One magical (super long) day on the east coast...

04.01.2008

I am writing to you from the road. It is 2:53 a.m. and we are stuck in some kind of accident scene on Highway 2 somewhere east of Edmundston.

There are about 10-15 trucks all lined up and some police cars are patrolling up and down the lane to the left of us.

We pull up beside the guy in the jeep in front of us, Joseph, and he doesn't know what is going on. So, we make the best of it, crank up the White Stripes and eat some cold chicken curry. Yum. Now, I'm going to try to sleep again, after a stop at Tim Horton's we are back on the road to Damascus (Halifax). At about 6 a.m. I take the wheel after a refreshing three hours of sleep... The sun is coming up and I'm driving straight into the pink eastern horizon. It's lovely and I'm just absorbed in the colours and the scene of the road fading into the distance among the snow covered pine trees is amazing. Just as I'm contemplating the utter beauty of the moment, I realize that the sun is going to actually come up today and it'll be shining directly in my eyes. In about 15 minutes, sure enough, my retinas are burning. Note to self, bring sunglasses next time. I stop the car about an hour outside of Halifax at a small gas station, where a man is having his breakfast and chatting with the waitress in the restaurant inside. Apparently, a sadistic murderer has just confessed to brutally killing a 20 year old. 9 a.m., Shylo calls us because we are late. We're almost there, but I miss the excessively obvious turnoff to Lower Sackville, which is where she lives. We try to turn around but are so incredibly lost it's unbelievable. We stop at a convenience store to ask this lady where to go, she says "Go straight down this road, turn at the Irving, then turn right at 'Cobekood' until you get to town." There are two other people in the store, both of them give us two different directions to Sackville. Lisa and I thank them for being so helpful, but we decide to take the first route. So this "straight" road is not that straight. As I am driving looking for "Cobekood" Rd. Suddenly Lisa screams "COBEKOOD TURN", and I have to pull a U-turn to get onto the road, which is labelled... "Cobequid"???? Anyway, I am laughing so hard tears are streaming down my face and Lisa is shrieking, as usual. That spelling is NOTHING like what the shopkeeper told us the road sounded like. Anyway, it was funny, you had to be there, trust me.

So, we get to Shylo's house and it's HUGE. Three bedrooms for one person, holy.

Anyway, Shylo gave us some cereal and then we went downtown to see Pier 21 and look at the harbour. It's kinda cool to think that crowds and crowds of people arrived here with virtually nothing to their names except boundless amounts of hope. Now, the harbour is deserted except for joggers and tourists.

We also located the production set for the Trailer Park Boys. Lisa somehow managed to get the car stuck on this extremely thick sheet of ice in front of the set. She was very excited to be there.

At 2 p.m. we went on a tour of the Alexander Keith Brewery. It was one of those Disneyfied historical museum sites, with character actors from the 19th century. I don't believe they actually brew any beer there, but they tell us that they do. Shylo, Lisa and Dave really liked it, though.

After this, we went to go eat Donairs for lunch and then back to Shylo's house for a nap.

Nap time is over, so we head to Halifax to go out for dinner at Bubble's Mansion, (that dude with the glasses from Trailer Park Boys). We had some uninspiring food, and Lisa couldn't stop taking pictures of the TPB memorabilia placed around the restaurant. Apparently, Bubbles regularly stops by to visit, so Lisa and Shylo wanted to wait and see if he would come.

As I was struggling to stay awake, Shylo's boyfriend started asking me lame questions about my ex-husband. I got really angry and stormed out. I told Shylo to stop dating him and eventually she did, but probably not because I told her to.

Me and Dave left and went touring around, climbing up Citadel Hill and checking out the nightlife, which was pretty much nonexistent, this weekend after New Year's. Long day, goodnight.

outside Edmundston collision scene