On the Road to the Island

 

 Friday before dinner

After a week of perfect weather, we left Mahone Bay in warm weather and light rain. By the time we arrived at Peggy’s Cove, on a side trip east from the main highway, the fog was starting to roll in. When we stopped at the memorial for the Swissair crash in 1998, it must have been ten degrees cooler.

When we arrived at Peggy’s Cove, the fog was not too bad, and there were only a few vehicles. I went out on the rocks to get ‘a few’ photos, and Lloyd stayed close to the car, due to his recurring problems with vertigo.

The weathered rocks provided lots of opportunities for photos.

The fog grew thicker within a few minutes, and all of a sudden about six or seven busloads of tourists arrived. The place was crawling with people, and I was glad we had arrived when we did.

We stopped at a Tim Horton’s outside of Halifax, and caught this little fellow enjoying a meal of rose hips. We have seen this ‘snack food’ in several locations. The rose hips are the size of BC cherries, and are really stunning on the rose bushes.

As we drove towards New Brunswick and the Confederation Bridge to PEI, the landscape changed quite dramatically. The forests became thicker with fewer farms and houses. We couldn’t believe the number of racoons and porcupines we saw dead at the side of the road. We laughed when we saw a moose crossing sign with a bull moose several kilometres after we had seen a sign with a cow moose. We hadn’t realized that the New Brunswick government required them to cross at different points.

The Confederation Bridge was quite intimidating, due to the wind gusts, and we are used to wind! We could not imagine what it must be like in a storm. Apparently they have only closed the bridge completely a couple of times, but it is not unusual for the bridge to be closed to semi-trailers. We were told that the concrete sides of the bridge (4 ft.) cause a ‘tunnel’ effect that protect cars from the worst of the wind and snow, but the big trucks get the full effect.

We were pleased to arrive at Summerside and change into warmer clothes before we went out for dinner. Those heavy suitcases with both warm and cool weather clothes were worth the extra weight. We are getting better at choosing our travel clothes. Of course, the carry-on with the a couple of books, the laptop and all the cords and chargers for the cameras and the GPS is heavy as well. The KOBO e-reader helps a little.

I started this last evening, but could not post it as we had no internet. I hope to get the photos added to the next exciting episode later.