Today we leave the South Shore of Nova Scotia and head across the Province to play tourist on the North Shore and Annapolis Valley, starting at a campground on the Annapolis River in Bridgetown. This will be our second shortest travel day at only 126 miles, and as Fall is definitely here, we anticipate seeing the first vestiges of Fall colours.

Tuesday 23rd September

Lockeport, NS to Bridgetown, NS

Temps – 16C, it’s getting progressively cooler.

Weather – partially cloudy

Wind – Gentle breeze

Cloxs – no change (Z-3)

Distance today – 126 miles

Total Distance – 5,367 miles

Navigation

Today we had a couple of options – coastal route around the south tip or backtracking to Liverpool and cutting across the Province on Hwy # 8. The cross province route is 50 miles shorter and we thought would afford better views of the trees changing colours, so that was our preferred option.

Departure Lockeport Cottages and Campground

This should have been an easy departure and everything was going well until hooking up to the truck. The 4 rear hydraulic legs came up without issue, but that is when today’s problems started. Next I raise the front by extending the fwd 2hydraulic legs. Pump sounds were normal, but the front wasn’t coming up, then I noted the driver’s side rear legs coming down. Oh dear !!!, that’s not meant to happen. After about an hour of troubleshooting I figured the issue was probably in the control panel with corrupted logic, which I can’t fix, but found a workaround.  By pressing the raise front button, once the rear legs ground the front does actually come up, so we did manage to get connected to the truck.

Detailed Voyage to Annapolis River Campground

Finally on the road, only a couple of minutes after leaving the campground we passed one of the Google street view cars going the opposite direction. This is the 2nd one we have passed this trip, so we will be on Google streetview in a couple of locations.

After about 10 miles, on old Hwy # 3, we reached Hwy # 103 and retraced our previous journey back North, crossing the Mersey River and turning onto Hwy # 8 at Liverpool. Hwy # 8 crossed the province and while we are still rather early, we did enjoy the first vestiges of the trees changing colours. It was mostly the smaller trees at the edge of the road that were ablaze with bright and vivid yellow, orange and red. An impressive sight and can’t wait to see an entire forest ablaze with colour. Unfortunately, being a narrow winding road with no place to pull over I was unable to stop and snap a quick photo of the most impressive colours. Judi assures me it will only get better.

We arrived at the GPS destination, but it didn’t look similar to what Andy observed on Google Streetview and the park name wasn’t correct. Weren’t too worried about the name, as they do change owners, who occasionally change the name. Went into the office and you guessed it the GPS had an incorrect location, based on the chap’s reaction, it may be a common occurrence. Back on the road for about 20 mins and finally we arrive at the correct campground.

Based on our day so far, it is unlikely the set up would go smoothly and you guessed it, the auto-level system didn’t work and the legs didn’t respond correctly to the control panel buttons. Regardless, after about an hour of monkeying around with the controls I finally “jury rigged” a solution with all 6 hydraulic jacks down and the coach reasonably level. I note we don’t have any manual jacks, should the hydraulic legs not operate.