03 The Road Well Travelled

Wednesday, August 08, 2007
North Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada
I decided to utilize the TransCanada to meander to Newfoundland. So I went from Dunchurch leaving at 07:30 on Tuesday to North Bay to begin the trek winding down the beautiful Ottawa valley, passing by Pembroke and Renfrew. The 417 to Montreal is being rebuilt in places but I arrived in Montreal at 15:00 and came to a screeching halt before the Decarie expressway and crawled to the south-shore via the tunnel an hour later.

The Quebec south-shore is boring countryside, but good farmland, until one reaches Kamouraska where interesting hills magically appear out of nowhere . Utilizing a fairly constant 100kmph, I reached Edmunston New Brunswick at 21:30. After a quick dinner, I tail-gated trucks to avoid any potential road-kill and later grabbed four hours sleep at a Fredericton truck stop --- the new bed in the van works well but next time I will utilize ear-plugs to get a more peaceful sleep.

After doing my e-mail during breakfast (the van does allow me the luxury of toting my along my PC), I resumed my drive toward the North Sydney harbour. However, the van needed an oil change so I got stuck in a New Glasgow Canadian Tire for nearly three hours; it is amazing that I have already put five thousand clicks on it. I met a teacher at the store and eventually gave him a ride to Cape Breton since his pickup truck locked up the back wheel and couldn't be fixed until Saturday due to backordered parts.

Got dinged for a $4 toll to cross the mountains just before Truro; weird that the feds would allow money scams on such a busy transportation link. Also the road between North Bay and Pembroke was in really bad shape as well --- not a good testament for tourists to Canada. I arrived at the North Sydney Marine Atlantic terminal at 17:00 on Wednesday and hopefully will be able to board since I am currently waitlisted in ninth spot --- whew; I was the third last vehicle to make it on board at 22:30, some later arrivals were not as lucky.

The countryside in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is spectacular --- I am looking forward to returning for a much more leisurely view once I have completed dissecting Newfoundland.
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