Justin's Trip to Halifax - Submited by Justin Young.

Just so everyone knows, it's 110hrs, non stop, from Langley, BC to Halifax, NS. One of my RCAirCadet friends and I arbitrarily decided that we should go to halifax, because neither of us had been. We decided that we'd take the Greyhound bus route, since it seemed cheaper, and hell, we were Cadets once, we should be able to take it. So we arranged to borrow a car from a family friend of hers, so we could tool around the east coast for a bit, then bus it back when we got bored. Bus Stations suck at 0530…

We crossed the prairies in what seemed like record slow time, despite the Bus Driver getting a speeding ticket somewhere past Moosejaw. Speaking of which, the most exciting part of the entire prairies for the two of us was the little sign that said "15 Wing Moosejaw". So we arrived in a little town in Quebec well ahead of the appointed schedule, due to some collected time gained, and skipping a few stop-over hours. When we disembarked and collected out kit, we were told, (in french<which neither of us speak>) that the next bus leaving was not for another 13hrs. Luckily, there was a hotel immediately adjacent to the terminal. Unfortunately, there was a large sporting event that had just finished and it was booked solid. "Bah!" said I. We sholdered our considerable loads, and started walking. The receptionist managed to tell us that there were more hotels up the hill, and from out vantage it didn’t look all that big, so we walked. It literally took us 45mins to hike 4blocks. We collapsed sometime later, in the front of a little fruit stand. The woman working there, was rather, and understandably, concerned. Her hospitality extended so far as to arrange for a taxi for us, and even to make a gift of some wonderfully fresh pears, which my friend and I savored.

So the taxi arrived, and our temporary hostess, informed him of our necessities, whereupon he delivered us to the base of the sweetest sign in the whole province: "Day's Inn- we speak english." The last room in the entire city, we were told, due to a massive wedding we later saw from the street and the sporting event aforementioned. It was most inappropriately, the "honeymoon suite", of the place. We, IN TURN, showered, and relaxed for a short while, then walked about the city for a stint, supping, and what-not. 0300 came very early, and between the two of us we managed to put together enough fractured french to call a taxi to take us to our awaiting coach. Halifax arrived in rain. We called the family friend from whom we were to borrow the car, to find out THEY HAD SOLD IT!

So now we were stranded without hope. We called for a taxi to take us to ANY hotel, whereupon our driver suggested we stay at the dorms of the St. Mary's University. It was extremely reasonable in price, and central to all the city's amenities and sights, so we readily agreed. I spent about 4hrs that night, and another 4hrs the next morning trying to track down a beater car to buy, and transfer my insurance to. I don’t know why, but beater cars are really expensive out there…. There was one car, after all my calling that we managed to find. It was in a TINY (two pizza parlors and a conveniance store) about 2hrs out from Halifax. I arranged for an Antigonish Shuttle to make a small detour for us, but that left us 3hrs to kill in the convenience store…. They were getting a little suspicious so we got some pizza (pizza's are bigger there), and spent the rest of the time looking at the car from the road, or sitting on various peoples lawns until the family retuned from work. It had been sold during the night… We called for a taxi to take us back. It cost about $120. on route, the driver happened to ask us how we came to be stranded there, and if merely for the story, he dropped the rate to $80…. Hope this doesn’t get him into trouble. He mentioned that he had a "Behddy" who was selling a couple of 70's Crown Vic's so we checked them out. The ships caulking holding the windshield in didn’t really look too safe so we passed.

Back in the Downtown, we tooled around for a few more days. Pub Crawls are good. My friend broke her foot the morning of our second to last day, and when taken to the hospital, the Doctor wouldn’t put a cast on it, the Quack. I think it was because he didn’t know how to process BC medical… I bandaged it up as best as my Cadet/First Aid training allowed, and we limped around the city on our last night. So 4 and a half days on a bus with a woman with a broken foot… yeah. In Fredrickton we met another woman travelling to Edmonton, and a gentleman going home to Ft. St. John, BC. We travelled with them, and a couple other girls going to Vancouver, followed disturbingly closely by a strange frenchman, who gave off the distinct air of a stalker. The return journey went quickly, and I muchly rejoiced to see the grey stone of BC. Not much of note for the second 110hrs, and so it was good. That's about it.

JRY