It’s Day 258 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. After a week of driving four hours or more every day, I was very happy to spend just over an hour to get from Sussex, New Brunswick to the Neptune Drive-In in Shediac NB.

According to an article in the Times & Transcript, copied into notes on a 2008 petition at GoPetition.com, then-owner Gilles LeBlanc’s father opened the Neptune in 1964. Cinema Treasures says the drive-in closed in 1985 but reopened in 1990. Then around 2006 it closed again, as Gilles put the place up for sale. That petition was delivered to the mayor of Shediac, who had earlier said the town could not afford the asking price of over $1 million.

(By the way, who was Gilles’s father, the founder of the Neptune? In a 2016 obituary, one Gilles LeBlanc, son of Edgar LeBlanc, passed away in Shediac at the age of 60. A 2005 New Brunswick news release said that “Shediac-area resident” Gilles A. LeBlanc pleaded guilty to a violation of the Clean Water Act related to “property owned by his father, Azor LeBlanc.” Then there was the Gilles LeBlanc, former Director of Material Resources for Villa Providence Shediac and son of Ronald LeBlanc, who passed away in 2015 at the age of 53. Was the Neptune’s Gilles one of these? I just don’t know.)

In 2010, “a local business person bought the property and approached (Jeff) Coates with a suggestion to lease the drive-in business,” according to a story in The Globe and Mail. Coates joined with Robert Farquharson to lease the Neptune. In the 2012-13 offseason, they switched to digital projection.

This video of the day, a 2013 report from Global News, casts doubt on the date the Neptune opened, but it’s also a nice interview with Coates and a peek at the freshly converted projection room. For another, wobblier, look at what it was like to visit the drive-in in 2014, check out YouTube.

On my final night in Canada this year, I got a chance to see a new release, American Assassin. I’m always happy to find an active drive-in during the off-season, and doubly glad to watch something fresh.

Miles Today / Total: 69 / 30477 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: American Assassin / 164

Nearby Restaurant: So I’m at the beach, and I want something historic yet inexpensive. The solution was Chez Léo‘s fried clams. It’s only takeout, and the fries aren’t nearly as wonderful, but those fresh, tasty clams can’t be matched just anywhere.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I couldn’t find a chain hotel in Shediac itself, which left me open to a reasonably priced night at the Hôtel Shediac. It’s in the middle of town but looks like it was built recently. My “executive floor” king bed room had the full set of modern amenities including a Keurig. With the pancake machine, breakfast was like a Holiday Inn Express. It’s all good.

Only in Shediac: Remember Animaland, concrete sculptor Winston Bronnum’s park from yesterday? Bronnum also built the most remarkable item in Shediac, the world’s largest lobster. The town calls itself the “Lobster Capital of the World,” so naturally it needed the lifelike 35-foot-long sculpture to remind visitors.

Next stop: Bangor Drive-In, Bangor ME.

It’s Day 256 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It was another day of long hours (five of them) driving through lonely, tree-lined highways in the Canadian maritime provinces. This time, the trip was from Cambridge NS to the Cape Breton Drive-in Theatre in Sydney, near the eastern tip of Nova Scotia.

As described by its now-abandoned web site (found on Archive.org), the Cape Breton was “owned and operated by James and Toula Sifnakis … since July 10, 1975.” Its history appears to have been uneventful from then until 2013. That’s when James and Toula’s son Angelo Sifnakis had to decide what to do about the need to convert to digital projection.

“I’d love to take the leap but the thing is, is that the drive-in has to become more than just a drive-in theatre,” the younger Sifnakis told the Cape Breton Post in August 2013. “I want to make it into a recreational park but that’s going to take hoards of money and need some government help and so forth.”

When the Cape Breton closed after the 2013 season, its web site said “We look forward to our Spring 2014 opening,” but it stayed closed. Its marquee eventually said that the drive-in was closed for the 2014 season.

May 2015 brought good news. “I expect to try to have the drive-in open, let’s say the last weekend of May, or first weekend in June,” Sifnakis told CTV News. Because we’ve been shut down for a year, we’re going to have to do some repairs.”

Now the Cape Breton is open seven days a week during the summer and weekends at the edges of the season, like this day. If I could wait around for another couple of nights, there’s a triple bill scheduled for Friday, but I’ve got more drive-ins to visit and more lonely highways to drive to get there.

I really don’t like portrait-mode video, but today’s YouTube embed above is topical (May 2017) and a nice picture of what the Cape Breton experience is like. There’s another video, from 2011 and with fewer details, over here.

Miles Today / Total: 308 / 30062 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 163

Nearby Restaurant: I had to eat at a local legend, the food truck known as Fuzzy’s Fries. It’s been around forever, selling “chips” with a touch of salt and vinegar, but no ketchup. Well, it’s moved into the modern world in one small way; if you really want ketchup, they’ll give it to you.

Where I Virtually Stayed: It had been far too long since I stayed at a good old Hampton Inn. The Sydney location has in indoor pool with a 90-foot long, double corkscrew water slide. For my room, I sprang for the suite with all the modern amenities plus a fireplace. The breakfast was standard Hampton, which is a pretty good standard. I’m feeling closer to home already.

Only in Sydney: Out on the boardwalk, not so far from Fuzzy’s, you’ll find the Big Fiddle, a 55-foot high violin statue created by Sydney artist Cyril Hearn and unveiled in 2005. It’s called the “Largest Ceilidh Fiddle in the World”.

Next stop: Sussex Drive In, Sussex NB.

It’s Day 255 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. These Canadian maritime islands look so small on the map, but it was another 4+ hours to drive this day, from Brackley Beach on Prince Edward Island to the Valley Drive In in Cambridge, Nova Scotia.

The Valley opened around 1956, according to my reference books. Some online sources say it was 1950 or the early 1950s. At any rate, Rockwell Fletcher “Rocky” Hazel and a Phil Barkhouse bought a chunk of the former Waterville Airport, according to the Annapolis Valley Flying Association, and built the drive-in right where the hangar used to be.

The history of the Valley gets a little fuzzy after that, except that it stayed in operation into the 1990s. After it closed for a while, something remarkable happened. The Coldbrook and District Lions Club bought the place and reopened it in 1999. As described by ValleyConnect.ca, “The initial loan … has been repaid with proceeds from their very 1st season with money to spare, which was donated to local schools. Since then they have been able to preform a number of key upgrades. Switching to digital projection in 2012 with the help of the local Credit Union and replace their screen in 2013 in part by a grant from the Province of Nova Scotia.”

The Lions run the Valley as a civic-minded non-profit, staffed (mostly?) by volunteers. Other local non-profits take turns hosting 50/50 fundraisers at the site each weekend, and they sometimes rent out the screen for private functions. It’s a great example of how a local group can preserve a bit of history and provide entertainment to the community.

The YouTube video of the day is a great look at the Valley’s opening weekend this year. If you want to see another video from a couple of years ago showing the Valley’s then-new screen, and if you have a high tolerance for gratuitous profanity, there’s another YouTube clip here.

Pretty much all the drive-ins around here are closed on weeknights this time of year, yet there was a reason I made sure to visit the Valley on a Tuesday – drive-in bingo! Players buy cards from members of the Lions Club as they drive in and park. “We recommend you bring a piece of cardboard or TV tray to rest your cards on during play.” The announcer reads the details over the radio, and there’s an intermission break. The concession stand and bathrooms are open. All in all, it’s the next best thing to the drive-in movie experience when they aren’t showing a movie.

Miles Today / Total: 255 / 29754 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 163

Nearby Restaurant: It had been a while since I’d ordered a pizza, and the House of Dough was right across the street from my hotel (see below). I had a pie topped with the local spicy ground beef, called donair, plus bacon, pepperoni and the usual suspects. Glad I always pack some antacid to fight all those spices!

Where I Virtually Stayed: In this little hodgepodge of communities along Highway 1, the Greensboro Inn is one of the closest to the Valley, and probably one of the nicest. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary motel. Inside, my room was clean and stocked with all the modern amenities. It’s not one of those places that serves breakfast, but with a Tim Hortons just a couple hundred feet away, that’s not a problem.

Only in Cambridge: The Charles MacDonald Concrete House Museum in nearby Centerville is just what it says – a house made by Charles MacDonald out of concrete. He was an artist who spent four decades devoted to manufacturing, promoting, and using concrete. His house was a converted cement brick factory.

Next stop: Cape Breton Drive-in Theatre, Sydney NS.