Day 36++ - Homeward Bound

So... I began my long journey home. By this time, I was kind of wanting to stop living out of a car and hotel rooms, so I basically booked it home as fast as I could. In summary:

Day 36 - Cavendish to Ottawa. OHMYF*CKINGGOD it rained hard outside of Quebec. I wanted to pull over so badly, but realized people wouldn't see me and just plow into me. I couldn't see anything, but still was stupid enough to try and get my phone out to video document the complete lack of visibility. After shooting the video, I realized you can't actually see anything - which was my point but makes for an incredibly boring video. I slept in my car after realizing that pushing to Waterloo wasn't going to happen that night (and besides, the car needed an oil change). I got told later that's actually illegal -- oops.

Day 37 - Ottawa to Waterloo. Thanks for letting me crash on the floor Jon :). Mmm... comfy bed.

Day 38 - Waterloo to Somewhere in the Central-East US. So... I'm pretty sure the border guard thought I was Mexican, kinda like those random tourists in Mexico. I got asked: Why I had a stamp for Mexico, when I went, who I went with, why I went, where I stayed, how many days, which resort, if I bought anything there, if I had anything that I bought there inside my car, if I was planning to travel to Mexico on this trip through the states...

Drove through Chicago after being fumigated by the sulfur fumes... I ended up sleeping at a rest stop for 4 hours, before a pair of obnoxious texans woke me (and the entire rest of the rest stop sleepers) up.

Yes, I REALLY needed to know the two of you were going fishing that morning. And it was completely necessary to shout when standing 10 feet from one another.

Day 39 - Mid-East USA to Regina (via North Dakota - wewt!). The middle part was actually kinda picturesque - nice little valleys and small craigs. The ND part... well, that's kinda like driving through Saskatchewan - but straighter. Retardedly windy though...

Upon re-entry to Canada, I was bracing for the onslaught of questions. Honestly - the only ones I got were, "Are you bringing any fireworks into the country, Anything from the US in your car, and are you SURE there's nobody else in your back trunk?"

I made it through the US having never left my car except to go pee and fill the gas tank. Wow. Maybe someday I'll come back and actually see the sites while cruising through.

Day 40-43 - Took a 1 day break each in Regina and Brooks, and then blitzed back to Edmonton via Calgary. I'm sure I have the final stats on my laptop somewhere.

So there it is... Canada (minus the Territories and Newfoundland), coast to coast, by car, all before the first day of summer (which I enjoyed in Edmonton before promptly driivng back out Saskatoon. WTF?!)

Day 35 - Cavendish

I pretty much had a laid back, slack day after burning rubber here from NS. I couldn't describe yesterday as anything other than a travel day. Oi.

PEI is amazing... like NS, it has its own almost ethereal quality about it... even the dirt looks magical (well... almost fluorescent red, then again... maybe those are my tinted driving glasses).

I spent most of the day exploring. I got to see the farm that Anne of Green Gables was based on, and also walk through The Haunted Woods. After that, it was straight off to Cow's. Apparently, the original Cow's is NOT in Banff... it's in Cavendish - and I've got the photos to prove it's the motherstore!

I then drove out to the ocean, and stuck my foot in the Atlantic, after having collected some ocean water for Ashley. For me, this marked the start of the end to my roadtrip. Even though Cape Breton was physically farther away, every day from here on in would be towards home instead of towards a new corner of Canada.

Sentimentalization aside, I still had a fantastic day. I finished off by buying tickets to the Anne of Green Gables musical. Student pricing + AMA discount + Opening show discount = awesome show for hella cheap. It was neat, I still remembered watching the musical in Grade 4 when it was put on by my high school. Not to say Strath's version was bad, but there's just a level of polish 30+ years of production will give a show that high school students just can't match =).

Day 34 - Cape Bretton Island to Cavendish

I'm writing this MONTHS after that fact... (oops) -- I just didn't have internet access...

Highlands National Park was nothing short of amazing. On the advice of my wonderful hosts, I drove the park clockwise, so all the fun stuff was off to my left (i.e. - Driver's side). I got some absolutely breathtaking views during the climb, and I literally stopped at every single road pull-off to get photos. I guess that's one advantage of traveling solo -- there are no friends to drive nuts with ridiculously frequent photo stops.

I slept in a random bed and breakfast I found along the way, and continued down the hill the next day. Unfortunately, it was VERY foggy and cloudy, and I couldn't really see anything. Add to that being stuck behind a rented RV whose drivers didn't know to downshift (imagine being stuck behind an RV going at random speeds between 10 - 50 kph down a moderate incline... feel my pain), and I had a rather long and dreary day.

I was kinda sad to leave the island... I did try to take a photo of the 'Welcome to Cape Breton Island' in my rearview mirror, nearly causing an accident. (Oops :P).

I basically turbo'ed my way to the ferry terminal and took my Rav on its first ferry ride ever. (I think my RAV needs a name...).


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Day 33 - Halifax to Cape Bretton Island

Friday June 13, 2008

Day 33 – Halifax to Cape Bretton Island (Louisbourgh)
Well, I broke camp (and it took me less than half the day!) and set out for Cape Breton Island. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day, but as I drove towards the island, it started getting more and more windy. Then, the clouds rolled in and that was pretty much the last of the sun I saw for awhile.

It was about 3 PM when I hit Louisbourgh, so I decided to get started with it today and then finish it off the next morning. When I hopped out, there were gale force winds, and water was spraying everywhere. I feel like that just added to the mystique of fortress. Basically, the Louisbourgh National Historic Site is a recreation of the old fortress that used to sit at that site. Think Heritage Park in Calgary (with everybody in period clothing) except on a ridiculously larger scale. I stayed until close and was pretty cold by that time. At one point, the wind was strong enough (it’s funnelled by the front gates) to knock a couple people off their feet.

I had Lobster for dinner. I started my stopwatch, but forgot to stop it, so I actually have no idea how long it took me (but less than 24 minutes). I know it was kinda slow though, because the second time the waitress walked by, she took pity and asked if I needed help or instructions. I felt like that person who eats in an Asian restaurant and then is offered a fork.

My random selection of B&B for the night (camping was totally out of the question) led me to the Foghorn B&B. The selection process consisted of me randomly pointing to a place, phoning it, and then picking the first friendly person to pick up the phone. I called Tash that night and found out that we had both picked the same B&B by random fluke. Kathleen (my host) remembered them from last year and actually found their entry in the guestbook. Small world. She had some great stories because she worked for 20+ years at the park. She had thrown a garden party for the queen and prince of Wales and met the Japanese royalty. The B&B was fantastic, and even had satellite TV! Good thing, because it was still galeing outside so I wasn’t going back out. They had an enormous dog, which really liked jumping on me (I think he could smell the lobster).

The day was Friday the 13th, but despite that, I thought the day went really well.

Leg Length: 436 km
Time: 5 h 35 min
Avg. Speed: 78 km/h


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Day 32 - Halifax

Thursday June 12, 2008

Today’s going to be a good day, I can tell. I started driving towards Peggy Cove, and when I stopped for gas, a CBC camera guy asked if he could use shots of my car for a story on stealing gas. Being on vacation and having nothing better to do, I told him to go nuts. Later on, I saw the news clip, you can see me filling up my tank, but they didn’t keep the part where I paid for it. So... I’d just like to say I paid for my gas that day, honest! (Even though it was something ridiculous like 1.44)

I made a quick pit stop at Superstore (except here they’re called The Atlantic Superstore). A young lady honked at me as I was walking by. I couldn’t tell if she meant me so I started walking over. I guess she had accidentally honked and was too embarrassed (or busy laughing) to wave me off =-). I thought ahead and bought some postcards to mail from the lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove, since those would probably be expensive there.

It turns out that the postcards were WAY cheaper at Peggy’s Cove (that’s a first), $1 vs $0.25. On top of that, they closed the post office and moved it down to the building next door. D’oh! The cove itself if gorgeous, there’s no way to describe it otherwise. I can see why it’s Canada’s most photographed place. I drove back to Halifax and waited 15 minutes for road construction. I think they’ve simultaneously torn up EVERY road in Nova Scotia over the past 2 days (and I swear this one was whole when I drove the opposite way).



Into Halifax and to the Keith’s Brewery. The neat part about this brewery tour is that it was done entirely in character (like, 1800’s brewery) and it had a lot of character to it. Even though I’m not a huge Keith’s fan, I enjoyed it alot. Besides, you can’t go wrong with a city that elects their brew master as mayor! I think it’s been a really long time since I drank though, because the two sampler beers were enough to get me really tipsy.

I had a delicious haddock and scallop dinner at the Economy Shoe Store Cafe (neat place). It was good, but the beer was pretty pricey ($7.50 for a pint of locally brewed Garrison Raspberry Beer). Not much else to say... I plotted my plan of attack for the next few days and called it a night.


Beer and Women - Those who like them... like them ALOT!

Day 31 - Hopewell Cape to Halifax

Wednesday June 11, 2008

Well, I went back to Hopewell Rock, and now I see why it’s so impressive. The difference between high tide and low tide is something like 60 feet. It might as well be a completely different place. The ladies I met yesterday had kayaked the area the day before and were telling me caves and rock formations they touched because they were floating so much higher. It was nuts. The best way I can describe it is like in any Mario or Zelda video game (yes, I know... I’m a geek). There’s always a level where half of it is inaccessible until you hit the magic switch that drains the water from parts of the level – this was totally like that!

High Tide


Low Tide

Day 30 - Edmonston to Hopewell Cape

Tuesday June 10, 2008

Ugh, I hate jet lag. As soon as I landed I had lost two hours, and somewhere along the way last night I lost another hour. I made a beeline for Hopewell Cape. I guess they redid a lot of the highways recently, my GPS was completely confused the entire way in, it swore I was off-roading it!

I thought people in the Maritime communities would be mostly laid back; however, there still seems to be the odd person who has driving habits leftover from Montreal. I got tailgated by a fellow who zipped by me in a school zone, and then proceeded to tailgate every single car in front of us as he leap-frogged his way away down the single lane highway. It’s lovely to see some things stay the same throughout Canada!

I arrived at the Innisfree B&B without further incident. I noticed the oddest thing as I was driving in though – the rivers here are all bright red with mud. (Kind of like the iron rivers in Ontario, but even more pronounced).

My first stop after meeting Elaine (my host) was to the Hopewell Rocks because high tide was going to be in 20 minutes. The scenery was nice, and there was water... LOTS of water. The rock formations looked neat, but I wasn’t sure what the big fuss was about. Elaine told me to wait until I went back tomorrow. I was a few minutes too late to catch the last sea kayak tour, but no biggie, I had fun exploring.

On my way to dinner, I spied:

a random sign.

My first thought was, “WTF.” My question was answered after I whipped by:

this building

approximately 10 seconds later. Apparently covered bridges are a unique New Brunswick type thing. I returned to the B&B where I had a nice long chat with the other guests (they were both pharmacists) and our hosts. They were all super friendly and without realizing it, we talked until 1AM!

Leg Length: 493 km
Time: 6 h 4 min
Avg. Speed: 81 km/h


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Day 29 - Edmonton to Montreal

Monday June 9, 2008

The next portion of my trip starts early (and now entirely in the 1st person... no more we *sniff, sob*). A big thanks goes out to Laine for driving my sorry @$$ to the airport so early in the morning. The flight was pretty uneventful, and was very empty – I got an entire row to myself. That is, until some lady decided to use my outer seat to store her jacket without asking. After all, I NEEDED all three of those seats! =)

Montreal was much toastier than when we left – it was 31 degrees and humid! Upon landing and picking up my car (which was challenging because I totally forgot where I packed it), I sat down and realized that I had absolutely no inkling of a plan. Wewt. I decided to just start headed East, and aim for Grand Falls. THREE traffic jams and two hours of traffic going at 5 km/hr later, I arrived... at the edge of the city. Not only was the traffic nuts, but so were the line-ups for gas. I decided to abort the fill-up and just get gas later on... two cities outside of montreal, the price jumped 3 cents / litre, AND there was still a line-up.

Joy.

By the time I got to Quebec City, it was getting dark – pretty much blowing any chance of getting a campsite with a tent set-up. I got saved by Days Inn in Edmunston, they were cheap, and on the way. I nearly ran out of gas along the way though, upon leaving Quebec city, I had 400 km of gas left. I figured I’d fill up once on the way in a larger town. That larger town never materialized, and any smaller gas station along the way was closed. I pulled into the 24 hour ESSO in Edmunston with the fuel warning light on. It was awesome, I even turned off the AC (still 27 degrees and humid) and the radio to conserve energy =).

Oh, and radar detectors are still prohibited.

Trip: 617 KM
Moving Time: 6 hr 56 min
Moving Avg: 89 km/h

Total To Date: 7041.73 km


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