After a couple days rest (and almost not enough as the leg situation was getting pretty dire), I departed from Fredericton on a pouring rain day and made the venture late in the day to Sussex as I waited around all morning for a Fed-Ex that was given an incorrect suggested arrival time. No harm, no foul but it made the day a race against the sunset and, with the knee in the shape it was in, it looked like the sunset was winning.
At about 8:30pm, with about 30mins of sunlight remaining, I received my 3rd (and final) flat which was not bad at all considering how far I had come. While doing my first successful tube changing on the back tire in a trail by fire sort of way (except exchange "fire" for "absolutely down-pouring rain"), a kind man spotted me and stopped and offered to give me a lift the last 10km into town (not too far but with about no light left at this point and, from the lessons I had learned before about turning down sweet, sweet rides, I knew I should take it). Getting into Sussex and finding a place went well as I spent the remainder of the night icing and heating my knee while elevating it to keep down the swelling.
The next morning, I did all I could to patch it up without proper medical tape and whatnot:
I started to bike to Sackville, my intended destination, but, after about 6km, I realized Sackville might not be possible with the knee in the shape it was in.
Luckily, I somehow got the strength to get as far as Moncton just about 60km instead of the 100km that I was supposed to do. There, I got a proper IT BAND support strap that I should have probably got when I first felt like buying one in Winnipeg (or maybe when the problem started in Edmonton! haha). I, also, got to relax a little bit and see Mark Leblanc (DJ Bones who I just played with) and met an excellent piano player named Mike Evin, who we are very fortunate to have in Halifax now as he just moved here; definitely check him out!.
Making it to Sackville the next day, as small a distance as it was was incredibly difficult as the knee was definitely letting me know that it wasn't a fan of all the cycling anymore. Luckily, after making it to Sackville (which, from Moncton, is surprisingly really, really, really, hilly), friends Rebekah Higgs and Joel Waddell came to meet me to drive over the bridge the following day to Charlottetown for the second last show which was incredibly fun at Baba's as it was a great space to play and the addition of Joel's drumming way blowing my mind.
"Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way!" - Dr. Seuss
:)
