As always, getting through Montreal was a nightmare. Traffic was backed up for miles due to various reasons, including the usual construction delays, as well as a student demonstration against tuition fee hikes! It took three hours just to get through the centre of Montreal. The weather was also a factor, as usual. Quebec and New Brunswick seem to be prone to torrential rain! At least it was not snow! We took our time and stopped for the night at hotels along the way, and three days later we were back in Nova Scotia.
Although mainland Nova Scotia is lovely, it's always a relief to cross the Canso Causeway onto Cape Breton Island. Once we got home, of course, the challenge was to unpack the truck! A lot of the contents was to go into the barn. It had been raining heavily and the ground was soaked and soft. Backing the truck up to the barn to unload was one thing, but getting the tires to grip on the soft, wet grass after we were finished was a nightmare. There was zero tread on the tires, and even with the application of cardboard and gravel, they just kept spinning out and bogging down in the mud. It took a great deal of time, effort and cursing, not to mention barrowloads of gravel, but slowly the truck inched forward, and finally Paul managed to get it back onto the driveway. Good job the truck was half empty, and there was no incline to speak of, otherwise we would never have made it off the grass! We offloaded the rest of the stuff, and soon the house was filled to bursting point with boxes and furniture. We'd spent so much time struggling with the truck, we had pretty much had it by that time. Needless to say, we were glad to drop that truck back to U-Haul in Baddeck! It was then that the U-Haul rep told us that their trucks are only fitted with summer tires, all year round, even though the trucks are rented out from Florida to Alaska!
Here is the offending beast, next to Boris the tractor to give you a sense of scale:
And here are some pictures of our house, stuffed to the brim, and Paul, enjoying a well-deserved beer:
You'll not be surprised to learn that since then, we've been spending most of our time unpacking! One of the bedrooms is still stuffed to the ceiling with boxes and stuff, but eventually we hope to find a place for everything. It's actually amazing how well our belongings are fitting into this house - and now, finally, it really feels like home.
P.S. We just beat the weather back before the first big snowstorm of the season hit, and we had to use our snowblower (which had been in storage!) - imagine driving that U-Haul truck in a white-out?!
