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!