As with my other adventures, before I left I was pretty eager to do so. Though this one is a little different - in that I have no ultimate destination. Nor even a plan to return from whence I came. There are only a series of steps that are pretty much unknown to me until I am just about to take one.
The loose plan is to travel about 400-600 km with each step. Somewhere within that distance I hope to find a person/people/family that needs some kind of assistance for a few weeks in exchange for a bed and good food to eat. (This, perhaps, isn't as ridiculous as it sounds - if you know about an international organization that goes by the acronym WWOOF, which stands for World Wide Opportunities in Organic Farming - a resource that caters to those who wish to do just as I plan.) Starting out in Nova Scotia, I figure I will continue west for a few months and possibly head south around January, then west until I hit the Pacific. After that - probably Asia, or maybe South America. But that is a long way off, and as anyone who is familiar with me knows - I have a strong tendency to change my plans. That is - I never know what I'm going to do until I do it.
Having left Halifax two weeks ago, my first stop is Waasis, New Brunswick. A country house that backs on to the Oromocto River, fifteen minutes east of Fredericton. I've only ever driven through New Brunswick before. Never visited. When travelling west from Nova Scotia, my overall feeling when in N.B. is to simply get through it. It is a path to a destination, not a destination itself*. Perhaps this is how westerners feel about Saskatchewan, although both times that I've driven across that province I found it quite beautiful and satisfying. In any case, I must confess that the past two weeks have not altered my attitude towards this eastern province. Not that it's been an unpleasant experience. Perhaps it's the fact that it so closely resembles any inland country road in Nova Scotia - I may as well have not bothered to leave home at all! Or that I am anxious to get a little farther afield. Or perhaps I've been swayed by the entries in Stuart McLean's "Welcome Home: Travels in Small Town Canada" (I've not yet made it to the chapter on Sackville .) Whatever the reason, I shall be heading to Quebec soon, and am looking forward to it.
*Of course, according to Eastern thought, this wouldn't automatically imply something negative. Normally I would agree - just, not this time.
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