Prepping for Cat, Spending Canadough

Todays the last day in Canada. We had 350 in Cash (Canadough) and were trying to use it on meals now before we live.  Will still have most of it probably.  We didnt do much today as were winding down.

Our sleep in Kejimkujik was ok, we got pretty cold, think it got down to 30s F.  The moon was too bright for stargazing but the night was clear and pretty. 

We slept in until 9, munched the leftover poutine, and stopped quick at the visitor center on the way out.  Looks like it used to be an area used just for recreation camping and moose hunting until the 60s.  Would be nice to spend a few days there as canoing around looks great.  Unfortunately no time for that but thats ok.

This time we were driving on the northwest side of Nova Scotia to Yarmouth.  A port on the Southwestern side of NS where a ferry called the CAT will take us back to Bar Harbor amd we'll drive to Portland.  

We stopped at another Acacian restaurant in an Acadian town Saulnierville.  La Cuisine Robicheau.  Had the best food item we've had on the trip: Robicheau Scallops Au Gratin.  Scallops and lobster in sauce with cheese melted on top.  Extremely good.  We also had a steak sandwich and Caesar salad.  We've had 3 now and it seems like bacon in them is the norm here.  

After that headed to Yarmouth wal mart to see if they had any NS or Canada hoodies.  Sarahs been looking for one she likes and the only kne shes liked so far was 120 CAD at one of the parks.  Waay too much.  Wally World didnt.  But we looked around quick to see if its much different and its not.

In town we checked into our hotel and Sarah organized out bags.  One thing we finally did was stop by Mcdonalds for their poutine.

We noticed its back to calling Poutine "poo-teen" as I ordered "Poo-tin" like they said in NB and they asked "Poo-teen?".  The gravy quality wasnt great but we'd eat this back home if they had it.

Actual dinner was at the hotel restaurant.  We chilled in bed and watched an Eddie Murphy double feature of Coming to America and Trading Places.  Forgot Al Franken was in that.

Thats basically it.  Tomorrows gonna be another travel get ready day I think.

Ah I did forget.  We'd gotten an email that the ferry (The Cat) had weather systems they were watching for Fri & Saturday.  Sat looks worse which is good.  If they cancel it then we have to drive 12 hours to get back.  Looking ok bjut extra fingers crossed that doesnt happen.  It looks like the ferry has food and shops on it.  3.5 hour ride then customs.  Interesting

Honk Honk! Kejimkujik

We got him.  It took 5 petro-Canadas but we got him.  Bought 2 of them for a loonie each and now theyre going everywhere with us.

Our Inn had a "German" breakfast that was in fact just toast, cereal, and coffee.  We had a very funnt experience as there was an older couple eating near us, possibly also from Minnesota based on the guest book.  She was talking and the old guy sneezed and said excuse me.  The woman said "Yeah, shut the fuck up".  And then she went on talking.  And we were dying trying to keep from laughing.

Todays plan was to get to our last campsite and making a few quick scenic stops while attempting to get the petro goose.  We set the gps to a random Halifax Petro-Canada as we had to go through there anyway.  We didnt do anything in Halifax except that.  It was in a nice looking neighborhood.  We checked another one later just to see if they had them but they didnt.  

We drove out pretty quick and stopped at Peggys Cove.  It has "the most photographed" lighthouse in NS which seems right.  Its a nice looking lighthouse.  The story is a woman named peggy was rescued from drowning there.  When locals would go visit where she was recovering theyd say they were going to peggys cove.  Then theh built the lighthouse.  Its supposedly haunted.  But the town is kept looking as it has for a longtime.  Theres still fisherman there supposedly, but as we found out the real business is the cutesy art shops because cruise ships DUMP old folks out there by the hundreds for ~50 minutes to get tgeir lighthouse pictures, buy a sandwich, and buy local jewelry or sand in a bottle with shells and a saying like "Life is Beautiful".  We got there about 30 minutes before the cruise ship buses came, but when they did they did in force.

When I knealt down to take a picture of a bus (because they were taking a picture with me in it) i accidently cut off tgis nice couple from Seskatchewan walking behind us, as we found out.  Chatted with them a good while, and then headed for lunch.

There was a restaurant a little further away, i.e. out of reach of the bus crowds that had Acadian food.  I had saltfish cakes with beans and marinated carrots.  Sarah had a meat pie and we split Rapoie bites.  They were a lot like Bitterballen.  Rappie pie is cooked potatoes they strain and make smooth with cheese cloth then add broth to.  So they were like fried ball forms of that.  Evergthing was great.  Saltfish cakes i probably would get again but were still good.

After that we got back on the road.  On our route was a town right by Oak Island.  Theres been a long running History Channel show set there (14 seasons).  Without ever really watching it i think the synopsis is there was a real lode treasure map that marked a spot on what appeared to be an island that looked like oak island.  Private funders pay for guys to dig for that treasure in a big muddy hole called "The Money Pit".  And they sometimes find a piece of wood or metal and get excited.  14 seasons of that.  The actual island is prjvate property but they have gift shops I guess

We took this pic then turned around.  The gift shop on this side was 5 ladies chatting and looking at us with a small shack that had a miniature ships and a jolly roger

Next stop was (drive through) was Lunenburg.  Its a Unesco World Heritage site as an example of a planned British settlement.  It has an old town we drove through.  The brits put everhthjng in rows and buildings are painted cool colors.  Didnt have time to stop really

We also drove through this really whacky town called Mahone Bay that was very cute but also had creepy scarecrow-esque figures all over town

An hour and a half later ~4:15, we made it to Kejimkujik National Park.  Its kind of a weird park.  I think it would be a Provincal park if it werent for there being petroglyphs.  Those arent available to the gen public except in certain scheduled sessions on certain days.  There is a beautiful river here with a nice waterfall.  Hikimg baths and canoe rentals.  The bathroom...wow best bathroom ive seen in any park or campsite.  They have sealing doors to prevent bugs into the main area which has a bench and drinking fountains.  No genders just private bathrooms each with its own sink, outlets, mirror.  Private free showers.  No bugs inside, insane.  Its heated and each bathroom has its own heat vent.  The acadia park, which i cant remember if I mention had these huge orb spiders all over it.  It was what it was.  So the change here is wild.

We went to the only food place open within a large radius which was a diner in Caledonia about 15 min away.  Simple tasty burgers and shared a pulled pork poutine that was huge.  Too huge we took half of it back.

We stopped at a grocery store just to look around.  I couldnt beleive it.  On the bulletin board in this itty bitty Nova Scotia town was a Hu card given out by Eckists (Eckankar religion/cult) that my homie Rick and I (and Sarah) had taken a tour of the other year.  Its based out of Minnesota, still cant believe it.

Were car camping again but this time we set up the air mattress in the back and I think itll be a comfy night.  Low around 40 but its warmer in the car and just using 1 blanket.

Chowdah! Lobster 2

We slept ok in the car.  Originally Sarah was using the back seat but that was giving her back issues so she went up front and I took the back.  In the end fromt seats are the way to go they lean wayyy back, pretty comfy.

We changed in restrooms/showers and headed backwards on the Cabot Trail (since we were now near the end) to the Bog Trail.  It was technically a Fen.  Bogs are wetlands where the only sources of water are fog, rain, snow.  Fens have those and are fed through groundwater.  This area is probably a bit neater in summer because theres thousands of orchids there, but its still cool as there are 3 varieties of carnivorous plants there.  The one that was everywhere was pitcher plants.  They were everywhere, and they looked like they were buried because the spaghnum moss was so thick.

After that headed to the exiting visitors center and went for gas.  Another peto-canada, the guy said he sold the last goose keychain Sunday.  Drat.  A guy behind us pumping gas notice our New Jersey plate, and said "I bet the gas seems cheap to you but its real fucking expensive for us".  Reflexively we both laughed and were like "Ha yeah".  Realized it wasnt a joke but like hey sorry man, idk what u expected us to say.    Definitely on radio listening to Canadian news you can feel the economic strain.  Everyone up to that point has been very friendly/welcoming i.e. not us responsible for tariffs or shitty gas prices.  The gas today was like 2 bucks a liter.  Discounting conversaion rate thats like $7.70 a gallon.  Rough.  And gdp growth expectations were halved due to tariffs.  Inflations bad there like everywhere.  Well if the gas pump guy was expecting a deeper conversation we didnt have time anyway.

We headed out and around noon stopped at a place called Charlenes Family Restaurant, a place the all knowing Internet said has the best chowder.  Sarah got a blt with poutine.  The chowder was very good and hot enough to burn both oue tongues.  Had hallibut, mussles, scallops, a lobster claw, shrimp, more.  All of it was soft, so surprise crunches.  Very good.  I dont think ill get chowder again on the trip as this hit the spot and i just dont think i wamt it that frequently.

We took a scenic South Coastal road and came to our hotel Salmon River Country Inn.  A pretty cute B and B run by two Bavarian women.  We had called ahead to reserve the room withe the "Fishermans Special".  Which was a discounted room plus 2 lobster meals with wine and desert.

When we came down for dinner, the guy forgot about it amd gave us menus and told us they didnt have lobster because they werent in season.  We asked and hes like oh yeah thats rigbt this doesnt apply to you guys, almost nobody books the room+meal deals (probably because you have to call it in cant book online).  We have your meals.  

I googled apparently there are LFAs lobster dishing areas that rotate by months.  So that area you cant trap lobster until spring summer, so they must have gotten the lobster elsewhere for our meals.

It was fun, and gave us a slight chuckle later as other people attempted to order the lobster but he had to explain they couldnt but we were having it.  

The libstsr was a bit overcooked, but the butter was good.  We both decided we probably wont ever want a full lobster again.  Price to tastiness isnt there for us.  But now we know.  We got a bottle of white wine with it and some very tasty cherry chocolate cake.

Aftwr this blog post hitting the sack, fairy simple day but writing up 2 posts in ome day is hard