Apologies for dropping off. I had a problem with the iPad hotspot, then my iPhone backup failed. I guess the iPhone is too old, or perhaps WordPress tried to update but failed, but it wasn’t going to allow me to post. However, up ’til then the WordPress app had been working beautifully for blogging in the car. And then, well, I had gotten about 5 hours of sleep over the previous 2 days, so it was getting a bit difficult to focus the ol’eyes.
We made great time! Part of this was due to the image above. The Trans-Canada Highway between Ontario and Nova Scotia is quite a wonderful drive. It’s a divided highway, multi-lanes, so the old days of getting stuck behind a slowpoke, waiting for a good passing lane, are over. At least for most of the highway. There was a part in northern Quebec and northern New Brunswick that still petered to a single road. Construction in areas working on expanding the highway caused slowing itself, but once one passed through Cabano, well, it was a much slower ride until the split highway picked up in New Brunswick. This year, the highway was completely split to the border and beyond! There had been an Irving gas station right before the New Brunswick border here, which has been bypassed, as well as another little station on the other side of the border. The Irving flag is still waving off far left, so maybe it is still servicing the other side of the split highway – we’ll find out on the way back. We noticed some other businesses had also been bypassed, included the Fromagerie, a cheese store that has locally-made cheeses. It had been a convenient stop along the highway for tourists and I’m always sad to see businesses getting hurt during these transitions. They are still working on the new highway, so maybe there will be a convenient turn-off for them. And…back to that split: multi-lane highway and making faster time!
Outside of Toronto, there are huge gas stations with fast-food joints placed about every 70-100 km. One can fill up, walk around, grab coffee, eat something…without having to get off the highway.
Once one gets to Quebec, things are a little different. Outside of Montreal, rest stations begin, as shown here. They are usually in very lovely settings, with picnic tables, washrooms, sometimes there will be a vender selling food. However, if you need to fill up, you are forced to seek gas out in little towns along the highway.
The hazards of highway photography: it is becoming more and more difficult to see beyond trees farmers have planted along the highway.
Quebec City is on the other side of the river. And…there is only one brief glimpse at the bridges that cross over. Traffic is typically dense here.
When you can see, there are marvellous views. Here we can see the farms along the St.Lawrence River and the far hills. So pretty. Sometimes, one can even see ships on the river.
Farms create a very pastoral setting for the drive.
Church steeples are frequent sights along the highway.
Around La Pocatiere, the trees break and there is a magnificent view of the St. Lawrence for a while. There is a lovely trail system here and bikers and hikers are often seen.
I really love this view. Again, these are the hills on the other side of the St. Lawrence.
Farmers in all the provinces we drove through were haying/are haying.
The terrain is very interesting. Mostly, it’s flat enough for all the farming around. Then, out of nowhere, are high protrusions. These bumps mark that soon we’ll we be splitting off to head into New Brunswick. Continuing straight takes one into the very picturesque town of Riviere du Loups.
Farms go right to the foot of these hills. And…another lovely location for a bike trail. If, that is, it’s good to be biking along a busy highway.
This is beyond Cabano. One can see there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Isn’t this a lovely drive? This is a split highway, and this is the amount of traffic one typically sees in northern New Brunswick. Closer to big towns, things pick up, but nothing like the big cities.
This is an animal fence. Deer and moose and cars are a big deal, especially in remote parts of the highway. No lights here at night, there may or may not be 911 reception. One trip, we were travelling through northern New Brunswick at dusk and had to swerve around a dead deer in the highway- it was more than an inconvenient speed bump, probably hit by one of the very many transport trucks that travel these roads. These fences are almost all the way along the Trans-Canada in New Brunswick and I noticed that the new split highway in Quebec has also incorporated them. Periodically, there are one-way gates that allow lost animals following the fence to find their way back into the forest.
However, it makes no sense to separate populations of animals to different sides of a highway. Periodically, one can see the solution — underpasses that allow animals to move from one side to the other.
I always associate the colour green with New Brunswick because this is what it looks like along the Trans-Canada. One drives for hours and hours surrounded by green. And not too far into the province, the air becomes sweet and delicious to breathe, as the smog of the big cities of Montreal and Quebec City disappear.
A look at the split highway in New Brunswick.
We saw a number of these – 3-wheel motorcycles. This one has a trailer. The fellow says they’re made in Quebec.
More convertible than motorcycle?
An older part of the Trans-Canada. I always find the different colours a fun, interesting thing. I wonder if one colour is better than the other or if it is just what’s handy…
No big “Welcome to Nova Scotia” sign here. This is the back way into the province, not going through the main border crossing. It’s a shortcut to get us to the cottage faster! As soon as we turn onto that road straight ahead, we are in Nova Scotia.
We arrived at 8pm, adjusted for local time (we lost an hour crossing the New Brunswick border). It was still light out, lots of time to open the cottage. Shutters came off, water turned on, dust clothes removed from furniture, bed made, hot water turned on, deck chairs put on deck, stereo and electronics hooked up…and we were so wired when we were done that we poured some wine, watched fireflies, and talked way too late before finally rolling our weary bones into bed. Because of my dearth of sleep, I was unconscious for the next 12 hours.
I’ve been going through some stuff that has kept me off blogging, but an online friend tracked me down on Twitter, wondering what had happened, so, here we are, safe and sound. Apparently we brought the good weather with us. We are still not sure how long we’ll be here, but we’ll enjoy it while we can.
Thanks for following along!
Our first Nova Scotia sunset of 1025.