Seaboard Chronicles: Day 4

Today was a travel day.  We began the day at 7 AM in Saint Andrews, at the southeastern corner of New Brunswick, traversed the entire length of the province, crossed into Nova Scotia at Amherst, and drove up the remainder of the western coast of Nova Scotia, ending the day more than twelve hours later, in Cheticamp.  I don't want to spend any time in a car again for a little while, please.  (A day, anyway!)

We picked up breakfast at Tim Horton's, which is Canada's answer to Dunkin Donuts.  And there are Tim Horton's literally everywhere.  The day was literally perfect for traveling - not a cloud in the sky, and temperatures in the low 70's.  Now that the fog lifted, we had a chance to see a bit of the country surrounding Saint Andrews, and it was really pretty - lots of rolling, forested hills.





We headed east, passing through Fundy National Park towards our first stop, which was Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park.  I'll let the pictures do the talking here...

(The people offer great perspective.)

That's Mom, there at the base.

After wandering around a bit, it was back on the road, through Moncton and into Nova Scotia.  Flat out, Nova Scotia was so much fun to drive through.  We opted for the scenic route instead of the efficient route (Efficiency is overrated.  Just saying.) and 12 hours later, I'm still glad we did.  We drove Highway 6 up the coast, through rolling farm land dotted with pastures and silos and cows.  Every so often, you'd come around the corner and there would lie the Northumberland Strait in all of its blue, blue glory.  Oh, and then you'd look up to the right, and the highlands would appear on the horizon.  Just, loads of fun.  Oh, and every house, literally almost every single house, no matter how small or obviously not expensive, had its vibrantly colorful flower beds.  These were the coolest kind of flower beds, too, full of brightly blooming perennials.  Really, the word for today was color.  Between the lush greens of the fields and forests and the deep blues of the water and the red barns and all of the flowers, I felt like my eyes were treated to a visual feast.  Unfortunately, though, I didn't get many pictures as I'm not so good at shooting through a moving windshield (especially when I'm behind the wheel), so you'll have to take my word for it.  (Or persuade my dad to send you some of his.  He is not similarly inhibited.)

Okay, food.  You know you weren't going to get a blog post without any food! So we had a total Roadfood experience. (Roadfood is an absolutely awesome website/movement begun by Jane and Michael Stern celebrating the authentic, regional food that is the backbone of America.  Check it out at www.roadfood.com.)  It was approaching 2:00 PM and empty stomachs were becoming somewhat insistent, yet we weren't exactly traveling through fast-food heaven, so I determined to pull into the first food-related parking lot I saw.  This policy led us straight to...The Dino Wagon!  This was an utter HOOT.  Apparently the food wagon craze has stretched its tentacles all the way to tiny Tatamagouche, NS.  Although something tells me the proprietor ain't one little bit concerned what the fads in the big world are.  This woman ain't messin around for nobody.  My folks opted for burger and fish sandwich and pop.  (Yes!  The menu actually said POP!)  I threw caution to the wind and went for the special.  Fries, slathered in brown gravy, piled with hunks of hamburger and some mixed vegetables, and the whole shooting match topped with melted mozzarella cheese.  As the menu board said, "All the body needs".  (Yes!  It really said that!)  Again, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Just LOOK at that burger!

Oh yes she did!  (Hey, I'll hike really hard tomorrow.)

Bellies utterly satiated, it was on the road again.  The next detour happened quickly, just down the road near River John (that's the name of the town), where we pulled off the road to investigate a lavender farm.  (I hear certain friends sighing about now...)  I wandered out to the fields, my head filled with romantic visions of throwing back my head and inhaling that heavenly fragrance.  Um...no.  The plants were just budding, so the field smelled like...a field.  But a few broken leaves delivered the beloved fragrance, and the little gift shop more than made up the difference. One tube of lavender-peppermint lip gloss later, we were on the road again.

You can barely see them, but those are beehives in the top left corner.

This time, we didn't stop until we reached Inverness.  (I won't lie, this stretch was really rough.  It's been a hard-hitting last few days, and the combination of lack of sleep and a looonnnggg car ride took its toll.)  The scenery was beautiful, though.  We crossed onto Cape Breton Island and entered the highlands.  Even in my stupor, the beauty of these sweeping green hills was pretty breathtaking.

Inverness Beach is renowned for its sea glass, so we could hardly miss it.  Let me say this: I realize that there is a good chance I won't come back to Inverness Beach, considering all of the many places in the world I have yet to see, and this makes me feel sad.  It was a truly fascinating place.  For some reason, the surf there deposits thousands upon thousands of rocks; each of them polished and smoothed by being tossed and turned over and over in the surf.  The beach is literally strewn with these natural beauties, each one edited by nature's rock-polishing system to display its grain and streaking and inner workings to maximum effect.  We finally just had to stop and leave; I had to quit hoarding my finds for fear of pushing my luggage over the weight limit.  Oh, and yes, all three of us gathered up a good bit of sea glass.  :D :D

We finally pulled into Cheticamp around 7:30 PM.  We settled into our new accommodations (if I don't come home, know that I am snugly tucked into my charming little room at Cheticamp Outfitters.  I think I could hibernate here for a very long time.)  and went out to watch the sun set over the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.  It feels like the top of the world here.  We're hemmed in by great, green mountains on one side and the endless ocean on the other. Civilization hasn't made much of a mark up here.  No big, fancy hotels and tourist-trap shops and gimmicky restaurants (although there is fiddle music in town at night).  It's isolated and beautiful and peaceful and truly wonderful up here.  It's really hard to put into words, honestly, the way it feels.  To put it simply, I like it.

 

(There's a play-by-play for you.)

That's all.  I'm wiped out and am going to collapse gratefully into bed, Natalie MacMaster's "My Love, Cape Breton and Me" running through my mind.  I'll sleep soundly, but with one ear open for the sound of moose passing my open window.  Some dreams really do come true.

Tomorrow, Cape Breton Highlands National Park and the Skyline Trail...