August 14 - Day 99

Tomorrow it will be 100 days since I left Victoria. Wow...

I called Elaine yesterday and found she was receiving the journal without incident. I was afraid that the mail might not have been getting through. I decided to pick her up a little something here as well, since she was an Anne fan, but this time I avoided getting caught in the maw of the living cash register.

I left at 8 to get to the information center, which doesn't open until 9. I wished my benefactors well in the usual way. At the center I noticed that the cross Canada bike tour of 30 people who had passed by here earlier were now leaving. I even gave some of them directions, to avoid some major hills I heard about and take the same route I was taking. Who knows, I might catch up to them.

All I'm going to do at the information center is check for the contract and email one last time. So, this time for real folks, this is it until St. John's!

Expect me when you see me.

Charolettetown.

The most minor capital in Canada.

But what can you expect when the population of P.E.I. is about the same as Oshawa and Whitby combined? I haven't explored it in detail, but the downtown is pretty small, there might be more on the way out, but I doubt it. The Confederation building is now a center for the Arts.

I figure I'll be in Wood Islands in another couple hours, three at the most. (It's 1pm right now, I'll leave at 1:30) If the contract arrives in time, I'll start my Nova Scotia trip today. Have to wait and see.

McChicken Monday! I really hate that I've been sucked back into going to the Evil Arches, but I only buy the cheap McChicken. No drinks or fries or pies. Well, sometimes pie. It's one of my small luxuries on this trip. Maybe it is comfort food, reminding me of home. Heck, it reminds me of when Grandma took me and Wyatt bowling every week or so and took us to McD's for the McC's because she got a 2 for 1 coupon with the score sheet.

I don't believe it.

I don't FRICKIN' believe it!

I WAS published after all! The picture, too!

The article ran last Saturday in the Globe and Mail, but only Southern Ontario.

This just isn't fair.

Because Grandma and Wyatt didn't pick up a copy of it, I might now be forever denied a good copy! All I have is a crappy fax, along with the contract I need to sign to get paid.

It's funny how you think about all the possibilities. How A, B, or C might have happened, or will happen, only to find out there was a D you never expected. I was all psyched up to see myself in print on Saturday, hopefully during the ferry ride back from Newfoundland.

But you know what this means.

I AM A WRITER!!!

It's official, I can call myself a writer with impunity now, and never feel guilty that I'm somehow lying. But it's only a start. To earn the right to keep calling myself a writer, I have to keep writing, I have to keep publishing. Now I have my foot in the door, but that's all I have.

I danced a jig in the cargo hold of the ferry to Nova Scotia, and shouted in joy, clutching the faxes in my hand.

After that I was like a five year old, telling anyone who would listened that I was published in the paper, and showing them the proof. Don't worry, I'm over it now, but I'll still show it to anyone who asks!

I'm a writer!

I'm a writer!

I'm a writer!

Yippee!!!

Time spent cycling: 7:06:27 hours

Distance traveled: 159.50 km

Total distance: 5906 km

Average Speed: 21.1 kph

Maximum speed: 57.4 kph

Current Location: Off the main highway in a clearing, about 30k from reaching Antigonish, NS

Uh oh...

Don't it figure. Good news sometimes travels in bad company, I guess.

The ferry to Argentia leaves on Wednesday, as I expected, but at 8 in the MORNING! I expected 8 at night, like Portland to Yarmouth, to give people a chance to sleep or something, but no. This is bad. From Pictou to North Sydney it's nearly 300km! I'll never travel that in one day. And if I miss it, I'll have to spend 3 or 4 more days here in total!

I have only one choice, to push on as late as I can tonight, and tomorrow follow the Right On Adventure Credo of...

Onto Day 100...