Today’s forecast had another high wind warning. Sometimes these warnings really seem like overkill, or just issued for much too broad of an area. But I try to restrain myself from ridiculing them since sometimes they can really bring miserable paddling conditions. For most of today I was sheltered enough from southeast winds for it to be fairly nice. Of course, it was a little different starting off the day by myself. I was looking forward to seeing my family later in the day. Meanwhile, the Vances were to take some time to go across to Prince Edward Island for their last day. Then we would meet up to trade off the car. And I finally thought I had a better grasp of my contacts for next week, as I head into Nova Scotia.
Besides my logistical transitions, today was also a day of cultural transitions. The heavily populated resort area of Shediac changed into a much more rural area with more farmland mixed in with a few cottages. The Acadian French (and their flag) became much less common, and the shores began to look somewhat like Prince Edward Island. Tidal flats in the harbors seemed to be a lot more extensive, and sometimes got in my way. After passing Little Shemogue Harbour I managed to get in contact with a pastor of one of the Canadian National Baptist (Southern Baptist) pastors in the Moncton area. As he corrected my pronunciation, I was reminded that I need to stop trying to pronounce everything in French now. Nevertheless, I don’t believe that I ever would have thought to say Shemogue as “shih-MUG-uh-wee”! I had thought it might be possible to meet up with my family at Murray Beach Provincial Park for lunch, but they were unable to get off from Bathurst early enough to make it.
Thanks to the cloudy and somewhat showery weather, I had to get fairly close before getting a good view of the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island. Even once I got under the bridge I still could not see clearly to the end of it. It’s always an amazing sight though. The last couple miles to the bridge was a relatively difficult struggle against wind and tide. When I stopped underneath the bridge, I was surprised at how dirty this beautiful bridge is up close after only ten years. To a casual visitor, the churches in these areas may appear beautiful as well. But as you look closer at them, you’re likely to find that they’re empty or devoid of young people or spiritually compromised. In the entire area northeast of Shediac, there are actually no evangelical churches at all.
After passing Cape Jourimain at the bridge, my destination was the campground at Cape Tormentine. Cape Tormentine was the big transportation center to the “Island” before the Confederation Bridge was built. So it’s unclear right now if the community will become essentially a ghost town or develop into a new summer cottage area. In any case, it’s a long ways from any evangelical witness. To get to the campground, I had to make a long detour out into the strait to get around the old ferry wharf. The only comparable sized wharf that I’ve had to go around was at Belledune. But this time I had enough wind and current against me to make me really wish for a shortcut. Sometimes we feel like God should provide shortcuts for Christian ministry, but for some reason He makes us do things the hard and slow way. When I finally got out to the end of the wharf (and didn’t find nearly the improvement in sea conditions that I’d hoped behind the breakwaters), I was surprised to see several people fishing. This is only the second time I’ve seen people fishing off a wharf in New Brunswick, and was the first time to actually see them catch a fish.
Pulling up to the campground beach, I was happy to find my family and the Vances. I was not so happy however to see how the winds were beating up on the tent. It was really blowing out there. After changing clothes and visiting some, we all headed into Cap-Pelé to take the Vances to their motel, get gas, and say goodbye. It all happened so fast. It’s just hard to process it all emotionally, but I’m really thankful to have my family here to help me transition into this next phase.
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