Lucky Day 13 - Hubbards to Linwood, Nova Scotia

Day 13

I was looking forward to another travel day and leaving this campground.  Last night was the worst of the 3 days with loud music playing until after 11pm.  Plus, the RVs are so close together, if someone sneezes, you can hear a person 3 sites down say, "God bless you!".  (only kidding.  But we are about 10 feet from our neighbors port and starboard.)

We dumped our tanks, got the trailer ready and left the campground around 10am.  I set course for Linwood, Nova Scotia where we were would stage for some exploring of Cape Breton Island and the Cabot Trail.  There was a Walmart close to the highway so we stopped about an hour later for things we had on our list.  A short time later we were headed NE on Hwy 102 then east on 104 toward Cape Breton. 

The scenery was beautiful and changing as we drove along.  Marsh and seashore leaving St. Margaret's area, rolling farmland NE of Halifax then hills and valleys farther east as we approached Cape Breton.  The truck ran nicely and I think it enjoyed the helping SW wind.  There was only one big hill on the highway where we downshifted to 2nd gear around 60 mph then slowed as we motored up the incline.  Now I spot these steeper hills ahead of time and get up more speed as we approach.  Then, when the truck downshifts from 5th to 4th to 3rd and finally 2nd gear, the RPMs are above 3,500 and the engine has much more power.  Laura took this picture of the hills and valleys later in the day.

After lunch in the trailer parked in a truck stop and another stop for gas, we left the highway for the short, back roads trip to the Linwood Campground.  We did pass 1,500 miles for the trip today which is somewhere around 1/2 way.  That would work out nicely since we are about 1/2 of the trip days we planned.  But, ya never know with us...

Linwood Campground seems like a pretty nice place with only 30 sites.  We are in a nice wooded area with 20-30 feet between us and our neighbors.  But, it feels more isolated then the last campground since there are trees between us.  Here is our campsite for the next couple days. You can just see water down the road from a bay off the ocean.  This is called a "seaside" campground because of that little bay.

After setting up, Laura and I walked around a bit and relaxed by the trailer. 

Tomorrow, we will drive the Cabot Trail around Cape Breton.  I've been looking for a hike we can take to enjoy the views and get a little exercise.  There are 100s of hikes in this area on the AllTrails app.  I'll let you know how we make out!

Bill's RV Notes - I like the 3-4 hour driving days we've been traveling the past few trips.  Not long enough to get tired of driving, but you do get to see different scenery, enjoy the countryside and end up in a different place.  When we had originally planned this trip, we thought of driving from Catskill to Alaska AND BACK in 3 months.  I wanted to get to Alaska because I've been in every US state but that one.  I'm so glad we decided to make the trip shorter.  Driving 10-12 hours every day would have seemed like so much more work (and around $200 each day just for gas).

Day 13 - 187 miles (all towing), 1,602 total trip miles