August 7, 2019
Today I played golf at the Green Gables Golf Resort. Nancy dropped me off and then headed over to bike a section of PEI’s most popular bike path….”The Confederation Trail”. The bike path runs along the original railway system established to improve the islands economy and increase tourism. The railway was first established in the late 1800’s, and didn’t shut down until 1989. It was then converted into a beautiful 270 mile long trail system that covers the entire island. It’s open for wheelchairs, walkers, runners, and bikers in the summertime. From December – March 31, use of the trail is controlled by the PEI Snowmobile Association.
The trail surface is rolled stone dust with no more than a 2% gradient on any part of the trail. Nancy said it was a very smooth and easy 23 mile ride. She loved seeing the rolling farmland with the Northumberland Straits in the background.
Back to golf…..PEI has an abundance of well conditioned golf courses, especially considering the size of the island…..153k residents on a 2200 sq. mile island. As a comparison, Rhode Island is 1214 sq. miles and 1.06M people. The Green Gables course was outstanding. Several holes are situated around the water, which made for some spectacular views. I got paired up with 2 other single players and by the 3rd hole, another single caught up and joined us. One guy was life-long local who won the Club Championship last year. The second guy was a concrete finisher from Ontario, and the third guy was another local who retired from the Canadian military a couple years ago(only 48 years old!). We had a great time and enjoyed a cold beer together after our round. Nancy picked me up at about 4:30 and we headed home.
Later this evening, we cooked up our lobster and mussels, boiled up some fresh new potatoes, opened a bottle of wine and enjoyed a great seafood dinner. We both could have eaten a little more lobster so when we do this again, probably Friday or Saturday night, we’ll get two lobsters to go with our potatoes and salad.
A great dinner!
And here’s a little PEI minutia I saw today…..PEI’s main industry is farming…..25% of the annual potatoes consumed by all Canadians are grown in PEI.
