Our View From The Road

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.

Days 10 & 11: Homeward Bound

Thursday saw us drive into Southern Ontario and over towards the Lake Huron coast. We stopped in Mildmay at Pickled and Baked Foods to pick-up a couple of baked pies and tarts for dinner. We then drove on to Bayfield where we stopped for lunch at the Woodland Drive-In before ending our day in South Huron with family where we stayed for dinner and camped overnight.

Friday was our last day. The day started early with a coffee and some toast before saying our goodbyes and heading back out onto the road one last time. Our visit had been brief but very enjoyable, we hope to be back again soon.

We headed East towards Oxford County where we had a package to be dropped off at my brother’s home. We topped off with fuel at a gas station near Hwy 401 before tackling Friday traffic into ‘the big smoke’ (Toronto, ON). Due to volume we decided to take the Hwy 7 ETR across the city and then rejoin Hwy 401 East of the worst traffic. Always a relaxing drive when compared to Hwy 401 albeit an expense that I despise.

Traffic heading East out of Toronto on this Friday was heavy but it moved steadily resulting in us arriving in Prescott, ON at 3:00pm where we dumped our waste tanks one last time. The Canadian Tire at Prescott offers this as a service; however, it is now $25 which will make me think twice about using it again.

We drive North on Hwy 416 to our destination where we stop to fill up with fuel one last time before heading home. We’d made it!

Our trip odometer showing the total of 10,527.2km over 124hrs 34min

The remainder of the day was spent unloading the van and returning to living in our home. I shall attempt to wash the van of all accumulated road detritus sometime in the next few days. For now, we’ve earned a rest I believe.

Thanks for following along with us on our journey. Check back again as we’re starting to plan the next one.