The Caravan arrives

 Today (actually yesterday), was the day the tour arrived at our campground in Halifax. Before they all arrived, Steve and I decided to go out for breakfast and then do a bit of shopping.  I found a diner just clean the road from us called Vernon’s Thunderbird Diner.  It was a 50’s retro place with fun decor and a full-on bright yellow t-bird inside the restaurant.  We had a great server, who recommended a double Bloody Caesar for Steve, and he happily obliged.  He also had blueberry pancakes and I had breakfast poutine.  It was delicious, but a lot of food and pretty rich.  

A bloody good Bloody Caesar 

Yum!

From there we headed over to Costco.  Wow… Nova Scotians love their Costco.  It was SUPER busy but the staff had everyone moving along pretty efficiently.  I found a camp chair I wanted and picked up an appetizer for the social scheduled for later today.  While we were gone, Kelly texted that people were starting to pull in and could she move our starlink so it wouldn’t accidentally get run over.  Absolutely! 

So… we get back to the campground and the place is unrecognizable.  SO many huge RVs!  There was no longer space behind our rv to park our truck, so I had to squeeze into a space in front on a diagonal.  As I pulled in, guess what I did?  I RAN OVER OUR STARLINK! Kelly had moved it, but somehow I managed to hit it anyway.  I was so upset (these are expensive and we need it for internet) and embarrassed, because I managed to do it in front of our new tour directors.  Steve was so sweet to not be mad, but he certainly got right on trying to fix it with roofing tape.  He was successful, and we have internet again.  Whew! 

The little one with the blue truck is us

We then met with our tour leaders, called wagon masters, and got our swag, trip log book, and schedules for the next two days.  They seems like great people and we left looking forward to starting the tour.  At 5:00, the whole group met in a meeting space, got introduced, and enjoyed a happy hour with lots of appetizers.  We enjoyed talking with some of the tour group and connected with a few others we had met last summer and have been on this tour since the beginning.  I’m not sure I mentioned that we are joining the second half of the tour… most of these folks have already been traveling together for 3 weeks.  

After we were done there, we joined our ‘Alaska’ friends and we all went to a new pub together.  It was a fun place with a DJ playing 90s and 00s country, a small casino, horse racing, etc.  We played a bit in the casino, I won about $60, so overall a successful evening.  Oh, and next door was a liquor store with cannabis sales inside.  We checked to see if they carried the edibles we use sometimes for sleep since we didn’t bring any over the border - a BIG no-no.  They didn’t have them, but we were impressed with the fact that it was so easy to buy it there.  No ID checks, and no cash requirements. Just say what you want and they hand it to you.  We bought some boxed wine in the store (boxes don’t break in RVs) and a six-pack of beer.  They aren’t selling much American beer here right now for obvious reasons, so we are test driving different ones to see what we like.  

Not the most flattering shot… but this is us. 😁

By the time we got back to the rv it was time for bed.  We have a big day tomorrow!  Yay!