Day 3 Travelling Through NB

The temperature reading on the truck was 13 this morning! We’re back! The east coast is a beautiful place to be but you don’t come for the weather! That said though, as we talk to the boys back at home and hear about the heat wave scorching Ontario, we happily put on sweaters and start our day.

Today was our longest day of travel and as it happens was much longer than anticipated! By the time we arrived we spent 10 hours in transit…and that’s way too long!! Some of the extra time was spent pulling hills in New Brunswick. David does a great job, the highway is divided and multi-lane so passing the many trucks isn’t a problem but man those hills are long, steep and frequent! This all inevitably leads to the need for more frequent gas stops!

The road through New Brunswick is great though and an incredible improvement over the old TCH! I mean where else could you find a province that builds a fence around its entire highway? Truly! In an attempt to keep moose off the highway they have a fence that runs through the province from Quebec to Nova Scotia! The old road did follow the river through each little town though, so while not efficient, it sure was pretty!

Years ago, as a grade four teacher, teaching kids about the provinces of Canada, we learned a song called Welcome ‘Cross a Border. It was a song about the indigenous people’s view of North America, noting that borders are political and arbitrary. While that may hold a truth, driving through the provinces you also become aware that culture influences everything from architecture to highway construction. There is also a distinct physical difference though in the topography. The flatness of Ontario verses the hills and valleys of the Maritimes, the increased thickness and height of the evergreen forest as you travel east and of course the move toward the tides of the Atlantic, all create distinct difference that let you see clearly that you are in new territory!

There was also further delay as we managed a feat that not just anyone can manage - we got lost in Truro, Nova Scotia and couldn’t find our campground! Believe me, not just anyone can do that! When David called the campground to make the reservation, Velvet assured him no confirmation nor deposit was necessary. That was fine except it meant we were relying on Google and the website for directions. Starting with Google we were quickly suspicious of the route. We pulled over and brought up the website and entered that into the GPS which led us in circles – literally! Further looking brought to my attention that a second web link offered a different address for the same campground! We pulled into a Walmart and called the campground and were given what was now a fourth different set of instructions which really weren’t right but managed to give us enough information to figure it out!! Truro isn’t a big place!! It really isn’t easy to hide a rather large campground – yet, that was our day!!

One of the many times the highway crossed the river today.
Most impressive though?
I took this shot with my little camera while we were travelling along at 110km!!