The four days in Pennsylvania went quickly.

I spent the Wednesday I had to myself packing and planning as much as I could. Changing phone service, the last credit card billing addresses, insurance information as well as running around trying to find someone to re-weld my cracked exhaust pipe.

On Thursday I took care of a few more errands before heading down to Philly to pick Elena up from the airport. It was wonderful to see her again, and I’m really glad I got to spend this last weekend with her before I go overseas.

Friday, Elena and I spent most of the day together, although she ran out to a spa for a facial and massage with Em which I searched for a new back pack since I’d decided mine was too small. As much as I wanted to squeeze into a tiny pack, there was just now way to pack my boots and carry the minimal clothing I wanted to carry. It all fit in the pack I had no problem until I add the boots and couple small items. Anyway, my search was futile and I decided to make do with one of the two other bags I had with me. Either the fairly big trekking pack I’d taken to Europe which I didn’t like because it’s top loading or the big north face duffle bag I have that has optional shoulder straps but no waist belt As with so many decisions I went back and forth many times… I finally settled on the real back pack since I’ll probably be doing some trekking and don’t want to think of what it would be like to hike with the northface duffle without a waist belt for support. I’ll look for a pack in Thailand, hopefully finding a medium sized panel loader (zippered) and sell or send home this pack.

Saturday was the party which was loads of fun as always. Elena made a vegetarian soup and a pumpkin risotto. Both were fantastic, as was all the food.

Sunday was absolutely crazy. I needed to drop my van off with Mike in Westminster, Maryland (outside Baltimore). I’d gotten a one way car rental from Baltimore Airport (BWI) to JFK. So Elena and I drove down to Baltimore to pick up the car and then to Mikes & Carries new house. Which is big and beautiful and I see Mike and Carries doing a ton of work to :). Nearly his entire family was over to help them move in so Elena and I got to sit down and join them all for lunch. It was really nice to see an entire family (Mike’s parents and grandparents as well as sister) stop in the middle of the day to sit down to lunch together. Elena and I headed back towards Pennsylvania in the rental car leaving the Vanagon with Mike. The Vanagon covered roughly 12,000 miles since I left California. The drive home was miserable, they’d shut down 2 of the 3 lanes on I-95 so it was stop and go traffic for two hours. It took nearly five hours to get back to Matt & Em’s, even though it took just under three to get down to Mike and Carrie’s including the stop at the airport. It all made for a very late and harried night where I packed and re-packed again trying to whittle down the amount of stuff I’m taking and making sure I really am happy with my choice of bags… The three of us got to sleep shortly after midnight. Yes it sadly was my last night sleeping with Tucker for a long time as well.

I’m deeply worried about him while I’m gone. I’m far more worried about him than Elena. Elena I can email and talk to all I need. She understands where I am and how long I’m gone for. All he knows is the guy that rescued him from the pound three years ago and that has spent nearly every minute of the last six months with is suddenly going to be gone. I’ve done what I can. I gotten him use to living at Matt and Em’s, use to the other dogs, as settled as I could possibly could… I’ve left him with people I know, love and trust as much as anyone else in the world… but it’s still hard.

In the morning kissed and hugged both my loves tearful good-byes and headed for JFK airport.

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.