Blog

After a great stay in St. Pascal we headed for New Brunswick.  I was excited to get into the east coast, I have been viewing this as the last leg of the journey and I'm looking forward to riding in the eastern provinces.   We rode about 160km into Edmundston NB.  It was a great ride, with great weather.  We basically took back roads the whole way there which was nice because traffic was not an issue.  Its always exciting to start a day that I know we will be crossing a provincial line.  We also crossed a timezone again today losing another hour in the process.  This actually works well for calling home before the kids go to bed.  It was quite apparent on the way into town that there was some big Acadian festival happening.  People's houses were decorated and flags were flying.  We found out later that people from all over the world would be attending the festival that was stating this upcoming weekend.  To bad we wont be around to enjoy.  We arrived in Edmundston at about 3:30 and met with a Michel Soucy and his wife and their children.  They have twins and only one has PKU.  Michel was one of the only people we had talked to that had heard of PKU before and he knew someone who had PKU and he said that this made a huge difference for him when he received the phone call about their son.  We also met Melanie Cyr and her family.  Melanie is an adult with PKU and was able to help arrange media etc at the meet and greet.   We met a few others as well and it was a great little get together.  Thanks to Michel for arranging for us to stay at the university, although it would have been nice if that residence was at the bottom of the hill and not the top.  Just kidding Michel it was a great place to stay for the night.  After the get together Michel also showed us the local place to get lobster rolls.  Turns out they also have lobster poutine, which was really good despite some being skeptical about it (Anna).  I ventured out into Edmundston looking for some local music I was informed about but must have missed it.  It was a low key night which was good after a few long days of riding.  Today we got up to colder temps but it was sunny and was supposed to warm up.  While in Edmundston I also ran into Nick, a cyclist we met on the way to St. Pascal.  We caught up to him today as well and chatted for a bit.  He is riding to Newfoundland where he will attend school in the fall, an interesting way to get to University.  We are hoping to connect again on the road before the final destination.  Today we rode about 145 km into Centreville NB a small town of about 540 people.  Dave Brennan is our host tonight.  Dave was at work when we arrived but he assured us the house was open and the beer was cold.  Dave also took us for dinner with his kids at the local restaurant and arranged for an interview with the local paper.  Dave's daughter Maya has pku and is also currently on Kuvan the only drug currently available to treat PKU.  Dave indicated that Maya has responded well to the treatment and it has allowed her to be able to eat more protein.  Currently the New Brunswick government does not cover Kuvan and if the Maya has been able to receive special funding from the drug company.  Dave's concern is that funding could be discontinued some day and without government assistance the drug would not be affordable.  The agency we are supporting, Canpku,  will continue to advocate for people like Maya who have benefitted from Kuvan and who need better coverage for that and other treatments.  Today was a great ride.  There were lots of hills but the weather and scenery were great.  If the other cities and hosts are as great as Dave in Centreville our ride through the rest of the east coast will be a great one.  I'll end with one other cool story from tonight.  The van was low on gas so John decided he would go to the States to fill up as it would be about 15c a litre cheaper.  When he was coming back into Canada the Border officer in the line he was in saw the signs on the van and started taking to John.  She informed him that she had adopted a 12 year old boy who had PKU.  I think the cars behind John in line must have wondered what was happening and why there was a delay and it was because John was talking to the officer about her son's PKU.  Tomorrow we head to Fredericton hopefully the weather is as nice as it was today.