Road Trip: Nova Scotia April 2017

Road Trip: Nova Scotia April 2017

Road Trip- Nova Scotia April 2017

At the end of April, we went on a road trip.  We crossed the border from New Brunswick into Nova Scotia.  The plan was to visit with family.  When we finally had the car packed, and hit the road, I decided to take some pics along the way, and write a story about our trip.  We hadn’t gone on a road trip in a little more than 2 years, and I had gone long past the get out of the city stage.  I managed very well in those 2 years, but I enjoy travelling to see friends and family, whenever I can.

We stopped for gas just outside of Fredericton, where we live.  Snacks are necessary for road trips, as well as beverages.  A pit stop is also necessary before any road trip.  While there, I took a pic of the giant sized road sign of a familiar sight in the area.

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Moose Warning Sign. A full grown moose can total a car. It is best to avoid them if seen on the road. The trick is to see them before they cause an accident. Hence the signs.

This gave me an idea.  I would take pictures in the car as we travelled.  It is a harder thing to do than you think it is.  I was a passenger, but our trip was filled with highway driving, and a lot of missed opportunities were not able to be captured by my camera as we drove along.

I decided that I would focus on the different signs along the road, to document where we were going, and provide pics for the story.  We didn’t slow down for this.  Except for the last pic, which was a near miss itself.

We stopped in Moncton.  I wanted a coffee.  We got one here.

For a great cup of coffee in Moncton, we stopped in here.

We then drove until we crossed the border.  The first part of our trip was to make it to Nova Scotia.

At the Nova Scotia Border

Welcome to Nova Scotia, photobombed by me!

Before the NS border, there is an unusual warning sign.

Nova Scotia Border Sign about Honeybees

Honeybee Warning Sign. I wonder if they can check all the flybys?

Can you imagine bees flying to an office to check and see if they have the proper documentation to enter Nova Scotia?  They would need Bee-cases!

We were going to Truro, first.  It is between 3 and 4 hours to drive from Fredericton to Truro.  We had dinner with family and friends, and we all went back to swim in the hotel pool.  The pool was COLD.  The Hot Tub was WARM.  It tired us all out.

We spent the next morning with our friends.  We then saw our family again and spent the afternoon playing Munchkin the Board Game.  We played twice, and I had so much fun, I forgot to take any pictures of the game.  We had a potluck supper, I had made a Greek Pasta Salad with Chicken before we left Friday, and had it on ice or in fridges the whole time.  Everybody liked it, and we had some before on the road trip…with my cup of coffee in Moncton, actually, and had some left over that we took with us.  We hit the road again after supper.

Then we were off to  Dartmouth Crossing, an hour past Truro.  We checked into our second hotel room that weekend.  I was too tired to go swimming again, so we watched TV and went to sleep.  The next morning we had to get ready for a busy day.  We were going to see my husband’s Grandmother who is 108 years old!  She will be 109 in July.  She still lives in her own apartment, in the same building as Roy’s father.  We were all going to get together for lunch.

Restaurant where we had lunch with Nanny Webber, Roy's father, and his friend.

There are 2 signs here. The restaurant where we ate lunch at is to the far left of that building in the background, so the sign for it is here, and also a road sign near the place where Nanny Webber and her son, Roy’s father, Roland live. His friend Gloria lives there too, and she also joined us for lunch.

 

We met at Nanny Webber’s apartment, had a chat, and picked a place for lunch.  We moved the party.  We had lunch.  Two comical things I noticed.  Roy and Nanny Webber both ordered cheeseburger platters.  She didn’t eat all of her fries, as she told me sometimes she fills up too much on potatoes.  But she saw the lemon meringue pie, and wanted a piece, but not a full slice.  I told her Roy could eat the other half.  So they shared a slice of lemon meringue pie.  Another funny observation I made, neither one of them ate the meringue!

We then went back to the apartment, where I took this pic of the 3 Webbers together.

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Roland, Florence, and Roy Webber, l-r

We then said our goodbyes, after promising to try to get back for her birthday in July.  We will try.

One last stop before we headed home was at a fish store.  Roy is setting up a new fish tank, a 75 gallon.  He has been working on making decorations, and there is a theme.  There will be a blog about that when he is finished.  He wanted to get some live plants.  It is a freshwater aquarium.  We got a few fish too.  All the plants and fish survived the five-hour drive to get home.  They are all thriving in their new home with us.

Fish Store

Neat little aquarium themed fish store

We drove home after we finished up our purchases at this store.  It was a straightforward drive, with a few snack stops.  One last sign I want to share with you if you are ever travelling in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia.  There are lots of signs like the moose sign I posted above.  The other kind warns of places where deer like to cross the road.

Deer Crossing Sign

Deer Crossing Sign

Before I finish, I talked about the giggles we had on this trip.  I missed so many good pics because the camera was off or it was too slow to focus.   We had a wonderful trip and looking back, I wouldn’t change much about the visits we had.  I also snapped this last photo out of the back window of the moving car.  It is of an Inukshuk, an Inuit symbol for others to know that they had been at that place. So someone had been there before, and now you know that we were there too.

Inukshuk in Nova Scotia

The Inukshuk pic, taken through the back window of our moving car.

 

I said it before in another post, but it is relevant to this post also. Hindsight is 20/20, eh?

The Three Finger Salute

The Three Finger Salute

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Today’s Tish-ism was inspired by bad drivers.  I have now used this salute 3 times, therefore I am calling it a thing.

I work in a mall.  One of the street exits for this mall opens out from the parking lot with a 3-way stop sign. The rules are, cars proceed after completing a stop in the order the cars stop in.  So if I stop first, I go next.  If all 3 stop signs have cars that have stopped at exactly the same time, they figure it out themselves.

Today was the third time someone jumped the line and took their turn before it was legally their turn to go.  It is this very action that has started my Three Finger Salute.  If you meet me at a 3-way stop sign, and I have stopped before you, and you go before you are supposed to, you will see a very pissed off driver, following you through her windshield and driver’s side window, with my 3 fingers being pointed at you.

So today, I used this gesture.  To the guy driving that red pick-up truck, You broke the rules of the road today.  The other person you cut off was also displaying an angry face when I drove by him.  There is no excuse for not waiting your turn.  I almost ran into your truck because it was LEGALLY my turn to proceed.

We are all familiar with flipping the bird, or giving someone the freeway salute, as it is also known.  This is where my title came from.  I encourage you all to express your road rage in this manner, when appropriate.  Like I said, now it is a thing.  At the very least it might confuse the offender, maybe even enough to figure out what just happened.  More people learning how to drive properly has to start somewhere.  This is where I am taking my stand.

Please note:  Learn how to properly use your blinking signals.  I DO know when and how to use my beeping horn.  Learn how to drive properly, and I won’t have to.