North Sydney NS

On Thursday, we got up and left early again because we wanted to make it all the way to Arm of Gold Campground in Bras d'Or, Nova Scotia, which was the closest campground to the Newfoundland ferry in North Sydney, Nova Scotia.  We filled up with diesel in Aulac, not because we needed it, but because, we weren’t sure how soon we would find another truck stop.  Steven (in Moncton) had recommended this truck stop because it was wide open and easy to get into.

In Canada, privately owned recreational vehicles cannot use the truck lanes at a truck stop like we can in the States.  And when you are 65 feet long (including the car) and 12'9" tall, pulling in to fill up with diesel can be challenging.  Thankfully, the diesel retail pump was easy to get into.

We entered Nova Scotia again but it was raining this time.

Again, the terrain in Nova Scotia until we reached the Canso Causeway was wide open terrain with long sloping hills like New Brunswick.

And there are trees, predominantly spruce and pine, everywhere.

As we approached the Canso Causeway, you could see the ocean way out in the distance.

More hills, trees and openness.  In New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, the road went from a 4 lane to a 2 lane road; but it was still good road and had passing lanes many times on the hills.

In Tennessee, McDonalds will have “McRib” sandwiches for limited times.  In Canada, McDonald’s has “McLobster” sandwiches.

We approached the Canso Causeway

…which we had to cross to get over to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

We stopped at another Irving station in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, to again top off the diesel in the motorhome. 

As we got closer to Bras d’Or, we had to make what appeared to be on the map a hairpin turn, but Chuck had no problem at all.

And then we had to cross a tall bridge.

We arrived a Arm of Gold Campground early afternoon.  There was a line of campers checking in so we had to wait a few minutes.  We later found out that these campers had just come off of the Newfoundland ferry.  We got a beautiful site overlooking the bay.

After setting up, we sat outside and enjoyed the view that evening.

I ended up working most of the day on Friday because it rained most of the day.  On Saturday, we drove Cabot Trail (see separate blog post).  On Sunday, we drove to Louisbourg to see Fortress Louisbourg, the largest reconstructed historical site in North America (below):

And we saw this lighthouse in the distance as well.

We had lunch/dinner at the Lobster Kettle.

We splurged and had lobster.  It was fairly good but not near as good as John and Joe’s lobsters (see "Good Eats and Good Treats" post).  We noticed a factory next door that was falling in.

We asked the waitress about it and she explained it had been a fish processing plant but that due to all the restrictions placed on fishing, the company had gone out of business, putting about a 200 - 300 people out of work.

The best part of the weekend was meeting Kurt and Joanna from Greeneville, South Carolina.  They had just arrived off the ferry from Newfoundland on Saturday and provided us with loads of information about campgrounds, things to see and things to do in Newfoundland. 

Not only did they provide us with abundant information on Newfoundland, they also told us some wonderful stories about their other travels.  Kurt is from Switzerland originally and married Joanna from Pittsburg.  After listening to Kurt, we figured out that he is not afraid of anything:  whether it was coming to the States to work when he was a young man in the 60's or driving down a steep grade in their motorhome in Alaska.  They told of how when their son was 12, Kurt wanted to take him to East Germany so his son could see what life was like behind the Iron Curtain.  When they came back across, Kurt was held for questioning for several hours by the East German border guards before being release.  Joanna had wondered if Kurt was going to get to go back home.  I could have listened to them all night.

It’s like I have said over and over.  The best part of RVing is the people you meet.