In St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Site Of A Flooding Disaster This Week.
Fri. 17th 57.5km Penfield.
Sat. 18th. 52.5km Oak Bay, Near St. Stephen.
Sun. 19th Rest day in Oak Bay, Near St. Stephen.
Total for 46 Road Days = 2,055.2 km = 1,277.04 Miles
Hi All. In the border town St. Stephen. Less than 10km from the USA border. I will cross over on Monday to complete my first foreign country of the world run.
I am in great spirits… Keep telling everyone that I feel I am on a long honeymoon with the love of my life 
I am feeling strong. 52.5km today and 57.5 yesterday. The weather is much colder now with snow on the side of the roads. There is a bitter wind with a serious wind chill factor but I am wrapped up and coping well.
On Thursday I stayed with a contact called Lawrence in Saint Johns.
Lawrence
It took me a hell of a long time to find my way to Lawrence’s place and would have taken longer had a Mountie not pulled me over for… Yes you guessed it… Pushing a baby the wrong way up the highway.. Well when I told the officer what I was doing he just fell around the place laughing. Told me he was from Corner Brook, Newfoundland. It was just as well he pulled me over as he told me to exit and cross over to the other side as after that exit there was a non pedestrian bridge and had I missed it there would have been no way through which would have been a couple of hours wasted running. I would need to take highway 100 to escape the city.
Next morning it took me ages to find my way around the city and onto highway 100. I got directed by a man called Gary who works in a museum. Gary treated me to coffee and a muffin in McDonalds.
Towns are spread out a lot now. There are not many services. I was sitting on a crash barrier at the side of a road near Musquash having tea out of my thermos when a woman called Sarah stopped to say she was married to an Englishman. Said she had culture shock after a visit to Belfast. She gave me 2 bottles of juice and $20 for the charity. Thanks Sarah… 2,000km up… Special appeal to all those enjoying my blog to donate even $5 or 5 euro to AWARE…Christmas and all!
Last night I stayed in Pennfield in the home of Kara and her 2 young daughters Gracie and Cassidy. I knocked on her door and asked to sleep in the garage. I fixed my corner up and was setting my gear up when she called me in for tea and cookies. Then in the morning called me back in for breakfast.
Kara bakes the most incredible chocolate chip cookies I ever tasted. She gave me a batch for the road with a Merry Christmas message on the bag along with half a dozen boiled eggs.
She told me how she met her truck driving husband,Brian. She had a baby boy from a previous relationship. Living with her mom she decided to try to find a house of her own. Well she came over to view the one she is in and when Brian who was selling it opened the door it was love at first sight… So much so he took down the for sale sign that day and she moved straight in..
” So you never bought the house? ”
” No never did! I just married the most wonderful man ever..He just wore me down till I said yes”
“And we married on April fools day and had the service and a lovely meal here. ”
I stopped in St. George for coffee and a couple of pancakes. Got talking to a chap called Paul. Just as he was going he came over and gave me gave me the restaurants complimentary candy and told me my breakfast was taken care of.. I was so dumb that I didn’t realize he meant he had paid for it till he was half way out the door!
Later on another guy did a u turn to give me $10 for dinner! I was so cold taking off my gloves that I had to give him the money to put into my wallet and zip my pocket back up for me!
Tonight I am staying with a lovely couple called Charlie and Cindy who are an almost retired couple and very much into Harley Davidson motorbikes.
Charles and his Harley
I just asked Cindy does she spell her name as Sindy or Cindy… She says Cindy but Charles the real biker would rather have me spell it SINdy!
Once again I knocked on their door and asked to sleep in their garage but they would not hear of it. I was brought right in for soup and sandwiches. They were truly delighted that I knocked on their door and shared so many of my experiences with them.
Sindy fussed and fussed over me and even offered me a rest day which I declined
This area is also suffering from a serious flooding disaster which occurred from torrential non-stop heavy rains last Monday and Tuesday when 170 mm of rain fell. This was on top of a very heavy snow fall from the previous week where many people were sent home from work. And snow falls have to be pretty bad for this to happen.
The problem was that the rain melted all this snow. The rivers overflowed as as the culverts couldn’t cope. This resulted in a backup created a disaster for the whole of Charlotte County, principally the towns of St. George and St. Stephen. over 400 houses were destroyed in the area. A national emergency was declared in the area. Charles and Cindy have a clothes and food donation towards the emergency appeal. All of this in Christmas week too. The people are puytting on a brave face but they are devastated.
