Charlottetown to Cavendish

EntryTwo.

[August 2o1o]

what a wild night. it was still raining in the morning, but nothing close to the wall of water down-pouring the night before. we were damp, and the tent was soaked. there was no possible way to get it dry while the air was so thick with moisture, so we packed it away wet. as we were packing our soggy rucksacks, one of the foxes from the night before revisited us behind the farm. only this fox was like no fox we had ever seen before... it had a white tipped tail like any ordinary fox, but it was mostly black instead of red. i snapped a shot of it of course.

we lit one up to celebrate our journey so far, and surviving yet another storm in our tent. our tent apparently loves itself some rainstorms. some kid rolling by on the trail complimented us on the sweet smell of our burning herbs from the homeland. i felt stronger, my pack was back to feeling like it's regular weight. sleep is seriously important, good quality rest. it can make the difference between enjoying a journey and just merely surviving it.

the path we slept beside intersected with a back road to the farm. we hopped on the road which lead us out to one of Charlottetown's main streets, University Ave. so we'd found the 'experimental farm' after all. it was marked on one of the signposts we had passed, but we thought we ended up walking in the opposite direction. ah well, at least we weren't 'lost'. anyways, once we got to the road we read the address on the building at the front of the lot. "420 Farm Centre" is exactly the wording on the front of the building. figures. the experimental farm was located at 420 University.

seemed commercialized enough besides the farm, so we guessed it wouldn't be so hard to find a decent place to hit for breakfast. after a couple days on the bus and a night in the pouring rain, we deserved a nice hot plate of food. we hung a left and marched our way down the street. yuck, fast food.. finally there's a dude with a no name coffee cup in hand walking towards us, so we asked if there was anywhere decent to find breakfast. he pointed us just a little further to the Fitz Cafe. a wee family restaurant in the front of a motel.

it felt more like we'd stumbled into aunt Sue's kitchen. local photography and native art hung all around the dining room to get our adventure senses tingling. the homefries were amazing. a spiced fried mash with a little onion.. the potatoes being as locally grown as a potato could possibly be. the toast was fresh baked bread, and the jam made by the owner herself. fantastic! a perfect jump-start to boost our morale and get us moving. we found a town map in the motel and made our way down to the core of the city.

there was one thing we had to find for sure, shawn was utterly determined to find himself a PEI Dirt Shirt. ever since we were hiking in Niagara and seen a dude wearing one, we had to find them for ourselves. we headed towards tourist central, the Peake's Quay Shoppes. the same type of thing you'll see in any coastal city, a fancy boardwalk lined with neat touristy little shops, and a dock for the harbour boat tour. oh yeah, and a PEI original, Cows. Tony hald told us that if we wanted to try the best ice cream ever, we'd have to try some from the Cows Creamery. so we did, and dang was it ever creamy.

so not only is there a PEI Dirt Shirt store, but they have more than just teeshirts dyed with the island's alien red soil. they had everything from baby clothes, to socks [haha dirty socks] to visor hats too. being the tourists that we were we couldn't resist. he got the tee, i grabbed the visor hat.

now to get the ell outta town. i mean it's nice and all, but there was a strange unwelcoming feeling from the people in general. y'know, as a couple of broke looking backpackers with messy hair. it's all good, by now we're well used to people's gapped out stares. freakin hippies. haha.

the sun was intense. a definite contrast from the soggy yesterday. so intense that it was hard to get over the red reflecting from the ground back into my eyes. everything is glowing. including us. it is decided, today we walk to the north shore.

we hit the highway.

"You guys out for a hike?"

yeah right. this guys gonna offer us a ride? hah, he sure did. though we had no intentions of hitching [yet], it would be like saying no to fate to say no to this guy offering us a ride. so we had to take him up on the offer.

turns out he was just bored, and out for a joyride on a beautiful sunny august afternoon. he told us his whole life story inside of half an hour, including how his wife inherited a few million, and how he'd traveled the world and ended up here somehow. he had american license plates on the truck from one of those sunny southern states. he showed us around a little. what would have been a full days walk was only a half-hour drive after all, so why not take a few detours.. including a visit to his new re-building project, a big old cedar shingle-sided house on eleven acres of rolling field and forest. very cool.

having a ride also opened up our options of where to land for the afternoon, and gave us more time to trip around and see the scenes. our driver recommended Cavendish, a tiny touristy strip surrounded by beach and provincial parklands. not to mention, that which i have renamed the GableHood. holy gables. one of the area signs had the word gables on it at least four times. heh. we snatched up a campsite for the weekend to drop our stuff, and make use of the showers and laundry machines.

boardwalk is the sidewalk in this town. pretty dope. we had plenty of time to follow it down to the beach and finally take an ocean swim. well, i swam at least. shawn was a little turned off by the jellyfish all over the beach. a risk no doubt, but one i was willing to take. it had been far too long since my last sea swim. a couple years anyways.

shawn had more fun climbing around the red cliffs.. i followed unshod, letting the red earth dye the soles of my feet. we were timeless. the sun hung frozen in the sky giving us every minute and moment needed to enjoy every sand dune and speculate the tiny specks of green suspended in the salt water marsh. our eyes were filled with the setting sun glowing upon a sea of bright purple fireweed that flowed in the wind. no sounds but the bugs and the birds to fill our ears.

like a couple of careless kids, we were happy just to be. stumbling back to our campsite in nothing but a swimsuit, towel and a rucksack. now this is summer. this is the blissful simplicity i had been waiting for. no stars tonight.. fair enough. i was looking forward to the sleeping bag more than anything. sweet dreams indeed.