A quick update while I catch lunch in Halifax before picking up my rental car. Why a rental car, you ask?

Well, Sunday tho 30th I took the opportunity to unleash myself from the dogs (see what I did there?) and go into Halifax to enjoy some culture. I was a few miles outside of Halifax, on a major highway, when my car made a noise like running over rumble strips and the check engine light went on. Pulled to the side of the road, and that’s when I discovered that my transmission was kaput. It wouldn’t go into park, or reverse, or… You get the idea.

Police came, got a tow, car taken to a nearby Dodge dealership, which was closed (yes, even the sales room. Welcome to Canada.). From a Wendy’s across the street, I managed to book a hotel room and a cab to get me there.

The next morning I spoke with the Dodge dealership, who couldn’t even look at my car for at least a week. Frantic calling around before I had to leave the hotel. Car re-towed to a Mister Transmission nearby, then an equally frantic search for a rental car, which was when I found out that it was a holiday weekend. Couldn’t get a car until Tuesday. Meanwhile, Russ is at the campground with the dogs. No dog food and no bike tools (he forgot to take the tools before I left). I left him to deal with that stuff while I booked ANOTHER hotel, now in downtown Halifax, as I figured if I was gonna be stuck here, I might as well make the best of it.

I did. I saw the Maritime Museum, with its relics from the Halifax Explosion, when a WWI munitions ship collided with another ship, and exploded with a force not seen again until the atomic age. They also have many Titanic artifacts—Halifax is where Titanic victims were brought and buried. I visited the Old Burial Ground, used between the mid-1700s and the mid-1800s, the Public Gardens, which still retain their original Victorian design, features, and plantings, and finally I went to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia to see the Maud Lewis paintings and house.

Maud Lewis house and paintings (yes, that’s really the house she lived in).

Deanna Fitzpatrick’s hooked wool art works blew me away, as did her quotation on the nature of art. I could not resist buying one of her small rug hooking kits to make my own version of these stunning works!

Now off to pick up my rental car, so I can finally get back to Russ, who is now out of propane! No word on my car yet, but they think I’ll need a whole new transmission….