Bday Trip 2018 – Island Driving

After a long day of driving the Cabot Trail and then driving all the way to Charlottetown, PEI, I was delighted by my next accommodation – Sydney Boutique Inn and Suites. Once a convent, the hotel is well-located and incredibly stylish and comfortable. In fact, it was the nicest place I stayed on my entire trip (so naturally, it was the one I spent the least amount of time in). The shower was heavenly after a long day in the driver’s seat and it felt great to wash off the accumulated layers of sunscreen. The bed was seriously better than my bed at home and I slept like a rock for the first time in months. The only small negative was that there was some weird bug in the room and when I tried to liberate it out of my room and into the hallway, the ungrateful bastard bit me twice! That was not a nice way to repay me after I spared its life. It itched like a mofo for days afterwards. I swear, it’s a requirement that I get bit by some bug at least once a trip…

After my great night’s sleep (I forgot I could sleep like that), I got up to drizzly weather. Damn it, it was not top down weather! I loaded up the car and set out. Small confession, I’m not really an Anne of Green Gables fan. I mean, I read the books when I was younger, but I wouldn’t have made the trek out to PEI just to see where the author of the books lived and drew inspiration from. And that apparently makes me an oddity in PEI tourist ranks, because you’re either on the island to go to Anne pilgrimage sites or you’re a Quebec family camping. I decided to go do the east coast drive since the central section was Anne country and the west coast scenic drive was far from where I was starting. Driving through farmland, I ended up behind a line of campers that were apparently heading towards Greenwich and the national park. Mercifully on Route 16, everyone seemed to peel off to the west while I took the deserted route east. The hilly road had trees growing practically to the shoulder. And pretty much every other homestead had a For Sale sign out front, so if you’re looking for a somewhat isolated spot to hang your hat with water views, there are plenty of options in PEI for you.

Eventually, I made it out to East Point, the imaginatively named eastern point of the island. There is a lighthouse there that I decided to check out. While the lighthouse itself is standard, the cliffs offered a view of the sea and the seals hanging out close to shore. And the suddenly, a red fox popped up over the edge of the cliff. The swallows that had nested in the upper reaches of the cliff were none too happy with the fox, but the small number of tourists hanging out sure were delighted. The fox knew how to please an audience and at one point, plopped down in the dirt right beyond the fence line to pose for photos (and yes, I got more than one).

What does the fox say? Absolutely nothing… East Point, PEI, July 2018

After a bit, I got back into the car and headed out in the drizzle to a beach that was only 15-20 minutes away. At Basin Point, there is a sandy beach popular with locals and tourists alike. And the cool thing is that the sands squeak when you walk on them, hence the nickname Singing Sands. Even in the chilly drizzle, there were a ton of beachgoers hanging out. I kept walking away from the crowds and eventually found myself in a lonely stretch of the beach.

“Hey Dad,” I asked, “how about here?” You see, I graduated with my master’s degree from a university located near a Florida beach that also has sand that sings. My mom and dad really enjoyed that beach and I thought it may be an appropriate place to scatter some more of my dad’s ashes. But I wasn’t sure. That is until a couple came into view around a dune and the guy was wearing a Cleveland Cavaliers jersey. I hadn’t seen anyone wearing sports gear that wasn’t Canadian and suddenly, right after I ask that question – here comes this guy. Oddly enough, I had also seen right at that time, someone had carved Nicole 2018 into the sand…Like I said earlier, I might be seeing significance where there is none; but I opted to take that as approval.

I found a deserted spot near a large piece of driftwood and in a shallow pit made by the wind, I scattered some more of his ashes. I was crying pretty heavily and whispered a benediction over the sand as I poured.

Basin Head Beach, PEI, July 2018

I waited some time to let the tears stop before trying to compose myself and then found a branch so I could write a message to my dad in the sand…

Only when the rain really started coming down did I decide to head back to the car to continue my journey, this time westbound Route 2. The tiny downtown of Souris is charming and the lighthouse there offered better photos than the one at East Point (although lacking in the wildlife spotting). I drove through Rollo Bay, sad that they didn’t hand out Rollos to drivers on the way into town (I would have driven through a few times if that was the case). I then picked up Route 4 heading southeast. For whatever reason, I figured I would check out the town of Cardigan but when I drove through, I have no idea what I was thinking. It took me 20 seconds to drive through the entire commercial section. It was also still drizzling and I was getting crabby.

At that point, I thought about driving all the way to check out the lighthouse at Point Prim but something in my psyche rebelled. It was raining harder at this point and for whatever reason, the landscape was not inspiring me to continue. Finally, I realized that I had reached a stage in my trip where I was pushing myself to go see stuff that I really didn’t have my heart into seeing.

I pulled over and reset my GPS to take me back to Charlottetown. On the way out of town, I happened to drive right past the Cows Ice Cream Factory and said to myself, well this is a tourist destination I probably shouldn’t miss. So I found a parking spot and stood in line for 15 minutes to get a scoop of Gooey Mooey (burnt sugar ice cream with a caramel ribbon, small chocolate caramel pieces, and chocolate chunks) in a freshly made waffle cone. It was definitely worth the wait. Sadly, they didn’t have any baseball hats for sale in the gift shop and I wasn’t about to buy a t-shirt that had the word COWS all big across the chest. Even I know I would just be setting myself up for some ill-mannered teasing…

After replenishing my sugar levels, I made a slight detour to Argyle Shore where there are rusty red cliffs that plunge into the Northumberland Strait. I could see people way out on the tidal flats searching for mussels and oysters… And then I pointed Thor in the direction towards the Confederation Bridge, paid the $47 CAD to cross (they take credit cards thankfully), and then drove about an hour or so through New Brunswick farmland and forest to the outskirts of Moncton, where my next hotel awaited. I figured I would get there at a reasonable time, try to get something to eat that was more substantial than the turkey slices and carrots I had been feasting on for the past few days, and get to bed early.

However, I rolled into Moncton and discovered that the exit I needed to get to my hotel was closed due to construction and then I had to drive a few miles past that to a roundabout where I could effectively turn around to go back the way I came. And then of course at the exit, I couldn’t turn left. So I drove to the first place I could turn around and impulsively decided to stop at a Tim Horton’s and just get something to eat there. That was not a good idea. Don’t get me wrong, ordinarily I love Tim Horton’s but this was the worst Tim Horton’s I had ever had. The ciabatta roll was burnt, the potato wedges were mushy, and I threw half of it away. It occurred to me that I should just make my way to the hotel and call it a day…

Another installment of my bday trip coming tomorrow…