Skip to main content

A Night of Miles and Danger



Night driving is a zen exercise for me.  The dark empty road lit only by the sky and my headlights pushes me into a form of self-meditation that evokes a feeling of tranquility and reflection.  And that's how it was for most of the night trip from Quebec City to Halifax.  The last couple of hours, however, were a white-knuckle terror ride.

Hilly roads where you lose sight of what few vehicles are in front of or behind you.  Opposing traffic visible for only short stretches before being hidden beyond trees -- giving you the feeling of being alone in the world.  An onslaught of torrential rain.  Curves that seemingly pop up out of nowhere and run the gamut from relaxed to near-hairpin.  And of course, utter and total darkness beyond what meager visibility your headlights can give you in the downpour.  All of this made me feel like I was driving a hellroad straight into oblivion.  It was not especially fun.  But it did keep me awake.

The drive out of Quebec was fairly uneventful.  A smattering of raindrops here and there but nothing that would slow me down.   Just into New Brunswick and about an hour before dusk I stopped off at a truck stop St. Huberts(which is basically a less tasty Swiss Chalet).  The view from the the truck stop was pretty tremendous and I took the picture above from the outside tables.

In Moncton I decided to see Magnetic Hill, the "incredible and magical" place where if you put your car in neutral at the bottom it actually rolls back uphill!  Getting there at around 1am Moncton time made for some interesting maneuvering through the tourist attraction area surrounding it but I did eventually make it to the bottom of the hill.  It worked as advertised.  I think I would've been more amazed had I not googled the secret of the hill before I got there.

I didn't want to hit Halifax too early so I stopped at Casino New Brunswick (conveniently just down the street from Magnetic Hill!).  I had some highs, bought some food, then lost what I won.  So basically I won some wings and garlic bread and killed almost two hours.  Good deal.

The hotel got me in a room fairly early and I slept most of the day. 

Tomorrow I hit Halifax for real.






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In the Shadow of Honest Abe

The first thing you notice about Washington is that it's short.   None of the buildings are over 12 stories max -- something to do with making sure the Capitol Building isn't overshadowed.   Coming out of New York it certainly has a different vibe, giving a small city feel to what's a pretty big city. It rained all day today, but I was determined to get some shots of the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument.   Mission accomplished.  Still, the way the rain was falling the front of my shirt was soaked through by the time I got to ol' Abe.  The Lincoln Memorial was,  for me, the real object of the trip.   Even in a cold wet spring day, the sight of the greatest American President carved out of several tons of white marble perched on his chair and literally larger than life still gives one the feeling of being in the presence of greatness.  His words etched on each side of the memorial are still as eloquent as the day he spoke them.   After I got

Florida in the Key of West

Yesterday was not a pleasant day.   10 hours of driving only to end up at the Best Western in Jacksonville, just so I could stand around waiting for my laundry to finish because the hotel in Key West that I'm staying in for 4 nights had no laundry mentioned on their website.   So it's 10:30 at night and I'm sweating on the second floor between the world's loudest dryer and the local ice machine for an hour.  And that's following 30 minutes of washing.   I even had to hang dry some stuff because even after an hour it still wasn't dry yet. It's times like that that make me question whether or not this trip was even a good idea.  It usually happens in the waking moments before sleep when I'm lying in my rented bed in the middle of a town where I know no one.  Why am I here?  Am I learning anything?  Is this just a giant waste of time and money? And then there's times like the Wendy's.   I got in too late in Jacksonville and the hotel was far enough

Walkin' in Memphis, and boy are my feet tired!

The trip through Tennessee, incidentally, was beautiful. Hilly, with roundabouts and full forests. Fun to drive. I tried to take some pictures with my phone, but they all came out pretty assy. I arrived at Memphis at around 4:20 which I later discovered was 3:20. Ah time zones. Looking for a place to eat I headed south down the road to what I hoped would be a nicer area since my hotel room gives me a beautiful view of the freeway. Walking through Memphis I got the impression that this is a city that's either on the verge of a fall or the verge of a comeback. At first I thought it was the former, though now I'm leaning towards the latter. There's a lot of nice things around, decent restaurants, nice views, ok shopping... but for every location with activity there seems at least one other that's boarded up with big For Lease notices stickered to the window. The other thing I noticed as I was walking was that nobody else was. Nobody. The city was dead to walking traffic. P