On May 17th, 1899, the Moncton Times reported that Karl had arrived in New Brunswick; it was the first time he had left his native province.
On August 14th, 2020, I too left Nova Scotia to follow Karl’s journey. I mapped out my itinerary to mirror Karl’s and set out early that morning for New Brunswick, super excited for what felt like the official start of my travels.
I had prepared for the long drive; coffee, water, snacks and enough downloaded podcasts to pass the time while driving. Only one thing was missing, and that was a full tank of gas, but I wasn’t worried; the gauge was showing a quarter of a tank — enough to get me the 200kms to the Nova Scotia / New Brunswick border. Except, it wasn’t even close.
When I arrived at the Cobequid toll booth, 40km north of Truro, it was only then that I noted the digital gas gauge seemed much lower than I would have expected. It was indicating that there was just a mere 15km of gas in my tank.*
I inquired with the toll booth attendant about the closest gas station location, and she informed me that it was over 15km away. Geesh – could I be out of gas? Do I risk the 15km and hope there was more gas than the gauge was indicating? Yes, I know some believe there is always an extra reserve despite what the gauge is reading, but not me; too risky.
Instead, I pulled over in the parking lot of the toll booth and called my roadside assistance program and sheepishly requested a “fuel delivery” because that sounded so much better than having to say, “I’ve run out of gas!”. I then proclaimed that in the 30 years I’d been driving that never before had I ran out of gas. I’m sure there’s not a chance that the person from the roadside assistance program believed me and likely had heard that once or a thousand times before. In response, there was simply an affirmation she had dispatched someone to drive to my location with fuel. Till then, I just needed to stay put and wait.
Sitting in my parked car, having travelled a mere 130km, I’ll admit, I was a bit down and started to second guess my plans, this pursuit, and mild obsession with Karl Creelman. How on earth would I navigate Sri Lanka successfully when I couldn’t even get out of my province? Then I thought of Karl, setting out to travel away from home for the first time in his life and deciding to do it on a bicycle, no less. His first stop at Acadia Mines required him to walk with his bike over 5 miles because the road conditions were so poor he couldn’t ride his bike. That could have been the moment when he turned around and gave up his whole quest, but he didn’t. Karl was a true adventurer and my inspiration. So I gave myself a little pep talk and bucked up.
Twenty minutes later, Allen from Sparkle Brite Auto and Towing arrived and emptied the 10L of gas from his Gerry can into my bone dry tank. I also told Allen that this had never happened to me before. I’m sure he didn’t believe me either!
I then proceeded to tell him all about my planned journey, inquiring if he had heard of Karl; he hadn’t, which I immediately took as an opportunity to share everything I knew about Karl. In doing so, I could feel my demeanour improve, my voice bubbling with excitement, telling Allen all about our local adventurer.
I shared with Allen that when Karl arrived in Australia, he was given an autograph book** for strangers that he met along his travels to wish him well, or write words of wisdom, verses from the bible, quotes from poems etc. And then, not only did this kind man indulge me in listening to my story, he kindly consented to join me in a selfie and agreed to be the first person to sign the autograph book that was accompanying me on my journey.
At that moment, my car had enough fuel to get me to the next gas station, and my proverbial tank was overflowing. The incident was a reminder of the pleasure I receive speaking about this project, and it restored my confidence to keep going on the journey.
*In my defence, this was a new car that I’d had for less than six months. My former vehicle went over 700kms on a tank of gas; I figured the new one had to be at least that efficient.
**Lots more to come in the chronicles about the autograph book when we get to Australia
In case you’ve missed them, click here for more Karl Chronicles