Hi Everyone,

I am in Campbellton, New Brunswick, just over the border from Quebec.

This morning it was raining hard and and the weather forecast was terrible. 
 A couple of days of rain, one day of sun, and then a few more days of rain.
 It is no use doing a bike trip if I get to ride only one day out of three.

The motel that I stayed at is the bus terminal for Orleans Bus so they had
 a bike box and the tape, etc.  I had to take off the front wheel, the front
 fender, and the front rack.  I took off the pedals also but I'm not so sure
 that had to.

They also gave me a big plastic bag for the sleeping bag, tent, helmet, 
and handlebar bag.  I have to send back a lot of stuff by UPS or US Mail
 to make it easier to fly.  First of all, all of my tools and spare parts
 will go by US Mail on the fixed price for anything that fits in the box.  
I wonder if I can get 30 pounds in there. Then I have to ship my bike.  
It is already boxed so I'll try UPS first in Bangor.  I hope that the 
bus terminal and hotel is near an UPS facility.  Otherwise I have to find
 a taxi cab company with a van or station wagon. Or I can just pay the 
airlines a bike fee.  It may end up the same price.  I'll check once I get to Maine.

Riding the bus distorts my sense of hills.  It seemed like that the road 
along the coast was fairly flat but there were a few hills and I saw 
several downhill signs showing 10, 12, and even 17%.

There periods of heavy rain and heavy winds and periods of dry.  Still, 
I am glad that I did not have to ride under those conditions.  

The bus company does a large package delivery business.  It seems that
 in every town there is a gas station that is a bus stop and the driver
 gets out and drops off boxes and picks up boxes.  A few times passengers 
got off and on.  Since I have to change from Orleans Bus to Acadia Bus, I 
expected the bus terminal in Campbellton to be a hotel or a separate building.
 Wrong!  The bus arrived at a large convenience store and the driver said in
 effect "Here you are".  I asked him "Is this Campbellton?" not believing
 that this was where I was supposed to get off in a nodesceipt parking lot
 with a group of "punks" hanging around.  Now this is at 8:30 pm in the dark.

It took me a while to get the convenience store / bus terminal to agree to
 store my bike overnight.  However, as soon as the clerk saw my bike box 
with a Orleans luggage tag on it, he said that he was obligated to store 
the bike overnight as a package.  He had thought that I arrived with a bike
 off the street.  He probably didn't realize that I had arrived with luggage
 from an Orleans bus.

The bus for Maine leaves tomorrow about 10:45 am and I will be there early.
 This time I may take a cab for the three blocks because I carried my front 
and rear panniers to the Howard Johnson Hotel.  The clerk here called a cab 
company to get an estimate and it was $6.30 and it is worth $6.30 not to have
 to lug all that weight again, even for three blocks.

Looking at the map, I estimate that it will take me two days to get to Bangor,
 Maine.  I can't take care of shipping until Monday, so I probably can't leav
e until Tuesday.

By the way, New Brunswick is on a different time zone.  It is one hour ahead 
of Eastern Time.



Steve in Campbellton, New Brunswick