Connecticut , USA to Nova Scotia, Canada, May 31-June 7, 2017 Day 1

Day 1, May 31

Today Gloria and I give in to our desire to be on the road. Although we love car trips across America, the trip described here was inspired by a challenge from Canadian radio announcer Rob Calabrese.  He created a tongue-in-cheek website suggesting that Americans consider soothing their disappointment over the US presidential election by immigration to Cape Breton Island. Although we plan to stay in the USA and work toward a electing a better president next time, we went north to check out Cape Breton. 

  

Cape Breton Island is the green area on the right of the map. It's part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, Canada's second-smallest province. The peninsula is 360 miles (580 kilometers) in length, about  80 miles (128 kilometers) wide, and home to just under a million Canadians.  We drove most of the perimeter in two hundred mile segments, staying a couple of days in areas of interest and never felt rushed.

In the past, getting to Yarmouth, NS required either an endless drive through rural Maine and the forests of New Brunswick or an 11.5 hour overnight ferry across the Gulf of Maine. This year we traveled to Yarmouth (on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia) by ferry boat from Portland Maine, in five and a half hours.  Since Portland is only 3.5 hours from home, that cut the entire travel time to under nine hours. 

 

The CAT ferry, new this year, is fast, clean, and very friendly. We hit some rough water about half way across the Gulf of Maine. Unlike quite a few of our fellow travelers, we didn't get seasick. We cleared customs in Yarmouth, NS at around 9:30 pm and found our way to the Lakelawn B&B only a mile or so away. The GPS was balky, but Mathew, our host, gave the kind of simple directions that anxious travelers like me appreciate. 

 

A friend once joked that Canada is much like the USA, just more efficient, polite and friendly. Our experience at the Lakelawn B&B was consistent with that generalization, as was the entire trip, this lurid headline in the local paper notwithstanding.

We both love our Connecticut home, a house we built ourselves and continue to remodel, nestled on four acres of fields, streams, fruit trees, and flowers, but there is something peaceful in leaving all the possibilities behind. I know this trip is overdue because as I sit in my quaint, comfortable room in a well maintained Victorian, I long to take out my tools (the ones I didn't bring) and make something better. The hot and cold taps are reversed on the sink--a simple fix.  The vinyl plank floor has a seam that is opening up, a defect needing a light tap with a hammer to seat it. The place can really use an additional outlet, and what's with that one inch step up into the bathroom?

I resist the urge to fix and settle for reviewing the itinerary for the next day, a plan that will survive only until the first side trip. Day one ends with an hour of reading the 2017 Doers & Dreamers Guide to Nova Scotia in front of an electric fireplace. It's cold and the heat is welcome.

Despite the busy location, we both have a great night's sleep, a major victory for my insomniac spouse.