Vancouver to Nova Scotia

Hi,
finally I ended up in Halifax/Dartmouth and got a job at http://www.royaleprint.com/.
I also found a basement suite in Dartmouth in a quiet area. I hope I can move in to it at 15th November. It's in a complete new build house which isn't finished yet.



I will have the whole lower floor for myself.
It's the house of Richards mum. Richards house is the the neighbour house on the left. He moved from Vancouver in March to Halifax and builded his house.
I stayed the first days at his place and I am still there quite often for having some beers together.

I also uploaded some more pics on the album page.


My Hotel in PEI


Bridge from Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick


Indian summer in Dartmouth. It comes not that good over in the pics. In real it looks away nicer.

von holger-ahr um 16:33 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

This will be here my last report for the next time. You can check out here in a couple of weeks again and I might write some news here whats up.

-All together I drove 7370 kilometers.
-I used between 18 and 20 liter of gas at 100km average cause the heavy trailer. Without   it  would be 13 to 15 liter.
-I didn't need to fill up any oil. Looks like Scott did a good job when he rebuild the engine. The engine did have only 3700 kilometers on it when I started my trip. Now it has 11000 on it. It is the small V8 4.6 liter /230hp. Just sometimes on the big long hills I wished I have bought bigger the 5.4 liter. But usually I was able to keep 100km/h with shifting down at the hills.
I will write later how much I spent on gas when I see the credit card bill.

The route is highlited with a yellow pen




Today I left the Motel at 11am checkout time. It was still a bit raining but 22 degree celsius warm. I waited for the rain stopping, drove to the campground and setted everything up.
Now I am ready for the next earl.




the view from my new temporary home




This will be my home for the next couple days or weeks
I can't rent a home till I have a job cause I need to know in which town I will live.
I hope it will happen soon and I will apply on Monday for a job as press operator here in town. If I get a job I can start looking for a place to rent.

I don't wanna spend 80$ every night for a motel if its not needed. It adds up pretty fast.
Right now it is still pretty warm and my tend with the little patio is waterproof and dry.
It is raining right now while I am writing this and I am sitting in the dry outside.
I try to save my money for the winter when it gets cold. I will be able to stay here for another two to four weeks before it gets cold. The weather broadcast for the next two weeks is not to bad and they say it will be often sunny.


The only damage I could  find from Earl in town


That's really the name of the boat "It's Miller Time". It;s also  written at the side with the registration number.

A nice beach in Pictou


This ratchet set I got already before somewhere in Ontario or Quebec. It was on sale at Canadian Tire for 88$ instead of 299$. It was sold everywhere. I went in seven different stores till I got it. It comes with lifetime warranty and is the highest quality level they sell.
I have already two other ratchet sets but I wanted to have it :-)


Ok that's it for now. I hope you could enjoy a bit to read this blog and travel with me.
I am happy right now and it was the right decision to drive across Canada instead of flying.
Feel free to contact me over mail ore phone. My old cellphone number is still working for a while.
 

von holger-ahr um 23:35 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I got up in the morning at 8am. I left Monction and had ro drive another 40 kilometer to get to Nova Scotia.


I stoped at the tourist information and got a map and a book with all the information about the attractions for free.



after I drove the route 6 on the northern coast to Pictou. I could use the highway 2 but this would be more boring.


On the way I stopped for lunch at a little food place on the side of the road for my first lobster from Nova Scotia.


The lobster sandwich was very tasty


At around 4 pm I arrived in Pictou at my final destination for now.
I decided to take a Motel for the first night cause it was rainy all day and they said more rain for the night.
On the way I checked out already two campgrounds. The first one was a provincial park camground more outside from the town. They were asking 24$ the night. The second one is a trailer park with some spots for camping. I went to the office and asked for the price.
The guy asked me where I am comming from and I told him my story. He said I can stay for free. The season is over anyways and nowbody would use the space.
I told him thank you and I will be back the next day when it stops raining.
The good thing about this campground is also it has wireless internet and a laundry room.

After I went to the Pressroom Pub for a quick beer. Inside I talked to guy who comes originally from Burnaby,BC. We talked for a while and he invited me for another beer.


After I checked in at the Motel, did some phone calls and took a shower.
After watching some Videos on youtube and drinking some beer I went back to the pub and got pretty drunk again.
I don't remember the time I came home, but at least I remember the walk home.

von holger-ahr um 03:05 | Kommentar (1) | Trackbacks (0)

In  the morning I drove around 10am into the town of Quebec Cty.
The weather forecast said sunny and up to 22 degrees. First I went to some parts of the regular town. I liked it already. At around 12pm it started to rain pretty heavy. I waited 2 hours in my truck for the rain to stop but it didn't happen.
At around 2pm I started to drive around to find some parking close to the old histouric town. There was a lot paid parking availible but just for regular cars and not with trailer. At the end I found a spot where I had to walk 1.5 km to the old town.
Till i got there I was already soaking wet.





How I was looking after two hours walking in the rain


my feets wet to the socks


At around 4:30pm I tried to get out of the town. It was rush hour and I gave up after one hour just standing in the traffic.
I left the highway parked somewhere on the side and watched a movie.
At around 8pm I left the town and stopped in a smaller town 20km east.
I parked at the side of a pub. Guess where I went after?
I must say all the people in the pub were nice to me and tried to talk english.
I don't remember how and when I left the pub.
The bartender girl told me before they are open to 3:30am. I guess that's the time I left.
All I know is I was sitting in the cab of my truck at 10am when I waked up. The ingnition was turned on and the battery empty.
My good luck was I have a starter pack with me, so I was able to start the truck.

I didn't drive to far at this day. I found a little spot at a lake where I parked overnight. I don't remember the name of this little town but I know it was close to New Brunswick.




The next morning I stopped at a supermarket to get some alcohol. You must know in the province Quebec is the alcohol a way cheaper than in the other provinces.
I paid for a 24pack of sleeman beer only 22$, so I took two 24packs and 6 bottles of wine.
I wished I had more room...
All together I must say Iiked Quebec. The people were more friendly as I suggested. Quebec Cty is a really nice town which has some flar cause it is grewn like this.

There is not to much to say about New Brunwick. The highways are with a nice view and the driving is relaxing. I didn't stop in any towns, so I can't say to much.
At the end of this day I stopped at a truckstop for sleeping.

the indian summer is there


I wanna get home

von holger-ahr um 17:51 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Today I had the plan to get to Montreal and stay there for at least a night.
On the way I stoped a couple of times and tried ton get some internet access to write my report from yesterday. I had to leave the highway four times before I got access.
I got to the Montreal area at 5pm rush hour. It tooks me till 6:30 to get to the centre.


The people in Montreal driving like the people in Paris. They don't give any turning signals, cutting you off all the time and racing throw the town like there is no tomorrow.
The weird thing is, outside of Montreal they driving on the highway only 90 and 100 is allowed.
It tooks me a while to find out where I have to go in the centre and find parking.
At around 7:30 I found some parking and started to walk down the main street where all the pubs and clubs are.

Everybody told me you have to go to Montreal causse there is the best nightlive from Canada. I must say I was completely disappointed.
I thought there are a lot of nice old style pubs in one area and a lot of party is going there.
It's pretty spreaded out and there are a lot of little stores between, so you  have to walk quiete a bit. The only different to Vancouver is they have more strip clubs.
There are also everywhere the homeless people who are asking you for change like  in Vancouver.
It was pretty dead when I walked there around. Maybe cause it was Monday. The nightlife in Halifax is already away better they have over 100 pubs just in the old part of the town.
If you wanna see real nightlife you have to go to Heidelberg. The nightlife of Heidelberg is 1000% better compares to Montreal.
At around 8:30pm I made already the decission to leave the town in the night, so I don't get in the rush hour in the morning.
On the way back I saw a nice looking pub and thought one beer won't hurt before I leave. I ordered a pint Grolsch (dutch beer) and got the surprise with the bill.            9.50$   The only time I had beer which was so expensive was in Las Vegas in a strip club.




I left downtown around 9:30 pm and planed to get around 30km out of the town and find a place for the night.
While I was driving I decided to keep on driving the 270km to Quebec City.
I arrived here at 0:30 and I am now 10 kilometers before the centre of the city.
I think it was a good call to drive at nighttime. There was road construction almost all the time. Sometimes only one lane available but not much traffic at this time. The next morning it would be worst for driving for sure. All together I drove 5900km.
1100km more are still to go.

I hope I like Quebec City more than Montreal. The people say it has a realy nice old historic part of the town. I will see.
I think my problem is also I am not really into big towns. I like the smaller once away more.





 
 

von holger-ahr um 12:42 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

When I got up I had a bad hangover from the bad beer they sold me.
I drove a bit around to find parking close to the falls. It wasn't easy to find a place to park with a trailer. The official parking for mobilehomes and trailers was closed.

I had luck with the weather, it was sunny the whole day. I walked to the falls and  did the behind the falls tour.
It was looking like it's raining on the visitor stage, but it was just the steam from the falls.




little Vegas at daytime




I left Niagra Falls at around 3pm.
I drove the way up to the Toronto area and was really happy to have my car gps.
There was a lot of traffic for Sundays. I don't wanna know how it will be in the rush hour.
But the driving wasn't bad at all it was always rolling with 100 to 120. The people around Toronto know a way better to drive than the people from Vancouver. If you would put the Asiens from Vancouver on the road there it would collaps. They would be to scared to drive faster than 40km/h cause all the lanes.

von holger-ahr um 21:45 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

The next day I just drove around the Island a bit. The weather was getting better again. Most of the time sunny but cold.
I made a third folder "part3". All the pics from now non you will find there

I drove first to Sable Beach, one of the nicest Beaches at the great lakes.


I thought I am in Daytona Beach. Driving and parking on the beach was allowed.





I drove the whole day around and were looking for a good place for the night.
I drove to two provincial park campgrounds and I didn't like them at all. You had to park like in the middle of a forest. Just trees around you and no sun at all. To get to the beach you had to take a trail for 10 minutes. And the worst, they were askin 36$ for parking a night without power. The night before I payd only 39$ for the motel.

So I keept on driving and found around 7pm a really nice spot on the beach. I had to  drive some dirt road to get there but it was worth it. I had the whole beach for myselve and it was for free.






The next day  was just boring driving. From the morning to the noon it did rain a bit.
I had to stop in a town named Luckynow cause they had a parade going on the mainstreet. It was a farmer fest.


my next Truck


At around 4pm I got to the town Niagara on the Lake.
It was full of old tourist people. I talked to Amanda (Jasons girlfriend) and she told me to keep on driving to Niagara Falls. She is grown up there and knows the area pretty well. She was right. When I came to Niagra Falls I  thought first I got to Las Vegas.


Later the night I went to a beer garden with a lot of party. I got pretty drunk and it was hard to find my truck after.

von holger-ahr um 23:47 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

In the morning I had to get up at 8. I wanted to be at the ferry at 8:30 which is going at 11am. Right now there are only two ferrys going a day. People told me to be early to make sure I can get on it.
Later on the ferry I met some germans and talked with them. They came from Hanau and also know my old hometown.




At 1pm I arrived in Tobermory, a  nice little town.
I went to a little fish and chips place which was made like a pirate bar and had some great lunch. The guy who was serving was also cooking. He did everything by himself. He was even looking like a pirate. In Vancouver there would be working four people in the same size of Bar. Two serving and two in the kitchen.
The guy told me he is originally from Victoria, Vancouver Island. He is also planing to go more east.




I asked him for a nice campground to stay and he recommended me the campground at Lypress Lake.
I drove after to Cypress Lake and booked the campground for two days.
It was really windy when I arrived there.
My neighbours were a german family with two kids and a baby. We talked quite a bit about everything.

The lake by itselve wasn't that nice. That's why I did the hike which I got recommended to the bays from the big Georgian Bay Lake.




to prove I am not a pussy I went swimming after. The water was really nice but freaking cold.
 

some beer for mechanics


It was raining like cracy on thursday morning again. I got soaking wet again just from the little bit packing in the morning.
It didn't stop raining at all, so I decided to take a room in a motel to get dry.


Before I went to the liquor store and had good luck with finding beer.
I found Wernersgruener beer in tall cans for only 1.95$. It's one of the best german beers and I never have seen it before in canada, so I bought 24 cans of it.

von holger-ahr um 17:36 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

It just happend again. I wanted to save my entry and in this moment it closes the window and everything is gone. Now I have to start again. I try to keep it short.

To get it a bit better organized I made a new folder on the album webside.
All  the pics from today on are in the folder part2.

I drove first in the morning to Sault Ste Marie and stopped at the first tire shop to get a new spare tire. I had to pay 136$ and they didn't put even weights on the rim. What a rip off, I know I could get the same tire for half of the price mounted if I would have more time look.
Trailer  tires are cheaper than car tires and cost usually around 40 to 50$.

After I drove over Manitoulin Island to South Baymouth. It was a nice ride. On this Island are hundreds of little lakes.













At around 7:30 pm I arrived in South Baymouth and found a cheap campground for the night. I had some selfe made Spagetti for dinner which I had to share with a dog who didn't wanna leave. The dog was from the next gas station owner.

von holger-ahr um 16:28 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Today I slept long. I got up 12 and left the town at 1pm after some grocery shopping.
It was a nice day for driving with a lot of sun.

Once I got a flat tire right on a bridge. I had to keep on driving to the end of the bridge cause there was no emergency lane on it.
It was just a question of time this will be happen cause this tire wasn't looking to good before already.
I was happy to have my spare tire and a my little jack I use all the time.
I spent most of the time with getting the tools out and back in.
The changing was a thing from 5 minutes.

on the way there were a lot of nice views. I can't upload them all in this blog, just look them on the Album website.







I drove till 9pm at his day. Once I had to fill in some gas from my reserve tank.
The town with a gas station which was in my map and navigation didn't exist anymore.
I watched a movie and went to sleep at 11pm.

von holger-ahr um 21:09 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Today I got up at 8 am. I talked to my parents went to Canadian Tire and left.


It still was raining in the morning, but later the weather turned better than they said.


I couldn't belive it. They are able to build houses out of real stones in Canada.



only 90km/h allowed in Ontario


They stealed already the third time an hour from my day


these are no clouds, it is fog which comes up from the Thunder bay to the Hwy.




this truck has just a tiny bit rest, nothing major!


I ended up 109km east from Thunder Bay  in a little town, talked to Sebastian on Skype while we were drinking a Beer. After I wrote the blog and went to bed.

von holger-ahr um 04:39 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Today was a day with a lot of rain.
I left the Motel around 10am.

The first 250 kilometers were pretty boring cause everything was flat.


a german town again


hundert 70 kilometers after Winnipeg the landscape changed to more trees and a lot of lakes. I never have seen so many lakes before.
It was a really nice driving. Even with all the rain it was still beautifull.
It doesn 't come over to much at the pics you have to see it in real.
The leaves were already yellow and red. I just can guess how nice it would look in the sun.
















At around 7pm I found a GMC dealer which has free wireless internet.
I just parked at the side of it in a parking lot from Home Hardware store, watched a movie and had a phonecall with Nathan.

I drove yet 3040km all together.
From here to Niagara Falls it will be another 1845km. From there to Nova Scotia it looks like another 2600km on the map.









 

von holger-ahr um 06:44 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

When I got up at 9am it was already cloudy and looking like it will start to rain every minute.

You can see I have been busy at the last night.


I had luck. I got the camping for free. The regular price is 17$ a night, but no ranger showed up to collect the fee.

My plan was to pass Winnipeg which was 425 km away.
I didn't make it and ended up in a motel from where I am writing right now.

The indian summer is coming





a perfect day for boating, the water is getting ruff already on the shore.



At around 11:30am I stoped at a gas station with a motel where I got internet access. I wrote my blog entry from yesterday, did a phonecall to my parents and my old neighbour Heinz from Germany. I also talked to my sisters husband Thomas over Skype.
I left there around 2:30pm.

It was already really windy and the wind came from east against me. The weather broadcast said a thunderstorm will coming over the day and the night.
The wind was so strong, that I only could reach 100 km/h with shifting down to the 4th gear.
My gas consumtion went up quite a bit cause I had to drive all the time with full open throttle.

After 50 kilometers driving I got the idea to use a big truck in front of me as windshield.
It was working pretty well and I was able to use my 5th gear now as long I was close enough.


a german town again

After a while driving it started to rain and I had to turn on my lights. I relized my tail-lights of the trailer didn't work anymore. I stopped somewhere to check the fuses but they where all good.
At around 6pm I decided to stop at a motel before it gets dark and fix the tail-lights. They said rain for the night and also tomorrow, so I wanted to fix it today.
But on the way to the motel I had to get some beers for the night first.

At the time I started looking for the problem it didn't rain. I had to unload a part of the trailer to get my voltage measuring  tool.
I found out a connector clamp of the new power socket lost the contact. In the meantime it started raining already but I got it fixed with just getting wet a little bit.

That's it for today, I will take a shower and watch a movie after.

von holger-ahr um 22:26 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Today I didn't drive to much.
The weather broadcast said it will be the last nice day till the weekend, so I decided to find a lake with a campground to stay there.
I left at around 9:30 and just drove around till 1pm to find a good spot for staying overnight.




some really dirty road cause construction



this happens when you drive by car GPS. It brings you on a grovel road which is signed as highway. But the condition wasn't too bad. I still was able to drive 80km/h with the trailer.


some old wrecked trucks






I thought I am in Germany. A lot of towns there having german names.


a lot of bugs on the car


I had the whole campground for myselve. This was great, at night I could crank the music in my truck and listen it on the beach.


My dinner, some rosted potatos with onions, mushrooms and some porkloins.






after 9 beers, a half bottle of red wine and a glas of Barcardi Coke I went to bed at around 1 am

von holger-ahr um 20:59 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I Left around 10am Medicine Hat.
Today there is not much to say.
Everything is pretty flat and boring.





The Trucks getting bigger. In British Columbia you won't see these long Trucks.
There are also some with three trailers but I wasn't able to get a pic yet.
I hope I can get one tomorrow.







This one is to long to fit on the pic.



At around 11:30 I had a stop at a Tourist Information station. I got there wireless internet access with a good signal, so I decided to bring my blog up to date and did a phonecall to my parents.
I spent there about three hours all together just with writing blog, writing emails and a half hour phone call.



I had to stop every 100 - 150 kilometers to clean my windsrcreen  cause it was getting really dirty from all kind of moskitos.



The woman from the tourist info told me to leave the transcanada highway 1 after Regina and do a little bow over north cause it's away nicer and not so flat.
At 8 it went already dark and I decided to stop for the night on a big parking lot in front of a grocery store.
I decided for this place cause I got there internet access with a good signal and where able to finish my report. I watched a stupid movie and went to bed.

von holger-ahr um 16:13 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I got up at 9am.
At 11am I met Frank in the Canmore hotel for having breakfast. Its only 5$ over there if you are local. Frank is local, so I also had to pay the low price.
After we went to his house outside of the town where I parked the trailer.



After having a shower and filling up the gas I left at around 1:30.
Frank also gave me a map where he marked the points I have to see and the nicest way to drive through Ontario.


The gas price is getting cheaper.

I did a little stop in a western style town named Cochrane. Frank told me to stop there.







The last view to the Rockys



Calgary in front of me



The prairie of Alberta, you can see it's getting flat after Calgary.





No cops around at all :-)





At 7:30 I arrived in Mesicine Hat. I parked on the side of an Truckstop, had a BBQ some beer, watched a movie and went to sleep.

von holger-ahr um 21:14 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

When I waked up in the morning it was raining pretty heavy. Over night it went pretty cold again and they got their first fresh snow up in the mountains.



at around two o'clock it was stopping raining and the sun came out at 3pm.

I went to the highland game festival and checked evewrything out.
They said it is the biggest Highland Game festival from Canada. The bagpipe groups came from whole Canada.



 

At 4pm I went for two quick beers back to the Grissly Paw for two quick beers.
They had a party tent where you get beer, but you needed to buy a ticket to get in.
They started selling the tickets in the morning and they were sold out already at 8:30am.



At the end all the bagpipe groups did play all together amacing grace.



Later the night I went to two differnt Bars. They all had live music and were full of drunk people with kilts.
At 3:15am I went to bed.




 

von holger-ahr um 20:10 | Kommentar (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Now, I am getting really pissed off. I spent already 45 minutes to write this blog, upload pics and get disconnected from the internet. Everything is gone and I have to start again.
You must know it takes forever to upload the pics cause the connection is to slow. It also happened to me before but usually I copy paste the text. This time I just wanted to do this and in the same moment the window went white and I couldn't go back.
I spent everyday between 1-2 hours just with this damb shit.

Now again, Frank showed me some some nice views in the Rockys. For this we drove a loop from 140km over dirtroads.

On the first pic you can see a blackbear hanging in the trees. You can see only a brown spot in the pic. I didn't wanna go closer to get a better pic.



scar

the Rocky Mountain Sheeps came really close to me. They weren't scared at all






after the dirt road

The end of the day I spent in the Grissly Paw Pub again.
The offical last order was at 2am. We left at 4:15 and still got to drink till the end.
Frank locked up the door and set the alarm when we did leave. He is like kind a inventory from the Pub, lol. The servers left already 20 minutes before.

von holger-ahr um 18:39 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I left around 10 am the truck stop and drove the Hwy 1 to Lake Louise.
It was really hard to find a parking with the trailer, but at the end I made it.





It is actually a really nice lake with nice turquoise water which comes not really good over at the pics. I real It looks away nicer.
But the problem are also the thousands of tourist who are everywhere.
It was hard to get a pic without any people on it.




After I drove to Banff which is just one of the biggest tourist traps I ever have seen.
This town doesn't even have a supermarket to make sure the people have to go to the expensive restaurants to get their food.

I wanted to visit the museum for the natives but it was closed caue a funeral.







At the end of the day I ended up in a little town named Canmore.
I met an older guy who speaked pretty well german in the Grissly Paw Pub. He told me his parents where both from Hamburg and teached him how to talk german. He was grown up in Ontario. He invited me to stay in his house at the next days which is a bit out of the town.


At this night I just slept at the parking lot of saveway where I also can get internet access.

von holger-ahr um 04:32 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I waked up at 5:30pm cause some neighbour guys on the campground started their Harleys. They did let them run for about half an hour. I thought already they are leaving now cause one guy started to drive around the campground. But I was wrong. He came back and they kept running their engines till 7:15 without a break.
Usually I like the loud noise of a Harley but at this morning I really started hating it.
I didn't sleep well before, cause it was freezing outside and I was to lazy to get my sleeping bag out of my trailer.
The nights after I slept well just with my regular blanket. Cause it was only in the desert so cold at night.
After the bikers left I was able to sleep in and slept till 11:30.

I was leaving the campground at around 1pm.

At 7pm I reached some hot pools and decided I could need a little wash anyways.
I stayed in the pools for about 2 hours and was really relaxed after.
I drove for another hour to Revelstoke and stopped at a Trucksstop where I got ready to sleep after two beers.









My bed

von holger-ahr um 04:15 | Kommentare (0) | Trackbacks (0)