Lime Rock M3 @Cabot Trail Photo Journal

[leemik]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

A few of my car buddies decided to go on road trip to Nova Scotia this weekend and drive the Cabot Trail. We live in New England so the trip for me (I live south of Boston) to the trail and back would total about 2,100 miles. I drove my brand new Lime Rock M3 (just past 1st oil service) and it performed perfectly during the whole trip. All the cars on the run did as well. No major breakdowns and no problems what-so-ever from anyone. Since it was so many miles we had to plan several predetermined tier 1 gas station fill up spots and overnight hotel stays. We had an awesome time and I would recommend the Cabot Trail to any driving enthusiasts in the area.

Nova Scotia is a beautiful place, very scenic.. I was out of my natural habitat however (I'm a city guy) as it was extremely rural. The people were VERY nice, even the police in Truro were friendly. I liked the pace of this trip a lot. We got to experience some epic vistas and sample a lot of the good cuisine in the area.

Anyways, here are my pics...The journey logistics...


The guest book at one of the restaurants we happened upon.. If we make this trip again in a few years this is something to look back at

IMG_5757 by leemik, on Flickr

Point A: Meeting up @Manchester NH Thursday morning.. The F360 and V10 R8's all have modified exhausts and sounded great to drive behind. The 996 sounded great too but I think the turbos were louder than the exhaust :O

IMG_4816 by leemik, on Flickr

Off we go to a checkpoint in Bangor Maine..Eric's R8

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Chris' Elise

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Roy's beautiful brand new Boxster 981 S Roadster .. The color is gorgeous! TROLLED by teh RV!!!

IMG_4882 by leemik, on Flickr

Point B: Taking over the gas station in Bangor

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Grabbing a quick bite at MickeyD's before leaving for the Canadian border. The cars gathered a lot of attention where ever we went. Chris' mint condition 850i with AC Schnitzer wheels

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[leemik]

Just before the Canadian border we decided to do a quick stop and check.. Put radar detectors away and gather passports at a restaurant ~7 miles away.

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Then, the ill fated border crossing. The border guards in Canada were dicks! They have no parking to wait for friends and decided to yellow card the whole group just because we were waiting for each other. Those are dead bugs on my windshield.. hundreds of them!

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Those that were released had to pull over and wait on the highway.. Unfortunately, two cars in our party were denied entry and had to return home. Here we are waiting for almost an hour by the side of the road.

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Fact: Bugs LOVE orange cars!!!

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[leemik]

Eventually, we did get moving again..

They must have moved the highway because the iDrive had us driving through mountains!



IMG_5039 by leemik, on Flickr

Point C: Arrival at the Chateau Saint John.. Where the weary travelers drank at the bar and spent the night.

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We had spots in a heated underground parking garage reserved for us.

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The next morning, breakfast at the hotel for the group


...and we were off to Truro for a gas and lunch stop on our way to Baddeck

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Point E: Truro was a crappy city with crappy roads and lots of traffic.. and it was pouring rain and the crappy Shell station malfunctioned for credit cards. This is where we were also lightly harassed and warned by the police for "high speed" driving as well.. but they were actually very nice and polite about it and loved the cars.

[Sorry no pics in Truro but it was pouring out]

Off to Baddeck.. Way out in the boondocks! Baddeck is where the Cabot Trail is..

Point F: We arrived without incident

IMG_6091 by leemik, on Flickr

..and after dinner, a shower and a shitty pub at the hotel we were fresh and ready to hit the Cabot Trail in the morning. Baddeck is a pretty barren place.. mostly camp grounds and farms..

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I didn't realize the trail was actually as long as it was. I believe it was 185 miles total..


We made a lot of stops along the way.. basically when the view looked too incredible not to stop!

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This 911 from Montreal saw all the cars and decided to introduce himself and join us for a little bit of the run.. He had a GoPro in front...maybe he got some video?

IMG_5692 by leemik, on Flickr

[leemik]

The next stop we actually got a little lost and ended up in this little harbor "town" on the trail..totally by accident. We found a little restaurant and decided to eat there. The trail seems to be filled with souvenir tourist trap shops, churches and pizza places

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Fresh Mussels

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This little light house thing was an EXCELLENT ice cream shop

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Then, it was back on the road for a few more miles of twisties

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...until we hit this guy in the Ford Flex that decided he could keep up in front of us and wouldn't pull over.. When I reached him and it became my turn to wait patiently to pass I could hear his tires squealing at 30mph around corners.. FML


Another stop and an incredible view of Fishing Cove..

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Back on the road for the final leg of the trail. We spent about 5 hours total driving the entire trail including lunch.. and it took about 45 mins to get there and back to the hotel as well.

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At night, the Bonfire at the hotel was a fantastic end to the day..

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Some video from the Elise and R8 on Cabot Trail

[leemik]

The next morning we checked out of our hotel to start our journey home... but not before making a quick stop at The Bay of Fundy before driving all the way back to Saint John.

So off to The Bay of Fundy

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Ummmmmm...risking our lives? LOL


"Flower Pot" rocks at Bay of Fundy.. amazing!

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Tide was coming in quick and we had to climb back out..

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After this, we checked into the same Hotel in Saint John and left in groups the next morning.. I left at 11am with the second group and we were incident free all the way back home..

Oh, we stopped off in Maine to eat and saw/heard this random Porsche drive by:

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Huge disgusting Dragonfly got stuck in my grill !


The gang I'm on the right with the red Izod shirt

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The Lime Rock was able to handle the twisties with ease and keep up with the 996 and R8's on the Trail. On the highway though it's overpowered by those cars easily.. but at least my car has a full sized trunk In the end, with all that hard driving I also ended up putting in a litre of ///M oil due to a "Oil at Minimal Level" warning.. this I expected.

I'm looking forward to doing this again next year with my friends and make it an annual thing. The people of Nova Scotia really loved our cars.. I think it's because every local car we've seen there was either a pickup truck or a Chevy Malibu and our cars were different.. Thanks for looking!

--mike

[checkmate]

Great photo documentation! Beautiful trip man!

[GOLFFRR]

very very cool

and the photos

[Curt2000]

Awesome photos man, what was your camera/lens/filter set-up?

[mdosu]

EPIC!!!!! looks like fun trip

[1MOREMOD]

thanks for sharing, looks like a good time.

[yandy]

looks like a fun trip, great documentation.

thanks for sharing

[RD1M3]

Great cars and amazing pics! Looks like a perfect drive. Too bad you lost a few at the border!

[M3 Esq]

Great photos. I especially liked the shot of the M3 from above where you get the effect of seeing through the hood. Nice work.

[youngvedder]

great outline! did this a few years ago in my 350z and loved every second of it!

[leemik]

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by Curt2000

Awesome photos man, what was your camera/lens/filter set-up?

I used a Canon 5Dmk2 17-40L, 50L and 70-200L f2.8 IS version 1... I also used B+W and Hoya CPL filters

[pnoiBmw]

looks like you guys had a blast!

[Jbook]

Really great write up and looks like a fun trip! What was the reasoning behind a few of the cars not being let in at the Canadian border?

[signes]

Great post/narrative and phenomenal pictures. What a trip. Front page here you come...

[Curt2000]

Originally Posted by leemik

Thanks guys!

I used a Canon 5Dmk2 17-40L, 50L and 70-200L f2.8 IS version 1... I also used B+W and Hoya CPL filters

Thanks!

[chris s]

yeah, great writeup and pics. thanks for sharing...

[leemik]

Originally Posted by Jbook

Really great write up and looks like a fun trip! What was the reasoning behind a few of the cars not being let in at the Canadian border?

Two members were denied entry because they had felony convictions on their record from 25 years ago when they were youngsters. They have to get a diplomatic pardon or something like that from the Canadian consulate and pay a $1000 processing fee to be allowed back in.. Their passport chip is now marked to alert Canadian border patrol if they are within a 5 mile radius and are now subject to arrest if they try to return..

So if you get "yellow carded" make sure your record is clean or sealed. The US side checks Canadians the same way too apparently..

[GetAlife75]

Thanks for sharing! Looks like a fun trip. Nice array of cars. Good to see friends hitting the road together regardless of the cars they drive.