Fundy Fondo 2015: Day 11: Saint John to Saint Martins

This was the final leg of our cycling journey, and another relatively short day, even going a bit indirectly through Hampton. Here's the route:

It had rained through the night in Saint John, and between that and frequent blasts from freight train horns we hadn't slept terribly well. We didn't have Steve F cracking the whip to get us going, so we made a leisurely oatmeal breakfast and got on the road at 9:30 or so. We were also slowed down by the rain, as we paused for shelter through some of the heaviest downpours.

Gary volunteered to drive for the morning, and the rest of us set off in the rain along route 100.

We stopped at a Tim Horton's halfway to Hampton, and discovered that Gary had already picked up a dozen doughnuts for us at a prior Tim's, which we brought in to eat under shelter. It had been raining pretty hard, so we weren't in a hurry to get moving again.

In Hampton, we'd planned to go to the Shiretown Publicans pub, but were surprised to find it closed, despite advertised hours covering Sundays. While stopped in the parking lot at least 3 other vehicles stopped with would-be-patrons, so they missed out on a bit of business that day... Instead, we rolled on to Holly's Restaurant.

At Holly's, we dripped enough water on the floor to fill a wading pool. 3 of us had the brunch buffet, to pack in more calories than we were really going to earn that day, while the rest waited so long for their meals that I was on my fourth plate before they got their food.

The ladies and Rachel swapped with Gary for the van, and we rolled on after lunch through the hillier final 41km.

Steve had warned us of some descents requiring care - I did reach 83km/h on one, but it was at least straight...

Mike was planning to head off with his brother for a family reunion at the end of the trip. Several times through of the ride, Mike was in contact with his brother, pushing off the pickup time so he could actually finish the trip (and not register a DNF...) Finally his brother gave up, and said he'd get him the next day.

We reached Saint Martins at around 4pm, and enjoyed a leisurely pace through the village to the cottage, where we found the rest of our party relaxing. We didn't find the mayor and band to welcome us, but perhaps those expectations were a little high...