August 4
End: Albany, PEI
Miles: 5.2
Total: 4789.4
Our bus finally arrived and we got on for the long ride out of Quebec. My last bus had become full, and I was hoping for a sparsely-populated bus so that I could have some space. That was not to be.
There are few things worse than getting onto the bus and finding it almost full. I found a guy sleeping in his window seat and sat down next to him. This worked well, as I assumed the sense of smell was somewhat postponed for people in the middle of deep slumber. I had showered a few days ago, but my clothes hadn’t been washed since New Brunswick.
The bus ride was a bit rough. I was getting tired of being on the bus, and I was just tired after having not slept for a day. We drove on into the morning, and arrived in good old Perth-Andover. We stopped at Tim Horton’s (which is Canada’s Starbucks), and I went to the grocery store across the way for lots of food. It’s all about quantity, not quality.
We rode on and my bus neighbor woke up. He was friendly, and we talked about his career in the armed forces flying unmanned gliders remotely. After eons we arrived in Moncton. We all got off the bus, and I soon got on the bus which would go to Sackville (and on to North Sydney, Nova Scotia, for some riders).
In Sackville I got off and grabbed some groceries for the trail, then tried to hitch my way down to Prince Edward Island. It actually went pretty well. I got a ride within about twenty minutes to get out of Sackville. At the road to PEI, I got another ride within thirty minutes down the road a good fifteen miles. Finally, a young couple picked me up after an hour or two and took me all the way to the island.
My last ride was a young couple who spoke Acadien, which is a local version of French. Thankfully they also spoke English. We talked a bit about mudding in big trucks. It turns out hicks are very similar no matter what part of North America you are in.
They stopped in the Gateway Village and I got out to start my walk. I ended up walking back to the little park right next to the bridge just to make sure there were no IAT blazes. For better or worse, there were not. I walked out and down the Confederation Trail, looking to do a few miles before dark.
It wasn’t long before the mosquitoes became insane. I remembered Li’l Buddha mentioned bug spray in his journal, and now I was really wishing that I hadn’t lost mine. I power-walked on in utter misery into the tiny community of Albany. I asked a kid working on his car if he had any bug spray, but he didn’t.
I walked on and decided to stop for the night, mostly to get into my sleeping bag liner where hopefully the mosquitoes would stay away. That worked a little better, and I stayed on a sheltered picnic table just North of Albany that night.
