A few random observations

August 5, 2007
North Sydney, NS

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve made a mental note to mention a couple of things we’ve observed while in the Maritimes, but none of them have made it to blog entries. Since mental notes are easily lost (it seems to get easier to lose them every day!), here are a few random observations.

Clotheslines: You can tell when it’s “laundry day” in the Maritimes because clotheslines are used all over. We grew up with them of course, but we’re so used to living in places where HOAs – and campgrounds – prohibit their use that it was strange to see so many. We could just imagine how fresh the clothes would seem, especially near the ocean or Fundy coastlines.

Marshmallows: While driving through farmland, we came upon numerous farms, many of which store hay for their animals. I suspect than most people know that the traditional bale format is giving way to the larger rolled style. Here, we’ve encountered quite a few farms that are shrink-wrapping the large circular bales in heavy white plastic. When they’re stacked in the fields or near a barn, they look jut like giant marshmallows from a distance. I guess you had to be there…

Speed limits: Most people seem to drive at or below the speed limits here. Most of the towns have limits of 50-60 kilometers/hour (about 31-37 MPH), the main two-lane roads are 70-90 KPH (~44-56 MPH) and the controlled access roads are 100-110 KPH (~62-68 MPH) – similar to the US. We’ve generally kept to the limit ourselves, and have had very few situations where people have felt the need to pass us. Those that passed us have been about 50/50 Americans/Locals. People from MA, NY, NJ, FL, and the odd CA plate seem to be in a hurry, reinforcing another stereotype, I suppose.

Road patching: The road crews have this down to a science. We’ve been through sections where the roads have been patched three times (you can tell by the different degrees of fading in the color of the pavement, and they’ve been just as smooth as you’d want. In the US, patching (when done at all) seems to be done in a way that makes the road surface worse instead of better. The roads in the Maritimes have generally been very good. TC-105 from Port Hawkesbury to Sydney had some places where frost heaves caused rolling dips and mounds, but we’ve had very few places where the coach has been slammed around like we’ve experienced on US Interstates.

We even passed a road construction crew with a machine that I’ve felt that the US should have for a long time. Out front was one of those grinders that take the top 2-3” of road surface off in a lane-wide pass. Instead of going in a truck to be hauled away, the ground asphalt went into a hopper that fed another mill that created a gravel-like substance, which went by conveyor to a mixer that added hot tar, and finally they “new” asphalt was spread out on the roadbed. The whole thing was moving along at 1-2 MPH, flanked by guys with orange cones and followed by a series of rollers. At the tail end was a guy putting down reflective markers showing where the new paint lines would go. At the end of the day, they probably were able to resurface 15 km of a lane (maybe more since road crews seem to work from morning to dusk) with minimal traffic impact. You can tell I’m easily intrigued by a) efficient processes, b) good roads, and c) smooth traffic flows – put them all together and I’m a happy guy.