After a while all the hotels blur together.  Amenities begin to lose definition, as long as accommodations are clean, dry and comfortable they serve a purpose.  Some are nicer than others, but after a while the running down Deltas meld with the aspiring Days Inns while Best Westerns roam the wilds of variable conditions and service. So, what do you do to stand out? How about hot and cold running llamas?  Stonehame Chalets in Scotsburn, NS has it sorted.

A rural Inn, the Stonehame requires a bit of gentle gravel riding, but it’s worth it.

Why?

I was about to take notes about the fairly standard room in the main lodge, the working farm setting, the rolling fields, and the picturesque view.  At check-in, the operator takes pains to point out that most people comment on the view, a sweep of Pictou County complete with an eye dragging billowing processing plant.  A quaintly mixed bag and then I glance down…

And a llama is looking back at me.

Can you ever have too much llama footage and photos?  Llama plays with cat, llama grazing, llama running…  Yes, this is clearly the definitive country inn experience of the trip.

There’s more than that.  There’s a feeling I’m getting from the roads of Nova Scotia;  this is motorcycle territory, no doubt. 

Even the quick ride from the PEI-Nova Scotia ferry (Wood Island, PEI-Carbou, NS), was an entertaining series of curves and sweeps on a well-maintained two-lane roadway.  There’s not a straight-line sensibility here, there are roads scribed by time and coastlines and from a motorcyclist perspective that’s good news.

The Stonehame doesn’t have food services in the evening – a wrinkle?  Well, yes, or an excuse for the nighttime running of the curves between Scotsburn and Pictou on the 256 pre and post dinner.  No harm in that, and plenty of grins as the Multistrada is unleashed at night.  The real wrinkle is that the Garmin Zumo GPS won’t turn on… I could be forced to use maps.