Welcome to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Baddeck, Canada

You didn’t hear from me yesterday because I had an awesome day visiting with family and friends in the Greater Halifax area.

I spent some great time with my nephew Bruce, his wife Carolyn and their two kids, Kate and Mid.

They took me on an “adventure” as Mid called it, to two different beaches, the rock one and the sand one. They were on the eastern shore, north of Dartmouth. Although the weather was bright, it was chilly so there were no thoughts of swimming, but there was some great rock throwing and exploring. After lunch back at home the family participated in a community event at the community centre right outside their back gate. It was great to get to know the kids a little and reconnect with Bruce and Carolyn.

Then it was off to my friends Gerald and Judy in New Ross to catch up on news and for a fabulous supper of, you got it, lobster! First off, though, was a great fiddlehead cream soup which Judy had prepared. Oh my goodness, was it awesome. One of the lobsters Gerald cooked seemed large enough to haul Gerald in to the pot when he wasn’t looking. Topped off by rhubarb pie, it was a delightful treat.

It was a late night but a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Tonight, I’ve arrived to my campsite near Baddeck, Cape Breton Island. Not a lot of pics today since it was pretty much a travel day and I got a late start.

P.S. for those interesting in the logistics side of my adventure…………

Wandering the country side with a cute little travel trailer is mostly awesome fun. But if I’m being completely honest, there have been some issues to be worked through as well on this shake down trip. First there was the situation with the hitch where I couldn’t get the safety cable on without help from my neighbouring camper. A lock that holds the ball on the hitch on the RV was interfering with me getting the hooks through the holes in the hitch. And then I couldn’t get if off that night when I landed at the campsite. There is enough play in the cable to get the trailer off the hitch and set up but I couldn’t actually leave the thing behind. So the next day it was in to an RV place to get them to take a look at what could be done and they fashioned a solution that has worked wonderfully.

In the last few days before arriving in Halifax I had smelled some whiffs of propane when outside the trailer and near the tank. I checked all the connections with soapy water and wasn’t able to find anything leaking. So I turned off the propane tank and didn’t use it while I was in Halifax and made an appointment with the local RV dealer, Fraserway RV.

They took a look at it for me first thing this morning and discovered my propane regulator was not working and needed to be replaced. So, that’s what they did. They had me on my merry way, with the new regulator and the propane system tested again by just after noon. I haven’t smelled propane again and have used the system for both the stove and water heater and nothing exploded so I think I’m all good.

Tomorrow may be a catch up day for domestic duties like laundry, etc.