A Slow Day

Very slow it was.

Woke up to a very nice morning with sunshine and breezes at the Nortn Cape. As we were having coffe Bob & Beth stopped by to say goodbye. They heading home and wanted to get an early start, hoping to get as far as New Hampshire today.

We tarried a bit longer and had breakfast before leaving via the slower coastal road. It was as pleasant drive which joined the main highway just outside of Richmond. We went via Harmony Road, which is where my grandmother and her sisters gree up and were there had been a family summer cottage until the 1980s, when it fell into disrepair and was burned down.

There is nothing but woods there now and the land was taken for taxes a few years ago.

We continued past Summerside and stopped back at the Willow Cafe for bacon and cheese scones and coffee.

Then the day got really slow. It was about a 15 minute drive to the highway that goes to the bridge. When we got there it was backed up anout 10 miles and virtually stopped. It took us nearly three hours to get over the bridge.

I think there were a couple of factors in the delay. On a summer Sunday the traffic is pretty heavy with lots of vacationers heading home. The minor factor was the fact that the ferry to Nova Scotia from the east end of the is out of service, so the only way off PEI is via the bridge. The main cause, which found out about three hours later, was a broken down pickup truck on the bridge.

It is only a two lane bridge, so a breakdown stops traffic in one direction completely. I assume that today’s heavy traffic came to a complete stop for a period until the truck could be moved to the edge of the road. The bridge as a narrow shoulder and even moved up against the edge barriers, traffic could barely squeeze by. 

Once we got past the truck, it was back to normal and we made it to Amherst Shores Provincial Park shortly after 2pm. We have a powered site and being hot and frazzled, the air conditioning was welcomed.

A bit of a rest, a short walk and a nice salad for dinner with shortbread cookies from the Freedom Farmers Market made for a good end of the day.