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

The Way She Goes

Will be doing a double post today as we didnt have internet connection last night.  So this post is for 9/21.

I forgot to mentiom how odd our hotel in Antigonish was.  Its called the Claymore and is just separated from a strip mall.  Looks like its been there a long time, has a Claymore sword behind the counter and some dated scottish stuff arojnd the entrance.  Entry smelled very mildewy, luckily room was great.  Breakfast was at the attached restaurant and was good.

We now headed northeast towards the Cabot Trail, a scenic drive around and through Cape Breton and Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  An area thats hard to describe.  Its extremely hilly/mountainous, with occasional waterfalls, gorges, the coastline, different kinds of forests.  Its very pretty and tge drive is a lot of twisting ups and downs with pulloff views.

We got lucky/unlucky as when we got our passes I realized the one thing I had forgotten to book was a timeslot for the skyline ridge hike, but they had one opening left at 4pm. Its a popular hike that leads to 180 degree views of gorges and the coastline as it ends on a thinnish jutting hilltop.

So we got the timeslot, and went for lunch at a gondola area.  In winter its ski slopes and the lodge had food.  It was kind of stamdard fare.  But we had a great time chatting with the gal running the lift.  She complemented Sarahs hair which is how lots of conversations start for us.  So we got the skinny on what its like in NS, tbe job situation in Canada in general as I mentioned id looked in Newfoundland.  And she said Albertas the place right now for money but surprisingly Prince Edward Island really is trying to bring in people.  Pretty fun.  Best part was she thought we were in our twenties, that was a win.

Continued on the drive, and saw some seals along the way in the water.  Forgot to mention previous day we'd seen dolphins, so a couple interesting critters.  We got to the hike site at 4:30.  Now... this is where the day started not going quite great.  The hike while rated easy is a little over 4 miles.  We hadnt made camp yet amd we arent fast.  

The trail is neat, plants are cool, it slopes up and dowm relatively gently.  It also goes through a Moose "Exclosure".  So they found that moose have transformed areas of forest into prairie and theyre trykng to restore the forest in chjnks by blocking out moose.  You get to the gate and you have to close it after you pass.

The reason this happened is they had a Spruce Budworm problem.  Those worms killed spruce and led to an increase of fir and birch which moose love to eat saplings of.  The fence and gate make it like a reverse Jurassic Park, but with moose.

Anyway, we kept walking and walking and clouds were coming in.  And ag one point clouds have rolled onto the mountain and it starts misting.  Sarah being the best trooper is telling me if I want we can go to the end.  So we go to the end, its been over an hour amd we get to the boardwalls at the end and all we see is this

So now we start walking back.  And its getting darker and fewer people are around, and theres bears and moose existinv somewhere.  And it starts raining pretty hard.  So yeah pretty rough by the time we got out.  Sarahs pants ripped and we were soaked.  

Got in the car and headed to our camp.  At around 7:30 it was dark and nobody there for reservations.  We park the car and realize that the sites you have to walk to with your stuff, its not drive in.  Woof.  We walk to our site.  Its cool but thoroughly wet.

Big shoutout to Sarah shes my hero when im feeling poopiest.  And tgroughout tgis telling me its ok we'll figure it out.  She finds a place in town for food thats open until 9.

We leave and drive towards Chéticamp.  This was more harrowing then we thought as it was these same mountain roads, twists, turns, cliffs but pitch black and this part was umder construction so dirt and pepples road.

We got the the restaurant and sat down.  Doryman Tavern.  They had a live band going to my surprise playing Acadian and Zydeco im French and English.  Very awesome, learned that Chéticamp (prounounced Shetty Camp) was an Acadian (French settlers of thag region) settlement.  They were expelled by the Brits and spread out into New Brunswick, Maine, others into Louisiana (Cajun).  So hearing the guy chat about where differemt songs were from and about was very cool.  He also mentiomed theres now an Acadian gathering that happens every 5 years, and its third meeting in 2004 was in Chéticamp.

To accompony that they had an Acadian course of Fricot (stew), Bouilli (carrots, potatoes, and fried ham), and Blueberry cake.  

During this time we also looked up a list of motels, the waitress told us our best shot would just be to call all of them.  Unfortunately they were all full.

Sooooo... we drove back to the campground.  Parked in the lot and slept in the car.  Which was not that bad.  They had really nice bathrooms with showers.  The car was confy.  In fact we might do it again

<3 again to Sarah.  We had a good time from a pretty poopy day.  Id looked forward to that campsite and seeing the sunset on the ocean there but wasnt in the cards.