Leaving Lunenburg

Nova Scotia (and perhaps all of Canada) is into recycling big time.  It is against the law to toss any recyclable item into the garbage.  They recycle everything possible, which requires multiple recycling bins in the RV parks.  Each bin has a different color to indicate what may be put into it.  There is green for organics, blue for recyclables, black for garbage, and grey for paper.  Corrugated cardboard is also recycled and must be flattened and separated from paper.  But there is no color for it.  I believe it is to be bound and left beside the containers. The green organics bin in Lunenburg had a picture of a banana peel on it, like it was for banana peels only.  It can be very confusing so the government has helped out by publishing exhaustively long lists of examples from each of the different categories.  For example, cereal and cracker boxes along with paper towels, napkins, and soiled paper, but no pizza boxes go in the Organics bin.  The Paper bin is for paper such as egg cartons, paperback books, and office paper.  You have to make sure not to put paper, organics, or hazardous materials in the Garbage bin.  The Recyclables bin is for things such as empty milk containers, shrink wrap, bubble wrap, aluminum cans, and glass jars.  However, if the glass jar is broken, the pieces of glass must go in the Garbage bin, not the Recyclables bin.  There are certain items that are banned from landfills and therefore must not be placed in the Garbage bins.  A few examples are used tires, waste paint, televisions, computers, and food waste.  Do not throw those things in the garbage.  OK, now that you understand the recycling rules I can tell you about the unhappy little man that works at the Lunenburg RV Park.

There is a maintenance man/caretaker at the park in Lunenburg who keeps the bathhouse clean and the recycling bins organized.  He is probably in his 60’s (he had gray hair) and mutters a lot under his breath a lot.  He spends a lot of time going through the recycling bins to make sure everything is in its proper place.  Most people put their garbage in one plastic bag and their recyclables in another and drop the bags into the bins.  The maintenance man pulls these plastic bags out of the bins, opens them, and sorts their contents out into the various bins.  The plastic bags themselves must to go into the Recyclables bin.  He talks to himself the whole time as he sorts stuff into the various bins.  He even fussed at Paul, our wagon master, to make sure everyone in our group knew what went into each bin.  You really didn’t want to take anything over to the bins while he was around or you would risk being fussed at for putting stuff in the wrong bin.  Carol Ann and I waited until we were pulling out this morning to dump all of our waste.  Fortunately he was not around.

This morning was to be a late start because we only had about 50 or 60 miles to go and would not be allowed into the Woodhaven RV Park of Halifax before 11:00AM.  It was recommended that we not start out from Lunenburg before 9:30AM to avoid being too early at Woodhaven.  I took this as another good excuse to sleep in.  The nightly rain stopped around 8:30AM and Carol Ann woke me up with a cup of coffee (I have her well trained).  I was sitting up in bed reading my email and drinking coffee when I began to notice a “stirring” of people a little before 8:45AM.  I looked out of the window and saw a lot of our group standing around in the RV park’s street.  They were mostly the folks that would normally be on the road by this late hour and weren’t sure what to do with themselves until 9:30AM when they were free to hit the road.  A few of the rigs had been started and moved around so that the tow cars could be hooked up.  This would save them a few minutes and allow them to leave right at 9:30AM instead of hooking up at 9:30AM and not getting out until 9:45AM or so.

At 8:50AM, Howard, parked next to our motorhome, started his rear-engine diesel, which was only about 6 feet from my bedroom window.  After idling the engine for a minute of two he turned on what sounded like his afterburners and then pulled out of his site to hook up his car.  By 9:00AM about half of the RVs in our group had their engines running and were jockeying for position to get their cars hooked up and ready to go at 9:30AM.  I got out of bed, put on my robe, and walked outside with only socks on my feet and yelled, “Hey, pipe down out here!”  After a good laugh and apparently some photos I went back inside with very wet feet and got dressed.  Exactly at the stroke of 9:30AM, 11 of our 22 RVs were pulling out of the campground.  I was ready by 9:45 and was out before 10:00AM, which left only the tail gunner and one other RV from our group in the park.

Carol Ann and I were right behind Stoney and Claudia as we left the park so we followed them at a nice comfortable speed for the entire ride.  Stoney and Claudia stopped to get fuel a few miles before the RV park but Carol Ann and I kept on going and pulled into the park and got into line behind 6 or 7 of our group.  It reminded me of the Army.  “Hurry up and wait!”

After getting set up, Carol Ann and I drove to the local Walmart for a few supplies and rain gear.  We each bought some rubber boots and I bought a rain suit to wear when hooking and unhooking in the rain.  It has a hood, not one of those funny rain hats.  Tomorrow we are car-pooling to Peggy’s Cove for the sights and lunch.