So I took a stretched out weekend and headed for Florenceville... taking off on Saturday night. Taking off on the Acadian Lines bus system is not exactly foolproof, though. It is proof of foolishness. The last two times I've taken the bus towards Carleton County I went to the terminal in Fredericton, getting there at least 15-20 minutes ahead of departure time (7:45pm). Both of those time I ended up waiting until around 8:30pm before the bus actually left. This time I thought I'd be pro-active while I bought my ticket and asked, "When is the bus really really leaving tonight?" The ticket agent said, "Well... we had to pull one of the buses off the line, but he should be here by 7:45pm, but he may be running late." Normally there are two buses that leave "around" the same time from Fredericton headed North... one is an Express that stops at Woodstock, Bristol, Edmundston and Riviere-du-Loup before transferring folks headed to Quebec City, Montreal Toronto, etc. The other non-express bus stops at all the little stations in NB to load/deliver people/parcels, etc. That is the one I usually get on... but tonight there would be only one bus, apparently.
When the bus pulled in (around 8:20pm, not 7:45pm) I had cleverly positioned myself near the loading area so I could be assured of getting a seat if there happened to be an overflow of passengers. The driver of the bus came out to unload/load luggage and I said, "so there's only one bus tonight, right?" He, of course, said, "No, no... this is the express, there'll be another one to take people... where are you going? Florenceville? Yeah, one is coming from Saint John, or, if not, they'll call you a cab instead?" There was an unspoken wouldn't that be lovely? tone to the cab part. So I went back in the terminal and sat, with a few others like me (or somewhat like me) and waited for the boarding announcement... that, of course, said the one and only bus would be loading all express and non-express passengers. A new driver was taking tickets, as the other's tour ended in F'ton, and I asked, "So this is the only bus, right?" He looked at me as though I had asked the most ridiculous question ever and said, "Of course, and there's plenty of room!" So I got on.
Luckily, once safely in Florenceville (since we got there much later than scheduled the Irving we stopped at was already closed and dark... the bus driver seemed especially concerned as I got out, asking, "Do you have anyone meeting you?" I told him I thought I'd be OK), the vibe was much more relaxed. On Sunday M. and I got up at a reasonable hour and she had prepared Crepes with ham, apple and other good stuff for filling. That and a good cup of coffee started things off quite nicely.
After noon we stopped at Burnt Normal, a coffee shop/artist gallery run by Lee Clark and his wife Yolanda. It's a cool little spot right on the river. We chatted with a few folks, including an older guy named Bill from Florida who was site-seeing from his camper and who presented me with a flier about exercising my brain through specialized physical movement. I said thanks.
When then headed up river a little ways to the Shiktehawk Stream Trail System for a walk in the woods.
It was successful.
For dinner we had Oktoberfest: German beer, sausages, carrots and I was given the task of making Spaetzle, a kind of German noodle dish I'd never had, or seen for that matter. It consisted of a batter concoction seasoned with fresh herbs and forced through a strainer to make the noodles. The kind M. had tried before in a restaurant was longish noodles, but I had no luck squeezing out more than little teardrop-like blobs into the boiling water. It looked a little like the picture linked above... but not quite. The boiled noodles were then fried with onion, mushroom and more herbs with a little chicken stock. All in all it came out successfully. I think.
The next day we meandered around Woodstock, doing a few errands. I was leaving on the afternoon bus that went through Florenceville around 2:30-3pm. That is if things went as planned. Which, as evidenced above, never really do with Acadian Lines. Rather than drive back to Florenceville I thought I may as well just leave from Woodstock... so I went to the Irving to buy a ticket. Except, of course, the bus no longer stopped there. Even though it had on Saturday night. Instead it now stopped at Murray's Esso up on the highway. OK. The bus was still about 3 hours from leaving, so we thought maybe we'd just go back to Florenceville after all. It a fit of paranoia we decided to call Acadian Lines and see if this change affected anything else... and lucky we did, since the bus didn't stop in Florenceville in the afternoon at all. Giving in to external pressures we went up to the highway and I bought a ticket at Murray's Esso. In fact I bought THE FIRST ticket at Murray's Esso, since this was THE FIRST run going through there. It took two ladies to sell me THE FIRST ticket, that I luckily had exact change for because they hadn't thought far enough ahead to have a till or change or stuff like that. Small details.
So... yes... I can faintly hear someone whispering, "why don't you get your license?" But perhaps another question is, "why doesn't another bus company set up shop in NB and kick their asses?"
So many questions.
Oh... the germ bit (see title). Not an hour after I got back home did my throat start getting tickly. This morning I woke up with a full blown sore esophagus and now I have the achey fever thing happening. And of course tonight is the first busy night of the year.
Makes you want to take a bus away from it all... almost.
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