Nova Scotia
I left Meagan's apartment at 8am on Monday. The "Taylor" stretch of the trip would begin that afternoon in Halifax but her flight from Ontario was delayed a few hours, so I moved through my morning at a mosey pace. I found a Goodlife and went for a workout and sauna sit, then ran some errands and explored Moncton a bit before hitting the road. Taylor is my best pal from university and is joining me for two weeks of the trip- the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland/Labrador stretches. We met at con-ed camp in second year and have been best buddies ever since. We're both introverts who love beautiful scenery, quiet drives, taking good photos, and making art (she beads and I draw/paint/take photos/make prints). The decision for her to fly out and join me on the trip was a somewhat spontaneous idea that started about a month ago, well after I had booked campsites and set my dates. We were facetiming one evening and the idea just popped out from one of our noggins. Within a day or two, her flight was booked and our shared East Coast Pinterest board had begun.
While I stretched at the end of my workout, I thought about the adventures ahead and smiled to myself. The few days with Meagan had been a treat and I was excited to see what travelling with Taylor would be like. The Moncton humidity slapped me awake from my daydream as soon as I left the gym, so I abandoned my Southern stubbornness for once and decided to do the drive with the AC on instead of my usual windows-open preference. I picked Taylor up around 4pm and we headed straight for Value Village to grab extra blankets and some warm clothes for the Newfoundland part of our time together. We worked at a thrift store together for a year in university and there's nobody I'd rather thrift with, so it felt fitting that this was our first stop. The Value Village by the Halifax airport was massive and I could have spent a whole day there, had we not been in a time crunch and if space wasn't an issue. We grabbed the basic things we needed and headed to a laundromat, then a grocery store. It was around 7 by the time our new finds were dry and we still had two hours of driving to go, so we scooted onto the highway and headed for Caribou Munroes, a provincial park near Pictou, Nova Scotia.
It was dark when we rolled up to our campsite and we fumbled around with headlamps to get ourselves set up for the night. Taylor took over making dinner (rice paper spring rolls with bagged greens, canned shrimp, and peanut-hoisin sauce) while I set up the tent and air mattress for her and got Cece's backseat ready for my sleep. We couldn't figure out where the bathrooms were so we peed behind a big rock, brushed our teeth and called it a night. I was gently woken up at 5am the next morning (Tuesday) to the sound of a big white tailed doe munching her morning salad right outside Cece. I watched her through the windshield, took a few blurry photos and fell back asleep for a few more hours with a smile on my face. When we actually woke up for good we got right to work packing the site back up so we could get on the road at a decent time. We found shower (which ended up being very close to our campsite) and spent a bit of time at a pink sand beach just across the water from PEI. After our morning sit, we headed for the Cabot Trail.
We made it to the start of the famous scenic highway around lunchtime and ate a picnic snack while leaning on Cece's open trunk outside the visitor's centre. After the snack and gathering some brochures and maps, we headed up the coast and Taylor marveled at the Gaelic names on the road signs. She has Irish heritage and loves languages and I appreciated the insight she added to what would otherwise be just another passing thing for me. We stopped at a beach in Inverness and had our first good rock picking walk of the trip, each filling our pockets with neat stones and sea glass. The road was getting more steep and curvy with every kilometer and I thoroughly enjoyed driving along the coast. Cece is a standard with a small engine, so we took it slow on the inclines and I quickly learned how to downshift smoothly to make the downhill runs easier on the brakes. We stopped at a magical arts café called Freya and Thor somewhere along the trail and were serenaded by a group of Acadian musicians who were playing some melodies on one of the Café porches.
After a long day of driving and soaking up the breathtaking views, we finally ended up at our stop for the night: Broad Cove Provincial Park. We grabbed our park pass and the lovely gate attendants gave us a recommendation for a local seafood restaurant, The Seagull. We usually made our own meals but the day had been long and we were both craving good seafood (and wifi) so we made our way down the road to the no-AC-windows-open establishment on the water that served a decent diner-style fried ocean dinner. We filled up on battered clams, cod, and scallops and caught up on the conversations we had set aside for the past two days. When we got back to the site, setting up camp went more smoothly than the night before and we slept well on full bellies.
We decided to stay at Broad Cove for two nights, which meant we didn't have to cover any ground on Wednesday and could enjoy some sitting time on beaches and get a good hike in. Cece's brakes had started to wobble by the end of the Cabot Trail the day before, so I opted to stay on the safe side and found a local mechanic to give her a quick check-up. I had the brakes and rotors redone in May and the rotors were quickly replaced on warranty due to crappy parts just before I left for the trip, so I was pretty sure that the new parts were the problem this time around too. The mechanic gave her a test drive and drew the same conclusion, assuring me that I was safe to drive even with a wobble. With peace of mind, we thanked him for his time (he refused any payment) and went on our way. We stopped at a local pottery and quilt shop and I took lots of mental notes about some neat glazing techniques that I noticed in a few of the pieces. We picked up some stickers and postcards for our collections, headed to a small grocery store to grab a few forgotten items, then headed down the road to a hiking trail that Taylor flagged the day before.
Taylor's art name is Jackpine Designs and she connects deeply to the symbolism and look of Jackpine trees. This trail was called the Jackpine so of course we had to hike it and it was breathtaking. It took us through a few different terrains including boulder tops, cliffs, Jackpine groves, lush bunches of trees and shrubs, and surreal oceanfront. The waves crashed against large masses of pinkish rock (I think it was some kind of quartz or granite? My geology skills are weak). We were both sweaty and smiling by the end of the 3.5km adventure and eager for a snack. I whipped up some tuna and ground-chickpea salad to eat with tortilla chips once we got back to the site and after gobbling it up, we headed to the beach. Taylor loves lizard time and I prefer semi-shade, so we set up in different spots along the shore and did our own things. Experiences like that are one of the things I really value about our friendship- we both appreciate doing things solo and we don't have to do everything together.
We left Broad Cove on Thursday morning and headed to Sydney, Nova Scotia, where we would catch the midnight ferry to Newfoundland. Taylor has a knack for finding good seafood spots and led us to a delicious fish-and-chip truck in one of the harbours in Cape Breton. After lunch, she went to explore the downtown shops and I laid on a patch of grass to read a book for a bit. Our next stop was a Mi'kmaw heritage museum just a few minutes up the road. We learned a bit about the people whose land we were on and the way that the community had been shaped and changed in the years since settlers came to the area. After the museum visit and a Dairy Queen ice cream stop, we headed to Walmart to stock up on supplies. There was lots of time to spare so we took our time going through the isles. Taylor and I are both squirrly and there were a few times when we would wander through a few aisles before realizing that neither of us brought the cart. After lots of good laughs and checking over the list a few times, we headed for the ferry port.
I didn't know what to expect from this ferry experience but I was enthralled from the moment we pulled off the highway and into the massive loading dock. We arrived about three hours before boarding was supposed to start and decided to reorganize Cece so we could be more efficient for the next leg of the trip. We must have been quite a sight as we shuffled bins and pillows and blankets all around the car. One man, who we later named "Ottawa dude" sarcastically asked us if we were having a garage sale when he walked by our sprawl. Taylor and I are both playful teachers with squirrel brains, so we just chuckled at his comment and carried on. We still had a decent chunk of time left over after getting ourselves resituated, so we went into the terminal building and sat on the second floor deck.
I watched with eager eyes as semi-trucks lined up in long rows and slowly crawled into the belly of the massive ship. The moment felt something like sitting at an airport waiting for your flight, but better and more exciting because we would be able to move around on board instead of being strapped into the tin can seats for the eight hour journey.
The four days of Nova Scotia were mostly spent on the Cabot trail and in provincial parks, enjoying some of the most scenic views that the province has to offer. Taylor and I settled into a good travelling rhythm after a few days and I had a peaceful, yet excited feeling as we sat in the terminal and waited for the small vehicle boarding to start. Most of all though, I felt grateful for the gut feeling I got in November that told me I needed to go on a trip, the months I had spent planning and preparing, and the wonderful pals who I got to share parts of the journey with.
Next up: Newfoundland!
