After being dropped off by the Confederation Bridge shuttle from New Brunswick I had a snack and then set out to explore the island. I had left Vancouver island almost three months ago and now after crossing the entire continent by bicycle I was finally back on another island. This was much smaller and tame than Vancouver Island with no bears and oldgrowth forest wilderness but rather with cows and potato fields.

I was desperate to find a new tire after hitting the screw the day before so I headed to Charlottetown via the scenic coastal road. The scenery was very pleasent, rolling hills of earthy red soil covered in potato and clover crops. PEI is famous for its unusual soil. It is a brilliant red which makes for attractive scenery especially along the coast where the fields drop in red cliffs to the sea and aswell while travelling through the country on dirt roads built of the same red soil. I made my way to Charlottetown while stopping at beaches and in charming farming towns along the way. There is no hostel in Charletown but I found a tourist home for only 33 dollars a night so I settled in and went out to see the town.

I started by heading to Victoria Park on the harbour. A big rain had come through in the afternoon but now the sun was shining brilliantly and the air was incredibly fresh and clear.While sitting at different benches and enjoying the harbour views I met lots of friendly locals who I was happy to talk with after a long stretch of lonely riding. After an hour or two I continued my walk into downtown Charlottetown. I walked down a street lined with beautiful old wooden houses and towering maple trees that stood in their gardens and lawns. The street brought me into the center where old brick building stood shining in the golden sunrays. I ended up at The Province House of PEI where Confederation was signed in 1967. I felt an incredible appreciation for the people who attented those delegations and pushed to unite the northern lands as one nation. A colourful garden surrounded the building with powerful monuments and statues of the world wars.

As the time of day passed on the sun continued to shine more vibrantly and the sky grew clearer and sharper. Everything was clean and perfect. I then walked down to the harbour where a reggea band was starting to play and people milled around, some just as happy and pleased with the evening as myself. I bought an icecream cone and sat down on the edge of the pier. The sun was now almost gone but still catching the masts of the sail boats in the harbour. The shining masts swayed gently in the breeze as if they could here the music that I was swaying to. The band was doing an excellent cover of a Bob Marley song "No Woman, No Cry," and in that perfect moment everything was right as it should be. The soft rythem rolled through me while the breeze blew around me. Children running and playing, people from the bar patio toasting, couples in love strolling, while I just sat doing my thing and indulging the moment. Seconds passed like hours as time slowed and stopped. there didn't seem to be a rush or a bad thought on the island, I was loving life and just grooving, living each second for what it could be possibly worth with no thought of tomorow or next week. To live a moment like that one makes sense of all the useless and empty time that usually makes up a regular day.

After the sun was totally gone the air became chilly and it was time to move. I stopped by the local brewhouse the Gohan Brewery and had a pint of a dark and rich stout. It cost me $6.50 but it was worth it and I felt I deserved it anyway. I returned to my tourist home to find that they wouldn't let me use their kitchen to cook my dinner so I cooked it in the parking lot across the street. It started to rain but I didn't care I was perfectly content cooking in the rain.

The next day I went straight to the bike shops hoping desperately to fing a good tire. The first shop had nothing at all that would be good for me. I went to the next one and struck gold finding a beautiful hybrid style tire of high quality. I put it on my rim and gave it a kiss hoping it would be with me for a while. Now with new tires and lots of patches and a spare tube I was good to go. I biked up island to Cavendish to Prince Edward Island National Park and had a nice tour along the red cliffed coast to where Anne of Green Gables lived. They wanted $5 to go and look at the house. I scoffed at that and actually managed to find a nice view of the house from the parking lot. Not that I was interested at all anyway its just that one day I may read the book and it will help me live the book better. I started heading down island after that back towards the Confederation Bridge, I was on my way back to Moncton to meet Cameron and aswell an Acadian who I met in Guatemala. All the roads in PEI are bad for biking because there is absolutley no shoulder and while on the road a speeding white car hurled a full cup of pepsi at me. It missed by an inch and exploded in a sticky mess on the ground before me. What a jerk, not only would I be covered in pepsi but that would have hurt like hell. I picked up a big rock to carry with me incase he wanted comeback and take another shot. Soon after that I got onto the old gravel rail bed of the abandoned railway converted into a multi purpose trail network across the island and finshed the island on that where I also found a nice spot to camp. The next day I was back at the bridge. I could see the incredible bridge 7 km. off into the north Cumberland Stait before it disappeared into the fog.

I had only riden about 150km through PEI but managed to see a good chunk of the main part of the island. Quite nice for me to ride such a small area after riding Canada so long where your day's effort shows for almost nothing on the map. I was very glad I had come even though it was a good effort off my main route, side trips like that are sometimes tiring because its no progress towards the end but I feel are important to the overall experience.