Waitin’ on the ‘Cane

9:00 a.m. Saturday: I never thought we’d be sitting here in Halifax, waitin’ on the ‘cane, the hurricane, waitin’ for big Earl to come up the Bay of Fundy, on the other side of this narrow Canadian province.
How did we get here? We came to attend a weekend Sea Shanty Fest! Everyone’s known about Earl, aiming at Nova Scotia. No one evacuates here, where else would we go?
We came into the Shubie Park Campground Friday to settle in and wait for Earl. The girl at the check-in counter made a joke about the storm, but I was not much amused. It seems that locals are casual about these things. In Yarmouth, close to Earl’s projected landfall, thousands are in the midst of a huge motorcycle rally, with more arriving today!
The campground manager was everywhere, on a bit of a short fuse, anxious to get things right for everyone, carefully placing each of us in areas without trees, stern to wind. There are tent campers here, too, restricted to a shed-like shelter. Lots of nerves were evident, everyone staying pretty much to themselves, choosing their own precautions. You can be sure that if we were still in amazingly friendly Cape Breton, everyone in the campground would have been wandering around chatting! We must all be folks “from away,” meaning not native Nova Scotia-folk.
At the end of the afternoon, I caught the manager making last rounds and mentioned that she must have a lot on her mind. I live in a 14 foot trailer, she said, and I’m not doing a thing! I won’t even take down my big 3-sided trellis, it’s just too hard to take down and set up again!
The sky looked pretty ordinary at sundown.We bedded down expecting to wake up to rain before dawn.







But, this morning nothing’s happened! We have to wait. Let’s get it over, Saturday’s event was canceled, we want a full day of sea music on Sunday!
It’s to arrive as a minimal category 1, blasting up the Bay of Fundy. It sure seems odd. Seven years in Slidell, outside New Orleans, with storm evacuations every year, and here we are, sitting, waiting for a hurricane!
BREAKING NEWS ON THE RADIO!
“During the night … Earl…shifted a little…to make landfall in HALIFAX…” What?! Was that so?
Great.
Note: I Couldn’t post this when I wrote it first thing this morning, the park internet was turned off! Now, we’ve recently got electricity again, so the follow-up is late. You can guess that we’re just fine.