Over Canada

Woke up early at 6am today in Riviere-du-Loup to a brisk windy day. Didn't mind the early start since I wanted to get on the road and arrive at my parent's place in good time. Got everything loaded quickly, realized I'd forgotten to do my hair and had to unpack hair product after it was in the truck. Sigh - can't meet the day with bad hair.

The dogs hopped in for the last leg of driving and after a bit of a wrong turn in what turned out to be quite a pretty little French town I headed toward New Brunswick, missed the highway signs and had to double back ... twice.

According to the "welcome to' sign New Brunswick was closed but they let me in anyway. I suspect they mean the tourist info place is closed ...

New Brunswick is littered with hills. Not twisty winding hills but long gently sloping hills that kill your mileage and your time. I think those hills added about 2 hours to my day. And they are hills of solid rock. Solid. I do believe it it s wonder of human tenacity and engineering that they managed to cut highways out of this solid solid rock.

So all day I'd be bombing along at 100 with a tailwind and when I'd suddenly be down to 80 and listening to the truck growl. This went on for hours. I could not wait to get out of that damn province.

It turns out that New Brunswick also has moose.

According to the signs they are kind of goofy looking, a little crippled and they freely approach cars - perhaps to take your order for poutine.

New Brunswick is very treed, riddled with hills, made of almost solid rock under just a foot of dirt and bilingual. Can you tell?

So far along the way the Nova Scotia border sign has been the most welcoming - or perhaps I'm biased.See the light house and the pretty design all around it? So nice. And as an added bonus Nova Scotia was not 'closed'.

Driving into the province and along the coast toward my parent's house was a true pleasure. What a gorgeous countryside.

My first glimpse of the ocean, or the Northumberland Strait for purists, and it was an exciting moment I can tell you. That's the water waaaaaaaay in the background there beyond the farm.

So here I am ... 5000km across the country from all I have known. It's been a relatively easy drive and for far, with just under 100km to go, it's been almost entirely problem free. What an adventure. I was looking last night back on the roads I've driven and thought "I actually drove that my very own self." Tamzin, 4 trusting dogs, 3 patient cats, an amazing truck, a cheap trailer and all my worldly goods. Yes ... I'm damn proud of myself.