Canada Eh?

Canada Eh? We're off again travelling the roads in the Northeast USA and into Canada. In four days we have only seen one other TC on the road but tonight there are three older Coachman TCs here in the campground. Unfortunately my French is "don't speak it" and their English is about the same. We did communicate with hand gestures mostly thumbs down at the big As and Cs. Nice wine sharing though.

Sunday - First camp night was at St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada where we once again visited Kingsbrae Gardens.
http://www.kingsbraegarden.com/. The gardens alone were worth the trip. The RV park is within walking distance of the gardens and is basically a sand pit but inexpensive and right on the water. http://www.kiwanisoceanfrontcamping.com/. Wore a couple of layers off our shoes that day.



Monday - On to St. John, New Brunswick. This small city packs a vast amount of things to do in a small area. First was a visit to the "Reversing Falls".
http://new-brunswick.net/Saint_John/reversingfalls/reversing.html. The ocean tide and the river draining meet and form a waterfall which reverses and creates whirlpools. Again a few more layers off the shoes with walking down the stairways to the river. We watched two kayakers tackle the falls, not very successfully but we didn't watch a drowning at least.

Next on to the New Brunswick Museum as they were hosting an exhibit of early shipbuilding, railroading, and logging. Even though the TC is only 26 feet long, it intimidates most parking lot attendants so we were having problems parking. One man finally told us to go park for free at Harbor Station, the city arena for hockey and concerts. There is an amazing fully enclosed, tiled walkway that goes from the arena uphill over roads, through buildings and up to the older market part of town. http://new-brunswick.net/new-brunswick/maps/sjcenter.jpg. The museum was excellent (free!), fresh fruit at the old market even better. Thankfully the return to the TC was downhill.

From Saint John, we drove on to visit a quilting friend in Sussex and then down small roads to the Fundy Provincial Park. Big wooded sites, hiking trails right out of the campground but these old feet were put up on the picnic table that night. It is amazing how clean the air is in a spruce forest with that sharp pine tang.

Tuesday - up early to hike down to Pointe Wolfe and see the tides. Pea soup fog so we only made it half way down. No sense in keeping going, could barely see each other. On we traveled through the Fundy Coastal Trail headed for Hopewell Rocks and the 40+ foot tide change. Fog lifted as we drove treating us to scenes of farms, forests, beautiful valleys filled with crops and livestock. The one short cut we tried to take (well it WAS on the Delorme Map) quickly became a turn around. Not fun feeling a 6-1/2 ton vehicle sliding sideways on loose gravel. Four wheel drive got us turned around partially in a cow pasture and back to the main Fundy Coastal Trail.



Dead low tide was at 9:09AM and we got to Hopewell Rocks about 9:30. LONG walk down,down,down to the beach, going through pine forests, wooded walkways and finally a long corkscrew set of iron stairs. Those stairs ended on the "beach" which was comprised of rocky outcrops, deep red mud and gigantic "flower pots" of stone left over from rock eroded away by the ocean. You could literally see the tide coming back in. Lots of deliriously happy children covered in muddy ooze dancing around their equally unhappy parents. Climbed back up - slowly.




On through Moncton, Shediac and then a cut over off of Route 15 to PR955 - a mistake even though the views were good out to sea. If anything were ever going to fall apart on the TC, that road would have rattled it loose. Over the Confederation Bridge to PEI - Price Edward Island and a leisurely drive through small roads to Cavendish. We'll camp out of here for two days, tomorrow probably driving the north loop out to the top of PEI and also trying to find the best seafood place on the island. Have to take my house sitter a couple of pounds of fresh scallops. More when we get Internet access again