Day 2: Big City Lights

Day two of our Maritime adventure was another long driving day.


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After we left Fredericton NB (an extended hot spot stop in the provincial capital of New Brunswick), we got back on Highway 2 heading southeast. That will be three provinces in two days of driving! Our new Garmin Oregon 300 GPS has been quite a help. We've also learned a bit more about how to use it. We set in a destination of Halifax via Highway 2. When we exited at Fredericton, the GPS gave us the routing needed to return to our original route. Nice!

Back on the highway, I saw the first white-barked birch trees. Those few gave way to large groves in some sections. You always hear about birch bark canoes being used by First Nations peoples here on the east coast. You can see that they were in ready supply.

The road to Halifax was doublewide all the way. The climate seems drier here and the terrain in rolling hills interspersed with flat coastal plains. One section had a toll of $4.00. It was short, so they must have been collecting to pay for more than that little bit. Just north of town we turned off onto on Nova Scotia Highway 2 and headed to our campground for the night, Laurie Provincial Park on Shubenacadie-Grand Lake. It’s a small rustic camp, but the sites are nice in the shade of evergreen trees. We were lucky to get one on a bluff overlooking the lake. By evening, almost all of the spots were taken. Here there are more tenters like us.

After putting up our tent, we headed to Halifax for dinner. We entered town from the north through Dartmouth. There are two high bridges crossing the harbour, both of them toll bridges charging 75 cents. Must be the way Nova Scotia pays for transportation services. After a bit of fumbling at the tollbooth, we were on our way to the wharf area downtown. Cars were parked everywhere on the one-way streets, but we found a public lot just a few blocks up. I was surprised at how touristy it is. The boardwalk was very crowded, with lots of street musicians. We found a harbour view restaurant and had a much needed meal. We passed on the overpriced lobster for the Captain Catch plate and a cold brew. Double yum!

Using our GPS, we headed back to the campground. A glitch in the software took us to the wrong location, but our “cookie crumb” trail helped us rectify the situation and get back “home” for the night. That’s enough civilization for me for a long time. It helps me remember why I traded in the big city for Powell River. -- Margy