Life In the Slow Lane

We finished the Great Circle and are back in Rockport. Bye-bye, Nova Scotia We drove Blueberry 4,141 miles, towing Boma for 2,197 of that. We also drove the Tesla loaner about 400 miles. All together, we consumed about 2 MWh of electricity in 40 days. Not a fair comparison, but the wholesale cost of energy in New England was $32.59 /MWh, so about $65 for the voyage. We made six car ferry crossings. The shortest crossing, at Little Narrows on the Bras d'Or Lakes, was only about 100 yards. The longest was 47 miles from Digby to St. John.  The 400-foot long Digby ferry is about the same length as Little Narrows crossing.  Before this trip I think I've only driven on three ferries in the last 20 years.  The Little Narrows ferry The short ferries on Cape Breton are cable ferries: they are attached to an underwater cable and pull themselves across the crossing. The captain only needs to have the skills of an old fashioned elevator operator. These ferries are free and have no s...

A delightful day exploring Annapolis Royal/Port Royal at the head of the Annapolis Basin, near Digby.  In 1605, Pierre Dugua de Mons from France founded the first permanent Northern European settlement in North America at Port Royal. (For comparison, the Pilgrims founded Plymouth in 1620. Jamestown VA was founded in 1607. St. Augustine FL was founded in 1565 by the Spanish.) By all the accounts he and his colony actively engaged with the Mi'kmaq, hunted together, and cooperated with each other. A century and half of wars ensued. Port Royal was burned by  Samuel Argall , a Virginia (British) privateer in 1613. Then it gets complicated, with about thirteen assaults and almost as many turnovers between the French and British by battles and treaties signed in Europe. Thousands of Acadians were deported, thousands of American Loyalists (the losers of the American War of Independence) arrived. The British eventually defeated the Mi'kmaq and French in 1759. Propaganda The Britis...

 We uneventfully drove again over the highways we passed the day before. However, just before arriving to camp, Pemba somehow got her rear leg ensnared in the carabiner that holds her seat harness. We cut her fur and lubricated it, but still we could not get her leg out of the carabiner. The steel was too thick to cut with my wire cutters. Eventually we ended up at the Firehouse where the Chief had a bolt cutter. Success! Note the Choose Canadian Seafood stickers I guess somebody answered my question about where is the Canadian seafood. This was from the Sobey's Supermarket in Digby. We got some scallops to cook tonight. Absolutely excellent. Often scallops are watery, and do not sauté well. I think these may have been the driest, sweetest scallops I've ever cooked. Wow! Happy Trails, Krem and Barbara

Blueberry (our Tesla)  got out of the shop. Ate out downtown to celebrate.  A cute Pet Nat from Nova Scotia, with rose hips and elderflower with dinner All charged up, we left leisurely the next morning for Digby, but after 100 miles or so a worrisome message said "Service is Required". Turned around, recharged, dropped off the trailer at our campsite, and went back to the shop. By the end of day it was resolved. Went back to our campsite for the night, and binge-watched Only Murders in the Building until 2 AM. finishing Season 2,  Happy Trails, Krem and Barbara

Peggy's Cove appealed to me since I like small fishing villages, and my mother's name is Peggy. Less than an hour south of Halifax the landscape changed from heavily-wooded mixed coniferous-deciduous, like most of NS we have seen, to tundra-like: a few, small trees and mostly rugged grasses and low shrubs. No agriculture present, not even blueberries. We approached the village; a large electronic parking sign showed how many parking spots were available in each lot. The sign wasn't operating, but both lots had four character displays, so presumably parking for thousands. At the end of the road was the lighthouse, said to be the most photographed lighthouse in the world, probably an invented factoid by the Chamber of Commerce. There are over 750 lighthouses in Canada ; Peggy's Cove is number 19 on this slide show.  Ho hum, I have visited a lot of lighthouses from Iceland to Pemba Island to Matinicus Rock. In October, well after tourist season, one 1000+ spot parking lot ...

We are up in the Minas Basin, an adjunct to the Bay of Fundy. World record tides, with over 50 feet reported regularly. The tidal mud flats are over two miles wide in some places: the most powerful tidal currents in the world. It's land (mud) all the way out to the small island, several miles. Shot with a telephoto lens. Another miles-wide clam flat at Five Islands Lighthouse Park. About two hours after low tide. You might see one clam digger way out I was a great admirer of tidal power. It seemed like a powerful, free energy source with low environmental impact. I spent a lot time a decade ago researching tidal power. I looked forward to visiting, even though I knew the turbines are underwater. The Minas Basin is the largest tidal resource in the world  — more water flows faster here than anywhere else, more water moves here than all rivers in the world combined. People have dreamed of harnessing the tides forever. The first tidal plant was started in 1915, but burned down in 1920...

Changes of Plan The little bit of the Highlands we got to see of Cape Breton were magnificent.  There is a very new gondola which provided great vistas. From the Top of the Gondola We have aborted our trip to Cape Breton National Park due to disconcerting noises from the car. The nearest Tesla service center is in Halifax. Fortunately there were appointments available. We dropped off the car and got a loaner Model 3. The rear power drive, covered by warrantee, needs to be replaced. Turns out the nearest part is in Quebec, so we will be in this area for a few more days. No problemo. New adventures. Now, for the history quiz. Two very famous maritime incidents involved Halifax. Any guesses?  BOOM! During WW I before the US entered the war, Halifax was important in shipping supplies to Europe. Two ships collided in the harbor. One ship was for humanitarian aid, the other ship was transporting munitions and fuel for the war. The fuel caught fire, the crew abandoned ship, and then ...

This blog post may be boring/too technical unless you are an EV geek. Towing with a Tesla sometimes has it challenges. While Tesla has lots of Superchargers in most of the US  (they just installed their 50,000th charger), Tesla  does not have much charging infrastructure ("Superchargers") in the Maritimes. A few days ago was my first "must charge" adventure without a Tesla SC. Tesla Superchargers are great. They always work. Plug in the car and walk away - no credit card or app failures, no buttons to push, they just work. The charger knows the VIN and therefore the owner, and I have a credit card with Tesla. In 80,000 miles, 25 states and five provinces, I have never had to wait for a charge. Certainly in some areas, such as California, people complain about waiting to charge, but I haven't hit one yet. A few years ago I bought a CHAdeMo dongle (charge adapter). Weirdest camel-case name for a consumer product ever, usually spelled now as Chademo. It supposedly ...

Among the delights of this trip has been the weather and cleanliness of the beaches. One of the delights/surprises has been the beaches. Maine does not have much in the sandy beach department, and I'm not really a beach kinda guy. Bothwell Beach  on PEI  was empty as far as we could see (10 miles?) in both directions. Super clean, no fishing detritus or junk food packaging. I went skinny dipping. Perfectly clean. Well, OK, after a mile of walking and back, we found a one bait bag, two rubber bands, one bottle, etc. We scoured pretty hard. Now, the beach is actually really clean.  This lack of trash was true for the other beaches we went on, too. We are now on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, walking on an isolated beach. You can see our Tesla X, and the road to the beach. Not much of a road, off the beaten path. These are the only traps we have seen on any shore in Canada. Two things are unusual here. First, these traps are not wood, they are metal, like the traps used...

We had a marvelous adventure in rural PEI at a “culinary farm” – a four+ hour feast starting at 4pm. I thought, with most of PEI shutting down for the winter despite the beautiful weather, we might be the only ones going. The feast began with introductory chat (with local effervescent wine - can’t say champagne!) describing the meal for the nearly sold out group of some 40 guests. They explained how they grow everything “with intent” to make maximum use for “flavor and texture” for the entire life of the plant.  Kevin, the farmer, explained there were two guiding principles: choose plants varieties based on their flavor and texture, and use the plants at all stages of their life cycle.  He used cilantro as an example: the earliest “microgreens” leaves that pop up at germination are quite different than the later leaves. The later leaves are what are usually seen in the markets. The stems can make an interesting flavor for steeping. The flowers are used in some of their complex...