Gobo's First Long Road Trip

We also went to PEI one weekend. Did I already tell you that? Probably not.

It was for Alison's birthday. We went to visit our friends Joan and Jason, who are expecting a baby any day. Joan's actually pregnant, so the expectation is not completely groundless.

We left on Saturday morning. Alison drove Gobo. Instead of the main highway which takes you pretty much all the way east back into Halifax before backtracking northwest up toward New Brunswick (figure a), we took a more scenic route (figure b) which is fewer miles but takes a little more time due to lower speed limits. It was worth it because that road was beeyooteeful, with cows and brooks and meadows and willow trees all up and down its windy length.


Ali needed to take a break once we got across the bridge.


Eventually, we got to J&J's house, which is in a nice little neighbourhood not far from downtown Cha'town. They put us up and fed us and showed us the sights and generally played the perfect hosts. We had some fantastic curry and chips in a British pub that night and played some Yahtzee before bed. The next day was spent wandering around. First we went to a park on the waterfront.



Then Alison and I walked around and got lost downtown, trying not to look like tourists.



We probably weren't too successful. There was a really great second-hand bookstore full of beautiful books on which it was a good thing we didn't have much money to spend. Lots of Maurice Sendak stuff and Japanese art books, in particular. At least in the one section I had a chance to look in before we decided we were just torturing ourselves and got out of there. But I also found On the Road on tape, read by Matt Dillon, which I just had to buy for the trip back.

Instead of Yahtzee that night, we figured out how to play a card game called Casino that Alison had played as a child. It's kind of weird. I'm still not sure whether I like it. Alison was immediately good at it.

The following day was Monday, but I'd taken it off work so we could drive back at our leisure. Which we did, after a warm goodbye to the J's. The bridge was closed for a few hours for an international bike race, so we had to wait in that weird little "Main Street, USA" type tourist area on the PEI end of it, where we ate some truly horrible grilled cheese sandwiches fried in rancid butter and served with a mountain of freezer-burned McCain french fries.

Once we got over the bridge, though, everything was fine. The sun came out and we had a long but pleasant drive back with Matt Dillon telling us all about Dean Moriarty's romantic escapades and the truck beds full of hitchhiking farm boys. We took the scenic route again and stopped for an ice cream cone just before home. Wish I'd bought that book of Japanese prints. Maybe when we go back later this summer to visit Jenny & Tom & MacKenzie...