I got into Acadia later than planned, about 8pm. I’d thought about just over-nighting at the walmart just outside the park, although it happens to be one of the walmarts where the local ordinances don’t allow over-nighting in their parking lots. I thought however I’d drive into the park and look for a camp site anyway and use Walmart as a back up. I’m glad did for two reasons. First, the campground was nearly empty and beautiful. Second, while looking at the campground board another solo camper drove up, fully equipped with kayak, bike and skis on her roof and Washington State plates. After a quick hello I invited her over to the campfire I was planning on later. I wanted to burn the wood I’d now hauled from Cape Cod and through Canada that I didn’t really want to bring all the way back to Pennsylvania. Anyway, it was great to have another random friend met on the road to chat with by the campfire that night. Amy was on a three month hiatus before starting a new dream job for her back in Washington, Hippotherapy (Occupational Therapy using horses).

In the morning I awoke to a incredible forest around me. I couldn’t just drive out of the park as I’d planned… now a couple days behind schedule to get back to Pennsylvania in time to get “things” in order before picking Elena up from the Philly airport. I figured another half day wouldn’t be the worst thing, so I took the morning to walk with the dog along the Otter Cliffs. Acadia National Park is the only (as far as I know) national park that allows dogs on their trails. Why this is I suspect goes back to the origin of the park which was primarily private land donations, rather than the usual Federal Government purchasing. After a beautiful walk along the Otter Cliffs, under clear skies I took Amy’s suggestion (Amy grew up in the area, Conneticut IIRC) and hiked Pememtic Mountain. The hike ended up being much longer than I had planned, and shortly after starting the clouds moved in. In spite of the wet weather the hike was wonderful and tucker certainly enjoyed running like crazy up and down the steep trail. The trail was categorized as “moderate”, which almost turned me off from it. I thought about switching to a trail categorized as “difficult”. I’m glad a didn’t… Acadia has a reputation for rock and root strewn trails, legendary for twisting ankles… this trails was no exception. Tucker of course took it all in stride running up steep rock section that had me using hands to make my way up, and jumping down cliffs that I carefully negotiated descending with my still recovering sprained ankle. Again, the best pictures end up on Flickr, so go look there for more photos from Maine/Acadia.

It was all worth it and I made it most of the way down the marvelous Maine coast before sunset. I was headed for Pennsylvania, but also wanted to stop by a friends in Harpswell Maine. Well, friend isn’t quite the right term. Jon is a mechanic, a Volkswagen mechanic and partners with the guy who imports and sell the engine conversion I have in my Van. He has helped me out by phone many times over the years and I really wanted to say thank you in person. The thank you took a little longer than planned… my scheduled arrival back at Matt & Em’s had already slipped form 5pm to 7pm to 10pm thanks to the hiking in Acadia and now was after midnight… and of course it was raining again…. raining hard again.

Thankfully I arrived safe and sound… close to 3am and Tucker and I were greeted by two very happy dogs 🙂

The ferry crossing was short and uneventful. A somewhat pretty view back toward PEI and a somewhat pretty view toward Caribou, Nova Scotia, but nothing like the view from the ferry back towards Quebec City, wow was that a fabulous view. I’d been wavering on weather or not to I’d have time to drive the Cabot Trail around Cape Breton as I’d hoped. As usually I’d pretty much decided NOT to do it until I decision point where I could turn left and go all the way around the island, or turn right and head straight for Halifax. Of course I decided to drive it. I t seem early enough that I’d get around most of it by daylight and see the legendary coast line views. About an hour up the west side of Cape Breton the rain started… and heavy. Very heavy, and in fact it was half sleet, frozen rain… I stopped off first at a pizza place for lunch, but a youth sports team had just come in for a party and the 45+ minute wait for a slice of pizza convinced me to find somewhere else. The convenient choice then became a Tim Horton’s down the street. Tim Horton’s is a Canadian institution, it’s part sort of Starbucks but better… Higher quality food and more variety, good sandwiches and pastries… and quick which was key if I was going to make it around the Cabot Trail in reasonable time. The weather was still nasty but I decided to press on a little further. Fortunately just past Cheticamp the weather cleared up, still cold, but clear enough to enjoy the beautiful views.

I made it most of the way around the island before dark, when headed down 105 near Baddeck Tucker began making noises like he was going to throw up. I quickly pulled to the side of the road, well off roadway since I new I’d be jumping out quick and wanted him far away from the road as well. Tucker and I both jumped out the passenger side door and into a wet soggy muddy ditch. Well, Tucker ended up not throwing up, yeah!, just a false alarm. We hoped back in the car to pull away, when I discovered I’d pulled a bit too far off the road into the very soft gravel. No problem I thought, I’ll just put the van in four wheel drive… only all four tires started spinning and digging into the soft gravel. Ok, lock up the rear differential and try again… still digging in and not moving. Eventually I tried to rock the van out of the holes I was digging into the gravel, which seemed very promising until after rolling back and forward the van suddenly started to slide slowly sideways into the ditch. The van was now leaning over at about 30 degrees and there was no way I was driving the van out, so I shut down the engine. Tucker took most of this in stride… stride meaning he was now standing half on the seat and half on the car door. I was leaning up hill hoping the van wasn’t going to actually tip over on it’s side. In truth Vanagons are very bottom heavy and very very hard to tip over, but I was at the point I was sliding out of the seat sideways. I don’t know why, but I was having trouble getting my phone to connect to AAA (CAA in this case), whom I was hoping would be able to winch me out. Perhaps because I was dialing an 800 number from Canada. Fortunately an ambulance came by in the opposite direction and kindly stopped to check on my predicament. They let me use their mobile phone which worked no problem and AAA was sending a tow truck. The ambulance drivers even waited by until the tow truck came in about 30 minutes. The ridiculous thing, is since I was chatting with the paramedics while waiting, I didn’t even think to take pictures of my van in the ditch until just after the tow truck driver had gently winched it out… doh… sorry it was really spectacular to see though.

I’d had such a wonderful experience couch surfing with Patrick on PEI that I took his suggestion and emailed couch surfer he’d stayed with about a year ago in Halifax, Nova Scotia named Dali. She too was ok with the dog, of which I was amazed especially considering she had two pet ferrets.

Driving into Halifax it has a great small sky line and several pretty bridges by night. I drove straight in and met with Dali at her home, a big old house she shares with a couple roommates. They all welcomed me and the dog in. I’m really loving this couch surfing thing. Shortly after arriving a bunch of Dali’s friends showed up. Another great group of people to sit and chat with. A few beers to get to know eachother and we all headed out to play some pool and drink some more beers. Halifax is a small city, and we walked across half it in less than 20 minutes to get to the pool hall. It was a great evening. As usually I played one good game of pool, and then was awful the rest of the night.

Unfortunately my schedule was starting to pinch me… so I planned just the one night in Halifax and a fairly early departure the next morning. I do wish I had more time so I could have gotten to know Dali and her friends better, Dali was really so sweet. We did have time to grab breakfast together before she went to class a little corner restaurant with a full vegan breakfast menu (so cool). I dropped her at class, got a qucik picture of her with the now world famous Tucker, who also appears to be getting a bit jaded by his fame.

Then Tucker and I took a few hours to walk the waterfront and around the citadel with Tucker. It’s a beautiful waterfront, lots of pictures on Flickr from Halifax. I should point out, I try to put my “best” photos on Flickr, and put a few that go with the story good/bad here, so do check out Flickr, way better photos. Anyway, I think the waterfront and a walk down some old street with beautiful houses and trees turning colors was the highlight for me. The citadel was cool too, although much smaller than the one in Quebec City and with not quite as spectacular of views… still worth the walk though.

I left Halifax headed south back into the US, specifically headed for Acadia National Park in Maine.

I got into PEI by way of the fairly new one billon Canadian dollar bridge. The bridge is 7km long… it’s really and impressive bridge for lots of reasons, including be subjected to winter ice flows, but I’ll let you look up all the cool engineer stuff yourselves.

The evening I got in I met him at a Tim Horton’s where he was already meeting a friend for coffee. Later that evening we headed to Dooley’s Pool Hall to shoot some pool with some of his friends and have a beer or two. It was a great introduction to some really cool friendly people, exactly what had been missing in Quebec City. I was already loving the couch surfing thing.

After a hour or so of playing pool I followed him home and got settled in. Patrick’s mother had already made up a futon bed for me, complete with a blanket on the floor for Tucker. Sooo sweet! It was late though so I wouldn’t actually met her until morning. Since it may sound strange, Patrick had moved back home to help take care of some family business for a while, I think it’s great that his family is cool with him continuing to host couch surfers. In fact as I search for couch surfers I’m finding a surprising mix of couch surfers and couch surfing hosts. They come in all ages and living situations just friendly people willing to offer what ever they have to offer. More on that some other time.

In the morning Patrick’s generosity didn’t stop when he offered to make me breakfast, pancakes and eggs. All I can say is the man makes some wicked good pancakes!

Since I was there on a weekend and Patrick wasn’t working he was able to take the day to show me around PEI on a driving tour. What a great tour it was, he took me to corners of the island I never would have found on my own. I was so amazed at what a better experience it was to be able to nag out with a local than I ever would have had on my own. We visited lighthouses down dirt roads, beaches of all sorts, and toured downtown Charlottetown. One of which was the building where the signing of the confederation of Canada occurred on PEI. After grabbing a beer in town we headed back to Patrick’s home where Patrick again cooked for me, this time some fabulous spaghetti in spicy alfredo sauce. What a guy! I decided to try couch surfing on a whim and it turned out to be such a fabulous experience, such wonderful people. It all made me realize the couch surfing isn’t really about a free couch to sleep on, oh I’m sure it’s that for a few people, but for most it’s about connecting with people from all over that are interested in experiencing a place in a different way than your regular tourist.

In the morning I got up early to head for the ferry off of PEI towards Nova Scotia. Again Patrick the consummate host even set HIS alarm to make sure I got up on time and then made me more pancakes while I showered and packed up my stuff.