travel

Did a very long drive from Montreal to Truro, Nova Scotia to visit family for the holidays. My Sweetheart accompanied me on the drive; which made it a lot easier to have a co-driver and company.

Except for a small section in eastern Quebec with blowing snow; the trip down there was quite clear and we managed it in record time of only 12 hours!

On the way back, we had much worse weather, particularly through most of New Brunswick, especially as we started out at 11pm at night. Things cleared out once we got closer to the Quebec border, with just the occasional gusty weather as we drove alongside the St. Laurence river.

On the way back, we did the journey in 16 hours, which is still very good time considering how much stormy weather we had along the way.

And so I’ve begun the general preparations for my annual drive to visit my family in the Maritimes. The trip from Montreal to Nova Scotia is a long one; but at least this time it won’t be as hard on me as I am hoping to have my new boyfriend accompany me. That way we will be able to share the driving and it will be much easier as a result!

Last weekend, I got new winter wipers for my car, and we put on a double coat of Rain-X to repel water from the windshield and other windows – it really does make a difference, especially on long trips.

This coming week, I have to schedule an appointment to get my winter tires installed; a very important thing when driving cross-Canada!

If I can get all my packing done, last minute chores and tidying out of the way, and get my car packed up; I’ll be heading out to visit my Mom and older sister for the holidays later on this evening. I think I’ll be sure to wait until all the rush hour traffic heading out of the city is done.

I’ll be driving from Montreal to Nova Scotia; which is a 14 hour drive. I’ll be doing it solo, so I’ll be breaking it up with plenty of rest breaks and the occasional nap in the back seat at a safe rest zone.

Despite not really having much snow this winter, I went ahead and had my winter tires put on my car. Just my luck and if I didn’t, I’d be facing a blizzard or something similar on my way back!

Anyways, sending out the warmest of holiday wishes to all my 43T peeps and hope you get to spend time with friends, family and loved ones – no matter the name of what holiday you celebrate!

About two weeks ago, I managed a small daytrip to Ottawa in order to complete one of my goals (to get my Indian Status card renewed). Ottawa is about a 2.5 hour drive from my home.

It was very short notice, as I had been waiting for a break in the snowy weather. I had hoped to meet up with a friend of mine while I was there, but he wasn’t home when I called, so it will have until another time.

This past weekend, I drove across the US border to Plattsburgh NY to complete another one of my other goals, which was to pick up some photography equipment I had ordered and had shipped to a friend of mine.

The trip went well overall and the weather was good. There was a wait of about 25 minutes at the border heading south, so on the way back, I made a little detour and went to a much smaller backwoods border crossing where there was absolutely no wait and it took all of 2 minutes to answer questions and be on my way. It was more than worth the little drive as Sunday evening heading back into Canada is often 45 minutes to an hour or more because of all the Canadians heading back home after a weekend away across the border.

Had a fall on the ice just outside my door and I now have a majorly injured kneecap—so my trip was almost safe and sound, except for the 2 minutes before reaching home.

So, in a way I’ve gotten some travel done towards my goal and even neater, both trips were also related towards getting goals completed so I guess that’s sort of a bonus-multiplier, like in old-fashioned pinball!