Saturday, July 23, 2016

Thoughts about Full Time Life, and going to Nova Scotia

This post is being published from a Tim Horton's Coffee Shop. Great coffee, good donuts, and free Wifi.  Yay Canada!

We took the ferry over to Nova Scotia from Prince Edward Island on Thursday, and then drove almost 200 miles to a campground in Baddeck, NS.  The day was long, but we managed with few difficulties.


Our Friday adventure was to drive the 186km loop called the Cabot Trail. Although there were long stretches of just forest or farmland on both sides of the road, the vista points overlooking the rugged coastline were breathtaking.




The pictures in this post are from our drive around the loop. They speak for themselves.


Cabot Trail - St. Lawrence Bay

Recently someone commented on how far we had come since the beginning of my blog. Not just in distance, but in experiences, and they suggested I write about how we felt about it all.

Well, in a nutshell, we both are very happy that we made this choice in our lives. It is coming up on three years since we put the house on the market and moved into the Alfa. I for one have never regretted that move, and I don’t think Craig has either.


Water on the rocks, Cabot Trail

Has everything always been wonderful? No. But then who can say that about a three year period in their lives? All I can say is that we have had ten times more good days than bad. The technical problems and trip planning have stimulated our minds in a way no house-bound retirement existence could. (Occasional grinding noises.)  We have both discovered much about material things that we don’t need, but at the same time how important small personal touches can be.



Home is where you park it!  When the slides go out and the levelers go down, we are home. We like having our own familiar bed each night, and being able to cook most of our own meals in our own kitchen.


Cabot Trail - Green Cove, the farthest East we have been in our RV (60 W)

Our marriage? Nothing is perfect. We are not perfect. I would say that living in an RV, 100% of the time, concentrates everything. We are both far more aware of the other's moods and feelings. Although we may be quicker to get pissed about something, the anger dies down much faster than if we had more space. Who would have thought that after fifty years we would both have to still work at it? But we do, and so far it is working more often than not. I’m happy when he is happy, and he is happy when I’m happy. What more can you ask from life?


As beautiful as it is, like our marriage, the Cabot Trail is always being repaired!

A funny thing happened to me at a gas station in Whycocomagh, NS: Craig was driving the Alfa, and as is our routine, I hopped out when he pulled into the station to verify where the diesel pump was and to guide him in.  There were other cars at the pump, so I was just waiting our turn when gentleman in a red shirt, who was filling up at the other side of the pump island, said: “I’m glad you enjoyed the Hopewell Rocks.”  What? Who was he? I quickly ran through my memory of people I had met in recent parks and at the Rocks, and came up empty. I did not recognize him, so I asked: “Who are you?”


His name was Wayne. He explained he had read my blog, and knew Al from Bayfield!  Wow, small world!  What are the odds that I would meet someone who had read my blog, at a gas station in Nova Scotia?  Small world.  Love it!

Have you met friends you have never met before?

12 comments:

  1. Funny thing is that just today, I was thinking about asking you the same question you're responding to. After these last few years, what's it like, generally speaking, to live in what you drive. To travel with your home.

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  2. And yes, on my recent visa run to Bangkok, I was introduced to a friend of a friend. He knew ho I was from my blogging at Ajarn.com. Then there was the time in Washington when I walked into an open mic for the first time and was greeted by the doorman with "you're Joko, aren't you?" The ukulele community in Seattle is small..

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  3. Well that really has me scratching my head here now as to who Wayne could be.

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  4. You have described our lives perfectly! Actually, John and I have become much more close.

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  5. What great posting, fulltiming, stimulation of the sense, and meeting people, We have run into so many people in our 10 years on the road, that have read our blog that we did not know about. And emails from people that we have never met as of yet.
    Continue on your travels and enjoy more of the Maritimes, it is a different world there.
    Safe travels.

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  6. Loving the pictures of the Cabot Trail. We've been meeting a lot of fellow RVers/bloggers in Custer. Helps to be in a popular area.

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  7. A fine overview of what life is like crammed together. I think working hard at our relationships is a good thing - coasting lets the troubles build up.

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  8. We ran into a blogger that we follow yesterday here in Idaho. You are so right about the good of full timing. Mike mentions more frequently now that we have less space, that I don't put the lid on things right more frequently now. I am working on it.

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  9. We are in Alaska. A few weeks ago while in Seward our little dog got very sick, the vet was on vacation, so we drove over to Soldotna where the vets at the Soldotna Animal Hospital saved our dogs live. However, in the early stages (she was in hospital for three nights) I wrote a blog, "Pray for Skruffy PLEASE". After 2+ weeks and she was finally better I wrote another blog "Skruffy's last bark?" where I go through the memories I was having because I thought she was dying, but ended the blog with "Last Bark? Nope, many more barks to come!".

    Fast forward to a few days ago when we pulled into Haines. Get a knock on our open front door. "Hello, you don't know me, but I know this little doggie here...I have prayed and prayed for it! And when you wrote that blog about her last breathes...I could have hit you because I cried and cried thinking she was dead!" It was Pat and Ron and their dog Murphy, and come to find out, they live 30 miles away from our condo in Florida! They don't blog, but Pat had found our blog because they were researching places in Alaska. Come to find out that we passed each other a few times on the Alaska Highway seven weeks ago too! --Dave GoingRvWay.com

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  10. Hope you enjoy Nova Scotia. My birth place, and I still have relatives in the Annapolis Valley and over on the shore. Campgrounds are a bit pricey, but at least the (mostly) friendly folk make up for it. Have fun!

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    1. Actually I have found Campgrounds to be in the same price range as the ones on the East Coast. I have used my Passport America for a few nights, and Good Sam Discount at a few others. Haven't been to any really luxurious ones though. We tend to find the cheap and simple.

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  11. Full-time RV'ng is great for us too

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