::alio!::

4 August 2008: 10:00 AM

Hicktown Jamboree

Just got the hell out of Dodge from the weirdest campground we have ever seen. TNT Campground was really nothing more than a trailer park, filled with carousers bent on a weekend of mischief and noise. It wouldn’t have been complete without the cheap fireworks, drunken arm wrestling, and straw cowboy hats worn with torn muscle tees. Classy joint.

“And there’s cards,” said the very pregnant girl at the desk. There was also a dance, complete with live music performed by the TNT Crew. Which didn’t end until 11:00. Which was fine, because that’s when the torrential downpour began. I didn’t think it could possibly rain harder than it had the night before but I was wrong. This was sheets of water, buckets falling on us for hours. The campground was a marsh this morning and we all got soakers taking down the tent trailer and pushing it out of the sodden grass.

So we left Angus in the care of his two friends in Fredericton yesterday. It was kind of nice to be able to spend a little bit of time in one of the towns we were passing through. I even had time for the first time on this trip to stop and buy some postcards and stamps for my grandmothers. This has not been the kind of road trip where you take detours to look at things, so it was a change to be able to take the time to walk around the area. Especially since Fredericton has municipal WiFi, and so I was able to post my past few entries. Upload speed was retarded in its slowness, so you’ll have to wait until I get to Halifax tonight to get the pictures from the past few days.

Tonight we have dinner with my old across-the-street neighbours in Dartmouth, Janet and Trevor. Janet and my mother wrote and published a cookbook together when I was small, and we provided a bed and a washing machine for their daughter Claire when she was in Ottawa last summer, being scouted for the Fury Soccer Team. She goes to Queens now. I hope I get a chance to see their son, Christopher, when we’re there. He goes to Kings, so he should be nearby. We were playmates when he was 4 and I was 8.

I should also be able to register for school when we get there, as today is my assigned day. I only have two courses, and I’m pretty convinced they won’t fill up, so I’m not worried about not registering at 7 this morning, which was my assigned time.

Of course, we can only do these things provided we actually arrive in Halifax. After leaving the campground we followed signs for Moncton, only to find ourselves on a shitty potty windy highway called 112. It leads to the 2, which is what we want, but it takes its time getting there, and gives you a bumpy road on the way. So every fourth key I type has special emphasis as the bumps in the road drive the computer into my fingers. To top it off, it’s raining again. And my camera is still randomly static-y, although less so than it was before. I left it in the cab of the truck last night, along with my computer, because it’s less damp.

It’s easy to write a lot when the writing costs little effort, so I’ll stop now before I have verbal diarrhea all over the page. More later – if we make it to Halifax.

4:40 PM

Made it!

Just a post to say the road was horrible and it rained like you would not believe. Then, in town, we nearly ran over a family of ducks, because we couldn’t stop, and then the sun came out. Now we’re off to Janet and Trevor’s.

Posted by Ally at August 4, 2008 04:35 PM