Day 21. Fog and Rain on the Way to Maine. St. Johns, NB

 215 miles today was more than enough for me on a foggy, drizzly day. Left Truro, NS at 9:30am and checked in at St. Johns, NB around 3pm. 

 This morning, based on the weather radar, I knew I would likely have some issues with rain today so I donned my rain gear from the get-go.  If weather conditions would allow my target for the day would be Bangor, Maine, around 375 miles away.   If the weather proved to be unavoidable and/or unpleaaant enough I would stop short, knowing that St. Johns would be a decent fallback. 

 Preparing to leave for the day I was grabbing some things from the bathroom when I heard a deep voice say something.   Looking out the sliding glass door of my room overlooking the parking lot I found Geoff looking in, or rather he had found me. He had checked into the same hotel yesterday afternoon and when I checked in around 7pm his motorcycle went unoticed by me, parked around the side of the building.  As he was about to start his ride this morning he saw my bike and thought there can't be too many people on a bike like mine other than me!!  We chatted at the coincidence, compared similar notes for the days plan and then I waived goodbye.  I left about 15 minutes later. 

 The drizzle started almost immeadiately after departing but the temperature was pleasant, in the mid-60's. Later I would run into pea soup fog with visibility like this picture and worse. And the temperature was dropping too. My hopes to dodge some of the inclement weather were evaporating.  Instead I was running headlong into it!  Thoughts of a shorter day began lowering my expectations. 

 In this moment of slightly lighter drizzle I stopped to say good bye to Nova Scotia and hello again to New Brunswick.  Would I be able to say good bye to New Brunswick today too?

 So this is getting crazy. About 40 miles east of St. Johns, which had become my new destination for the night, the rain become unpleasantly intense.  I stopped and sheltered my bike from the rain at a gas station near Sussex and went inside, ate a hot dog, and checked the forecasts and radar.  After 30 minutes the rain hadn't really let up so I found a nice and inexpensive motel about 7 miles in the wrong direction away. I decided it's better to stop and have a warm and dry afternoon/evening then punish myself in the wet. On the way I accidentally passed the motel and when I turned around to head back to the west the skies showed clearing so I decided to push on to St. Johns anyway. About 10 miles before St. Johns I slowly overtook a motorcyclist that looked a lot like Geoff.  It was Geoff and we pulled over for a quick chat about the coincidence.  He said he had sheltered in roughly the same area as I had and had just booked a room in St. Johns and on his way there now. I ended up following him to the motel because the weather again took a turn for the worse. Upon arriving I found all of the rooms were now taken.  Geoff graciously let me crash on the extra bed in his room and I returned the favor by buying his dinner at the Big Tide Brewing Co. in downtown St. Johns as he had done for me on the Argentia ferry two nights ago. Serendipity strikes again!