Road Trip: Cabot Trail

Doris and I finished our road trip by exploring the Cabot Trail. Now the Trail, as the cool kids call it, comes in at just under 300 km, according to my old reliable friend, Wikipedia, so we knew going in that we wouldn't be able to take in all of her majestic beauty in a day and a half, but we did our best.

We actually didn't get to Cheticamp, our first of two campsites, until the early evening because of Sand Dollar Beach and the Ovens Natural Park. Once there, though, we wasted no time in setting up the tent and getting settled in.

Taking a pause from our game of Crazy 8 Countdown for yet another selfie. (I won, just for the record.)

Doris had the great idea of decorating the covers for the CDs I burned for the trip.

The following day, it was time to take in the gorgeous scenery.

Meat Cove, the northernmost point on the Trail.

The end of Skyline Trail treated us to a beautiful view and a whole lot of wind. 

Poor Bullwinkle...

Turns out Doris isn't a fan of hikes. Now I know...

This statue in front of a restaurant caused us a world of stress. Doris wanted to take a picture with the statue, and I had the great idea of having her pose with the lobster fridge magnet I had bought earlier. I went looking for the magnet in the trunk, and when I couldn't find it, I closed the trunk, and immediately cursed myself, because I realized I left the keys in the trunk. And the doors were already locked. Taking several deep breaths, we went into the restaurant to eat and hopefully figure things out on a full stomach. When I told the waitress of our ordeal, she reminded us that it's possible to reach into the trunk from the backseat; and THAT'S when I remembered the broken window! Once we secured the keys, a family leaving the restaurant apologized to us on behalf of the entire city of Montreal. When we told our waitress we got the keys, several customers around our table cheered for us. It was a pretty hilarious scene. We then started up a conversation with a couple seated beside us who had heard about our whole ordeal, and they recommended a couple places for us to check out. One of those places was White Point, which would end up being the end point of our trip.

Our last stop along the trail: White Point. 

I don't think Doris understands how to properly skip a rock.

Goodbye, Cabot Trail

After leaving White Point, we headed towards Baddeck with the intention of camping out one last night, but as we approached Baddeck, it started to rain fairly hard, so we opted to treat ourselves to a night in a motel. It made packing and preparing for our drive to the airport that much easier. (Plus, we could shower before our flight.)

The final tally

All in all, I was unbelievably happy with how the trip turned out. Doris turned out to be an amazing travel companion. She stepped out of comfort zone day after day and put up with a lot--me getting stressed out about various things; losing her iPad; hiking, which she really, really doesn't like, apparently; me leaving her in total darkness by herself at Noir; ziplining; the impossible urban quests. I was really proud of her.

I already miss her.