I left the story off when we were just pulling out of the Canadian Tire in Gananoque, fully fueled up and ready to depart on our cross-country road trip.
Our route through Quebec, New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia.
My sister Petra had warned us fully about ensuring we had a solar panel for electricity (check) and ample food supplies for two weeks (check). The only drawback from moving our life in this manner was that Tyler and I would be experiencing the drive from our separate vehicles. So, of course I had surprised Tyler by purchasing a pair of walkie talkies for our road trip. With an 80 km range, we could easily communicate with one another without having to call or text with our cell phones, which was definitely much safer and more efficient- not to mention fun!
Tyler adopted the call sign of Roxie and I was the Red Rocket. Unbeknownst to me, using call signs that have strong consonants is very beneficial- particularly when you have traffic on the channel. Tyler was having difficulty with his GPS working on his cell phone so I ended up leading the caravan and just using the walkie talkies to give Tyler a head's up of upcoming changes so he could make his maneuvers with the truck and trailer safely. We both were listening to audio books for the trip, Tyler listening to the first Game of Thrones Book and I listened to World War Z.
We got through Ontario very quickly since we only lived about 1.5 hours from the border. Getting through Montreal was by far the worst combination of traffic and poor road quality - but we managed to just push through it without stopping. We found it surprising that there was still so much traffic between Montreal and Quebec City as we expected it to be pretty rural. The views of the St Lawrence on the other side of Quebec City were spectacular. Neither Tyler nor I had ever traveled that far east before so it was really starting to feel like we made the right decision!
Once we had passed Quebec City, we started to look for a place to pull off for the night. We kept waiting for a good place to pull over on the side of the road since we could just boondock overnight in the trailer, but the highway kept going on without a good place to pull over safely so I pulled into Saint Jean Port Joli in search of a public campground. We found one in the heart of the little town for a quick and dirty $20 for the night and I had a great opportunity to practice my very rusty French with the campground attendant.
St Jean Port Joli Church Roofline
We were trying our best to keep ourselves in quarantine through Quebec, so we had packed our meals and snacks in our vehicles so we only had to stop at the gas station. We pulled out our remaining meals and had a quick picnic dinner with chips and a great cider that we received from our pal Earl back in Gananoque.
Enjoying a very special cider we received as a going away present from Earl
Up until that point we had been so focused on the move that we really felt liberated at the campsite. For me, it was the absence of having anything to do. Being the former manager of a brewery, I was so accustomed to having texts, emails or calls after hours. It was really settling in that we were free from work responsibilities for at least the next two weeks and that we wouldn't be returning to our old life. We were feeling a elated, nostalgic and a little tired. In the morning we took Abby for a little jaunt through the town to stretch our legs and look for a local coffee for takeaway. It was early, only around 6 am, and nothing was open. We decided to just pack things up and head out to the McDonald's near the highway exit to grab coffee and breakfast so we didn't lose too much time. We were back on the road by 7 am and ready to get through the next nine hours of driving that we had left.
A very cute shop in Saint Jean Port Joli
About two and a half hours later the highway was funneled into a makeshift border and we were stopped before entering into New Brunswick by the provincial border guards. This was a really surreal experience for us as under normal circumstances there has never been any barriers for the movement of people between provinces in Canada. It had the impression of being of historical significance, though it was as simple as some pilons and concrete barriers and a little hut for the border patrol agent. It was also nice to see that most of the staffers at this border were young people under the age of 30. Everyone seemed to be taking their role seriously, but all were still polite and friendly.
In all my research, I did not uncover that we would need to register for passage through New Brunswick under their own provincial travel restrictions, but fortunately it was only a five minute process to log in online and complete the application. While I completed the application process for Tyler and then for myself, Tyler took Abby out to stretch her legs around the parking lot. Once I was finished, we showed the border guard our documentation as required by the Nova Scotia government and our confirmation code from the New Brunswick website. We were instructed that we were NOT permitted to stay in New Brunswick and we were not to stop for anything other than fuel. We were on our way!
The drive into New Brunswick along the Madawaska River was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't stop to take any photos while driving, but Tyler and I were radioing one another every few minutes to comment on this river or that lake or the mountain range we cusped. We decided to head east across to Mirimichi instead of going south through Fredericton because we wanted to see the ocean as soon as possible. We ended up on a rural highway that had no stops for over 130 km.
130 km of deserted highway.
Driving through New Brunswick was much more scenic than the highways in Ontario and Quebec. The road quality in New Brunswick (which can be said of Nova Scotia as well) is far superior than Ontario and Quebec. The highways are small, rural roads and extremely pleasant to drive, with winding hills and frequent waterways and scenic towns and villages. It could be my idealism speaking, but the houses were predominantly small, simple homes that were well maintained and had the appearance of being well loved.
We had nine hours of driving to cover if we wanted to make the trip in just two days and since we lost a few hours on the first day because we had to pick up our solar panel, we had extra driving to do on the second day. By four pm, we were just past Mirimichi and I was feeling the urge to call it quits for the night sine we had lost some time at the New Brunswick border and a couple rest stops. Driving standard for that long can really do a number on your lower back and calves but I didn't say anything and we continued on.
Coming up to the Nova Scotia border was even prettier than the New Brunswick border since we were now driving along the ocean in the direction of Prince Edward Island. Our GPS was taking us through some fairly deserted looking backroads but Google Maps was pretty confident we were going to hit the Nova Scotia border at any moment. We came across the border in the most unassuming of places, though it was quite pretty with many little farms that had early spring gardens in bloom. There was about ten cows ten feet from my car at the border patrol and Abby was very enthusiastically sniffing out the window at them as they gazed back at us coolly.
The border guard was just as young, friendly and polite as the guards in New Brunswick, though he had to cross reference some of our paperwork since there were some discrepancies between our offer of employment letter and the confirmation letter from the government. This letter gave us compassionate exception to move into the province during the ban on new people moving in from out of province that began on May 10. Fortunately, I had thought to print the original email application I had sent which showed that the discrepancy was a clerical error on their part instead of ours and he ended up letting us through.
We drove for two more hours after that stop before arriving at our final destination for quarantine. We arrived at our friend Ben's cottage and discovered it would be quite a tight fit to properly situate the trailer. Thankfully Tyler is a pro at driving a truck and trailer and he managed squeeze it in. We leveled the trailer, hooked up the water and electricity and headed down to the water to get a good look at the ocean at sunset. We were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves at this point as we had this majestic view for the next two weeks while we were in mandatory quarantine. We could have done worse!
Tyler on the beach during low tide.
Thanks for following us on our journey off grid! Stay tuned for the next instalment of our story. My next post will be covering our two weeks of quarantine and finding crown land to live on until we bought something. Subscribe to our story by signing up for our newsletter below.
1 comment
Hi my love