We head out in the usual fog and drizzle taking the back roads up the coast, the views are really nice, we assume, because visibility is still about 100 meters... oh well. At times the road heads inland and the fogs lifts, the country side is scenic, the road is fun as it twists and winds through the gentle hills.
Back on the coast we pass by "Hopewell Rocks", There's a fee to get in and we would have to walk and leave the bike. That's one problem travelling on the motorcycle, it's difficult to do things that involve leaving the bike for any length of time. But we are ok with that, the parking lot is full of cars and tour buses and we can do without the crowds. Maybe someday when we're too old to ride, we'll get a motor home and do the senior RV circuit.
We make our way to Moncton, there is a large contingent of military vessels in the harbor and a half dozen large military helicopters flying overhead, not sure why, but kind of neat to see. We take the hi-way east for a bit crossing from New Brunswick into Nova Scotia. Exiting the hi-way as soon as we can we find a nice route through farm country, the clouds have lifted, but we still get an occasional light shower. The roads are perfect for the motorcycle, weaving through valleys, following streams and rolling hills, very little traffic.
After we pass through New Glasgow we take the Sunrise Trail up towards Cape George Point. The road is nice and weaves in and out along the coast. We pass through the town of Malignant Cove, odd name for a town, and we opt not to stay there!
We had hope to find a B&B, motel or Inn along the Sunrise Trail, but it is very sparsely populated, and not much exists, so we head to the town of Antigonish.
Antigonish is a large town, and a college town. The St. Francis Xavier Colleg campus is fairly large and quite beautiful, and from what I van gather, has about a 3:1 ratio of women to men! We check out what we can find for accommodations, which are few and settle for The Maritime Inn, a hotel near the town center. Ready for a beer while we unpack, I head down to the hotel bar, the beer selection is pretty lame, as has been the case since we entered Canada. Somehow they haven't gotten into craft beers, and even a bottle of any kind of IPA is hard to come by. So I settle foe a bottle of Heineken for $7.50!! Ouch
After a shower and a glass of wine, oh yeah, wine, that's another story. In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, you can only purchase beer, wine and alcohol from the state run stores. So we've been picking up at least one bottle of wine for the evening anytime we pass a liquor store, and as you can guess it's expensive. So anyway, we have a glass of wine and take a stroll downtown. We see a sign for the "Townhouse Pub", featuring craft beers!! It's a nice little Irish style pub, and, they have good beer on tap!! We enjoy a few beers, DeeDee has some wine and we check out the menu, pretty typical bar menu. We decide to walk about and find the liquor store. The weather is pleasant, on the warm side and lots of college kids about, mostly girls in summer attire... I get punched a few times. If anyone has a son going to college next year, I highly recommend St Francis Xavier!
Back to the room, another glass of wine and out we go for dinner. We settle on The Brownstone Cafe, a cute place on the main street with outdoor seating. The outdoor tables are all occupied so we are seated at a nice little table indoors. The food is great as is the service.
We never asked, so we still never quite figured how to pronounce Antigonish..
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