NS 2025: Day 11: Hartland, NB: It’s a big bridge
It was supposed to rain during the night and there may have been a few drops. It was surprisingly warm so we had the windows open most of the night. As morning broke Amy made us aware that she needs love in the form of a morning cuddle.
For the morning walk I did pretty much the same route I had been doing but this time I looped into the Northport Wharf and took a few pictures.
It was now time to pack up. I had filled the water tank the night before, just had to pack up the Starlink, disconnect the power and dump the tanks. All of that went perfectly well. We said our goodbyes, acquired a few more antique things (shhh!) and hit the road just before 11:00 ADT. By the time we got to Amherst, NS we realized we could not find Amy’s water bowl so I pulled over in this convenient parking lot just before the NB border. I did find the bowl after several minutes of looking. I’m particularly good at “I’ll put it here so I don’t forget it” and then forgetting where I put it.
It was interesting to see how much the fall leaves had progressed in the 11 days since we were last in southern New Brunswick. We stopped for gas near Young’s Cove and had a quick lunch admiring the fall colours.
After a few hours of uneventful driving we arrived in Hartland, NB where our first stop was the Covered Bridge potato chip factory store. There used to be factory tours but the factory burnt down a few years ago. They are rebuilding now. We aren’t sure where the chips are made now, but we bought some anyway. They did not have any Hurricane chips!
Our destination was only a few km from the chips store. We intend to stay the night in a park (municipal?) at the west end of the famous Hartland covered bridge, the longest covered bridge in the world. We parked in front of another RV from Ontario. They seemed happy to give up their exclusivity to the parking lot. We got level, leashed up Amy and walked across the bridge into town. We could smell french fries but never found the source. Mrs Milddogs popped into the grocery store for a few items while Amy and I wandered around a park.
Once we returned from our walk / bridge crossing I knew I had to do it. I hopped on the Brompton and rode across the bridge and then around the town of Hartland. It was a short ride just under 5km. I turned around where the rail trail abruptly stopped where a bridge probably used to exist. If you follow me on Strava (or Stravia, as I call it) you can see the details there.
Post some Mrs Milddogs dinner magic, I decided to correct a wrong. Riding that bridge without my Insta360 on was wrong. I mounted everything up again and did another crossing of the bridge, this time with the camera rolling. Yay me, I did my PBs on both the east bound and west bound crossings. Stay tuned for the fabulous video coming soon to the milddogs youtube channel!
That’s about it for today. Hoping for a quiet uneventful night. Turns out the loud engine people love to zoom back and forth over (under?, in?) the bridge. Hoping they get their jollies out before bedtime. We were joined by another van from Manitoba, so there are now three of us.
Fish tacos for the win!
