the road trip

Thank you Caroline for getting me from there to here.

This is my first post from Nova Scotia, after driving across the continent with Caroline (friend) and Greta (17-year old cat).  I had planned for us to start driving on Wednesday but there was still too much to wrap up in the apartment when I picked Caroline up at SeaTac airport Tuesday evening.  Caroline dismissed my attempt to micromanage the remaining tasks, we plowed through it all, and started driving on Thursday afternoon.

Road Trip Day 1 – 12-year old little car, new cargo box, and me (photo by MAC).

I don’t know what the chances were of meeting a friend and reader of this blog crossing the border into British Columbia at the same time but it happened!  Thank you K for recognizing me in a stupor of filling out Canada Border Services Agency paperwork—what a coincidence!  I hope your travels went smoothly in Canada.

Road Trip Key Points:

• 6587 KMs (~4100 Miles).
• 12 days/11 nights.  Only 1 sketchy hotel room.
• Canadian Provinces visited: 8 out of 10.
• Moose seen: 5, all in the same day between Dryden and Marathon, Ontario.
• Greta: did fabulously, complained little and adapted to a different hotel room every night without ever hiding under the bed.
• Caroline: still talking to me!!!  Quickly mastered loading cargo box efficiently.  Got some good photos, despite the lack of waterfalls near the Trans Canada Hwy.  Admirably dusted off her French in Quebec.  Doesn’t understand the fuss I made about Montreal traffic (we drove by on a Sunday).
• Me: despite worrying a lot, I enjoyed the driving and the adventure.  I definitely felt myself relax when I saw the sign for Ottawa in eastern Ontario.  I thought at that point that if the car were to break down or some other issue occurred during the rest of the trip, family in Ontario, New Brunswick or Nova Scotia were close enough to come help.
• Weather: warm and sunny, only light brief showers on a couple days.
• Car: no issues chugging through the Rocky Mountains and newly-installed cargo box worked great for holding our medium-sized duffle bags and my outdoor gear.  On average went through a tank of gas a day.
• Prettiest Place on the Trans Canada Hwy: my vote is still for Canmore, Alberta in the Rockies.
• Food and Folk: There were a couple days we were challenged to find good food but generally ate healthily.  We met lots of friendly helpful people.
• Note: Ontario is a really really really big province.  We took 5 days driving through.

Nova Scotia has welcomed me with two big thunderstorms in my first week back—and I have spectacular viewing from the cottage on the Bay of Fundy my stepmother has kindly let me stay in as I get reoriented.  Last week, after dropping Caroline off at the Halifax airport for her flight home and then the excitement of seeing my nearly-completed tiny house for the first time, I felt the exhaustion.  Stress for months, packing, Toffus’ illness and passing, the road trip, it all caught up.  Greta is also making up for lost sleep, is enjoying time outside, and seems fascinated by the occasional small fishing boat going by. And I’ve been watching sunsets.

References:

• MAC = mon amie Caroline