Day 8-Prince Edward Island-375 km

This province has lots of nick names and one of them is the green isle. I understand why. With the rain that this place gets it's no wonder. The weather changes here with each tick of the clock and you have to be prepared for everything. Today I was initially wearing a jacket then the sun came out and it became a sauna outside.

The wind is always blowing here and it's a challenge to figure out what window to keep open at any one moment. Oh yeah and it's just plain damp here too. I don't know how many people would do with arthritis living here.

My initial destination today was North Cape.  I've never been there before and I thought it was a good place to head. It's where the Gulf of St. Lawrence meets the Atlantic ocean. After a great scenic drive along the St. Lawrence coast line I arrive at the north tip of the island. There were the wind turbines that I had seen from the beach in New Brunswick. This is an experimental area where several types of wind turbines are being tested. The University of New Brunswick is also experimenting with the creation of Hydrogen using wind power to split the molecule from regular water. Way too educational for me. I just walked all around the tip of the point and took pictures. With the low tide it was interesting stuff.

The most northern part of Prince Edward Island.

I'm fascinated by seaweed, naturally we don't have this type of stuff in Ontario so I love all the different kinds.

PEI is a unique place for so many reasons. The north area is very flat, where the centre part is very hilly and some of the roads take dangerous drop offs (kind of fun actually!).
From North Cape I took a tour by another lighthouse at Northport and checked out more scenery and the omnipresent typical maritime fishing boats. Many are up on dry dock as the true lobster season is not until 3 weeks from now and many repairs and repaintings are happening.

With no direction after my picnic lunch I found myself in North Rustico. I realized I was following 2 tour buses. Uh oh! I guess this would make a busy visit. Oh well I'd find my own things to see. Really though there isn't much to see other than the seashore and that is more than enough.
I spoke with a gentleman (who didn't want his picture taken!) who was restringing lobster pots. This is a very intricate and time consuming job. Kind of like macrame but there are secrets to how to tie the knots so they don't come untied underwater. Good tiers have their way and don't want to share. Interesting. I took a picture of the finished product and the specific floats that the fisherman uses.

Throughout my drive around North Rustico and Cavendish I saw a lot of Vacancy signs infront of cottages and motels. I guess this is a sign of the times here too. Though Cavendish with it's Anne of Green Gables tourist grab it was busy at the usual touristy areas but the roads were flowing nicely.

Though one of the things I wanted to do was sit on Cavendish beach, today wasn't it. It was raining and the forecast is for thunderstorms. It was after 3 pm anyway and time to head back to the motel. I'd been on the road since before 9 am.

Things I've noticed:

• Humpty Dumpty, McCain, Frito Lay, Cavendish Farms and O'Leary's all have processing plants on the Island, can you blame them?
• When you drive past the huge Cavendish Farms plant the air is filled with the odour of hash browns....don't go by hungry!
• Potato blossoms smell really pretty when there are millions of them in bloom. Which is kind of everywhere.
• O'Leary (the town) has not only a potato blossom festival they have a potato harvest festival as well. Just one party after another with the mighty spud.
• The laundromat at the far end of town is also a tanning salon and is open until 8 pm. Oh yeah and they sell soap by the scoop. (59 cents) I love multitasking establishments.
• Gas is cheaper on the island ($1.22/litre)
• You can drive onto the island for free but they getcha leaving ($63.00 by ferry, $49.50 by the bridge).
• 102.1 SPUD fm in Summerside sounds like 98 the Beach in Saugeen Shores, even the morning guy sounds like Joe Carter. Weird.... made me think of home...
• PEI red dirt does not look pretty on a white truck....but at least I look like I belong!

I leave you with one last picture of the Church of Notre Dame in Mont Carmel. The church is right near the shore and the cemetary over looks the Northumberland Strait. Really a nice final spot I think. It's also the largest building in this end of the island by far.