-how long does it take...

she asked seeing the wisconsin plates.
about three good days but i didn’t come straight through.
what? asked the older woman in the machine, her mother who was from cape breton, she was from montréal
i’ll explain in the car, she’s deaf.now it was official i had been on my way back, left the motel with reasonable ease as there wasn’t any continental breakfast to be had, not even the saran wrapped muffin of the knights inn in kingston.

after chatting, the gasoline and giving up on a double double from the tim’s, i was off. fredericton was the destination as from there it would be an easy two day drive back. i knew that i could make it as i had driven the opposite direction the first time i drove. not being in a rush i stopped to make some snaps that i passed over on the way to the ferry a pair of signs for bible camp and a poker run. stopping once had me stopping quite a bit a panorama of bras d’or, the englishtown ferry - i decided to take the road on the way to north sydney when i looked at my luck with ferry, but i was curious. then to find the twin buildings somewhere between mabou and inverness along route 19.

again it was about choices made. being fixated on the shore, again due to being used to roads that had nothing on them between the main road and water, i ignored the interior of cape breton, what i was seeking on the coast of the rock was in the interior of cape breton - quite distinct independent villages but now surrounded by farmland. heading up to margaree hoping to turn off on the forks. irrationally stopped for some souvenirs in north east margaree it could have been the façade of the building or curiosity why a shop would be what seemed so far from the town, then for a coffee and the best scones i had had in some time just down the road, thanking tim’s for being so popular, and margaree too small to warrant one. this opened another option for the day. trying all the small cafés in cape breton.

missed the turn off at margaree forks - the size of the town threw me - and ended up in margaree harbour, and a wait due to road construction. closing in on mabou while i found other points of interest, i still hadn’t come across what i was looking for. road construction tends to bunch up traffic and tempers start to flair as one cannot simply pass one car but have to queue up behind the slowest machine. one nova scotian, tired of waiting behind an upper canadian passed while waving the finger. the queue of machines also means that i have to be aware when i pull off.

at one spot pulling off meant spraying rocks at some beach people, another had people slowing to see what was so important.

i was fully aware of the stopping but once i start it becomes difficult to stop. found the scene, i remembered it correctly. decided against the café in mabou - as it seemed to cutesy. retracing my route meant that i could place the snaps made coming up but not clear about the placement.

stopped again at creignish as the sun was in a more favourable position, stopped again in port hawkesbury as a way of commemorating the return to the mainland and the fact that the transcanada would now have me focussing on driving.

this was now the return ride, only slowed in antigonish because i had to, played car tag with someone heading - i am guessing - to the ac/dc concert at magnetic hill. passing me they waved. i considered this a conversation so passing them i made a snap, passing me again for the last time they did the same.

stopped on both sides of the nova scotia - new brunswick border again to document it. which broke the making time mind set that i was in so i headed out to jolicure to see where the sackville snapper lived. which meant a couple of more snaps.

this was a mistake and i knew it before i set out on the diversion. at the new brunswick welcome centre people were flowing in say how the trans canada in moncton was a mess due to people flocking to the ac/dc concert. heading east was ok but westbound it was backed up kilometres from the city.

reckoned that this would be a good way of showing my road knowledge of the sackville area and a reason to get off the road by diverting through the town then up past dieppe. rationalised that i would prefer moving slowly through scenery than sitting on a super highway.

woulda shoulda, i wanted to stop in sackville not to see how i could oust the current photography professor at mount allison but because the town centre seemed welcoming. gobsmacked by the tides on the rivers flowing into shepdody and cumberland bays grand banks of mud all the way to dieppe, i wanted to get close and spend the time i spent going along route 925. didn’t was too aware of the concert trying to get through moncton to think about slowing down.

until pré d’un haut and parc massé in the early evening light. the ballpark with the church behind it was a nice counter to creignish and arisaig. spent more time that i wanted or needed as reloading someone drove up and parked in a place where i couldn’t get their machine out of the image.

next time more villages, more sackvilles, shediacs, new glasgows, more turning in the direction that i wouldn’t normally go - inland. although minor cbc presenters will think me mad more time in new brunswick for looking back the best times were in towns - mme gagnon of st. flavie, les monitrices de ste luce, the divers of arisaig, rocco’s familiy in merigomish, herman and sam in charlottetown, paul and frank of cox’s cove.

the maps for the moncton area aren’t all that accurate found myself in dieppe in the middle of rush hour and the ac/dc crowd, made the wrong turn onto the transcanada heading back to nova scotia, snaked through moncton watching the crowds make their way to magnetic hill.

bypassed fredericton - not by choice but because i was on autopilot - stopping in woodstock needing gasoline and a place for the evening.