In mid 2020, Connie and I were heading to the Canadian Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island) to spend a few months exploring Northeast Canada. We were still living and traveling fulltime in our 40' Phaeton motorhome. We got as far as Massachusetts when we had to change plans due to COVID-19 closing the borders. It was July 2020 when we turned West and returned to Arizona where we ended up buying my parents' home and then selling the 40' motorhome. After 16 years of traveling fulltime, we had "settled" down again.
Four years later we purchased our 2023 Leisure Travel Vans "Unity" 25' motorhome. In June 2024, we finally started our Canadian Maritimes trip. Friends Bob and Joyce Childre had mentioned they were doing this trip, so we "kind of" invited ourselves to join them on part of the trip. But we had to delay meeting up with them in Canada. In early June, Connie was still taking care of her mom in California. She took a week off and flew to our home in Prescott, AZ. We had a day to finish packing the motorhome and start our drive to Seattle, WA. Daughter Cynthia also came up to Prescott and joined us on the drive to WA. We headed to the Seattle area for granddaughter Kaylee's high school graduation. It was a fun 3-day drive, although it was tight sleeping arrangements in this smaller 25' motorhome. But Cindy helped with the driving while I took a nap.
We enjoyed spending a week in Seattle with the RV parked next to daughter Leslie's house. Kaylee had a wonderful graduation and will be heading to the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. Our other granddaughter Khloe is also growing up fast, now becoming a sophmore in High School.
The week flew by and before I knew it, I was taking Connie and Cindy to the airport. They were flying to the Los Angeles area. Connie was joining her mom again and Cindy was joining her husband, Matt, for a weekend of partying and Disneyland. Myself, I started heading to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I had allowed two weeks to get there, driving the motorhome by myself. I was also towing our new Ford Maverick Hybrid pickup truck. Being by myself, I drove 5 - 6 hours each day and stayed in rest areas, truck stops, and Walmart parking lots each night.
I was making good time and took the time to visit the Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, the SPAM museum in Minnesota, and at a RV park for a couple nights in MN. I arrived in New Brunswick earlier than expected, so stay a few nights at the De La Republique Provincial Park. Connie was flying into Halifax on June 31st. I arrived at the Deadman's Island Park (Provencial Park) on June 30th and picked Connie up the next day,
For Internet access while on the road, I'd been using the Starlink satellite system. It was working great, until one night after I arrived in Canada. My subscription allowed it to work in all North America and it was working, until it wasn't. It wouldn't connect to the dish anymore. After several calls working with Starlink support, they decided it was a hardware issue, and they would send me a new unit free under warranty. At first, they said they could send it to me in Canada. We found a place to have it shipped to, then they said they could only ship to my home address in AZ. Eventually, I had them ship the replacement to our home. We purchased a Canadian SIM card that gave us 100GB of data for $40 USD. This worked fine as a hot spot, until it didn't. The problem was that cell service was difficult to get in the remote areas. We spent the next month with this Canadian cell service, having to hunt down areas we could use it at. Sometimes, we'd need to drive 30 minutes from where we were camping to find cell service. But at least we had Internet access again!
On July 1st, (Canada Day) we met up with Bob and Joyce. We walked around the Halifax waterfront, had lunch, then walked up to the Scotiabank Centre Halifax to attend the 2024 International Tattoo. While the Tattoo wasn't exactly what I was expecting, we still enjoyed the show. The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo is a show inspired by Military Tattoos given by military bands and display teams.
While staying near Halifax, we toured the local area including Peggy's Cove. After a week or so, we headed further North in Nova Scotia to the Salsman Provincial Park. We enjoyed a quiet evening here along the lake. We then headed to Cape Breton and met up with Bob and Joyce again at the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We spent a week there, exploring the Cape Breton area. Our next stop was in Sydney, Nova Scotia. We had made reservations for the ferry to Newfoundland.
We left before Bob and Joyce and would meet them again in Newfoundland. Connie and I stayed overnight at the Walmart in Sydney, then caught the ferry to Newfoundland. We had a good ferry ride, other than it was at night and sleeping wasn't great. We arrived in Newfoundland early morning and were very tired. We drove up Hwy 1 and spent the day and night in a roadside parking area.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this trip. We're spending a month in Newfoundland with a side trip to Labrador.