Adventures of Tin Can Lulu

Prince Edward Island is large and marked by red-sand beaches, lighthouses, and fertile farmland, and is renowned for seafood like lobster and mussels. It is the smallest province of Canada.

We did a six-day self-guided bike tour using the services of Crossroad Bike Tours. Our friends from Ocala, Sandy and Steve Jakubowski joined us on this adventure. The tour was 60% on roads and 40% on the Confederation Trail. The only negative of the trail were the two sets of gates that we had to go through at every main road crossing. We joked that we should have counted all of the gates that we had to maneuver through, which was no easy feat for a tandem. Unclip, roll, clip, roll; unclip, roll, clip, roll! Earle did a fantastic job getting us through and not hitting any of the gates!

The tour started at the North Point Lighthouse and finished at the East Point Lighthouse. We ventured to the towns of Mill River, Summerside, O’Leary, Cavendish, Brackley, St. Peters Bay, Sonas and East Point. PEI has an abundance of fields of potatoes, corn and wheat/hay. Beautiful, lush green countryside with potato fields in bloom surrounded us each day.

We rode a total of 270 miles with 8700 feet of climbing. Sandy and Steve finished the week with 300 miles and 10,000 feet! Steve added a few miles each day to our routes, which gave us a chance to see more of the fantastic countryside on this island. The weather during the tour was beautiful and we only had one day of rain. After the tour our last ride with Steve and Sandy was a wet one! We started out with dry roads, then got soaked and cut the ride short! Crazy!

Our second week we based out of Charlottetown. Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlottetown was an unincorporated town until it was incorporated as a city in 1855. There are many historic buildings and a bustling waterfront park area in this city.

We drove to Cavendish, Glasgow, PEI National Park, and the PEI Preserve Company. These were sites that we wanted to see again after doing the bike tour. In Cavendish we visited the national park museum and home of the Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. She was the bestselling author who wrote Anne of Green Gables and the subsequent series of stories about Anne Shirley.

We cycled to areas on the island that we had not done the first week. Our rides took us to Wood Island, Murray Harbour, Montague, Panmure Island Lighthouse, Murray River and we passed a few sand dunes. We added another 97 miles with 3200 feet of climbing. No rainy days on these rides!!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time on PEI! Next stop is Nova Scotia.