Heigh-ho, heigh-ho
It’s on the road we go
We keep on driving all day long
Heigh-ho*
As we prepared to hit the road for Nova Scotia, we couldn’t help but be excited for those first little shortbread gems called Sable Shortbread to be coming out of the oven in our new shop in Nova Scotia. I also started humming heigh-ho, heigh-ho – thinking of the shortbread cookies as little gems and our impending road trip, just brought those industrious miners from Snow White to mind. I love to play with words, and I hope you’ll be humming along with us on this trip and on my take on the Heigh-ho* song from Snow White that I’ve shared in this post.
We drive drive drive drive drive drive drive in our car the
whole day through
To drive drive drive drive drive drive drive is what we really need to do*
The road trip can only be described as epic. Duncan, me, two dogs and a whole country between us and our destination. We started out with our trip through the Rockies, and enjoyed our last views of BC as we bid farewell to our adopted province for the final time. Who knows when we will meet again.
So, we savoured a few last tastes of the local fare -Okanagan fruit, some BC wine and a really great butter tart from a coffee shop in a little mountain town (I know they were invented in Ontario, but hey – they’re quintessentially Canadian).
We twisted, climbed up, went down, and tunneled through the mountains on our way to the flat and fertile prairies.
It ain’t no trick to get there quick
If you drive drive drive with the right arithmetic.
In a car! In a car! In a car! In a car!
Where we drive then sleep then drive some more!
nce through the mountain passes and into Alberta, we already found ourselves missing the ocean and the mountains but knew we were heading toward great new adventures and a new oceanside province to explore.
And as we drove across the flat prairie landscape, following the truck that holds our equipment, our furniture and our dreams for a cookie empire, we spent quite a lot of time talking about how this change was a positive one for us.
We found ourselves looking forward to being near family, of returning to a place that has “real” winter (I know, right?), skating outside, that crunch of snow underfoot and to living in a place that wasn’t rainy half the year. I never really took to the whole rain is better than snow philosophy. I suppose that is probably the Montrealer in me.
We bake bake bake bake bake bake from early morn till night
We bake bake bake bake bake bake each delightful bite
We’ll stir up cookies at the store
A thousand cookies, sometimes more
But we all know what we bake ’em for
We hit the Manitoba border pretty late at night after a long drive through many kilometers of prairie landscape. This drive reminded Duncan of that drive back and forth to grad school between BC and Ontario that he made many times. He took the wheel and delivered us safely to Winnipeg.
I have to say thank goodness for Airbnb when you arrive late at night. You just grab the key from the lock box and you’re done. So much easier really than checking into a hotel when you’re tired and just want to crash in your room.
Plus – dog friendly – so many more options for dog friendly accommodation. I mean, just look at Cayleigh making herself right at home at our Airbnb in Winnipeg. And staying in houses it was so much easier to take the dogs out.
Oh, and in a hotel, we’d have needed two rooms. So easy to find Airbnbs with two bedrooms and so much less expensive that way. Plus, you get up in the morning and you can make your breakfast and hit the road. It was fabulous. And so very convenient.
We didn’t have a single negative experience with our Airbnb hosts and all the accommodations were just as advertised.
We bake bake bake a-bake bake
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It’s home from work we go
We finished our trip through Manitoba then moved on to Ontario. While in Ontario, we paid a quick visit to Thunder Bay – where Duncan spent his grad school days skating, training and playing pond hockey – oh and writing a thesis about hockey. So Canadian.
Look! Ontario greeted us with rain – just in case we were homesick for the wet coast. LOL!
With Thunder Bay behind us, it was on through our former home province. Originally we had planned to spend a few days here visiting with old friends but progress by our moving truck changed our plans. They let us know that they were making excellent time and that they’d be getting to Nova Scotia early!! Time to tighten up the drive and move a little further each day. Disappointed that we’d miss out on visits but knowing that we could pop back anytime from Nova Scotia to visit friends and family now that they’d be much closer, we decided to push on, swinging around lakes and rolling hills and lush countryside. Not much time to stop, but I did snap this photo as we drove along.
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It’s home from work we go
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Next stop, my original home province – Quebec!!! Plans to stop and visit relatives here had to be put on hold as well. We needed to move through quicker to make sure we arrived in good time for the moving truck. With storage not an option (long story – don’t ask), we needed to skip the fun we had planned with family and friends.
But, the exciting part is that we will be making a trip to Quebec in 2020 to visit everyone! Since it’s not too long a drive and flights to Montreal are pretty cheap from here, we’ll be seeing lots more of each other now.
We did still find some time to enjoy a lovely picnic in the Laurentians and stay at a wonderful little cabin in the woods. Well, more of a chalet, really. It was absolutely delightful. And I think it was likely a lot more luxurious than the house in the Laurentians where my Great-grandmother and her many siblings grew up. The family moved to Montreal in the late 1800’s and she went on to start a bakery, raise 14 children and live to be nearly 100 years old! She is the inspiration for our recipes and our passion project that is Sable Shortbread. Her name was Mabel, rhymes with Sable and she made Shortbread (and pie – lots and lots of pie).
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho hum
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It’s home from work we go
And the last leg of the trip was underway as we entered New Brunswick after a wonderful stay in the Laurentians. As we headed straight on through, we stopped for meals but other than that, we motored through to our final destination – Nova Scotia!! We crossed the border after dark and couldn’t get a picture of the welcome sign, but that’s okay, we knew that we were home.
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It’s home from work we go
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It’s home from work we go
Heigh-ho
In other musings, I think it’s neat that our Canadian shortbread is going to be baked in Canada’s New Scotland, for of course, Scotland is the country that gave us shortbread. I find it amusing that for those of us who speak English, we say Nova Scotia which is Latin for New Scotland but if you’re a French speaker, it’s Nouvelle Ecosse, which also means New Scotland. Hmmmmm. Anyway enough of that. Let’s get to work building a bakery!!
*Adapted from Songwriters: MOREY LARRY / CHURCHILL FRANK E
Heigh Ho (The Dwarfs’ Marching Song) lyrics © Walt Disney Music Co. Ltd., Walt Disney Music Company, Bourne Co., BOURNE CO