We awoke early at Betty's. The rain had come the night before and the ground was muddy. We piled our linens in the car and headed down to the community below. We were fortunate to have had Betty's camp as we would have been soaked sleeping in then tent and then breaking it down.
We stopped and got some coffee at the big tent, planning our day. My family was leaving this morning and it seemed like a good plan to leave this morning too. The PowWow would be continuing throughout the day, but I was getting anxious to get back to the states.
We went to Betty's to drop off the key to the cabin. No answer except for a barking dog, so we went next door to my aunt's. She was awake, and proceeded to go to Betty's and wake her up. I felt bad about waking her up, but she didn't seem to mind. We said our goodbyes and headed over to my family's hotel rooms.
We made one last stop on the reserve at the boat dock. We find that boat ramps are an excellent area for the dogs. There is not much traffic, if any and no mud. There is an easy entrance into the water with a bit more exercise for them due to the decline and return. We got some balls out and proceeded to play. Into the water they went. All was good until I threw a ball too far and it got swept into the current of high tide. BuddyJack was annoyed that he lost that ball, but we got another and tried it again.
We arrived at the hotel to find that my family was up and practically all packed. We grabbed some coffee and pastry from the hotel lobby and headed towards the US. They headed to Betty's and Auntie's, and eventually to the woodpile to pick up some sweetgrass and other trinkets for the kids.
It was normal to gas up on the reserve before heading out, but since there was no discount, and we were pretty full from our last fill, we just planned on getting some gas in the states. It was a rainy morning, and at times, it was a downpour. We were in Nova Scotia now, heading West and then South towards Rt. 95 in Houlton, the border crossing.
Along our route, Tom found a reserve and we thought it would be great to close our Canadian adventure with some indian gas. It was about 10 miles off of our route and about 20 miles from the border. We had about 2 hours of driving until we got there, so we just enjoyed the leisurely pace of driving through small towns and recalling the past few weeks on the road.
We saw a sign for some falls, so we decided to stop and check them out. When we arrived, I realized I had stopped at them many years ago. There wasn't much to see. Waterfalls. Ooh! Aah! Okay, seen it.
We got back onto the road, after everyone and everything relieved their bladders. We got a bit confused trying to get back onto the highway, headed in the wrong direction at first and eventually got our bearings. The indian reserve was not too far down the highway.
We were fortunate that this reserve had a paved road headed into it. The rain was coming down and I hate driving in the mud. On the outskirts of the reserve was a gas station. Yeah! We pulled up and I got out. I asked about the discount and the attendant asked to see my card. He had lots of questions about my reserve and my relations. It seems that a french man had recently been making forgeries of the cards for people who did not meet one of the requirements of having one, being at least 50% native.
I guess I answered the questions correctly as I got the discount. It did occur to me though that if I got gas in the states it would have been cheaper. Oh well. It is a fine bookend for this leg of the journey. Thank you Tobique First Nation.
The border crossing was just down the road once we got back onto the highway. I was a bit apprehensive coming back into the states with only my indian card, but all the research I had done had said that it was OK. My mother had done it for years.
There was a small line at the crossing and Tom got the blue bag and pulled out all possible papers that would be needed. We approached the booth and received the obligatory questions. "How long have you been in Canada?" "Where do you live?" "Where were you born?" They did ask to see our birth certificates as well, which I think was due to my indian card. A final "Welcome home" and we were in Maine.
I grabbed my cell phone and ta da, 3G, AT&T, Dog Parks, Maps, News. Everything I had been without for close to two weeks was back in hand. Tom thought it was funny that I was so excited, but I paid no mind to his chuckle. Now I knew how far it was to go from point A to Point B and how long it would take to get there. We had over 8 hours left of driving for the day. Final destination, Fairhaven, MA.
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