A friend of mine recently purchased a house in St. John’s and asked me to come along on a 3,300-mile road trip up the Eastern Seaboard. He was hauling home goods to his new place so needed a second driver to help drive all the way from Houston, TX. to St. John’s, Newfoundland. Having never made it up to the northern parts of Canada and being the adventurous type of course I said Yes!
The Road Trip
With the trailer all hooked up, we departed his place in Houston on a hot day in August. Neither of us had towed a trailer in quite some time so that took some getting used to. I have to say it takes a lot more concentration and fuel than I expected.
We journeyed through Baton Rouge up into Mississippi staying at Meridian the first night. By the time we pulled in after 10 hours on the road, due to Banton Rouge traffic, we were very tired. We made the decision that night to drive no more than 8 hours per day and stuck to it the rest of the trip.
The next stop was Knoxville, TN. We thought we would go into town that evening but again, too tired, the trailer thing is tiring! We ate at the nearest Outback Steakhouse instead.
The third stop was Hagerstown, MD. I was impressed with us at this point; 3 days from Houston we were in Maryland. Now, we didn’t do anything except drive and stop at gas stations and the occasional Cracker Barrel but it wasn’t about sightseeing for us which is why I must say I appreciate the Marriott brands of Roadside hotels, specifically the Fairfield and Springhill brands. These nice, comfortable, clean, and mostly new hotels make driving the Interstate so much more comfortable and they all even had enough parking for our trailer.
Now we entered the populated part of our journey through New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. By this time we were very used to hauling the trailer which is good because the traffic was much worse through this corridor. We made it to Maine though on the fourth day!
Canada Arrival
The fifth day was the border crossing. These always take time but we made it through. Since I was just the passenger my friend had to do all the ‘negotiating’ for every single item in his trailer. The Canadians are quite strict at the border when bringing a trailer of home goods in!
Now we were able to take a break as we drove through New Brunswick, up and around to Nova Scotia where we stayed at a friend’s house on the water in Chester, Nova Scotia. What a beautiful spot! Amazing coastline and islands dot many tranquil bays and inlets. I would highly recommend this spot to other travelers. Summer on the coast of Nova Scotia is beautiful. We arrived worn out but were welcomed with a hot homecooked meal and beer! Two days of rest now.
The Ferry
After resting and boating around Chester for a couple of days we headed out to catch the overnight ferry to Newfoundland. We drove into a large parking lot in North Sydney, New Brunswick Harbor. It seems everything that arrives in Newfoundland comes this way. There must have been one hundred semi-trucks and another hundred cars, trucks campers, and people like us towing trailers. We all drove onto this boat that was massive. This was a first for me. Been on lots of ferries but nothing ever like this. Once the car was parked on board, we headed upstairs to our nice sleeper seats for the overnight crossing. The weather was good that night so snoozed as best I could in my seat. I was told it can be uncomfortable crossing if there is bad weather. In the morning we were docking in Port au Basque, Newfoundland. I felt amazed we had come all this way and were almost at our destination!
Newfoundland
This is an amazing landscape, everything is expansive, forests, beaches, ocean, and mountains. You feel like you are indeed at the edge of something, and you are. The edge of North America. Just about 2,000 miles to Ireland from here. Shorter than the drive we just did. Avoiding potholes we wound our way around the island as there is only one road that goes to St. Johns from here and it is a long way. If we deviated and headed into the dense forest in any direction, I was told we need to notify the Canadian Park service, so they are aware as there is literally nobody in the interior. If you want to go to a place to be left alone, this is it.
We had one more stop to make before St. John’s in a small town called Glovertown where my friend had some family that we were staying with for a night. They lived right on a bay too, there is something about that up here, everyone seems to live on or very close to the water. Thankfully we didn’t try to go all the way to St. John’s as Glovertown took us 8 hours to get to! Another 5 hours after that and we would be in St. John’s.
Click here for my highlights of the destination St. John’s!
