Full trip report, as requested.
Day 1) Swung down into Delaware to finish my interstate clinches there and then essentially took I-95->I-91 to Canada. I-95 through New York was congested as I thought it would be, but I was kind of surprised how congested I-95 was in Connecticut. Considering it feels like you're in a rural area, it was fairly stop and go without any real reason why. One thing I definitely noticed from a driving perspective is how bad the left lane hogs were in NJ/NY/CT. People would have a lineup of 10 cars behind them and not have a care in the world. The middle lane was normally the "fast lane". Unfortunately it was dark by the time I got into Vermont so I missed some scenery there, but I knew I wouldn't be without good scenery for the rest of the trip. North of White River Junction, I only saw one other car going northbound on I-91, which was kind of eerie. Stopping at the border was a quick affair with my ArriveCan already sorted and I had received both of my Covid test results that morning. Almost no traffic on A-55, and then not too much on the other autoroutes into Drummondville.
Day 2) Super pretty drive the whole way. The colors on the trees were pretty neon all the way from Quebec to Halifax. I really enjoyed the scenery especially in western New Brunswick where it was quite hilly. Entrance into New Brunswick was pretty short and sweet having already done the pre-registration. In and out of the checkpoint in maybe 3-4 minutes. It was nice having the 110 km/h speed limits after only having 100 km/h in Quebec. Stopped for lunch in Perth-Andover, a cute little town right on the St. John River. I was somewhat surprised with just how removed the TCH was from the city centers of the towns in NB. Didn't end up seeing much of Fredericton nor Moncton, although I drove through downtown Moncton on the way back. The stop at the Nova Scotia border was equally as quick as the New Brunswick stop. Made it to my hotel in Dartmouth in pretty quick time, but you could definitely tell how much the traffic picked up once I got on NS-102 down towards Halifax, given that Halifax is pretty much the only large town in all of Atlantic Canada.\
Day 3) I decided to use another day off of work (since the internet at the Courtyard I stayed at was abysmal) and realized I could make it out to Burntcoat Head Park during low tide. I still had some road clinching to do, so I knocked out all of the 100-series stuff around Halifax and a little side trip out to Sambro. Headed back up to Burntcoat Head, snapped off the obligatory pics, with some really nice driving on NS-215. Then I headed south to Digby to eat some scallops, all the way down to Yarmouth so I could check out Cape Forchu Lighthouse, and then swung all the way back around to crash in Lunenburg. My hotel was basically attached to Shipwright Brewery, so that was awesome.
Day 4) Cape Breton day. Got out bright and early headed up to Sydney. The drive along Bras d'Or was really nice. Sydney seemed really crowded for a city of its size, with fairly substantial traffic on Trunk 4 through town. Swung back around to get to North Sydney and check out the ferry operations a little bit from afar, since I wasn't heading to Newfoundland on this trip. Then kept going west and turned up onto the Cabot Trail. Even before you get there, TCH-105 is really nice new New Harris. The Cabot Trail was everything I thought it would be with the colors and the fun drive. Not overly crowded, which I was thankful for. It was starting to get some of the marine layer clouds, so I was worried my views wouldn't be great, but there were pockets where I could get some good photos for the wife. I did park and do the Skyline hike. It was pretty misty in the forest, but it was a really nice hike. I got up to a group of tourists that were hiking and they all had stopped to take photos of some animal life. I saw a female moose up ahead and took a pic from about 500' away, but then saw a calf not too far away from her, and told the other (somewhat clueless folks that kept trying to get closer) that it wouldn't be a wise idea to crowd her. Hopefully they moved on soon thereafter. The final platform had some pretty nice views once I got down to the bottom where I could see below the clouds. Sadly no sunset pics despite me being there at sunset, but that's okay. I stayed in Cheticamp and they ended up having a fiddling concert at the Doryman which was awesome. The crowd was largely 25+ years older than me, but it was nice seeing something that was more local and less touristy.
Day 5) Headed over to the Wood Islands Ferry. I wasn't quite sure how early I should be there to make sure I got on, but even though I was there 90 minutes early or so, I ended up chatting with a group of Newfoundlanders behind me that were heading over to PEI for some goose hunting. Once they code switched into English I could understand (they were speaking full "Newfie" to themselves), super interesting conversation. The drive in PEI was great. I ended up doing my crazy routing to get all of my route numbers and I ended up on some provincial highways that were a little bit challenging for my Hyundai that I rented. I figured there would be some gravel roads, but there were some dirt roads with tons of ruts that I would have loved to have had my Wrangler on. (The two dirt road pics below are PE204 and PE259 respectively). Ended up in C'Town where I wanted to buy some souvenirs for my wife, but everything along the waterfront was pretty much already closed by 5:00 PM which was a bummer. I had some great oysters and went and grabbed a couple of beers at Churchill Arms.
Day 6) Back into the U.S. A couple more random PEI roads to drive and then took the bridge back into New Brunswick. Decided to do a little county clinching and visit Saint John instead of just taking the TCH back. The drive on NB-7 heading northbound out of Saint John was among the prettiest drives I went on for the whole trip. Took NB95 back to the U.S. border and the crossing there took the longest of all of those that I went through. I think that was mostly just because the border agent was bored. Considering it's not the busiest crossing normally, and that Canadians can't use it, it must be a pretty boring existence. There was more traffic on I-95 in Northern Maine than I thought there would be, and made one little side trip to clinch Piscataquis County and crashed in Bangor for the night. Asked for a recommendation of somewhere to eat that would be open late enough to watch some of the football game and was only recommended chain restaurant crap. Headed downtown and found a little dive bar, but the staff was more interested in talking to themselves than any of their guests, so I left after having had an empty glass for 10 minutes at the bar with no one noticing.
Day 7) My New England adventure. Drove a bunch of back roads to hit all of the Maine counties and the drive up to Jay and then down to Fryeburg was really nice. Stopped for lunch in Fryeburg at the 302 Smokehouse and had the best clams I've ever had. I walked around a little bit there and then a bit in North Canton, NH as well and really liked the area. Kept going up US302 and took some of my favorite pics of the whole trip. Wandered my way back over to St. Johnsbury so I could get I-93 clinched. The drive through Franconia Notch was really cool and I said a silent RIP to the Old Man of the Mountain. Cut across I-495 in MA to get back to I-95 heading to Portland for the night. I had intended to meet up with AARoads member 1, but unfortunately my dilly-dallying led to me not getting down to his area until far too late since I had dinner plans with a buddy in Portland at 8:00. Grabbed a beer and some lobster rolls downtown and watched some of the Red Sox game before heading back to the hotel.
Day 8) I had decided that since I had to have my rental car back at 5:00 for my 7:00 flight in Philly, I better err on the side of caution and leave really early to make sure I didn't get stuck in some weird traffic. I also decided to avoid NYC since even if I went a longer way, it would be more predictable than driving through the Megalopolis. Skirted Boston and then took the MassPike over to Albany, hit up some of the 3dis on the way, and then I clinched I-88 which was one of the few 2dis I hadn't been on prior to the trip. Took I-81 to I-476 all the way down to Philly, and then since I had extra time, decided to get all of the Philly area 3dis clinched before I headed back to the airport.
Select photos:
Chris