Yesterday I left Truro, after a wonderful stop at the Masstown Market (thank you CH) and headed to PEI. I’m not afraid of heights, I am a level-headed, practical driver who knows that if she has no problem staying within the lines on a regular road, she will have no problem staying withing the lines on any road. And yet . . .
I wish I had had one of those rings that can measure your stress level yesterday afternoon. The first spike would have been just outside Port Elgin, NB, when I first glimpsed the massive (20km long and 200 feet high (in places)) Confederation Bridge. Then the signs saying it was a toll bridge – of course it is. So I’m driving along the Trans Canada at 90kmh, with at least 15 – 20 cars and trucks behind, scrabbling in my wallet for my credit card with one hand while steering with the other, as this monstrosity looms ahead.
Then we get on the bridge, whose speed limit is 80kmh. Eighty. Single lane, either way. The barriers are 3’6″ high on either side. Yes, less than 4′. I’m driving an 11′ tall, flat-sided wind-catcher at 80kmh. (By now the stress ring would have exploded under the pressure.) I had checked the wind speeds, which were quite low. Yeah, sure, low whilst on terra firma, surrounded by trees, with hills and buildings all around, breaking the wind up.
I am quite sure I was whimpering aloud. By the time we were halfway across and the bridge had levelled out to a nice, low 130′ above sea level, I was feeling a tad better. And then I saw the last third of the bridge which, like the New Brunswick side, rises back up to its fun, daring, jaunty height of 200′ high. The whimpering returned. Finally we were nearing the end, thank God. Inexplicably, we were directed around the toll booths (so that mad, one-handed scramble at the beginning was completely unnecessary, how nice).
You know in those comedy movies, where the nervous flier gets off the plane and bends down to kiss the ground in thanks? Had I not had half of NB traffic behind me on the highway, I’m pretty sure I would have done the same thing.
Of course I made it just fine. But you know all that was going through my head on the last half of the trip? ‘Maybe I’ll take the ferry from PEI to Nova Scotia next week instead of the bridge.’
(I forgot to take a photo – yeah, right, when exactly would you have been able to do that? – but I’ll try to remember on the way back)
Steps before 9am: 6,543. Chips: none.