A Night At The Beach

This is one of my rare afternoon blogs. I could talk  about my drive on the Cabot Trail today but I want to save that for tomorrow. For now, it might be good to let you know how I ended up blogging so late today. It certainly wasn't laziness on my part, nor was it lack of planning; I have no plan to lack. It was, as it happens, a nice happenstance.

Yesterday when I left Halifax, I stopped in at the ALS Nova Scotia office and had a terrific chat with Kim, Terry and Joe. We talked about ALS research, how people are living with this infliction, and how ALS patients are in general more positive and supportive than those with other illnesses. Of course the last part of that sentence is pure opinion; I have no facts to back it up other than my personal observations. As I have said in the past, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data", so please forgive my view if it collides with any facts you may have.

While at the ALS NS office, the team there mentioned a lady in New Glasgow named Kim, saying I should stop by and see her on my way through. Little did they know that Kim and I had already been in contact; she has been reading this blog. Kim had made the offer as well. Unfortunately my plan was to go up the outer coast of Nova Scotia then cut over to Antigonish before heading up to Port Hawkesbury for the night. I had let Kim know this already and I shared that plan with the ALS NS folks as well.

After an hour at the ALS NS offices in Dartmouth, I headed out on the highway intending to make the turn to go up the outer shore. Somehow I got turned around and headed west instead of east. It can happen, even to me. I wasn't lost so much as not going where I first intended. I drove for about thirty minutes or so before realizing where I was going. By that time I was halfway across the province; yes, Nova Scotia is very narrow. So instead I said to myself, "let's see where this road goes". I ended up in Wolfville, home of Acadia University. I checked out the campus, then checked out my map.

From Wolfville, with a bit of back-tracking, one can pick up the Glooscap Trail along the inner shore of Nova Scotia, which takes one to Truro and then on to New Glasgow. This one did just that, and once there I called Kim. She and I had a wonderful evening talking about her husband Joe, who passed away last year from ALS, her family, her recently deceased mother and all kinds of other stuff. Then she said "I have some friends down at Melmerby Beach. Let's get some food and go to their place."

We went to the beach where we ate, and drank, and then drank some more. I stayed the night, as did Kim, with Duck and Donna, sleeping on their fold out couch. Yes, "Duck" is his real name. In the morning they had to go to work and I had to drive Kim home. There was no time for writing a blog! By the time I was in the truck and underway, I didn't feel like stopping, unloading my computer, finding a seat in a Timmie's where I could get electricity, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Hence, a late blog, along with a wonderful night at the beach.