi$$ing down rain in Moncton and it didn't really let up until I got to Stewiacke. Luckily, only my feet and around the edges got a little damp as I have good rain gear, but it was hellishly windy and was not a fun ride -- had to slow down quite a bit for the first 60 or so km. Anyway, all's well that ends well.

So, after a coffee and some lunch at Timmie's, we headed off to Privateer, the local HD dealer for a much needed oil change and to have my front wheel dealt with (as it turned out). I haven't mentioned this before, but since Offroad Ed, Hotspot Annie and I had our rough-road detour on the trip to Sudbury, I've been experiencing a severe wobble when taking the bike up through 60 kmh. Thank goodness, the service guys at Privateer discovered that one of the wheel weights had fallen off so it was out of balance. They put a new chrome one (!) on for free (!), the little darlings, and I was good to go. What a great bunch - they looked after me just great.

Now, acourse, that took about an hour or so ... so what was a girl to do, but indulge in a little retail therapy??? A new helmet, visor and yellow glasses did the trick :-)

Now, in the meantime, in came Bob, Rhonda's hubby. My goodness, is this fella BIG -- I hadda stand on my absolute tippytoes to give him a big hug, while he hadda bend so much at the waist, he resembled an open jacknife LOL

So, we headed off to their place not too far away and right away I felt at home. Lucky me, I've got my own room - it's lovely. And what was waiting for me? A lovely birthday card and a whole raft of birthday prezzies -- wasn't that sweet? A guardian bell for the bike (which Big Bob has already installed), a little angel pin, a Nova Scotia Riders crest, a pair of blue glasses - how cool is that to get prezzies on your birthday when you least expect it. :-)

And not only that, I was plied with the CCC libation, totally awesome homemade pizza (BURP) and a birthday cake (more BURP). (I'm writing this in the wee small hours cuz I was woken with heartburn - piggy that I am, so decided to make use of the time LOL)

Then Rhonda's buddy Beth came over and showed us some 'biker retail' purchases she had just made, so it looks like we'll be adding retail therapy to our ride tomorrow PLUS Beth has offered to organized a lobster cookout - what a perfect introduction to Nova Scotia!

As well, the gals plied me with maps and guidebooks and a TON of good ride suggestions. It looks like my time here is gonna be jampacked with fun things to do!

Doin' the Happy Dance! Nighty-nite!