I don’t know if it’s only Cape Bretoners and Newfoundlanders that feel that special feeling when they get the first glimpse of the places they call home, or if people from other regions experience it too. Maybe it has something to do with living on an island, or the history of the place, or something more intangible.
I have to apologise for my delay in finishing the roadtrip series. Since I returned home, I started a new job, and had a pile of work to do around the property to get caught up on. It’s given me a little bit of time to reflect on the trip, and life in general.
Headed East Near Quebec City
We arose the next morning around 7:00 to a frosty, clear day. The car fired up without issue – the MAF cleaning seemed to do the trick. The highways in Quebec were mostly excellent – recently resurfaced divided highway, with traffic being fairly light. There wasn’t much to see at first, but as the miles clicked by we started to get views of the St. Lawrence River, and the Laurentian Mountains beyond it.
Gorgeous Scenery along Autoroute 20
It must be beautiful to see in the summertime. There were low hills to the right of us, the mountains across the river on the left and farmland on the flat in the middle. You could see the little towns, each with their own church, quite clearly.
The interestingly-named Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha!…
Upon turning south, the highway started to get hilly again for the first time since Ontario. It is my understanding that this is mostly new road, as the old single-lane highway was quite dangerous. I’d heard lots of stories of people passing on the shoulder of the road in this section. There was still a bit of old highway still in place in this stretch, but they are working to replace it.
A big rock cut in New Brunswick
We crossed into New Brunswick, and stopped for lunch. After gassing up, we continued on. New Brunswick has managed to divide its Trans-Canada section, which made for a nice easy drive. The TCH follows the route of the Saint John River for a few hundred kilometers, very near the top of the valley for this particular section. I do have to say, this is my least favourite time of year – everything looks so dead…lots of browns and greys, and just waiting for the buds and leaves to appear on the trees. The contrast between Vancouver and the Maritimes is pretty apparent. We won’t get the green on the trees until around the beginning of June or so. That being said, the views along this stretch of highway are nice, even this time of year.
The Saint John River
As we headed southward beyond Fredericton, the provincial capital, the highway grew closer the river. This part of the Saint John River is well known for flooding, and before the divided highway was put through, the highway itself was known to flood over.
The Saint John River, Flooded near Jemseg, NB
The picture above shows the river flooded near the road. The old highway alignment is just beyond the trees, you can see how close the water is to the road surface. When they put in the new highway, they elevated it quite a bit to allow for this.
As the day went on, we stopped in Moncton to gas up and give the car a wash as a reward to it for working so well. We stopped at Cabela’s – the first time for Dad and George. They were amazed at the size and selection of hunting, fishing, camping – I think it covered all of the -ing’s. It was around 7:30 PM or so, and we decided to keep going until we got into Nova Scotia. Thankfully, it wasn’t that far.
Welcome to Nova Scotia!
It’s strange – Not all of the borders had signs welcoming visitors – New Brunswick and Alberta stick out in my mind – but Nova Scotia certainly does. It doesn’t show up well in this picture, but we have a lighthouse, and a billboard at our border. For years, we had a bagpiper play here in the summer to greet visitors to Nova Scotia, as a bit of acknowledgement to the Scottish heritage of the province. According to Trip Advisor, it appears to still be the case. We pulled off in Amherst for the night. We were only about 5 hours from home, but we didn’t want to take the chance when we had driven all day.
First sign of home!
We started out, excited to be on the home stretch. We soon got the first indication we were getting close, with Cape Breton Island being 221 KM/137 MI away. The driving would be mostly good, but the divided highway would end in Sutherland’s River. There’s only one more stretch of divided highway, through Antigonish. The government has been slowly twinning the highway in the province, but I doubt I will ever see the Trans-Canada twinned here in my lifetime.
The Canso Causeway, from the air on the way out west…
We arrived at the Canso Causeway. Built in 1955 to connect mainland Nova Scotia to Cape Breton Island, it replaced the rail and car ferries that serviced the island previously. Anyone that calls themselves a Caper is always happy to see the arch pictured at the top of the page, and be back on home soil on the other side of the swing bridge. Once on Cape Breton, we had a choice to make – the Trans Canada- Highway 105, or the shorter, narrower 104 and Route 4. we decided to take the shorter of two routes to get home. We ended up surprising my daughter by picking her up at school, and continued home.
Home, and in one piece, too!
We were all pretty happy to make it to Sydney in one piece, and with no real issues, either. For the last leg of the trip, we:
Travelled 1438 KM, and burned 151 litres of fuel, which worked out to an average of 10.5 Litres/100 KM, or 22.5 MPG. Pretty darn good, given we were travelling at 110-115 KM/H most of the time. Overall, we travelled 6335 KM, burned 639 Litres of fuel at a cost of $665.93, at an average of 10.14 litres per hundred kilometers. Converted, it works out to 3936 miles, 168.8 US gallons/140.5 Imperial gallons, 23.2 US MPG/28 Imperial MPG. The average hotel room was about $115 taxes included, with the cheapest being the Accent Inn in Richmond, BC at $71 dollars taxes in, and, oddly enough, the most expensive was the Comfort Inn in Amherst, NS at $160 taxes in. Hotels worked out to around $800. Plane ticket was around $800 as well. I spent $350 for the alternator, $300 for tools and miscellaneous items. I think including everything, including registration once I got home (and paying 10 percent Nova Scotia sales tax on top of paying BC and Federal tax), it came out to around $6000.
Well, I’ve been home for three weeks now, and I’ve had some time to reflect on the whole trip. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely. Do I regret not seeing more? Yeah, I do. I wish I had taken some time to see more of the country. But the reality of it was that we really didn’t have that much time to explore…we only had about three extra days to play with before he had to get back to work.
The car was great. I intend to do a proper review of it – to give it the due it deserves after effortlessly transporting us cross-country. And no-one was sore after a 12 hour day in it!
Thanks, everyone for the positive comments! It was a real confidence booster in my skills as a writer, and I sincerely appreciate it. Any questions at all – I will do my best to answer them in the comments!
That was a great series and you live in a beautiful part of the continent! Thanks for sharing and I hope you enjoy the car for many years to come. Looking forward to a review down the road sometime…Thank You!
+1 on that. Great series,.
Glad you guys enjoyed it – it was a lot of fun to do. I hope to write a review of the car in the next week or so. I want to get some nice shots of the car, but the weather has to co-operate first.
I will echo Jim Klein. I really enjoyed reading about your experience. You have whetted my appetite for a cross-country drive (although I’m not sure that the Mrs. is quite there. 🙂 ).
Also, I had not wanted to be premature, but now that you have successfully completed the trip, I think that you are fully initiated into the Panther Fan Club. These cars have their drawbacks (mainly in space utilization), but for the kind of driving you did, it is hard to find anything better, especially for the money.
I look forward to reading your impressions from one with no real background in these cars, followed by extensive wheel time.
I’m glad you enjoyed it – that was my intention. Hopefully you will be able to do one too – and in the US you have so many options to go to. Here. it seems like you have to drive for a day to get out of the Maritimes.
I don’t think we could have gotten a better car either. There wasn’t a lot to really pick apart about the car – the driver’s seat foam was worn out and there is a definite crown to the seat if you weren’t in there just right. The transmission wasn’t awesome – it reminded me of the old AOD. It worked OK – but the shift points were really too early. That was about it, really.
Thoroughly enjoyed the series and the drive across the Great White North!
Thank you!
A great conclusion to a great series. As I recall the NS highway was very well made, with minimal traffic and fencing to keep the moose off the highway. All those miles and kilometers of trees, and empty highway, and fences.
Now that you’re home, did you actually plate the car in BC or did you put your NS plate on it and hope to not attract attention?
That sounds like New Brunswick with the moose fencing and gates. Nova Scotia really doesn’t have much trouble with moose, other than northern Cape Breton. The scenery through NS is mostly pretty, and I came through it at the worst time of the year for it.
I was going to try getting a temporary plate in BC, but it it was going to be around $400 for 10 days. I’d had insurance – and brought my plate off my Cabrio – so I figured I’d take a chance, and be a good boy and not attract attention. It worked, and made it home in one piece. Not sure if it was 100% legal, but it worked.
I doubt it was legal, but who is going to pull over a sanely driven CV with three respectable looking people in it?
Yes, I meant New Brunswick. NB not NS. Typical Ontario guy mistake 🙂
Thanks for taking us along on this trip! 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it!!
That was a beautiful adventure, Marc. It’s inspiring. My wife sometimes talks about a trip to Alaska. She even mentioned a motorcycle in that connection. The motorcycle will not happen, but I can imagine doing a similar CC job as you did. It will be a few years down the road but I will keep your cross Canada trip in mind.
Thanks!
Absolutely do it! I think that’d be a lovely trip. If I were independently wealthy, we’d hit the road and travel all the time. And I can recommend a Panther to do it in.
Really cool adventure. Love that vehicle/train bridge in the first pic too! Those are getting rather scarce these days.
Oh, it’s famous – you cross that bridge, and you’re back on the Island. It’ll be there for years to come. It’s the gateway to Cape Breton!
Thanks for the great story. As a Halifax-to-Vancouver transplant who did the same drive in reverse many years ago, your story brought back a lot of good memories. And it seems you picked an excellent car for the trip – congratulations!
I totally identify with your observation about ‘late springs’ in the Maritimes – that last-gasp-of-winter snowfall in April seems to happen every year, regardless of how mild the winter might have been. Damn Labrador Current :-).
It’s still gross here. Three degrees and rainy. Makes me want to move to BC…
Glad to hear the trip went so well and the car proved to be a keeper.
As a several-times visitor to Cape Breton Island, I have really enjoyed the place…especially since I visited in lobster season! I do regret that the passenger train…actually a self-propelled Budd Rail Diesel Car…no,longer operates, and that even the freight railroad itself is calling it quits.
On one trip, the Thrifty Car Rental affilate in Sydney, a used car dealer, didn’t have any rentals available, even though I had a reservation. Instead they offered an eight-year old junker of a Chevrolet with fading paint and apparently a failed head gasket or cracked head or block…the oil looked like chocolate milk. But they let me “rent” it for free…and just park it at the train station on tne morning I left. Under those conditions, it was “drive it like you stole it.” But I did get a fine photo of the daily passenger train on the Canso Causeway, stopping off as I drove around the whole island. Can’t do that any more.
It’s been years since the passenger train ran. The railroad itself is in bad shape – it hasn’t maintained much in the past 30 years or so. Glad you enjoyed your trips to the island. The fall is the best time to come.
I really enjoyed reading your posts of this trip. I’ve mentioned before that I have a dream to do one of my own someday. Fly out to Ca, buy a ride from One Owner Car Guy and drive it back to Ga. As someone from the south, I don’t know anything about the route you took. Is there anyway you could post a map highlighting the route you drove?
I’ve seen his videos – he’s had a nice selection over the years. You’d probably have your selection of roads and highways to take to get home too.
As for my trip, here is a screenshot:
Great series, really enjoyed it. Glad you made it home safe. I think most people like to see their “home” again, even if it isn’t home anymore. I still get that special feeling when I return to the Okanagan Valley where I grew up, even though I wouldn’t return permanently for Love nor Money.
I bet you have plenty of ideas for your next vacation after seeing the country!
Oh, I’d love to go back to BC, I think I’d need a month to see it. What was the issue with the Okanagan – I thought it was great – though I didn’t spend any time there, really. Most likely it’ll be touring around Quebec for the next road trip. It was lovely.
Interesting to ‘see’ the trip, no doubt you have noted a few sights for a return visit. It has been a while since I’ve done a decent road trip, I’ll have to change that.
Love traveling in Canada although I don’t mean to sound like we do it frequently. Two years ago we flew to Portland and rented a car. We drove to Cape Breton and explored the island for a week from a hotel room in Ingonish.
Absolutely beautiful. Enjoyed the series and the pictures. Think you got a good car for the long haul. Looking forward to hearing about it down the road.
I assume that was Portland, Maine, not Oregon?
Yup
Were you at the Keltic Lodge? It’s nice.
knotty pines at ingonish ferry. Nice couple run it and used it as a base of operations. If you are on fb send a pm to Lee Wilcox and I’ll send you a link. Paul also has my email if you prefer that to fb. Love the maritimes.
I enjoyed the series, Marc.
Glad ya liked it!
Terrific series and a great car to boot!
At some point in their lives everyone needs to take a trip like this. I’ve been fortunate to have done so twice – from Cape Girardeau, MO, to Vancouver, BC in 1995, and Hannibal, MO, to Bend, Oregon in 2010. There is nothing quite like it.
Since CV’s never really wear out, you are all set to do another transcontinental trip in a few years. Next time you’ll have to take your daughter.
We definitely will. She enjoys the driving as much as we do.
Marc, I’ve really enjoyed reading this series of articles — I’ve enjoyed reading about the car, the roads and the scenery. Thanks for sharing.
I took a cross-continent trip with my father when I was 16 – I loved it so much, and swore that I’d make another trip as soon as I possibly could. That was over 25 years ago, and I still haven’t repeated it! I heartily encourage anyone who can possibly do so, to undertake that kind of trip.
Glad ya enjoyed it. I’d hoped everyone would. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to write well enough to keep everyone’s attention.
Don’t sell yourself short on this; you do indeed write quite well.
Great articles!
It’s funny about the signs of home – driving from Burlington, VT to Albany, it’s a long way to Albany. Coming back from the NYC area Albany feels like almost home – it’s where you cash out of the Thruway and I-87 continues north as the toll-free Adirondack Northway, a couple exits north is Gansevoort which is the last Dutch placename you’ll see before they give way to French ones, and just north of Albany you can start picking up Vermont Public Radio.
I know what you mean. Here there are a wide variety of place names based on who had settled the areas – Scottish, French, English, Mi’kmaq – depending on where you go on the island.
Great series Marc. I enjoyed reading about your adventure.
Not many live where it snows here in Australia. I’m travelling (work) to Toronto for a few days in about two weeks, but I guess the snow will be well gone by then.
Glad you enjoyed it. I would like to visit Australia some day. As for Toronto (Trawna), they’ll be well into spring there now I would say. It’s in the mid to high teens now as far as temperature goes.
Having driven Calgary – Newfoundland and back in 7-1/2 weeks, I can honestly say that it’s just not possible to take enough time to see this country of ours. There’s too much of it. But these trips are still so worth doing. I don’t regret ours for a second, and there’s not a week goes by when my kids remember “something” we did or saw.
Great series. Thanks for bringing us along.
That’d be a crazy trip to do! Newfoundland is a different kind of beautiful altogether…the scenery, the people, everything…My wife and I were there before we got married around 10 years ago (in a ’72 Coronet) and can’t wait to go back.
Glad you enjoyed the travelogue.
Thanks for the story, enjoyed reading it.
Thanks!
Enjoyed the series and hope to get out to the Maritimes with my wife in the near future. I’ve heard a lot about Cape Breton (all good) and would try to include it if and when we go out that way.
I’d love to drive from Edmonton to St. John’s, but my wife would likely insist we fly, then drive.
Please come out – It’s a great place to visit, and October is probably the most beautiful time of year. Cape Breton, PEI, and Newfoundland are my personal favourites.
You’d need a week or more to see Newfoundland alone.
Thanks for sharing your driving experience, Marc!
I have traveled in Canada a bit different. In 2014 I’ve become a Canadian citizen and I wanted to see our beautiful country. But I did it in a different way than you.
In May or that year I flew to BC, rented a car and explored GVRD and Vancouver island. When I was leaving Ontario, it was still no leafs on trees, but everything was blooming in BC. I returned just before Victoria Day weekend and Spring has come to Ontario.
Last week of May I flew in to NL. What a difference! It was only +3°C and has been raining for 3 days. At first rental company tried to set me up with Ford Focus, but I’ve requested a truck. After much BS they reluctuntly gave me an EcoBoost F-150 4×4. I traveled across Newfoundland and took a ferry on June 4 to go to Labrador. We had to wait for an icebreaker (in June!) to cross to mainland. The Labrador higway is about 620 km and only about 60 km paved. No gas/service stations along the higway after paved section ends! I’ve made it to Goose Bay with trip computer showing 28 km till empty. Talk about range anxiety! The next day I drove to Labrador city and back (about 530 km each way, with 50 km of unpaved road somwhere in the middle, where I got a flat tire). On the return trip from Goose Bay to Blanc Sablon, less than 80 km until arrival, I had a second flat tire and no cell signal. But it’s true that people there are great. A stranger gave me his spare, so I could get back. Since it was Friday and everything was closed, he phoned his BIL who put 3 big plugs into the tire, so I could return a spare and get back on the ferry the next morning. Both of them refused to take any money from me. 40 km into my trip on the Newfoundland side my tire blew up. I had to wait 5 hours for the roadside assistance. When I got towed into garage, I phoned roadside assistance and demanded that both of flat tires were replaced, as I had about 1,000 km trip to St. John’s to return the rental. In 10 days I drove close to 6,300 km and got towed for 85 km. Upon my arrival to St. John’s Spring had arrived as well.
Than in July I flew to BC again, drove to the very North of Vancouver island and than fron Vancouver drove all the way to Prince Rupert where I took a 7 hours ferry ride to Haida Gwaii. I arrived to see a native festival, drove to Masset and after another ferry ride to Sandspit.
In October I went to explore Alberta and Saskatchewan. Got back to Ontario to take care of some business.
And last week of October – early November I wend back to BC to visit Tofino, Ucluelet and stay at Williams Lake by passing thru Kelowna on the way there and via Whistler on the way back.
And I went back to BC to see arrival of Spring this March (2016) and to visit my friends on Easter week this year.
Marc, did you get to see world largest truck in Sparwood, BC? I stoped there when I was last time in Alberta.
I really enjoyed reading about your journey Marc. It makes me want to see more of our great country. I don’t know if you’ve heard this, the Canadian version of “I’ve Been Everywhere”.