Nova Scotia

Guess where we are! Aw, you peeked! We had a very uneventful drive today…153 miles with only three stops. Stop #1 was as we crossed into Nova Scotia at the Welcome Center. It had a beautiful sign, a beautiful building, a cute little lassie playing a bagpipe and lots of great information.






After lunch, we slid out and got back onto the highway and headed towards Truro and Halifax. This was the best road of the trip so far…two smooth lanes and a 110 click speed limit. I still held it back to 55-60 and even set the cruise control. We were stylin’!

Our next two stops were right together at the Anne Murray Center (she’s a singer) and the Coal Miner’s Museum. We had two rigs at each place but they were on a tour so we just noted the rig numbers and time and boogied on down the road. We pulled into the Scotia Pine Campground in Hilden, Nova Scotia. Nice park…50 amp power, free wi-fi and all the amenities. After setting up, we all lined up and car-pooled two miles back down the road to the local volunteer fire brigade where they served us up a delicious barbecued pork chop dinner. We had a ball! After dinner, they showed us all the fire equipment and told a few stories about their lives as volunteers.

We then sauntered back to the park, poured a couple of “two-fingered” drinks, slathered bug dope all over us, broke out the chairs and proceeded to people watch at the park. Now, for those of you not familiar with a “two-fingered drink”, my father, an excellent bartender, taught me how to measure a drink many years ago. You take your left hand and place it alongside an ice-filled glass. Placing your bottom finger slightly above the bottom of the glass to allow for the thickness of the glass, you pour the booze to the top of the upper finger. The result is a perfectly proportioned drink every time!






After a half a drink’s worth of time, we moved inside where Barry got a haircut and I got some time to catch up on my blog draft. Tomorrow is a Tidal Bore rafting trip.

According to Wikipedia, a tidal bore (or just bore, or eagre) is a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave (or waves) of water that travel up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the current. As such, it is a true tidal wave (not to be confused with a tsunami). We carpooled to the Tidal Bore Rafting Park in Shubenacadie, signed our releases, checked out our life preservers and walked down a steep walkway and stairs combination to the river. The bank was very wet and slippery and we “walked” with difficulty to our boats. The boats were all Zodiacs equipped with 60 hp outboards. According to our guide, these are the perfect boats for tidal bore rafting…they are light, strong, unsinkable and self-bailing. I liked his confidence in the boat, especially when he told us of the guide that ran a boat into a larger bore and flipped.

As we motored slowly down the river to the area where we were to meet the bore, our guide pointed out several eagles and aeries (nests) in the area. The river was pretty low and we bottomed out several times. The four guys bailed out and helped drag the boat over the mud flats. We soon pulled up to a larger bar and got out to await the wave. After a few minutes, we spotted it slowly making its way toward us and re-boarded the rafts. As we headed down river, we hit the wave which was only about a 2’ wave. We continued down the river to a spot on the river where standing waves are located. These waves are caused by variations on the bottom of the river and cause what appear to be waves in the river. These waves are actually stationary but appear to be moving due to the incoming tidal water. As the tidal water’s flow increased, the waves got larger. Our guide turned the boat and we slammed into wave after wave. Huge amounts of water came flying over the bow and soaked us all. We soon learned to keep our mouths shut as we were doing this as the river was quite red and muddy. We were having a ball! Two of the ladies in the front of the boat were knocked to the bottom of the boat by the incoming water. After running the standing waves, our raft was totally full of water, right to the top of the bladders. We were howling! We turned and did it again and again and again. We probably ran the waves about 15 times until the tide, and waves, slacked off.

We then headed back toward the launch point but stopped at one spot on the bank to go “mud sliding”. This area had rather steep banks with smooth sides and well-worn butt trails back down to the river. We attempted to walk up the slippery bank to the top and the starting point of the slide, but I crawled. It was much safer and easier. Several guests followed my lead. Getting to the top of the bank, you would sit in the butt trail and give a little push off. You were soon careening down the bank in a totally out-of-control mud slide. The landing was an underwater dunk in the river. After several mud runs, we headed back to the launch point, climbed out of the rafts and walked slowly back up the walkway to the rafting company office. We were whipped! They had showers for those who wished to clean up but Claudia and I opted to just head back to the rig and shower there. The hot water felt exceptionally good. After cleaning up, we started preparing for the staff-prepared hot dog and hamburger extravaganza that will be tonight’s dinner.

The dinner went swimmingly! We had five barbecues going and got all the hamburgers and hot dogs cooked quickly so all the guests were fed at once, an almost unheard of feat! We also had our travel briefing for tomorrow and went to bed early. Long day!

Today, Thursday, July 17th was a travel day to the Dunroamin RV Park in Annapolis Royal. During the trip, we crossed Latitude 45, halfway between the equator and the North Pole. It was a one-stop, 146-mile day with no problems…YES! We pulled in, hooked up with power and water, set the awnings and windshield screens and we are done…well, almost done. It was my duty as Tailgunner to collect the two parking cones on the roadway at the entrance to the park. I set off on my appointed duty, walked up the entrance road and collected the cones. Since the office was right there, I decide to check it out in case someone asked me about the facilities. I walked in, checked it out and then saw the ice cream section. To make sure I had all the information for the guests, I checked out the flavors to ascertain the completeness of their offerings. They offered about 15 flavors of regular ice cream and double that of soft-serve. The girl behind the counter recommended “Death by Chocolate”. I thought that Claudia might like that flavor so I bought a single scoop cone. I started back to the rig but the heat and humidity started melting the cone and I had to keep cleaning it up so it wouldn’t drip all over the place. I think that Claudia’s chocolate antennas were up as she exited our rig and started walking straight toward me as soon as I left the office. I just happened to be holding the cones in front of the ice cream. It wasn’t on purpose…honest. As we met, she asked what I was hiding. “Oh, I bought this for you”. She didn’t buy it and removed her share of the cone in rapid fashion.

After the ice cream was gone, I decided a swim was in order. It wasn’t pretty, but I changed into a bathing suit and strolled to the pool where the kids assured me the water temperature was quite warm. They lied! To be kind, it was refreshing. A nice hot shower finished off the relaxing session and I switched modes for dinner. Out came the barbecue. Out came the steaks and a nice ice-cold Gewurztraminer that we picked up back in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Modesty precludes me from saying how well the steaks came out, but suffice to say you could cut them with a fork and that I licked the plate after consuming every morsel except for the bone which I gave to a guests dog. The evening’s entertainment is a graveyard tour at by lantern light at 10:00 pm.

The tour was given by the President of the local Historical Society who is a 10th generation Acadian. He was dressed in a period costume as a gentleman of the day would dress.





We all carried candle lanterns as we walked through the graveyard.






What a history lesson! I wish we would have heard him before we got to Nova Scotia. It was a great tour!

Tomorrow is a tour of the area, including the local tidal bore power generating station where they generate electricity from the bore tides. Now THAT should really be interesting…but it will be in the next blog. This one is getting too long and I need to get it off. Bye!