Day 1: I Fought Mother Nature. Mother Nature Won.

I set out at roughly 4:45 am Monday, December 27th in the midst of what was to be one of the worst blizzards that I have ever experienced. It was bad outside when I left, but the roads as far as New Glasgow, NS were passable with caution (I was going roughly 65-70 km/h). I then proceeded to climb Mount Thom on the way to Truro, NS, and it all went to hell.

Blinding whiteouts. About 20 cm of snow on the Trans-Canada. Snowdrifts in the middle of the highway (I soon learned a pattern to this, as they appeared on the lee side of underpasses). Utterly horrid conditions that I would not wish upon any motorist. I fish-tailed several times along the way, but I managed to survive the white-knuckled mountain drive, thanking God when I finally came across the Bible Hill exit.

Parked at Tim Horton's, I slowly sucked back a Coke and greedily wolfed down an Apple Fritter as I listened to the details of how bad the storm was on 100.9 FM Big Dog. The Cobequid Pass was closed, but I wasn't moving even if it weren't closed. Mother Nature had spoken, and I didn't want to lose my life defying common sense!

Stuck for an indeterminate amount of time, I looked up Cardinal's home number, as I wanted to at least make lemonade from these lemons by hanging out with a good friend of mine. He had to clear his driveway out, but would be able to have me over in a couple of hours. I then proceeded through the blinding snow to find Robie Street, hoping I could find a mall to loiter in for 2 hours. It took me a half hour to do this, find everything looking the same!

By the time I got to the Fundy Trail Mall, only Crappy Tire and Sobey's was open, so then my thoughts turned to lunch. The Ready-To-Go meal counter was closed, so I left the store, hoping to find a fast-food outlet dumb enough to be still open in this 9 pointer of a snowstorm.

Golden Arches to the rescue!! I got myself a chicken nugget meal, and devoured it along with a couple other foolhardy travellers penned up in this town as I was now.

Shortly after eating, I received a call from Cardinal that his driveway was complete, so I set out with the directions they had given me. Halfway there, one of those awful whiteout I spoke of earlier struck, and before I knew it, I was stuck in a snowdrift in the middle of Main Street in Bible Hill! Five minutes later, a man in a Red Dodge Ram came by and pushed me out of said snowdrift. Who was this man? He turned out to be one of Cardinal's neighbours that lived out on his road!

With his Big Red Truck leading the way, I soon pulled up to Cardinal's house. His mother Janice got me dry clothes, and soon, we had settled down to watch Star Wars Episode 4 on DVD. We then had dinner, which was a meat lover's dream! Chicken, bratwurst sausages, cheesy potatoes, my stomach is growling just typing this!

After that, Cardinal, his brother and I finished watching the Star Wars trilogy, putting a redeeming finish on what had been a gonger of a day...