August 2nd: To finish up the step story - got it all completed and back on the road by 4:30 PM. The morning didn't start out very well, however - hit the awning on a pole while headed to the repair shop after the rear tire dropped into a hole while taking a corner and tipped the motorhome. Long story short, an entire new awning is on order, and will be waiting for us when we return on September 5th for them to put it on for us. They were afraid to even try rolling out the one on the motorhome to check for damage, as they weren't sure they could get it rolled up again. The awning is a power awning and the motor and tension rods are all in the awning itself, which was pretty "crunched". So we opted to just replace it as it most likely is not repairable. They say we will be in in and out in about 4 hours. The place was wonderful to work with so that made things a little better! All we can say is "another Stamon adventure!" Headed out and drove a few hours to another Walmart RV Park lot in Berlin, VT. Quick dinner, walk around with Baxter for some exercise, and off to bed.
Vermont has the corner on bad drivers by far - totally crazy people who just pull out in front of you, cut you off, can't stay in their lane of travel, and even split lanes to try and get ahead at stop lights! Makes Seattle drivers look tame!
August 3rd. Up and on the road by 0800, headed for Ben and Jerry's! Kept seeing "watch for moose" signs - ever hopeful to see one, but no luck yet! Toured Ben and Jerry's, which was lots of fun. They even have a graveyard for former flavors! Sampled some ice cream, and back on the road again.
Stopped at a Vermont maple farm - Goodrich's, 3rd generation farmers, did a tour and learned about making "real" maple syrup. Maple sap is only 2% sugar when it comes out of the tree, and it takes a lot of sap to make a gallon of syrup! Tasted samples, stocked up on "Real Vermont Maple Syrup", and back on the road.
Made it as far as Gorham, VT, and checked in at Dolly Copp Campgound - a Forest Service campground a few miles out of town. Dropped off the motorhome, back in the Jeep, and drove to the top of Mt. Washington. What a trip that was! Very steep road, no guard rails, most of it above tree line, so amazing views. Crazy to learn the Appalachian Trail actually crosses the summit of the mountain! Mt. Washington has the reputation for the worst weather in the United States. Wind speeds of 231 miles per hour were recorded at the US government weather station at the top in the 1930's! They actually had to run steel cables over the top of the building at the summit to keep it from blowing away! Weather is very changeable, with little or no warning. There was a thunder and lightening storm off in the distance while we were there. We were fortunate to get clear views and decent weather to walk around on top. Careful and slow drive back down the mountain, and back to the motorhome.
Had a nice walk around the campground, quick dinner, and to bed.
August 4th - Lazy morning after some hard travel days. Dumped holding tanks and filled up with water in Gorham, fueled up, and headed for Maine. Traveled US 2 (the same highway that crosses Stevens Pass in Washington!) - very rural countryside, saw lots of potato fields and corn fields, but still no moose!
Drove through Mexico (Maine, that is) on our way east. Fortunately, called Verizon to make sure we had cellular coverage in Canada. Turned out neither of our "dumb" phones were capable of international calling, so had to arrange for a new "dumb" phone that was. Fortunately, were able to pick one up in Bangor, ME at a Verizon store there. Turned out to be right next to another Walmart RV Park, which was good, as it took forever to get the phone set up and working correctly. Had to purchase an addition to our current plan to provide for coverage, but it and texting are somewhat limited. Strangely enough, our wireless hotspot (also through Verizon) works fine, so we have some access to email.
August 5th - on the road, headed to St. Stephens, New Brunswick. Had another "Stamon Adventure" at the border. We were one of the "lucky" ones selected for additional checking, so got to spend an hour sitting and waiting while they checked our records and did a physical check of the motorhome. They wanted to know why Glennis had been fingerprinted so many times, but were OK once she explained her work with law enforcement, Crime Watch, schools, etc. We also mistakenly under-declared the amount of wine we had on board (thanks to all of you who generously gave us bottles of wine for our journey!!), so Mike got a lecture on how we could have been detained, fined hundreds of dollars, and been flagged for extra scrutiny every time we crossed the border for the next 10 years! We paid a $10 (Canadian) fine and 11 cents for an import tax on the undeclared wine, and were on our way! What can we say?
We journeyed on to St. John and spent the night at a nice city park there. Visited the "reversing rapids" - the tide coming in from the Atlantic causes the river to "run backwards" - pretty impressive! Visited with some nice people next to us at the park for a while, and did some laundry. The washing machine and dryer each cost 2 "Loonies" (Canadian one dollar coin), which gave us a good chuckle.
Had a quick dinner and to bed.
August 6th: Got up, and stopped to feed some left over bread to the ducks in a pond at the park. Found one duck who stayed on the grass - we noticed she only had one-half of her top beak, poor thing. We gave her lots of bread!
We went back to the "reversing rapids" to see them on an outgoing tide - amazing how different they looked! Very difficult to get pictures that give a true idea - but look them up on the internet - there are lots of videos. Reversing Rapids in St. John, New Brunswick. Then ran downtown St. John to check out Market Square and saw a moose! Unfortunately it was bronze, but it was life-size. Hope that isn't as close as we get.
Back in the car and headed for the "Fundy Trail" - a drive through a privately owned park along the coast of the Bay of Fundy that was once the estate for a hunting lodge owned by William Randolph Hearst. There was a wonderful museum/visitor center with a funky moose in the garden - quite fun. It was very foggy when we got there - got the giggles over imagined pictures of fog with the caption "really, the Atlantic Ocean is right there".
The fog eventually lifted, and we were able to see some wonderful views. Walked on a beach on the Bay of Fundy, crossed yet another suspension bridge although this one was over a river (this one wasn't very high or scary), found some really cool covered bridges (all the bridges on the old roads seem to have been covered, but we don't know why), and had amazing clam chowder at St. Martins for lunch. We also shared a lobster roll, but weren't that impressed - neither one of us are big lobster fans.
Back to the park, got the holding tanks dumped, water tank filled, and everything unhooked and ready to go in the morning. Had dinner, read a little bit and off to bed.
August 7th: On the road and headed to Chignecto campground in Fundy National Park. Got there at 11 AM and found a huge traffic jam. Turned out Monday was a holiday for New Brunswick, and there were about 20 trailers waiting in line to dump their tanks before leaving. They were parked everywhere and the park staff was running around trying to manage them while checking in the incoming people. Had to wait for our site until 12:30 - the guy in it wasn't ready to leave at 11 and then he couldn't get one of his slides to go in. We were just getting ready to ask for a refund and go on down the road to another place when he finally left. Also were not able to get a site reservation for the following night, and no cell service, so decided to run on up the road towards Moncton and stop at a campground listed in our Good Sam book to make a reservation in person. So dropped the motorhome in our campsite, jumped in the car and headed out. Stopped at Pondersosa Pines Campground next to Hopewell Rocks and made a reservation for tomorrow night. Got directions for a good place for a quick lunch and tried out the Railway Diner in Hollingsworth - amazing food and very friendly staff. Tried poultine for the first time - a definitely NE Canada delicacy. It is french fries with cheese curds and gravy - totally delicious but you wouldn't want to eat it all the time as it is VERY rich.
Waddled out to the Jeep and continued on to Moncton, which is one of the places on the Bay of Fundy that has an actual tidal bore. We were impressed by the color of the river as we drove towards Moncton - it's nickname is "Chocolate River" and it was actually the reddish-brown of cocoa. The color is caused the the stirring action of the tides that roil up the sand and silt.
We wanted to find out the best view point in Moncton and make sure we knew how to find it as we will come back tomorrow to watch it come in. Found "Bore Park" which has great viewpoints, then turned around and headed back towards the motorhome via Hopewell Rocks. These are very unusual geologic features along cliffs on the Bay of Fundy. As this was a major holiday in New Brunswick, and entrance to the area was free that day, we got to experience the rocks with about 10,000 of our closest friends. However, the rocks and geologic features were awe inspiring and we wandered around for several hours. Very interesting as they are only accessible for a short period of time (3 hours after high tide to 3 hours after low tide) due to the huge tidal change (up to 50 FEET!) nds! People from all over the world were wandering around - it was fun to watch their different reactions. The ones with the vegetation on top are called "flower pots". Glennis & Baxter dipped their feet in the Bay of Fundy.We were tired after all the climbing around and up and down, so caught a shuttle ride back to the top.
P.S. Mike & Janet - if anyone from New Brunswick calls and wants to know if you know anyone called "Mike S" - YOU DON'T KNOW HIM! Otherwise, he may never get ouf of Canada!
Got back in the Jeep and turned our sights towards the scenic drive route back to the motor home and a side trip to Cape Enrage lighthouse. Bumpy, twisty and broken OLD road (didn:t even have a center line!), but wonderful scenery, more covered bridges, and a very windy and cold top of the cliff by the lighthouse. We had wanted to see the sunset from there (high enough for a view to the west) but were about an hour early for that and didn't want to wait that long, plus it was COLD!
So we enjoyed the view and headed back towards Alma - a little town just past where the motorhome was parked. Mike wanted pictures of the lobster boats laying on the bottom of the harbor as the tide was out again. The lobstermen are very ingenious - the boats rest in a cradle on the bottom of the harbor when the tide is out and then re-float when it comes back in.
Were still full after the poultine we had for lunch, so opted for an ice cream cone for dinner - and Baxter got one too! Got an hysterical video of him eating his cone (will try to post it if we can figure out how!) and he attracted quite an audience with his antics.
Back to the motor home, got all packed up to travel the next morning, and to bed.
August 8th: On the road early, dropped the motor home in the parking lot at Hopewell Rocks (we were too early to check into the new RV park) and headed for breakfast at Railway Diner and then on to Moncton to watch the tidal boar (it was "scheduled" for 11:10 AM). It wasn't as high as we had anticipated (the phase of the moon has a direct impact on the size of the bore, and we are about a week past a full moon) but it was still very impressive! The viewpoint was just above a bend in the river, and all of a sudden you see this wave running up the river and can hear the roar of the water. It only takes a few minutes for the water to reach where we were and then it goes on past and the entire river bed fills with water. Pretty cool!
Pictures don't do it justice - just Google Tidal Bore at Moncton, New Brunswick.
Mike was out of beer, so after the tidal bore we located the "Pump House Brewery" and he got a growler of Fire House Red beer - pretty good and almost half of it is already gone as I write this tonight!
Headed back to pick up the motor home and stopped in Hollingsworth to mail some post cards we had forgotten to mail before we crossed the border. It cost us $1.20 EACH (Canadian, but still YIKES!) to mail them - so we probably won't be sending many more postcards from Canada! Picked up the motor home and checked into our campground for the night. Had a nice long walk with Baxter, looked for the moose that frequents the area (again, no luck) and for the 4 foot, yes FOOT, snapping turtle that was seen and photographed in the area recently. They think it is still around as a lot of ducks on the pond have disappeared! No luck with either quest, so grabbed a shower, a light supper, and caught up with the blog.
We are heading for Nova Scotia in the morning, and hopefully better cell coverage/reception!
Mike and Glennis
Things we have learned:
- Vermont has the worst drivers we have encountered yet!
- Ben and Jerry's makes good ice cream
- We don't think cars in New Brunswick have turn signals - no one uses them!
- We vastly prefer the New England weather (and temperatures) to that of the southern states......
- Canadian road signs take some imagination to figure out, like "trucks entering the roadway" - will post a picture later
- Moose are a figment of someone's imagination (possibly the sign company, because they sure have a lot of them posted)
- In 28 minutes, the incoming tide in the Bay of Fundy can rise from a person's ankles to their neck!
- Cell service in New Brunswick sucks.....
- Poultine should be listed as "dangerous and addictive"
Many years ago I too traveled up Mt. Washington, by riding on a steam driven cog railway train. Was quite a trip! Did you notice if it was still in operation?
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for taking the time to post your travel experiences.
Colin