The August 1 Civic Holiday in Canada is a strange thing. It has different names in different provinces (in New Brunswick, it's called New Brunswick Day), but the commonality seems to be that it's an excuse for yet another long weekend in the summer. Lots of things were closed, much more than I would have expected based on comparable holiday weekends in the US.

Once I crossed the border into New Brunswick this morning (having assured the border inspector that I wasn't importing any meat), I thought I'd go to the Briggs & Little yarn outlet, even though they hadn't answered their phone. It was a nice excuse to get off the highway. Every time I go to Canada, Trans Canada Highway 2 has changed, and not for the better. My first trip, in 1999 or so, it was almost exclusively a two-lane road, hugging the St Johns River, and passing through the outskirts of Fredericton. But, even then, road "improvements" were underway, making it a four-lane divided highway. Each time I visit Canada, more and more of it's four-lane, limited access. In fact, access is so limited, that you don't realize you've passed the only exit for Fredericton until you see signs for Moncton. It's awfully nice to be able to drive through New Brunswick without being stuck behind a log truck laboring to make it up hill. But the trade off, aside from not being able to easily stop for lunch near Fredericton, is that you miss the serendipitous aspects of travel, the things that pique your fancy as you pass them, causing you to turn around and go back. Now, you have to plan, and know what exit you want to get off at. So, aiming for Briggs & Little was a good thing, as it got me off of the Trans Canada and onto a back road, a back road, I might add, that's badly in need of some repaving. But, no matter. It was pretty.

Of course, Briggs & Little was closed. It's August 1, New Brunswick Day. But, because I wasn't on the Trans Canada, I could see signs for local attractions. And I ended up having lunch in a nice little pub, in Harvey, NB that I never would have known about if I'd stayed on the Trans Canada.

Part of the fun of traveling alone is striking up conversations with people. The owner of the pub in Harvey, when she found out that I was heading for Kouchibouguac Park, suggested a route for me. She wrote it down in excruciating detail, but referred only to landmarks, not to route numbers, making it impossible for me to follow. I ended up improvising, by getting back on TCH 2 and heading toward Fredericton. (The pub owner's route had me going on a back road that turned out to be a numbered provincial highway; if she'd told me the number to take rather than to turn at a particular landmark, I'd have done that, and would have preferred it immensely. But what can you do?) Once I got to Fredericton, taking the exit for Miramichi got me back on the recommended route. I'd been told the whole trip would take me at most two hours, as opposed to three and a half if I went via Moncton. This woman must drive like a maniac, though, as it took me over three hours. However, as I've driven between Fredericton and Moncton before, I have to say that this was a more scenic route.