The Crumpler Maine/Prince Edward Island Pan-Am Honeymoon…For the Love, Day 6

We had a long drive ahead of us that Friday and I can’t think of a better way to start the day than with a yummy breakfast. As we had wandered about the town in the few days we’d been there I had seen a number of signs with a hand pointing one way or another that read “Cafe This Way.” Turns out that was the name of the cafe.

It was already raining steadily outside as we parked downtown and walked into the restaurant. Thus far, every day of our trip that we spent traveling from one place to another we had been met with rain. This day was no different.

First of all, I have to tell you that the food was out of this world. I ordered an omelet, “The Smokey,” but made a few substitutions. Have you ever had lox and bagel? Bagel and lox? No? You haven’t lived, my friend. I challenge you to present me with a combination more perfect, more palate satisfying than a bagel, a generous helping of cream cheese, smoked salmon (lox), and (depending on where you get it) sliced tomato, onion, and capers. Oi. Anyways, I made my omelet a little like that. The Smokey already came with the smoked trout (no salmon, but this was just as great…and fresh and local!), tomatoes, onions, basil, etc., but I removed the parmesan and added cream cheese and capers. Win win win win win.

Does my husband always look like he’s up to something? Yes. And was our table decorated in a Superwoman motif? You’d better believe it.

It looked like the cast of friends was running this place.

Only they were younger and hipstery.

Once we’d finished our yummy breakfast back out the door we went, now out into the pouring rain. Serious rain. I enjoy the rain more than the next person. A lot more. When I hear people complain about rain it hurts me down to my core, but I won’t talk about that now. It was raining and we were in it, heading out of Maine, into New Brunswick, with our final destination in front of us — Prince Edward Island.

Only here’s the deal. Maine? Bigger than you think. It takes a while to get out especially when there is a ridiculous amount of road construction going on. And that rain? Still with us. One. Two. FIVE hours down the road.

You see that sign? NEW BRUNSWICK CANADA. It is in caps and they are serious, folks. For the first time in my life (and not the first time in my mission tripping husband’s) I was crossing an international border. You heard me right, I’ve never even been to Mexico. This trip was my first time through customs and my first time to show someone my passport.

And that’s where it got interesting.

We had nothing to declare going in (though I have NO DOUBT that we could have made it back out of Canada with any number of weapons — they barely glanced at us), so when we parked the car and went inside to get stamped we figured that we’d be back outside and on the road in no time. Wrong. The man in front of us in line “forgot” to declare a large bottle of alcohol and that had to be dealt with. Then it was our turn. My passport was fine. I haven’t had so much as a speeding ticket in my life. Next, Kevin handed his passport over. The agent at the desk paused, went back to the computer, tinkered around for a bit, came back and asked for Kevin’s social security number, went back and tinkered around more (this actually took quite a bit of time), and finally joined us with a worried look on his face.

Then I found out I’d married a felon.

Seriously, folks, this was the way to do it. Keep up the facade all during the dating relationship, snag the girl, get her married and then take off across the Canadian border with her while she and everyone else remains under the assumption that you’re “honeymooning.”

And I’m kidding. But brilliant plan, right? What the agent revealed to us was that someone who was wanted for a number of crimes in Utah and Oklahoma (umm…we live here! what’s going on folks?!) has been using my husband’s name (they may not know him personally or even know that someone with the name exists) as an alias. Grrreat. And here we are trying to cross the border. Into Canada. Probably to get Canadian papers. Because you can do anything with Canadian papers, right? That’s what I’ve heard.

The social security number cleared us for entry (thankfully this person hasn’t stolen my husband’s identity, just using the name) and we were back on the road.

It. was. still. raining.

Here, in pictures…the next 7 and 1/2 hours of our lives:

Mmhmm. Yup. Rain.

Now, here are a few things that occurred on our trip into Canada and a few observations that I made. (I’m trying not to make a lot of sweeping generalizations here.)

1. The rest stops off the Canadian highway in New Brunswick are a little off the beaten path. Instead of finding a gas station right on the side of the highway like you would in the US, you have to get into a town a little. Or something. The one we found was hard to find. And it took a while driving down the highway before we even reached it. Someone please explain so we know for next time.
2. Who am I kidding. We will NEVER drive to PEI again. It’s a ferry or a boat for this girl.
3. Once you put more than one language on a sign, I stop reading it. Ask Kevin. We were getting deep into New Brunswick, almost to the coast whenever he asked me about a sign we’d just passed. “I didn’t read it,” I said. “What?” he replied. “Nope, I haven’t read a sign in about 100 miles. I stopped once the French started.” This isn’t political or nationalist or whatever, I just can’t deal with the clutter. This proved a little bit troublesome. What with the rain and the pouring and the needing to read the signs and drive and miss the potholes in the New Brunswick highway that were BIGGER THAN A HUMAN HEAD.

And then, finally, the vision we’d been waiting for (and at this point, praying for) all day:

The bridge that would bring us into the loving arms of dear, old PEI.

Part 2 of our arrival on PEI will be posted tomorrow. And remember, once we crossed that bridge it was only 7pm. There are still hours to go before we get to sleep. But at this point in the trip our only concern was sustenance. It only gets better. And if you ever plan on traveling to PEI you do NOT want to miss tomorrow’s continuation.