Prologue

How we got this far.

At the retirement celebrations, we asked "Where should we go?"

This is not our first cycle trip; we have embarked on several delightful adventures with family and friends, but this attempt to write down our story is new. Other firsts include being newly retired, and embracing nomadism by selling our home in Sherbrooke, Quebec! (Yes, reading these blogs inspired that idea too!) Oh what freedom, what joy, and what a lightness of spirit we felt. That was until Covid foiled our 2020 plans of touring Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Bermuda!

So we retrenched and thought where we might capture that euphoric feeling of heading off to discover somewhere new, while sticking to mandated travel restrictions and staying close to home in New Brunswick. The obvious choice was in Nova Scotia, the next province over. According to the tourist pamphlet, the Cabot Trail is “one of the world's most scenic destinations, with stunning ocean vistas, old-growth forests, prehistoric rock scarred by glaciers, and the mysterious Cape Breton Highlands.”

With our route planned, we watched for a spell of good weather and headed off to the Highlands of Cape Breton in early September.

The Maritimes in the fall is beautiful, the afternoon sun is warm and the beaches are quiet, so our stop at the famous boardwalk at the Bouctouche Dunes in NB to stretch our legs and eat our picnic lunch was a perfect way to break up the 620 kms from our cottage in Bathurst, NB to Baddeck, NS. We arrived happy but tired at the Trailsman Motel on the banks of Nyzana Bay, part of the famous Bras d’Or Lake, (an inland sea, or large body of partially fresh/salt water in the centre of Cape Breton Island) where we would leave our car for the week.

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Scott AndersonYou’re nomads now too! Great choice. I hope it works out as well for you as it has for us. It’s been three years now since we cut the cord, and we’ve never regretted it.
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3 years ago

ann and steve maher-wearyYes we followed your inspiration and sold our house. We are skiing at Whistler this winter while we wait for the borders to open up again. We head back to New Brunswick in early June.
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3 years ago