Wednesday, August 10, 2011

points east coastal drive: road signs

the day before we left the Island, we took a long drive down the Points East Coastal route which wraps around the eastern shore of the Island. it's long stretches of potato fields and views of the ocean disappearing into the same coloured sky. it feels like we drove a long time, but then we saw a car on the road with a British Columbia license plate and figured those guys have probably been driving longer.

we drove a while before we decided to stop in St. Peter's Bay to grab a bite at the Chowder Factory, attached to the very quaint green Bayside Inn that overlooks the bay. the staff looked tired, harried and overwhelmed and as a result were surprisingly not very friendly. our bill was higher than what we would have liked, but at least the chowder was very good.



we kept on driving, past the rows and rows of wind turbines of North Lake, swinging their arms like terrifying giant robots wielding weapons against the humans. we then were confronted by a road sign that read ROAD ENDS IN 300 METRES.



more like the island ends in 300 metres. we'd arrived at the East Point Lighthouse, the most eastern point of the island, the farthest you could drive before you hit Newfoundland, and then, Cape Spear, and then, the Atlantic Ocean, and then, Europe. it was a fierce shock of blue waves hurled upon red dirt, framed by those freaky wind turbines. it was really something to look at.





you know what's really awesome about being on the most eastern point of the island? at one point you stop on the highway, and ahead of you is a sign that says HIGHWAY 16 WEST. you look behind you and there is another sign in the opposite direction that also reads HIGHWAY 16 WEST. all roads go west on this island.

we drove on.

Souris was supposed to be a neat town, one of the bigger towns around here (but of course, around here, "one of the bigger towns" means there actually exists a town at all). it was spraying rain, so we only stopped for gas.

this side of the island, like many parts of the island, are long stretches of nothing but trees and fields and road signs informing the cars the name of that particular space of nothing. at one point, we reached a crossroad, with two road signs pointing in opposite directions.

one sign points left and reads CHARLOTTETOWN 63 KM.

the other sign points right and reads CHARLOTTETOWN 64 KM

all roads go to Charlottetown on this island.


dinner, also named (by me) as Lisa Lobster