Our View From The Road

Day 04 – A Hop, Skip & a Jump down the coast

Today consisted of a total of 120km of driving. Our shortest day so far.

Knowing we had a short day today, we slept in and tried the showers at the campground. Being a Parks Canada location the facilities are decent and clean. The showers had lots of hot water yet were small with little room to turn about as one washed. Still ranking them a 8/10.

We finally headed out at about 10:30am with our first stop being at the Home Hardware in Ingonish Beach for a small can of WD40. Applied to propane quick connect hoping it will penetrate and loosen while driving. Fingers crossed!

Our second stop was at the Pathend Brook Lookout on the Cabot Trail. Stunning views from a high cliff overlook out across the Atlantic.

From here we ambled on toward our lunch stop at the Clucking Hen Café & Bakery. A small busy roadside eatery that clearly was popular amongst the locals as well as tourists. We both enjoyed a bowl of seafood chowder and Barb had a Lobster roll and I a turkey & cheddar sandwich. We picked up a couple of pastry treats to eat along the way. Yummy. Highly recommend this as a stop.

On the road again we arrived at the Englishtown ferry and waited just a few minutes for it to arrive. The loading and crossing takes only about 10min and this cuts about a half hour off of the longer way around.

Joining the Trans-Canada again, we headed toward Bras D’Or which is where we are staying for the night at the Arm of Gold campground. We check in and park on site #1 very happy with our choice and the day so far.

Trans-Canada Highway bridge to Boularderie Island

And then…

As I went to the back of the van to get the electrical cabling out to connect the van to power I looked left and noticed that the covers for both storage tubes (secured under the van storing dump pipes) were hanging free and no longer secured. Evidently when we exited the Englishtown ferry we dragged the tubes on the ramp which broke both tube end covers free to dangle by the rubber restraining straps. Luckily, both dump pipes within the tubes were also still in-place after a 35km highway drive.

Ok, I’m kicking myself as I write this as I thought twice about taking the ferry because the loading ramps were steep, but I choose to proceed. The damage is on me. No problem, go to an RV service center and acquire new caps. Seems simple enough, except that neither of the two nearby have them. They’d have to be ordered in. Solution…. Gorilla tape! It will have to do until I get home (that is unless I locate another source).

Back at the camp site, I had a go at loosening the BBQ quick connect. No luck. Sigh. Looks like I’m going to be looking for a replacement tomorrow. I have two places to start. In the meantime all cooking will have to take place in the van.

The knurled brass section no longer slides/retracts allowing the portable BBQ to connect

Just to prove that things happen in threes, as I’m writing this Barb informs me that she has broken the frames of her reading glasses. We laugh, you can’t make this stuff up. Tomorrow will also see us visiting Shoppers Drug Mart for a new pair of glasses for her.

Keep on smiling, we are!

Setup for the night. Looks like it might rain.

Tomorrow will be historic!

Day 03 – A day of ‘Ups & Downs’

When you think of ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ what do the words conjure in your mind? A direction? An emotional feeling, I thought I’d do something a little different today and summarize our day around the words ‘Up’ and ‘Down’, so let’s start at the beginning of the day.

Up – We enjoyed a quiet night in the grocery store parking lot. To some the idea of spending the night in a parking lot might seem scary, or at least odd. In our experience parking lot stops have been great as they save us a night at a paid campground when all we’re really doing is parking for a few hours and heading out again. Turns out that this is actually a fairly common practice worldwide.

Down – The Canso Causeway. A sea level crossing of the Straight of Canso. Cape Breton is still an island as I’m sure the residents would be quick to point out.

Up – Glenora Distillery. The tour was fun and the tasting delicious resulting in the Whiskey going ‘down’ smoothly. A wonderful place to stop while driving the Ceilidh Trail. They’ve been producing whiskey since 2001 using all-Canadian ingredients including Cape Breton spring-fed water.

Up – Inverness beach. We stopped and enjoyed lunch in the van before taking a walk ‘down’ on the sand and pebble beach. The sunsets here must be lovely. Evidently a good place to find ‘sea glass’ but we didn’t find any ourselves.

Down – Parks Canada Park pass. Yep, still required even though park access is free as of June 19th for 3 months; however, we were told that the annual pass validity will be extended by 3 months to offset the 3 month free period this Summer, so is that an ‘Up’?

Up – The Cabot Trail, and I mean waaay up! (& down). The views today in a word were Spectacular! The Cabot Trail today was relatively quiet allowing us to slow ‘down’ and enjoy those views.

Up – Broad Cove campground. Nice level and open sites. So far a very peaceful place at which to end the day. The beach is also epic.

Down – The BBQ quick connect on our van is seized preventing the connection of our Blackstone griddle for outdoor cooking.

Up – I should be able to fix this tomorrow with a little WD40 (that I have to buy).

Down – Cape Breton Black Flies. Wow they’re thick and voracious chasing us into the van rather than enjoying the sunshine outdoors.

So… How many Ups & Downs was that? We had a great day and have really enjoyed our first day on Cape Breton. Looking forward to what tomorrow has in store for us.

In the wild. Appears to still be functional!

Day 02 – ‘I was expecting it to be bigger.’

This was the second time we had camped at https://campingpointerdl.ca/en/ and would highly recommend the campground for anyone passing through this area. The sites are clean and mostly level with decent hookups. The service buildings are brand new and thus well lit and clean. The showers are individual, spotless and rate a 10/10 (not exaggerating).

Our route out of town took us through the historical downtown of Rivière-de-loop before depositing us back onto the Trans-Canada Highway heading towards New Brunswick where we would spend a few hours heading South.

We stopped near Hartland, NB to visit the Covered Bridge Potato Chips location forgetting that it had burned to the ground in 2024. They have opened a temporary store in a trailer. Upon discovering this, Barb exclaimed “I was expecting it to be bigger!”

A few shots in and around Covered Bridge Store

We parked and went in to look around and ended up purchasing 4 bags of chips (crisps) in various flavors (as one does) before returning to the van where we enjoyed a grilled smoked meat sandwich accompanied by cheddar cheese chips. Mmmm.

2 more hours of highway driven and we stop for gas near Gagetown, NB. The middle of nowhere as I could not see any community nearby to support the business, but here it was busy and thriving.

Another stint of highway driving and we cross into Nova Scotia where we stopped at Masstown, NS for Fish & Chips.

Last driving leg today saw us drive to New Glasgow, NS where we have parked up for the night at the Atlantic Superstore (after confirming with store staff that this would be OK).

This ends our 2-day sprint to Canada’s East Coast. From here things will slow down considerably as we take our time exploring and sightseeing. Tomorrow we are heading to Cape Breton.

Day 01 – Heading Out

I didn’t sleep well last night, could be that I’m excited to get away for a bit or more likely that I’m getting over a man-cold and I gave in to the mad coughing fit at 4:30am. So, 5:00am I’m up and getting my day started with my usual morning routine of a light breakfast, a couple of online word puzzles and then some YouTube.

Of course, during this morning routine I somehow manage to fall asleep for an hour thus making up for lost sleep. Go figure.

By 9:00am we’re both showered and are putting together the last few items that need to be packed into the van. After 4 years of doing this we’re still amazed at just how much we can squirrel away in such a small space. I’m not sure we’ll find some of what we’ve packed, but it’s there if we need it.

We leave the laneway shortly before 10:00am and head towards Montreal, where we take Autoroute 30 around the south-side of the city and join Autoroute 20 heading East. No issues with traffic and after just 2 hours we’re clear of the city and on the country.

Spring is finally well and truly here with all of the trees now in leaf across the Eastern Townships of Québec. We stop at a rest stop briefly for some lunch and then continue on towards Levis.

When we left the house this morning the skies were grey and rain was imminent. However, by the time we get to Levis, the skies are clear and the sunshine is wonderful. 17-19°C is very comfortable.

After stopping briefly for gas ($1.839 CAD / liter) we complete our days driving by stopping at Rivière-du-Loup where we have a campsite reservation for the night.

The campsite overlooks the St Lawrence River and on clear days such as today has some of the most beautiful sunsets we’ve ever seen. I’ll drop a couple of photos below for you to check out.

Day 00 – Getting Ready

The 2026 travel season is upon us. We are on the final day of preparing for our journey to Newfoundland. Spring in Ontario has been cool and wet & today appears to be no different, we are hoping the weather becomes more Summer-like as we approach the East Coast.

We have already taken the van on a trip to visit family in Southern Ontario in early May and so know that it is all good to go. We made a few minor livability changes in the van for this year and so will see how those work out. The biggest change is a new foam mattress topper and custom fitted bottom sheet that should allow for better sleep, stay tuned for updates as the journey progresses.

Yesterday saw us pack most of the groceries and today will see us finish that task and then tackle clothing leaving only personal items and electronics to be packed tomorrow just ahead of our departure.

We have been planning this trip for a couple of years and now that we are on the eve of leaving our anticipation and excitement for what’s ahead is high. We’re looking forward to sharing with you what we discover along the way so come back in the upcoming days and weeks as we discover Newfoundland.