Heading South

We crossed into Maine and of course we managed to head into a storm; severe rain and flooding along the coast but we are sitting high and mostly dry in a Walmart parking lot in Bangor, once again all campgrounds are closed. We're planning a long drive south tomorrow, Denis feels his tan fading and wants to get back into his shorts and sandals!

It's raining so much we are thinking we should explore our options, maybe put pontoons on the trailer and turn it into an ark. But 'the beast' got new tires yesterday so we should be well grounded.

We headed south from Bangor, through Augusta then Portland and into New Hampshire (live free or die) for a short spell. On into Massachusetts and then spent a good portion of the afternoon trying to skirt Boston. The good news is... we found a campground that's open! I saw a post of pics of snowmen from the Fairview/Hines Creek area so I guess I better stop whining about the rain.

I woke up to sunshine this morning, amazing how my outlook improves! We went to Plymouth and saw 'the rock', the Mayflower II and walked around the waterfront. Then it was off to Cape Cod, we were creeping along in stop and go traffic because there was construction on the bridge and a lot of others wanted to enjoy the beautiful day there. After the bridge the congestion decreased and we toured through the historic towns and byways. Denis is certainly missing the Miata, he could really zoom-zoom around here!

Driving again, mostly west today. We left Massachusetts and travelled through Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and stopped for the day just south of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Leaving Scranton, we headed south, took a wrong turn and decided to stop at Gettysburg. We visited the eternal flame monument on the battlefield, there are enough cannons, guns, monuments and storyboards to keep Denis occupied for a long time. The town is very interesting also, many beautifully preserved historic buildings. We crossed into Maryland and then into Virginia for a mile or two and then into West Virginia.
 

Hey David, he's thinking this would be one for the front lawn!

We are camped at Harper's Ferry another famous civil war battleground. We had a small plumbing issue so Denis got parts and did the repairs. Beautiful day (28 degrees) we drove to the historic town site and wandered around. The town is on the point where the Shenandoah River runs into the Potomac.

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This morning we drove to Rockville, on the outskirts of Washington and took the metro (subway) in to Union Station. What a beautiful train station! We headed out to the 'mall' (sorry girls no shopping). We started at the Capitol building, wandered around the exhibits, but didn't take the tour. The dome is covered in scaffolding but not tarped in like it would be at home so we could kind of see it. We made a small detour so Denis could take a picture of the Canadian Embassy and he wanted to drop in for a visit but I wouldn't let him. We continued along the mall then stopped for lunch, Denis was disappointed with Washington's version of Montreal smoked meat. Fortified by lunch we continued to the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial and on to the Lincoln Memorial. We got a glimpse of the Whitehouse but the Obamas were not receiving visitors so we kept on going. We would both have loved to spend all day at the Smithsonian but I guess that will have to be next time. If we live to be 105 we might get to visit some of the art galleries, museums and historic sites we're missing this trip.

Washington Monument from Lincoln Memorial

Here's a little catch up on the maps, so far we've missed Vermont & New Hampshire

I'm Back

Oct 15 - I arrived back Halifax just after 7:00 pm, it was a long flight, 7 hours. I had a  great trip home, the weather was wonderful, my drive to Peace River couldn't have been better. The valley was lovely, lots of leaves left and the sun was shining! I managed to see almost everyone and shared Thanksgiving with some of my dear ones. Denis wasn't so fortunate the weather didn't cooperate and he bruised his heel, he was eager to move on when I got back so we drove to Truro that night.

Oct 16 - The tidal bore was only a ripple this morning. After a brief stop at the Masstown fish  market we headed for New Brunswick. Stopped for lunch at Memramcook and visited the Lefebvre Monument Historical site (Acadian heritage site). We continued into Moncton where we experienced Magnetic Hill and stopped at the Magnetic Hill Winery. We've been busy finalizing our insurance so we can 'fly south' and leave this chilly weather behind.

Beautiful Reflection

Oct 17 - Left Moncton heading to St. John via Hillsborough. The morning was rainy but it let up and we walked down to the Hopewell Rocks. also known as the Flower Pots because the Fundy Tides have eroded the lower portions leaving formations that resemble giant flower pots at low tide and I guess they'd look like floating flower pots at high tide. We drove through the Fundy National Park but we are finding that most places are closed for the season. We finally found a covered bridge we could drive through at St. Martins, well there was a small one at Magnetic Hill. We bought cooked lobster at Alma, the season opened here on Tuesday.

Low tide at the Hopewell Rocks

Covered bridge at St. Martin's

Oct 18 - We started our day at the farmer's market, then went to see the Reversing Falls, which are more reversing rapids from what we saw. We toured around and saw Fort Howe lookout, the Carlton Martello tower and the Fort La Tour site as well as walking trail sculptures.

Oct 19 - We had a lovely drive along the river to Fredericton. Along the way we made a brief stop in the village of Gagetown. Once we arrived in Fredericton we drove downtown and then walked around the historic buildings but we didn't dally because it was chilly and windy. We drove around a bit more and then hunkered down in the trailer with the furnace on, definitely time to head to warmer climes!

Oct 20 - On the road to St. Stephen, another pretty drive, a few places all the leaves are down but most trees still have quite a bit of colour. Sandra said her New Brunswick drive was like driving the Shaftsbury Trail all day and I agree. I stopped at the Briggs & Little woolen mill in Harvey but somehow we missed the giant fiddle, tribute to Don Messer. We found a place to leave the trailer and looked around the town (St. Stephen), that was after we finally found the town office to get a map, all the visitor info centres are closed. We went to or called all the campgrounds in the area but no luck they closed October 15 or earlier. It is an interesting town just across the St. Croix river from Calais, Maine. There was a cotton mill until 1957 which employed up to 1000 people, all that's left is the monument. Now the town's claim to fame is chocolate, the Ganong factory, I guess it's called a chocolatier but it is a good sized factory.

Cotton workers monument, the base is the lintel of the building

We drove to Saint Andrews, on the way we had to pass up a winery because we are already having to drink up our reserves before we cross the border. Saint Andrews is a very tourist oriented town (summer visitors) lots of restaurants, neat shops along mainstreet, whale watching and fishing trips. There's a huge resort hotel, the Algonquin, parts of which date from the 1880's. We visited the historic blockhouse and there were cannons! We saw a couple houses with cannons on the lawn, I'll have to keep an eye on Denis or there'll be one on our front lawn. On the way back to St. Stephen we stopped at St. Croix Island National historic site, across from the actual island. It was the first place the French attempted habitation, but they found it too harsh, after the first winter they moved to Port Royal.

Oct 21 - The temperature this morning was 0.3, heading across the border tomorrow and we'll spend a couple days getting to somewhat warmer temperatures. We toured the chocolate museum and learned about chocolate making and the Ganong family. The company is run by the 5th generation of Ganongs who are very involved in and committed to St. Stephen, very nice to see. And the tour included free samples, we are on chocolate overload now!

Nova Scotia Sep 21 - 30

Sep 21 – we enjoyed a lazy morning and then went to Peggy’s Cove. It was a beautiful day, and we were able to walk out on the rocks in front of and around the lighthouse. We met Sandra there, she was staying at an inn just down the road. On the way back to the campground we bought lobster and Sandra came for supper, now she’s hooked on lobster. It started raining about 5:00 and rained hard all night.

A calm day at Peggy's Cove

On the rocks at Peggy's Cove

Sep 22 – after the night of rain the sun came out and we drove to Sandra’s and took her car in to Halifax, Denis driving. We spent several hours at the Citadel, then went down to Pier 21, visited the farmers market and walked along the waterfront. There were 3 cruise ships in port so it was busy. We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant on the wharf. We continued our waterfront walk, toured around a bit more and then headed back. We decided to check in at Peggy’s Cove on the way by, what a difference, the waves were crashing where we had walked on the rocks the day before and the spray was reaching the parking lot.

Demonstrating the uniform of British soldiers of the 18th century

 

Beautiful day on the waterfront, Halifax

Sep 23 – said good bye to Sandra as she is off to Cape Breton. We took our empty propane bottle to fill at Costco, we’ve discovered it’s less than half as much as anywhere else. We drove up to Windsor and toured the Glooscap Trail, stopped at the Walton lighthouse which was once a busy seaport shipping barite. We continued on to Truro then headed back towards our campground and luckily found a farmer’s market a few miles from our base.

Sep 24 – we drove to Chester and took the ferry to Tancook Island. We were surprised at the number of people who were going over then we noticed a TV camera. It turns out there was a town hall meeting regarding the ferry service, both CBC and CTV news and a newspaper reporter were attending. We checked the online news that night and we managed to get in a few shots on the newscast. We visited the Oak Island display in Chester, that’s as close as Denis can get to the treasure because they only do the tours in the summer. We made another quick visit to Peggy’s Cove and all was peaceful once again. On the way back I got Denis to drop me off at the Peggy of the Cove gallery. There really was a Peggy, apparently as a child she was rescued from a ship that wrecked on the rocks there. They asked me to sign the guest book and I noticed that the person who signed 3 lines previously was from Peace River and had been there an hour earlier.

Sep 25 – moving on from our week on St Margaret’s Bay we toured a bit around Bedford and Sackville and ended up in Dartmouth. We checked out the Schubenacadie Canal, at one time there was a water route from Halifax harbour all the way to Cobequid Bay (that's through the middle of Nova Scotia). It became obsolete when the railroad was built. 

Sep 26 – we went into Halifax again, visited the Prince of Wales Tower. We went back to the waterfront and continued from where we left off on our previous visit. Had a seafood lunch on the waterfront and shopped a bit around the ‘historic properties’ shops.

Sep 27 – left Dartmouth and drove to Truro, found another farmer’s market and visited the Stanfield’s outlet store. We watched the tidal bore come in and it’s definitely more impressive in the day light (last time I was here we got up in the middle of the night to sit outside wrapped in blankets and not see much).

 

Tidal Bore - We think we were there at the wrong phase of the moon and maybe the wrong time of year but the river definitely changed direction and the sand bars were quickly flooded.

Denis is a bit upset today, the beast lost a hubcap! All the rough roads in Newfoundland and we were on the Trans Canada, hit a very rough bridge approach and there it went.

Sep 28 - we got an early start, left the trailer at Five Islands campground and drove towards Cape Chignecto. Saw quite a bit of territory, Parsboro, Spencer's Island, Joggins, Amherst, Springhill, etc. We arrived at Joggins at high tide, not a good time to see the fossil cliffs. Amherst has an abundance of lovely old buildings built with red sandstone. The leaves are turning and it was a beautiful sunny day so we really enjoyed the drive. There are many blueberry fields, and the plants turn a vibrant maroon red.

Sep 29 - another leisurely morning, then we headed back to Bedford to be near the airport.

Sep 30 - we drove to Cow Bay and stopped at Rainbow Beach but it was too windy to enjoy a walk on the beach. We revisited Fisherman's Cove at Eastern Passage and had fish & chips for lunch, did a little shopping and then came back to the trailer so I could pack.

Yup I'm flying home for 2 weeks to catch up on a few things, especially some grandkid hugs! Denis will stay here and do some maintenance on the equipment. So no blog for a couple weeks.