Seems like a long day today with some challenges then a great reunion with our friend D and Don.
We left the Century Family Campground in St. Martins around 8:30am planning on a 4-5 hour drive to Hubbards Beach Campground in Nova Scotia. Right outside the campground was an Irving gas station where we filled up our gas tank and took an ATM to get some Canadian money. In hindsight, we should have only gotten maybe $100 at the ATM because the conversion rate was pretty low.
Bill Tip - When visiting ATMs in Canada, the bank ATMs give the best rate. Our ATM at the gas station was only $1.22 conversion rate when the actual rate was $1.33.
The first hour or so was back-roads on 111 on the way to Hwy 1. I think we saw 2 cars and 1 truck total on this road. Very scenic but lots of turns and hills to keep me on my toes driving the rig.
Once back on Hwy 1, we were back up to 100 (kilometers-per-hour - about 60 MPH) and moving along nicely on the beautiful road. Scenery was woods, farms and open fields - very nice. Here is a large wind-farm along the highway. They were all cranking!As we neared the turn east to Nova Scotia, the winds picked up to over 20 knots and came right on the nose. The poor truck was straining against the wind pulling the 7,000 pound load. I slowed to 50-55 to take it a little easier on the truck but it still almost never shifted into high gear for the next couple hours.
At one point in the trip, we passed a sign that said, "Highest Tides in the World". I check the tide app on my phone and it showed the tidal range of 41 feet. Wow! You'd have to be careful anchoring. "Can't anchor here. It's high tide and only 45 feet deep...."
Entering Nova Scotia, the traffic really picked up since this is the only road on and off the island. Even getting off for gas was tricky with all the cars and trucks everywhere. We eventually found an Irving gas station that was easy with the trailer and took 22 gallons - we were down to 1/8 tank. With a little computation from liters to gallons, it turns out we averaged only 8 gph against the winds. No place to park for lunch here so back on Hwy 2.About 20 minutes later, we spotted a bunch of gas stations and fast food at the exit. We were able to park the rig and have some lunch next to a truck stop. I was thinking that this was a far cry from the first day when we stopped for lunch next to the pond in the woods. After lunch we walked to the Dairy Queen and split a tasty ice cream.
Back on the road and heading SE to Hubbards the traffic lightened up a little. After we exited the highway, the drive along the shore was beautiful. 1/2 mile of very twisty / hilly road brought us to the Hubbards Beach Campground just as it was starting to rain a little. This campground is pretty packed. When I called two days ago for a reservation, they told me we could only stay 1 night. Yesterday they had a cancellation so we could stay Friday also.
After setting up camp, we took the truck around the little bay to Southern Cross and our friends D and Don. What a nice reunion with our friends who we met in Grenada 12 years ago then sailed together for many miles. They were on an organized cruise with 8 other boats as part of their Ocean Cruising Club membership so had plans for the next few days. We were able to "butt in" on dinner last night at the Shore Club - only a 5 minute walk from our trailer. The menu consisted of Lobster (small, medium and large) with only 2 or 3 other choices. It was a little expensive (my 1 1/4 pound medium was $45 CN) but it included unlimited mussels and salad bar. Lots of conversation about old and new times made for a fun evening.The waitress made a ceremony out of putting lobster bibs on all of us. She was a lot of fun
After dinner we walked back to the trailer to show D and Don our new home for several weeks. Here we took a selfie to get a current version of our group.
I drove D and Don back to their marina and we hit the sack early. Tomorrow, we'll relax and sight-see around the area. We have plans to join them for a BBQ dinner with the cruisers group tonight.I'm going to stop putting our expenses in the blog because of the extra work converting $CN to $US - I'd have to check my credit card website each night and do a manual conversion on the cash. Several friends said they were thinking of doing this type of RV trip in the future so I wanted to give them and idea of how much we were spending. Seems like $100 - $150 per day depending on how much driving. Yesterday we spent $120 on gas since we filled up twice. We have been getting good deals on campgrounds ($30-$40 per night) which could be much more expensive if you didn't check around.
Day 10 - 278 miles (all towing). 1,249 miles total
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