Friday the 13th

entryTen

[august2o1o]

it's friday morning, we woke up feeling amazing after a good rest. we took our time packing up, it's nice to not have to rush.. which is why i love to hit up a campground every once in a while. checkin the map, we're somewhere around Hilden Nova Scotia. our goal of course is Halifax, a mere hundred kilometers a way. that's not so far, we should be able to make it today..

or so we hoped. we're so excited to be so close to the city, i was hoping we could get there for the weekend. we picked up and started heading south. it was about an hour's walk from the campground to the next on-ramp for the bigger highway.

the day heated up quickly. it's not a good feeling to walk along a hot highway in the midday sun. today, posting up at the on ramp seemed like a good idea. there was a gas station right on the corner before the turn towards the highway, we stopped to grab some sandwiches and drinks from the cooler.

we shuffled off towards the highway. it wasn't far, it just seemed so in the heat. when we finally made it over to the ramp, a few clouds rolled through with a breeze to relieve us from the sun. we dropped down the packs and waited. and waited... not as much traffic as we had anticipated. hours passed. we were running out of patience not moving forward. we debated for another hour whether we should go back to the small highway and hoof it.. once the heat had passed we gave in.


and so we walked. and walked some more. with our thumbs out of course. no dice. we took a break somewhere around Alton. i busted out the day planner to make some notes, and that's when i noticed the date. it's the 13th of August. Friday, the 13th that is. apparently, not a good day to be a hitchhiker. my hope for getting a ride was sinking... and suddenly the whole day made sense.

not only was my hope sinking, but so then was the sun. we had to start thinking about how much further we were willing to walk, and where we may be able to find a patch to hide our tent. before we knew it, we were in Stewiacke. i felt a little dissapointed that we had only made it 15 kilometers of our hundred kilometer goal for the day. i was hoping to spend a weekend in Hali with the homies.

oh well.. i'm here! i'm somewhere... and i have everything i need and some good company. it seemed as soon as i relaxed about not getting a ride, someone pulled over. "i'm not going far" the man said, but he felt we'd have a better chance from Shubenacadie. at least he moved us through another town. we thanked him for being the only brave soul to pick us up today, as we mentioned the date. we all had a good laugh and we were on our way once again. now it was definitely time to seek a camp spot.

farmland and houses. i was starting to worry we wouldn't find a place to post camp out of the way. we were tiring too much to care. it's a good thing it was friday night, the only suitable place we could find was a field behind a highschool, bordered with a private patch of trees on one side, and farmland on the other. we figured by crossing the stream we were technically on the back end of the farmer's field, which seemed safer somehow than the school yard. my concern faded as the exhaustion took it's toll.

a man walking his dog through the field happened upon us, but he didn't seem to care that we were there. we figured if he did he'd notify the authorities, but nobody came. a peaceful night, and a prayer that we will make it to Hali tomorrow... we still have time to enjoy a weekend in the city.