Trip Stats:
278.97 miles
9230 ft. ascent
44 hrs. 21 min. exploring
Up at 4:15am this morning (PEI time, which is 1:15am MDT and 9:15pm the previous day HST), we groggily stumbled about and attempted to make as little noise as possible to leave the Eden Hall Inn. Unfortunately, it being a very old home, the steps creaked like nothing else and we were up on the second floor. Hopefully we didn’t wake anyone else, although we noticed Room 3 had already vacated the premises earlier to get to the airport as well. We grabbed some packed breakfasts (a muffin and some bread-like snacks) that the kind hostess had made the evening before and headed off in our pre-arranged cab to the airport.
Now, we thought we had it bad being up at 4:15am, but this was the end of the cabbies shift. He had put in an 8 hour shift the day earlier, ending at 5pm, taking a cat nap, then another shift starting at 8pm, so probably was more tired than we were, but he got us to the airport on time and safely, exchanging tales of our adventures and bike riding (probably more to keep himself awake than anything).
I had tried to check ourselves in the evening before online, but the Air Canada site simply wouldn’t cooperate, so we started the morning going through the many many screens of airport check-in on a kiosk, successfully getting our tickets printed out after about 5 minutes. We had arrived at the airport 1.5 hours early, as recommended by George (the hostess at the Inn recommended 2 hours), and the security line was non-existent so we had plenty of time. However, of course, I got pulled aside as they saw something unusual in my bag and it was all the way on the bottom. So after emptying out my bag of, ahem, quite ripe dirty biking clothes, he found the pedals in my bike sundries which is what caught the scanners. After some swabbing for chemicals we were sent on our merry way after I packed my bag for the second time.
A late start to the boarding process got us in the air a few minutes behind schedule and we arrived in Montreal a few minutes late. We already only had a 55 minute layover, so time was going to be tight. Finally disembarking, we headed over to the U.S. Connections area and realized we had to go through U.S. customs in Canada, rather than Denver as we had expected. And to top things off, I was of course randomly selected by the airline for an in depth security review. *sigh* What this entails is a detailed look at your boarding pass, passport, and customs forms, a full pat-down on pretty much every part of your body, questions about why you’re traveling, and of course, the emptying of the bag yet again for more swabs. So, I empty my bags out, have to take my phone out of its case, and turn on my computer to prove that it’s working. Pack everything up for the third time, just stuffing anything wherever it’ll fit and off to customs. Unfortunately, the only lady on duty was back in the baggage scanner asking if anyone was for the Las Vegas flight at 8:15am (ours was leaving at 8:05am), so we had to wait for her to get back, then get swept through customs as fast as possible and fast walk it to our gate. Thankfully our gate was the second gate outside of customs and they were holding the plane for us, so we got on and sweated, albeit sweat, hungry, and needing to use the restroom. We sit about for around 10 minutes and one more passenger comes on … grr, why’d we have to rush so much then! Anyways, finally in the air and on our way to Denver!
The flight was fairly uneventful, with just a few bumps along the way. Everyone apparently had to use the bathroom though, so it took some time before we were able to make our way back to the lavatory. Thankfully, we were sitting nearer the front this time and the stewardess started serving food at the front, yay! But, only three or four rows where we were, there was but one breakfast sandwich left, alas. We cleaned her out of it as well as some other snacks and sundries to satiate our appetites which had finally kicked into high gear. 3 hours and 47 minutes later and we were in Denver.
Off to the buses! Lorena hung out in the newly added fake grass and seating area upstairs – nice cushioned seats, adirondack chairs, and corn hole – while I went down to get us tickets. We had about 45 minutes until the bus left, but it’s a good thing I headed down when I did as the line for tickets and the bus was quite substantial. After 5 attempts at reading my credit card, I finally got our bus tickets out of the machine and went to grab Lorena to stand in line down at the buses. The line just kept growing and growing and we hoped we were far enough along to catch the first bus and luckily we were. Quite a few people weren’t and they jammed us in on all the seats and standing in the aisles, even with luggage in the main seating area as the space below ran out. But we made it safely back to Boulder where our car was still happily sitting and are now at home safe and sound.
Ziggy and Zephyr were overjoyed to see us and Joby was there to greet us as well as he was out back working on the trailer. We rested up a bit inside with Lorena passing out quickly into a deep slumber, then powered up for the evening. Our housesitters, Kathy and Rich (wonderful people!), had left us a lovely note along with a homemade bird feeder / nesting area they had picked up in the local markets, so we hung it up in the tree out front next to the hammock and will see what decides to visit us / make a home there. We also hung up the driftwood decoration we had gotten at the little art stop and modeled where the partially finished anniversary gift I made might be hung up in our house. I ran out of time to finish it before we left with all the things we had to do, but will hopefully have it fully finished and hung in the next week or so!
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our PEI adventure. We highly recommend it to anyone who might want to cycle it, with the following caveats: avoid the Cavendish area due to high tourist vehicle traffic and no shoulder and avoid the Confederation Trail except the Morrell to St. Peter’s Bay stretch, instead opting for the unpopulated scenic byways instead. Oh, and Jesse and Elizabeth, I wouldn’t recommend a tandem on the trail – at every road crossing they had these gates you had to pass through that barely fit a loaded bike with panniers that were extremely annoying and I think the tandem would drive you mad getting on and off every 1/2 mile in certain areas.
As lovely as it was, it’s good to be home …