Under water, things are peaceful. All it takes to escape the
noise and chaos of a community swimming pool during, say, a kid’s birthday
party is a brief submersion. Under the water, we’re in our own private worlds
into which it’s almost impossible for others to trespass. Sound fades away,
while everything moves slower and seems more graceful. At least most of the
time. There are some occasions when being under water is far from this kind of
peaceful experience. Today’s activities straddled both sides of that line.
Well, sort of.
Relive the excitement of my cross-country trip and keep track of my new adventures.
Showing posts with label Beaches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beaches. Show all posts
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Monday, August 13, 2012
A Thoroughfare for Freedom Beat
This is a public service announcement to all Canadian
taxpayers: Your government has been stealing from you.
You pay the equivalent of over $4.50 a gallon for gasoline,
much of it taxes, yet you have the highway infrastructure of a third world
country. Either your government is full of waste, fraud, and abuse (more than
even the US government), or the Trans-Canada Highway (which, as far as I can
tell is not yet complete) is being built across the most hostile terrain ever
encountered by road makers. I’m skeptical about the latter, since they manage
to make roads out of ice every year. So boreal forest can’t be that tough to
build on.
Yet there I was, paying $63 for a tank of gas when I’d never
before paid more than $50, and yet every local road I took until mercifully
limping onto the big 104 was as unpaved as unpaved could be. I’d call them dirt
roads, but dirt would have been a welcome alternative to the ridiculousness I
encountered.
Labels:
Bay of Fundy,
Beaches,
Camping,
Canada,
Detours,
Driving,
Katahdin,
Lighthouses,
Maine,
Massachusetts,
mountains,
New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia,
Oceans,
Rain,
Sunset
Location:
Marlborough, MA, USA
Sunday, August 12, 2012
The World’s Your Oyster Shell, But What’s that Funny Smell
Whenever I’m on these adventures, as I think of something I
want to remember to mention in that night’s entry, I use the iPhone Notes app
to write myself… well, a note, as the thought hits me. The stuff left from last
summer’s note includes “open space, self-determination, no deadlines, only
chance.” Today, I only wrote down one word: “Punished.”
Saturday, August 11, 2012
You’ve Already Won Me Over, In Spite of Me
Nova Scotia,
you’ve been holding out on me. After today, it’s clear that you’ve just been
teasing me – showing me your less attractive features so that your best
qualities stand out that much more starkly.
Labels:
Beaches,
Camping,
Canada,
Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada,
clouds,
Driving,
hiking,
mountains,
National Parks,
Nova Scotia,
Oceans,
Scenic Routes,
Sunrise,
Sunset,
Waterfalls,
Wildlife
Friday, August 10, 2012
Pack the Car and Leave This Town
For the most part, this was your typical “driving day.” In a
nutshell, I went the 410km (which I assume is about 975 miles) from Halifax to Ingonish on Cape Breton Island. However, since it was an international driving day, there were
some extra added dimensions to this leg of the journey.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Hello City
I awoke this morning to the dulcet tones of some horrible
bird-rodent shrieking in a tree above my tent. This was followed shortly by
what I thought was a raccoon stealing the sealed screw-top bowl of Gordo food
I’d accidentally left on the picnic table. Much to my surprise, when I peeked
out to see how many of the diseased monsters were working on this half ounce of
dry dog food, I instead saw a chipmunk trying to drag the bowl up a tree. You
know, the way an ant would drag something, if it didn’t have that super ant
strength. Rather than throwing my shoes on an chasing it away (I knew from Bryce Canyon
trail mix experience that he’d only come back with reinforcements), I feebly
tried clapping once to scare it off, and went back to bed. I figured that if it
was able to get something larger and heavier than itself up a tree, it deserved
the dog food. An hour later, I was a little disappointed to find the bowl still
on the ground, but twisted open and emptied of its contents. I’m still not sure
how many dozen of these creatures lacking in opposable thumbs it took to open
it.
Labels:
Bay of Fundy,
Beaches,
Camping,
Canada,
Cities,
Fundy National Park of Canada,
Halifax,
hiking,
Lighthouses,
National Parks,
New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia,
Oceans,
Sunset,
Waterfalls
Location:
Dartmouth, NS, Canada
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Running On Empty
Today, my 3-day adventure to the land of the Mainiacs ended
in grand fashion, with the best weather (and not coincidentally, the best
pictures) of the trip.
Labels:
Acadia National Park,
Beaches,
Camping,
Driving,
Heat,
hiking,
Maine,
mountains,
National Parks,
Oceans,
Scenic Routes,
Sunrise
Location:
Marlborough, MA, USA
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Waterworld
Water, water everywhere. Except I’m really not that thirsty.
If Captain Planet
were real (don’t tell Don
Cheadle it’s not), the girl with
the 4th ring would have loved today, because it was all about water.
It made its presence known before today technically began, by way of a massive
rogue thunderless storm whose path was trained directly on Mt. Desert Island from 10pm until about 3am. I know because it woke me up and kept me nervously
checking the corners of the tent for the water that never did manage to get
inside.
Labels:
Acadia National Park,
Beaches,
Camping,
clouds,
hiking,
Lighthouses,
Maine,
mountains,
National Parks,
Oceans,
Rain,
restaurants,
Sunrise,
Sunset
Monday, July 16, 2012
Lights in the Darkness
In New England, if you
don’t like the weather, just wait an hour. Even though I hear it all the time,
whenever I visit one of the region’s natural landmarks (Cape Cod, Mt. Washington,
the Berkshires…) it seems to go out of its way to affirm it.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Spinning On Our Heels, So Far Away From Real
Let’s say that this trip is like a relay race on Field Day in elementary school. If that’s the case, then today I touched the cone on the far end of the field, so that I could turn around and complete the lap. Except instead of a field it was… well, I guess a field, just a really big one… that my car ran across. And instead of a cone, it was the Pacific Ocean .
Labels:
Beaches,
California,
Cities,
Cold,
Driving,
Oceans,
Pacific Coast Highway,
Scenic Routes,
Sunset
Location:
Mill Valley, CA, USA
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