Day 4 - Wednesday, September 9: Moncton, New Brunswick to North Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Still getting used to the hour time difference, it sure felt like an early start. We headed 45 minutes across the border into Nova Scotia to the community of Amherst where we met up with our friend Nan at Breakfast at Brittney’s. Nan had left Toronto about 8 years earlier and has settled in quite nicely. It was so good to catch up with her. And she helped us adjust the seat belts in the Bronco so they were more comfortable for both of us.
We then carried on to North Sydney, about 4 1/2 hours from Amherst. We were careful to not stray too much this time, although did make stops at various Tim Hortons and gas stations along the way for bites to eat and to gas up. We were careful to take TransCanada Highway 105 to North Sydney to avoid washed out bridges and roads from the recent storm in Cape Breton Island that were more likely to be seen on the TCH 104 route.
The roads again were fairly quiet, although we encountered construction slow-downs periodically. Getting close to North Sydney we decided to top up the gas at an Irving station. Just as I was about to pump the gas the screen went blank. Someone had taken off with the gas nozzle still attached to the car which caused an automatic emergency shut-down of the whole system! We waited a bit but finally gave up and headed along. We found an Esso and gassed up there, along with others who had given up at the previous station.
In North Sydney we had our second AirBnB of the trip, a three-bedroom house hosted by Aaron. We had a little supper at The Miner’s Daughter, a lovely local restaurant. Then settled in to the B&B for the night.
