day 1

this definitely had the feel of "relying on my own preparedness". and every time i encountered one of these situations, i was a little creeped out... i never really prepare for anything. but whatever, let's get started.

i had two hours of sleep before getting up, having a shower, and nervously waiting for a taxi. the van taxi arrives & i'm off to the airport.

at the airport, both my bike and my trailer were checked in as cargo. i was a little choked that the trailer didn't pass as regular baggage because each cargo item costs $65. so as you can imagine, my trip could've ended right there as i decided whether or not i was going to fork out the extra $65. um, so, ya... i paid it. *cough* nevermind...

at the airport food court, the only thing that was open was tim horton's & there was only one guy working behind the counter. so as this slow moving line of twenty or so people trudges along, i can overhear just about everyone complaining about the situation in one form or another. me, i'm off in derekland thinking about allen wrenches or something.

once i get to the front of the line, i'm still trying to decide whether or not to get 2 or 3 sandwiches. i decide on only 2 seeing as how the guy behind me is in some kind of hurry. of course, after i ordered 2, he sure didn't look very impressed - i should've got 3. oh well...

so all's cool... until i get on the plane. as soon as i step on, all i can hear is someone loudly complaining about one of her kids not being able to switch seats. once she calms down, i soon find out that i'm sitting beside her. just *awesome*. did i mention this woman is obese? her fat just flows over and under the armrest onto my seat. disgusting. about halfway through the flight, i guess i had forgotten that her fat was touching my leg because it was then that she began to twitch/bounce her legs while reading her romance novel. this made the fat jiggle wildly. i awkwardly tried to smear myself against the window, but it was pretty pointless. this woman was way too fat.

Staring out the window did keep me reasonably busy. it's going to be a hell of a long ride back.

my connector flight was uneventful. again i had a window seat and again i realized that it's going to be a hell of a long ride.

i get my bike box, trailer box, and bag, wheel it all outside, and get to work. it gelt pretty cool clicking, clamping, and tightening everything together. very sweet actually.

a woman who was watching all of this came over & started talking to me. turns out she's from france. at some point during the conversation, she made some comment about how french canadians are "butchering the language". to this i told her that a really good friend of mine is from quebec and that all languages go through changes that for the most part are neither good nor bad. shortly after this, she wandered off somewhere. i smiled a little.

used my cellphone to call the nearest campground, got directions, and hit the road. well, i guess when i say "nearest campground", i meant "nearest to halifax", which is where i figured i was. some 33km later i'm at camp shubie... whew.