Now: the Roadtrip

Well. The roadtrip got off to a rocky start. Because of P, I didn't do anywhere near the packing I needed to - Monday notwithstanding - and so I caused a series of extra delays in our leaving. R and V came Wednesday for us to leave, found P and I not anywhere near ready to leave, and ended up taking over half of my stuff downstairs and to the post office. The next day they came, P still present, and took everything else. Then we left. That night I talked to R and asked him if things had been awkward - at this point, I hadn't told him anything about P - and he said no, it was fine, he was glad I moved on first, and P is a really nice guy.

First stop was Binghamton. We got in late, crashed at a friend of strangepear, and left early in the morning to see my brother. It was vaguely depressing, of course, as he is still under the delusion that he's really adopted from Cuba. But I had a nice long talk with his social worker, which was very helpful, I thought. We were supposed to high-tail it out of there, but we found the Walmart and spent two hours walking around, looking at shit. It was hard to get out of there.

Next stop: Boston. We got in late, I decided it was ridiculous for me to be away from P that long, and bought tickets for NY as soon as I thought I could get away.

Then: Maine. We stopped in Portland (where Longfellow grew up!) and Bar Harbor. Both were totally adorable towns. The word town was made for these places. Cute shops, friendly people, nice cafes, locally brewed decent but not great beer. Good stuff. Bar Harbor had a Whale Museum, which was all eco-friendly and awesome.

And then: Saint John, across the Canadian border. This was exactly a sea-town. Small, smelled like fish, lots of harbors and lobsters and red-faced, friendly, chatty people. There have been a lot of chatty people - hotel clerks and pizzeria owners and random strangers.

Then the car ferry across to Halifax, which is the biggest city around in Nova Scotia. It's not a very big city, though. We went to Halifax purely because V, and now R, are obsessed with this show called Trailer Park Boys which is filmed near Halifax. We took some pictures of the set and trespassed (fun!), but didn't see any of the actors. That fulfilled the purpose of our 15-hour side trip to Halifax, so... yeah. The best part so far has been the one night we've spent camping. At a place called Peggy's Cove - I sent you all postcards from there. I liked camping! It's been so long since I've gone, I've forgotten how much fun it can be in the right atmosphere. And this was definitely the right atmosphere. Peggy's Cove was an indescribably beautiful sight. I've been to Nova Scotia before, also for camping, and I have to say I've never in my life been so moved by natural beauty as in this province. The water is still and calm and reflective, and the fog is slow and thin and mood-setting, and the sun sets straight across from you for a long, long time.

There isn't much else to tell so far. We drove out of Halifax today and are now in Fredericton, which is the capital of New Brunswick. We have a 12 hour drive ahead tomorrow, but I'm wired and can't sleep, and so I'm updating this bloggy thing we have. My description of the roadtrip must seem very boring. But it's hard to describe everything right. So far the trip hasn't been cool cities and fun sites. It's been conversations in the car and music and staring out the window at scenery. You'll have to take my word that it's been fun and not boring at all.

The most exciting thing so far is that today we almost hit a deer! But avoided it last minute. I was terrified!