Mother Nature’s Wash Day

Early start and a ride to Cornwall, just on the outskirts of Charlottetown, where the motorcycle will be serviced at the local Harley Davidson dealer, Red Rock. The forecast is for rain but it has rained hard overnight so we are optimistic that the day will brighten up. There is nothing like a long motorcycle trip for making you a devotee of weather forecasts: we watch them on TV, listen to them on radio, search for them online, and discuss them endlessly with our fellow travellers.
Barry opts to remain at Red Rock HD with his baby while Marlene takes the time to tour Cows Creamery, to learn the finer points of making ice cream, cheddar cheese, and T-shirts. Cows Creamery is a small factory that has enjoyed enormous success with tourists - a no-brainer actually, as PEI has many dairy farms and almost all tourists buy ice cream, T-shirts and local cheese. The tour is lead by very enthusiastic teenagers and the tour script employs every word that they can insert cow into. The T-shirts also have some very clever cow logos on them and have become collectors’ items for people with cow fetishes. Just about the time you never want to hear the word cow again, the tour is over (about 35 minutes) and you enjoy a samples of cheese and ice cream. There is also a small outlet mall on the site, however, PEI is not a shopping destination unless you want souvenirs or fresh seafood.
With the bike service complete and the necessary T-shirts purchased, we go to Maggie’s restaurant for an excellent lunch of grilled haddock.
We are off to see the sights of Charlottetown, famous as the birthplace of Canada’s Confederation. Currently Charlottetown is a centre for commerce, education, and tourism. PEI must be one of those places that heaves a great sigh of relief when the tourists leave for the winter. Although Charlottetown only has a population of about 35,000 the traffic is horrendous today. We check out Founder’s Hall, Great George Street, and Peake’s Wharf with many other tourists. It is our intention to visit Cavendish in the late afternoon but the sky is looking very dark as we set out with high hopes and an eye on the weather. We decide to take Hwy 2 toward Cavendish, just in case the weather decides not to cooperate we can easily head down Summerside (we think). A few minutes later the worst happens and the rain begins pelting down. With the combination of large numbers of tourists and the heavy rain, traffic if moving quite slowly on Hwy 2, which is fine for us until we hit construction near Hunter River. The land is rolling agricultural and we are able to see a long way down the highway and observe the traffic is backed up for close to 2 kms. We decide to turn around to take alternate route along a country road (paved but lots of bumps) to Hwy 225 which will connect with Hwy 1A to take us back to our motel.
By the time we reach Hwy 225 the rain begins to fall harder, if that’s possible, which really reduces visibility and the wind picks up considerably with gusts that threaten to push the bike across a lane on the highway. We feel fortunate that there is no lightening as that would have forced us to stop and take cover somewhere. Storm riding is dangerous and difficult without the added concern of trying to navigate an unplanned route on unknown roads. Marlene’s map begins to disintegrate in the rain but she has committed the route to memory and gets us to the motel. In our years of riding this is the second worst storm we have survived and we’re fairly unnerved after over an hour in heavy rain and wind on unknown roads. We end up being soaked through our rain gear although not really cold as the temperature is about 25C. The humidity is at 100% and more than that in our motel room and we wonder if our gear will ever dry. Time for a cool beer and sandwiches for supper as we’re not venturing out again. The microwave comes in very handy for Marlene’s favourite supper - POPCORN!