Road Trip, Day 7: Welcome to Nova Scotia!
DAY SEVEN: AT A GLANCE
Starting Point: Point Wolfe Campground, Fundy National Park, New Brunswick
End Point: Digby, Nova Scotia
Starting mileage: 189,104
Ending mileage: 189,448
Daily total (miles): 344
Trip total (miles): 1153
Let’s start out with the old adage, “Even the best laid plans…”
This was one of the days in the entire itinerary that I kept going back and forth on. I think I made four different reservations and canceled them all before deciding on where exactly we’d stay and what we’d do. And then even all of that changed. Bottom line: A lot of driving. But a day that ended in Digby, NS, eating Digby scallops. And lobster. Because, well, it’s lobster.
Our initial plan had us leaving New Brunswick in the morning, crossing over into Nova Scotia. We had decided to drive instead of doubling back and taking the Saint John ferry and missing the Annapolis Valley region of Nova Scotia. First, we planned to cross over and and camp in one of the provincial parks of the Bay of Fundy/Annapolis Valley region. Then, since we decided that we’d be getting together with friends on July 2 in the Yarmouth area, we made plans to frontload the drive and further down the coast. First, we planned to stay in Canning. Then, we changed our minds to staying in Wolfville. Please note: I’m using plural pronouns when it was really me doing all the wavering and the back-and-forth. G was an innocent bystander to my indecision. Then, we (yup, I) changed one more time—thinking we’d instead stop in Wolfville for lunch and to break up the drive and just keep on driving to Digby, where we’d stay the night. That, we figured, would get us within 1.5 hours of our friends the next day.
I had planned for us to visit Balancing Rock in Digby, but then I realized that that would include a ferry trip and an extra three hours—at minimum—in addition to the already planned 6.5 hours of driving. Needless to say, we scrapped the plans for the extra travel and the hike. I’ll be putting Balancing Rock on my “next time” list.
We moseyed on out of the campground at 8, after a successful night of sleeping in the van, the first during this trip. Our van trip over the Memorial Day weekend had helped us figure out in advance the dance of transitioning the van from our mode of transportation to our place of sleep—it’s a shuffle of moving bags and fastening curtains, pulling the bed out and popping the top, and getting our sleeping bags ready and us inside them. In the morning, we’d do it all again, only in reverse. And so, on this dreary Canada Day, we got ourselves ready, packed the van back up, and took off, hoping to reach Moncton, NB, in time to see the tidal bore at 9:19 a.m. We hadn’t originally planned to see this, but on a friend’s Facebook suggestion, we decided to try. Unfortunately, we missed it by about 15 minutes. Aargh.
Having scrapped the hike in Digby, we were no longer stressing about trying to reach Digby by a certain time, so we decided to use time to catch up on a few work things (G) and update the blog (T). We had spotted a Starbucks in the downtown area, so we stopped in, ordered drinks and breakfast, and hunkered down to business. Soooo glamorous!
Uploading photos took a bit longer than I had expected, so by the time we rolled out of Moncton, it was just past 11.
In less than an hour, we crossed into Nova Scotia and stopped at the visitor’s center to load up on information. There was an extra festive spirit in the visitor’s center, as it was Canada Day—there were balloons and even a Canadian flag cake. G bought some maple candy to satisfy his sweet tooth, we picked out a few stickers for the cooler, and I bought an “official” Nova Scotia Sou’Wester hat that comes with a certificate (something about anointing it with water from the Atlantic and downing a shot of rum!). I also learned that the Anne Murray Center was not far. Full disclosure: I have a soft spot for mellow 70s music. Anne Murray’s “You Needed Me” and “Danny’s Song” are on the soundtrack of my childhood. Unfortunately, we didn’t stop—and looking back, I totally regret not doing so. For the record, G does not share this feeling!
We made our way to Wolfville, where we had planned to stop for lunch. It was raining pretty hard at this point, and the last thing I wanted to do was get out of the car, so we just kept going. It’s too bad, too, as the town looks super cute and came highly recommended by a good friend. Ugh. A bit later, I was getting hangry and ended up eating a random assortment of chips/hummus/sweets from the gas station. I do not make good decisions when hangry.
By the time we reached Digby to check into our hotel, the Digby Pines, it was after 5. After a hot shower, I was ready to eat—but not before a few shots of the waterfront.
We ended up grabbing dinner at a place downtown, across the street from the waterfront, called The Wheelhouse. I had read fantastic reviews on Trip Advisor about the special scallop trio and the lobster poutine, and so we followed suit. I ordered the poutine, and G ordered the scallops, and we shared both. The verdict: the scallops were incredible (they’re Digby scallops, after all) and the lobster poutine far exceeded my expectations—I’m almost ashamed to say how good it was!! It’s a rich, creamy plate, though, so we didn’t finish it. Still, we’d echo the TA reviews and recommend both plates.
We returned to the hotel, and I spent some time recapping and writing—and taking advantage of the Internet to upload photos and blog posts. The room was nice, simple, and comfortable—but COLD! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to adjust the temperature. The upside of van travel is that you always have extra blankets. G ran down and grabbed one of the Rumpls, and we were all set. And with that, our first week of the road trip came to a close.