Newsletter 5, August

USA / Canada, Newsletter 5 - August, 2012

It’s twelve and a bit weeks since we left home and about twelve and a bit weeks to our return. It’s all going so quickly. We left Lancaster with two new front tyres and a wheel alignment for RV Conestoga (Connie for short) and headed for the Atlantic coast.

Patriotism - over the top?

It was a quick trip through Connecticut, New Hampshire and into Maine on the interstates. A nasty blow-out on one of the back tyres, (thank goodness we have dual wheels,) had us concerned when we thought about “how it could have been”, but fortunately we were near an exit to Hartford, a large town where we were directed to George’s Tires. George and his Puerto Rican mates had it replaced within the hour. So we have more new tyres now, than old ones.

Big Rigs

We arrived with the Atlantic in front of us on Friday of a long weekend at Scarborough, Maine, and the forecast was for fine weather. People and vehicles everywhere, making the best of the end of summer holidays!! Eventually we found a campsite and that evening walked to a nearby cafe for dinner to try the local lobsters. The season is only eight weeks and we were there when they were $2.99 a pound. We could order two for $18 or three for $20. 

3 for $20

So we lashed out, ordered the full plate and took back to the RV what we couldn’t eat. We turned up the next morning and had Lobster Benedict for breakfast and then the leftovers for lunch. It doesn’t often come this good!!

My Canadian penfriend, Jane lives in St John, New Brunswick. We have been writing since early High School. We visited Jane and John 29 years ago and they had suggested visiting Arcadia National Park at Bar Harbor on the Maine coast. 

Bar Harbor, Maine

We arrived with thick fog hugging the coastline, 

Fog in Maine

so booked in for new brake pads for the rear brakes, (ongoing maintenance needed,) and had the perfect sunny day following, to visit the park. We left Connie at the Park Headquarters and caught the shuttle buses to take in the sites. There was so much to see and do: carriage roads to ride bikes or horses; 

Carriage Road

the loop road 

Loop Road

to drive and stop often, at Thunder Hole

Arcadia NP, Thunder Hole - very quiet

 and Otter Point; 

J & G at Otter Point, Arcadia NP

the lookout at Mount Cadillac (1500 ft); the sand beach, 

Sand Beach, Arcadia NP

if you could cope with the water temperature at 18 degrees; 

Sand Beach, Arcadia NP

many, many trails to hike and the village of Bar Harbor for shopping and ice cream. 

Grand Houses on the waterfront, Bar Harbor

Also accommodation in very expensive places.

Accommodation at Bar Harbor

We stayed at Lubec, very close to the border the next night, 

Camping at Lubec

 and in the foggy morning visited the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, on the most easterly point of USA. The fog horn was sounding eerily as the light was of little use. 

West Quoddy Lighthouse

So after nineteen states in the US, we readied our passports, handed them over to the Canadians and crossed the bridge to Campobello visiting F D Roosevelt’s “summer cottage” with its forty odd rooms and many acres. 

 F D Roosevelt's, "Campobello"

Returning the same way, only this time through the USA Passport control, we went inland past many lakes and green forests to Calais/St Stephens where we had to line up again. Stopped to get some Canadian $’s and buy chocolates for Jane from the Ganong Chocolate Factory.

We had filled up with fuel in the US. We had averaged from $3 to $3.50 a gallon (about 75c to 90c a litre) in the States, but now in Canada it’s $1.20 to $1.35c a litre). The Canadians are also slugged with a HST (GST) of 13% which is added to the displayed price (except food and fuel).

The highway, being widened in places to make four lanes, was a lovely drive to St John. We noticed less traffic straight away and it was all back to kilometres and edges along the road. We hadn’t remembered very much from our last visit but the four lane motorway through the city was definitely new. We were given a warm welcome and the washing machine was put to good use.

Chainsaw art in St John

Saint John, on the Bay of Fundy, is known for its exceptional tides (anywhere from 10 to 15 metres), and our hosts showed us around the next day, 

Welcome to Saint John

visiting the city, walking a couple of kms in Irving Park (natural coastline forest walk),

Irving Park

 and viewing the Reversing Falls six hours apart 

Reversing Falls rushing by the Paper Mill

to see the water rushing out of the Saint John River and then rushing in later through the narrow opening.

G & J with Jane and John at ReversingFalls, Saint John NB

 Along the waterfront six sculptors from around the world have six weeks to produce a work of art from huge granite boulders. See www.sculpturesaintjohn.com 

Sculptor at work

We will look forward to Jane and John’s photos in another five weeks to see the finished works.

Covered bridge in New Brunswick

So with two RV’s set for travel we left and went east along the Bay of Fundy (all about the tide). The first night was in Fundy National Park 

National Park Camping

with the little town of Alma (famous for sticky buns and lobsters) on the river below the camp.

Alma at high tide

Alma at low tide

Fishing boats and harbor at high tide

In the mud at low tide

We were entertained in the camp soundshell on a gloriously warm evening by a very talented Irish singer/dancer/violinist. Further along the bay we stopped in at Mary’s Point (Shorebird Reserve), and the spectacular Hopewell Rocks. 

Hopewell Rocks, Bay of Fundy

The shoreline is conglomerate rocks that have been worn away by the constant wash of the extreme tides forming “flower pots”. We arrived around low tide so were able to walk on the “beach” amongst the formations. 

Hopewell Rocks, low tide

You can paddle a kayak through them when it’s high tide

Hopewell Rocks, high tide

and have a completely different perspective of the coastline.

Confederation Bridge (Opened in 1997) joins Prince Edward Island (PEI) to the mainland. Over 12 kms long it curves slightly as you travel to cross it. We stopped briefly for some information on PEI, and then drove to the north coast, to Cavendish National Park for a couple of nights. 

Sand dunes behind Cavendish Beach

Jane and John had spent many summers here with their children and knew the area well. The beaches were sandy with little waves and rich red cliffs. 

Cavendish Beach - anyone for a swim, 15 degrees?

There were many bike/walking trails and amusement parks for entertainment. Golf courses were many and it would have been nice to have had a “practice” on one or two or more.

Wildlife on PEI

We visited the Green Gables cottage 

Green Gables

made famous by L M Montgomery in “Anne of Green Gables”, and tried “beaver tails” – a doughnut mixture flattened, cooked and topped with your favourite chocolate and banana, or lemon, sugar and cinnamon topping. 

Beaver Tails

We tried “Cows” ice cream – yummy, 

"Cows" Ice Cream

and the Raspberry Point oysters were also “given a run”! Not bad either.

Driving PEI is a delight. The soil is very fertile and has intensive farming and cropping. 

Intensive Agriculture

PEI farmhouse with friends visiting in RV

Pretty farm houses dot the landscape and everything is green with lots of lakes and inlets. 

Dalvey-By-The-Sea, a delightful setting and originally the summer house of a Scottish immigrant, who made his money in the Standard Oil of Kentucky in late 1800’s, is now run by Canada Parks as an hotel. 

Dalvey-By-The-Sea

It was here that Wills and Kate visited last year.

Charlottetown Streetscape

And so to Charlottetown (the capital), to visit the Founders Museum and have more “Cows” ice cream. 

Charlottetown homes

Another ferry links Woods Point to Pictou in Nova Scotia. 

Lining up for the ferry

Lighthouse at Ferry Terminal

Checking the lifeboats in case of icebergs

We camped that night in Walmart’s carpark as Garry needed to go to a tyre place in the morning to get them to tighten the valve stem on a back tyre that had a slow leak.

Big Chair

 All fixed, and we headed for Sydney (northern Nova Scotia). The driving was very pleasant, less traffic, wider roads with a verge, pretty countryside of pines and maples, and lakes with the blue sky reflecting in the shallows.

The Fortress of Louisbourg, (another Parks Canada Site – we are certainly getting our money’s worth of the yearly Pass) was a French coastal trading and military settlement established in 1713. 

Louisbourg, Nova Scotia

The subsequent siege in 1758 by the English, was a turning point in Anglo-French struggle for what today is Canada. The English then burnt it to the ground.

Over one quarter of the town has been historically restored as a living history museum. It is set up with the original buildings, and furnished in the period with many thespians dressed and acting as if they were living in the time frame. Really worth the visit.

Louisbourg Fortress

 Our next journey is to Newfoundland by ferry from North Sydney (named for the same Lord Sydney), to Port-aux-Basques, a six hour crossing and the forecast is for a “gentle” sea. 

Lots of Lighthouses

And just for a little interesting fact, I always thought South Australia/Northern Territory was the only time zone that went by a half hour to the rest of the world. Well it isn’t! Newfoundland/Labrador is half an hour ahead of the Atlantic time of the Maritime Provinces, so we will be three and a half hours behind London, and eleven and a half hours ahead of Yass (minus a day).

Jen and Garry xox