August 17, 2014 GOOOOAL! Nova Scotia!

Sunday August 17, 2014

 I have had my humans for a while now.  In my next few contributions, I will be telling you how I am training them.  For example, I have a sure fire way to make them come pet me when I want it.  I lay on my back with my paws in the air.  Gets 'em everytime!

Woke up to rain this morning, but I still did my walk.  I love the smell of bacon frying as I walk.  I don't actually eat the stuff, but it smells good.  We readied Hannah for departure getting to our eventual goal of Nova Scotia.

We head east from Moncton on hwy 2 as we enter Nova Scotia.  We stop at a visitor center and get a picture with Rudy by the sign.  It is hard to tell he is in the picture.  Just like any kid, he doesn't face the camera so he looks like a black blob next to Spouse.  Oh well.  The visitor centers have tons of brochures and friendly people that give you good info.  They warn us that the road number has changed now that we are in a new province.  Too much for my pea brain to handle! 

 

We continue east till hwy 4, where we can take a side road to avoid the toll.  Keep in mind, although we are avoiding the toll, our main intent is to get off the beaten path and enjoy the scenery.  Invariable, toll roads are just highways that get you from point A to B.  The real fun is straying from the main road.  And since this road really doesn't take us out of the way, why not?  So off we go through tiny towns.  At least they are towns on the map but there really isn't anything there!  We pass Lake Folly, where there are a few homes.  We are looking for a pullout so we can make lunch, but this road was such a quickie that we ended up right back on the highway.  At least it was after the toll.  But we did find a beautiful rest stop where we pulled over.  There was a pond and it was totally peaceful... until we started our generator so we could use our microwave.  But that was just a quick thing!  Off to Halifax.

We continue east and south landing on Margarets Bay which is a tad west of Halifax.  Hannah looks out onto one of the gazillion coves in the bay.  It is cozy and quiet and only about 20 miles from Halifax.

 

Once Hannah is set up, we decide to cruise the coast around the bay to Peggy's Cove.  We stop to see a memorial to Swissair flight 111 that crashed offshore here in 1998.  It is a harsh landscape with punishing seas.  It was a simple but sobering memorial.  Peggy's Cove is totally what I expected to see in Nova Scotia.  It is a tiny fishing town with a scenic lighthouse that sits on rocks that have been weathered by a gazillion years of wind and ice.  And at this time of year, there are lots of tourists.  Near the lighthouse is a restaurant and souvenir store.  But a short walk down are more artsy outlets.  We watch how pewter objects are formed.  Some things can be molded but for vases, cups and larger things, they must be manually formed and finished.  And it cools instantly, which I found fascinating.  Each building is really a tiny house used for artisan displays.  It is very beautiful, but touristy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decide not to have dinner there and continue around the bay.  Samaaaaantha is so annoying.  It seems she knows the exact time I am about to speak, and then she interjects 'in 2 kilometers, keep to the right on some road she mispronounces. '  Since Spouse is deaf, Samaaaaantha has to shout it and only one of us can talk at a time, otherwise Spouse will fall out of the truck.  Then she will repeat it 'KEEP TO THE RIGHT YOU MORON, NOT THE MIDDLE, THE RIGHT, CAN'T YOU FIGURE IT OUT?   I see a sitcom with a manic GPS as one of the characters. 

 
 Anyhow, as we wind around the bay, there isn't anything to speak of in the form or restaurants, and the next thing we knew, we were in Halifax.  We ask a local for a Thai restaurant and were rewarded handsomely.  It was great.  We then walked around the waterfront.  Big story about the Halifax waterfront, but I will save that for tomorrow.