Driving from Moncton to Halifax was just a bit over 3 hours drive time. Of course, I took my time, and made many stops and breaks. Once again, I started driving right at sunrise to maximize daylight driving time. I think I crossed the boarder into Nova Scotia approximately 7AM, right after my daily brew of coffee.
I made early breakfast/lunch in a small town just before Halifax by the side of the highway. That was a cool experience. That actually got a few chuckles out of people passing by at the parking lot.
My first landing in Halifax was at Pier 21. I got the see the “In My Yesterday” exhibit at the Canadian Immigration Museum. That was one of my highlights of this trip that I was most looking forward to. I knew that exhibit was ending soon, and I am very glad I was able to see it while it was still in town.
I finished the exhibit at around 1:00PM local time. I reach the part where I dreaded the most, where I have to book accommodations.I looked up hotels.com and everything was in the $300-$500 range per night. Yikes! It’s because this is peak season. I found a university dorm facility being rented out for about $55/night about an hour away. I was about to pull the trigger, but then Murray told me that there is another dorm that is in central Halifax, and just cost a bit more. I ended up booking a University dorm for $242.81 for three nights. I’m quite pleased with that.
I went to the local Costco to pick up some groceries. I thought the Costco back home was bad, the Costco here is like a zoo! I actually spent more time looking for parking than I did grocery shopping!
While unpacking my stuff, and cleaning random stuff, I accidentally spilled water onto my laptop keyboard. If this was at home, I wouldn’t even think anything of it. I have all the tools and spare parts to get things resolved within 5 minutes. Unfortunately, I’m not. Some keys got stuck, rendering my laptop very useless. It was already around 6PM localtime, the local Canada Computers and Best Buy are already closed on a Sunday. So I look up the local Thrift stores, and found a place called Mission Mart. Normally, I refuse to buy second hand keyboards, because of how nasty it is. The first keyboard I picked up off the shelf was for 89cents! Wow. But it was quite grimy amd a little too beaten up for my taste, so I put it back. I saw a nice looking chiclet style that wasn’t too nasty looking for $3.89. Not bad, and I also have lots of sanitary wipes in my car. I also picked up a brand new PD/QC USB-A/USB-C car charger for $1.97, and an extra long USB 2.0/USBA-B cable for another $1.97 from the clearance shelf, both brand new sealed in original packaging. Apparently, the second hand products here are tax free? The total came out to be $7.91. The lady asked if I wanted to round up for donation. Meh, it’s only 9 cents. Why not? I’ve been to many of the mainstream ones like Value Village, and I was never able to find anything interesting, or they would be overpriced. The items at this independent seem to be very reasonably priced.
This is why I prefer roadtrips instead of going on a prepackaged tour with a guide. Having my own car, being able to re-scheduled things on the fly is quite nice.
Oh, I changed the header of my blog to “The adventures of a Chinese guy, his sports car, and an instant pot” What do you guys think of my new slogan?