I would have loved to stay in Portsmouth New Hampshire for the first time in my life, but for some reason we spent the night across from the outlet malls in Kittery Maine, in a sprawling, one-story place called the Coachman Inn.

The next morning, after hitting up the Under Armor store for some shorts, it was then into the Target in Augusta after a 1.5-hour drive. Reaching my maximum amount of shopping in a day by that point, next up was a place I knew had a county courthouse without any prior research: Augusta Maine.

Augusta's Kennebec County Courthouse was built in 1830 and enlarged in both 1851 and 1907.

It was always likely that I was going to visit August since it's the capital of Maine, but this fine courthouse didn't hurt the city's appeal.

Across the street from the county courthouse, I couldn't help but appreciate the Kennebec County Jail more than their county courthouse.

This was my first time actually stopping in Augusta instead of simply driving past on I-95. Enjoying my walk around the judicial buildings, I went for a little loop, savouring the sunny day where there wasn't enough snow to hinder my movement.

The above building in the Lithgow Library, built in 1894-96 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. When I learned that Moncton was only 5.5 hours away from Augusta, I dreamt of New Brunswick jobs and being able to randomly work remotely from such a gorgeous spot.

If you're wondering about the Maine State Capitol building, we made a left-hand turn that brought us to the Kennebec County Courthouse, while the state capitol was only 300 meters to the right.

I didn't even think about how this was the capital of Maine while walking around though, which is sort of a bummer because I doubt if my Mom has ever seen a state capitol building. Hmmm, I must've had something else on my mind.

Oh, of course, right.

If we rewind a bit, in the last update I talked about possibly staying another night in Kittery to ride the amazing skatepark in Rye New Hampshire. Finding myself in Augusta, obviously I had left Kittery behind, so from here I rushed forward since there was a QMJHL hockey game being played in Moncton tonight.

Heading back to that icy isle with the only professional hockey located seven hours across the island, who knew when I'd get another chance to partake in beautiful junior hockey.

As mentioned, it's hard to believe people in Moncton can reach exciting Augusta in only 5.5 hours - a time made even faster when you roll through the border after only a handful of questions. It was so smooth that my Mom threw up her hands in disbelief that I resisted picking up the requested, cheap Fireball that my father wanted brought back.

How quickly the parents forget about their 10-day temporary license plate concerns, eh?

Meanwhile, I was pleased with discovering a gas station that actually sold glass bottle 40s back in Maine (even if it was Hurricane instead of King Cobra or St. Ides). There was going to be some malt liquor on the island!

Dropping my Mom and the car off at the Go Motel out by Jones Lake west of downtown Moncton, I braved the frigid night that welcomed me back to this part of the country.

Moncton's Avenir Centre was only 1.1km (0.63mi) away, but I was scrunched down trying to keep out the cold.

As you can tell from these photos, the Moncton Wildcats no longer play in the Moncton Coliseum. On a parcel of land that used to house a dying mall that I always wondered about exploring, there now stands this enormous arena built in 2018.

The Avenir Centre seems to be well received in Moncton, especially as it has brought additional musical acts here and not to Saint John or Fredericton. This new arena has provided an additional reason for musicians to keep going east in Canada instead of stopping in Quebec City.

Not caring at all about modern arenas and actually liking the Moncton Coliseum, once the City of Moncton finally got through the many delays and built the Avenir Centre, I didn't have much interest in checking it out unless I just so happened to be in Moncton on Wildcats game night.

As much as it was convenient tonight, this was an extreme case of a soulless modern rink like what you see in the NHL. There's a reason I have next to no desire to travel around and see the 25 cookie-cut NHL rinks built between 1993 and 2010.

I couldn't have disliked the bland and uncomplicated Centre Avenir more, which was funny because here I'd avoided staying an extra night to ride an amazing skatepark, or to check out beloved Maine towns, or go see new Maine lighthouses - to instead come up here and check out this? What was I thinking?

We only had five hours to cover to reach the ferry the next night, so I salvaged things by cleaning up a couple lighthouses in the Pugwash/Cumberland County/North Coast area; just inside the Nova Scotia side of the New Brunswick border.

I didn't have high hopes here as I only briefly looked into these lighthouses and they seemed like your standard, small, wooden Nova Scotia lights, but now that I was here, this was neat. Woody Point Lighthouse was an old one which someone purchased and made some funky modifications.

[Xzibit voice] "yo, we heard you like space in your lantern room, so we added a whole solarium space to your lantern room space!"

Mother was like, "oh look, it's for sale" and I started running the bus and car rental cost formulas to come stay here in my parents' new lighthouse cabin.

Except they were talking about Isy and I purchasing it!

Pfft, a cabin that's a tank of gas away, plus a $300 ferry ride, plus another tank of gas in Nova Scotia? That's ridiculous.

A mere 800 meters (1/2-mile) down the road, we made another left hand turn on to another flat road dotted with cottages.

Up ahead was the Coldspring Head Lighthouse on Lobster Cove Lane. Unlike Woody Point, this one isn't privately owned and was actually still in use until 2013.

Thankfully Coldspring Head shouldn't disappear overnight like some other Coast Guard lighthouses, as this 1890 structure was designated a heritage lighthouse in 2015. This was one case where the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act actually worked how it is supposed to.

Coldspring Head was transferred to the Coldspring Heritage Society and recent pictures show the light looking in great shape.

Coldspring Head was actually built around the time of the Chignecto Ship Railway, which is where they started building a railway line and docks to transport ships across the 27km (17mi) isthmus here that separates the Bay of Fundy and the Northumberland Strait. This would have eliminated the need for New England and Great Lakes ships to take the much more dangerous route around Nova Scotia.

They ended up completing 13 of the 17 miles of track, but then the financial institution that was bankrolling the project failed.

(There are still some ruins of the Chignecto Ship Railway to see but they're being swallowed up by the marsh. I really should get around to checking them out one day.)

The winter weather finally caught up to us in Nova Scotia, causing me to worry that I only had stock all season tires on my car. And showing up in smallish Antigonish on a Sunday wasn't going to get me any studded winter tires. Heck, the Canadian Tire Auto Department wasn't even open.

So there were a few hairy moments even though I skipped out on that giant hill near Bras d'Or, but I was able to go slowly enough on the NS-4 that I eventually got us safely to the ferry in North Sydney (after more Taco Bell in Sydney, of course).

Eventually sitting in my cabin on the boat, Newfoundland premier Dwight Ball was talking on the TV about some storm that was threatening to hit St. John's. Mother was quickly asleep, while I cracked a 211 and read into the night.

Good times driving back to The Rock.