August 4, 2007
North Sydney, Nova Scotia
Today was a travel day, as planned. We left the Halifax area a little later than planned, but made good time up to the other end of the province. We’d planned for a 10 AM departure, so we had plenty of time. It dawned on the cloudy/foggy/misty side, so it was a fabulous thing that we’d put all the outside stuff in travel mode yesterday!
We had coffee and breakfast (almost unheard of for us on a travel day) and took advantage of the departure preparations made the day before. One last email check, dish down, slides in, power and water disconnected: we’re ready to roll. First stop: the dump station. The site we were at was water and electric only, so we had a week’s worth of dumpage to do. No big deal, as we were in conservation mode and only around 50% “full”, and the dump station was only 100’ away, on the other side of the retention pond. I backed out of the site and pulled forward to dump, took care of business, and then pulled back toward the site to hook up the Range Rover.
One final walk around to check for completeness, and we were off – for about 75’. When we got to the end of the row, I realized that we couldn’t make the right turn needed to get on the road that exits the park. I’d already gone too far to go left, and one of the cardinal rules of towing a vehicle 4-wheels-down is “never back up”. So, even though I was partially blocking the exit road, I had no choice but to unhook the car. I backed it up into an empty space, pulled the coach forward to the left, reversed to the right, and pulled right out. I should have realized that the turn was going to be problematic, since we’d walked that way with the pups several times. Duh!
Anyway, I re-attached the Range Rover and we headed southeast on NS-101 and northeast on NS-102. We stopped in Enfield (our new “road game” isn’t license plate calling, but watching for place names familiar from New England) for the first fuel we put in the coach in Canada. At C$1.045/litre, it’s actually cheaper (exchange excluded) than we paid last year. When we left Dave and Sandy’s last year and took the northern route over Lakes Huron and Superior, we paid C$1.10-1.14/litre. Of course, the current exchange rates are close to $1:C$1, so it’s slightly more expensive in real terms, but nothing like the $5/gallon US equivalent I’d been led to expect from some of the Internet groups we follow.
Near Truro (not MA), we took TC (Trans-Canada)-104 to Port Hawkesbury on Cape Breton Island, then TC-105 toward Sydney. The route took us northeast through the center of the island, along several channels of the Bras d’Or Lake, a large salt-water lake that will likely be one of our scenic drives while we’re here. As we were driving along near an area called St. Patrick’s Channel, we saw a bald eagle circling over the edge of the water. We’re hoping to do quite a bit of wildlife viewing over the next week.
About halfway to Sydney on Cape Breton Island, we found the edge of the known universe. Well, at least the end of the world according to Navteq, the data provider for the GPS system in the coach. As we were driving along, the map space just turned into the blue screen background, creeping slowly across the screen as we traveled along. Eventually, we got to the edge of the unmapped space and, as we crossed, we got an error message and it zoomed all the way out. It’s amazing how much we rely on the GPS, even just to see where the road turns and roughly how far we are from the next town or landmark, even if we’re not using it for directions. The system in the Range Rover is working fine (good thing, since that’s what we use for touring), so I’ll have to check and see if there’s an updated set of disks for the coach.
Just before Sydney, we found our campground. It’s right before the Seal Island Bridge and on the site of what appears to be a quarry of some sort. The whole park is built into terraces under a bluff rising probably 300’ straight up. All along the entry drive are warning signs and cordons relating to the falling rock. Fortunately, we’re in the middle of the park, away from the cliffs, but we’ll have to get some photos tomorrow.
After arrival, we did a little bit of deployment, but decided to head to the grocery for a few things. It was either pasta or filet mignon for dinner, and the filet won. We got most of what we needed at Sobeys in North Sydney, and Geri was able to make us a nice salad while I deployed the stoves and grilled the steaks outside. We had a nice red with dinner, a 2005 Vin de Pays de l’Hérault from Moulin de Gassac in the south of France. It was one that I picked up yesterday at the wine shop in Bedford, and was a pretty good value.
We’re dish-free at this park (no TV, no Internet), so we’re gearing up for a technology-challenged week. I’m sure I’ll find a Wi-Fi hotspot once or twice during the week to connect, but blog posts will have to be composed offline and post when possible for a bit.
As we were driving into North Sydney to the grocery, we saw quite a few roadside signs that were memorable enough for us to go back for some photos, which I’ll post separately. I saw signs for the hotel and restaurant I visited several years ago, as we did due diligence on the operational side of the Towers Perrin-EDS deal. Geri forgot I was here (easy to do, given the number of places I traveled to for w*rk), and it’ll be interesting to cruise back that way as a tourist as opposed to business traveler sometime this coming week. As I’ve said many times, business travel and leisure travel are nothing alike; when you’re traveling on business, you see the inside of planes, airports, cabs, hotels, restaurants and offices.
This week, we’re planning excursions along the Lake, on the Cabot Trail and to Louisbourg. It should be fun, weather permitting. It’s supposed to be relatively nice, but it’s been clouding up this evening, so we’ll see. Here’s hoping it’s just a marine layer…
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