Day 12- Must. Make. Ferry!

August 29, 2010 at 7:50 am · Filed under Fresh New Rants, Sabbatical and tagged: camp, ferry

When I awoke to the sunrise, I realized that Tom was already awake (this is rare- I usually always am up first). He was looking at his phone. We quickly realized that the time on his phone and on other devices were different. The time had changed- we were so far east at this point we were in another time zone, which we hadn’t considered when planning for this trip. Fortunately, it was still very early and didn’t affect our ability to get to the ferry on time. And it would mean we’d have an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day when setting up camps- yay!

We hadn’t setup much for camp so that packing in would be easier. But while we were getting ready, we had several more curious Canadians stop by for tours of the Shadow. I think Tom was on to something when he said we should charge for showing people around. Or I should have some cards from the folks at Little Guy and be getting some commissions. “And inside, there is a queensize bed, and cabinets and a fan. The ventilation is quite good. Oh yes, it’s very comfortable. And the back opens up for more storage and a kitchen. Yes, we have power with the marine battery and an inverter. We keep an electric cooler in the back when we’re at camp and in the car when we are on the go. Yes, it’s very easy to pull. Just 800 lbs and you can move it by hand when you get to a site. Oh, setup is simple. Just get it into position, plug it in, set the chocks, open up the doors and the back and pull out the camp chairs and rugs.”

I found that if you use the steel storage bin on the front of the camper to put the stove on and use the camper to block the wind, you can get enough water to boil to make a little coffee. We were happy to have an untimed hot shower this morning. It was good for me, since I’ve been fighting a sinus infection for days and steam always helps to clear my nose. My throat was also sore, and feeling sick made me a little homesick for the first time on our trip. I just wanted to be home lying on the couch under a blanket warm and snug with my sinus mask and nothing to do. Instead, I had to deal with cranky husband who was worried about getting to the ferry, drive through town with a trailer, get to the other side and figure out how to navigate in Nova Scotia. I still wasn’t used to the km instead of miles and doing the math to figure out how far things were and how fast I was going.

We headed out at 10am and thought we had plenty of time to get to the ferry. But of course there was construction. And more construction. And we got lost. Again. Often the notations on the map don’t correspond exactly to the way exits work in reality. And though the camper is easy to haul, I can’t turn on a dime (a quarter maybe. a loonie, definitely), so we often get to intersections and Tom isn’t sure where we should go. Often I just wing it since I can’t hold up traffic for him to decide and sometimes it’s right and sometimes it’s wrong. I figure you just go with it and reroute if necessary. He hasn’t quite gotten used to being that flexible and he’s gotten so used to maps on the iPad that track where you are that he’s nearly forgotten how to just read a map.

We got to the ferry in plenty of time and got the rig loaded without a problem. We packed the dog in his little bag and headed up to the passenger decks. After wandering around a bit, we got in trouble for having the dog on the deck. Keep in mind, he’s a tiny dog, in a bag hanging on Tom’s arm. His little toes haven’t hit the floor. But they told us he either had to stay in the car or go into the kennels on the boat. I told them they shouldn’t advertise the boat as “dog friendly” if that is the case. Nonetheless, he went back to the car for a nap, which he didn’t mind.

It was pretty cool to see how they loaded the semis in a row in the middle of the boat, the campers in rows on either side, then cars and motorcycles. It was all neat and orderly and probably pretty well weight balanced. The car deck was wet and smelled of fish. Tom was worried that maybe they let water in and I thought maybe it was that the trucks were filled with fish being transported back and forth. I overheard a truck driver up in the lounge talking about how they lost 32,000 lbs. of perch onto Highway 9 recently and made every bear in Maine really happy. We had just driven that long stretch of Highway 9 the day before and I was glad to miss the perch and bears.

We settled into the TV lounge area and got some coffee- Starbucks! It’s the first one we’ve had in I don’t know how long. It was nice to sit in comfy chairs with free wifi and drink good coffee someone else made. The trip was nearly 3 hours and a bit boring. Just sea to see. Tom saw a couple of porpoises, but I was inside and missed them. We got there without mishaps and back in the car we were nearly first off the boat.

As soon as we were off the boat, we stopped at one of the handy travel centers they have in Canada. I was a little weirded out that for the best brochures you had to actually talk to a human being, but I got over it and the woman was very helpful. She gave me tips on things we should see in the areas of Nova Scotia we were visiting and about 3 inches of brochures and booklets.

We had almost no cash at this point and were in sore need of some Canadian currency. We found a bank in Digby and got some cash and then found lunch along the way.

We headed for our camp at Sherwood Forest in the valley of Annapolis. After checking in, we headed through the campground and were a little surprised to see that though the place was full of campers, there was almost no one there. We guessed it must have been a place that has mostly people who own trailers and come on weekends and since it was during the week, no one was around. But it was really strange to be almost alone in a camp full of rigs.

The showers here are a quarter for 5 minutes. I told Tom I thought we could splurge and have 10 minutes for 50 cents each! Tenzin was in the camper and decided there was something in my purse. For the last couple of days, we had been tucking something from lunch into napkins and into my purse and then taking them to him. He decided my purse smelled of lunch and that I was hiding something that he must find.

We spend a quiet(ish) evening planning the next couple of days of our trip and examining the many brochures. I say quiet(ish) because we quickly realized there was one other camper nearby. There was a tent and a bicycle and a couple of tarps and suddenly someone walked over and there was bountiful laughter and talking and coughing. An old man with a beard came out of the tent eventually and came over to see our camper. He told us he would keep it quiet to give us some peace and Tom said “no, that’s ok.” Famous last words. The guy cranked up blues music and played it all evening. It wasn’t bad, but I think Tom learned to say “Thanks. That would be great.” in the future.

There were a couple of other people who suddenly appeared from their campers at dusk. It was odd to me that people would show up without cars driving in. One stopped by to see the trailer and another just said hi as I walked the dog. I wondered whether maybe they were vampires. There were signs about karaoke and bingo and yet besides the blues guy, silence. In a forest overlooking a field of campers. And though it was Sherwood Forest, we never saw Maid Marian.

Pictures from today are here- http://bit.ly/9WPTSo

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