Saturday June 12, 2010

Today we went the other direction along the coastal drive.
We stopped at a yarn mill in a little town called Belfast, they produce machines for spinning, carding and felting of wool. The machines are computer capable and they have a huge weaving loom, bigger than any I have ever seen.
The mill is located on a huge piece of farmland and the mill business must be pretty good. They had a gorgeous home and the land was lovely with sheep, goats, cows and a large pet pig.
The mill is family owned the mother and one sister run the mill and the twin sister runs the tea house. The men folk run the business of shipping machinery all over the world.
Dorothy bought some wool for our niece Rebecca who has her own spinning wheel. Also bought some already spun to make some scarfs. They sell wool from all kinds of animals even dog and cat. Weird but unbelievably soft.
Then we went to look at "bottle village" It is in someones back yard, someone with too much time on their hands or an alcoholic built little houses a school and a church out of empty liquor bottles.
We stopped at a cool little place to eat, every table and every chair were different it looked like a yard sale exploded, but our lunch was really good.
Tomorrow we are heading into Cavendish to stay for a few days, we have seen everything here and now we can't drink the water, it has to be boiled they even brought bottled water to us.
We bought lobsters cooked them and put them in the freezer, guess we will have many friends when we get home.

Friday June 11, 2010 Day 6

Prince Edward Island is best known for potatoes, lobsters and Anne of Green Gables. We are headed to the town of Cavendish where the story of Anne of Green Gables was written.

We are hoping to go there on Sunday.

A long day of riding in the car and not going very far.
We headed out to take the Coastal Road that is along the Northumberland Strait Coast.
We traveled for over 4 hours and if we would have gone direct it only took 25 minutes. The ride was beautiful the coast is just something. We saw lots and lots of lobster boats and a ton of buoys in the water (lobster pots). The cliffs here are unbelievable. A little scary, but great for pictures. Our lesson for the day was trying to figure out their signs. Everything is in pictures and some of them took us a few minutes to figure out. The best was the car falling off the cliff. We figured that one at really fast.
Found another lighthouse here and decided they all look the same.

We came upon a Winery that was right on the coast and they had some really nice wines. We even stopped at a liquor store and bought PEI potato vodka. Can't wait to try it.
We stopped in a little town called Montague for lunch ate outside right along the water. Food was delicious and just sitting there watching the inlet with the lobster boats was really enjoyable.
We rode over to see the ferry to take to Nova Scotia and asked about the ferry from there to Bar Harbour and low and behold they don't run it anymore. We are now changing around our travel plans a little. We will be going to Nova Scotia by car and then coming back and traveling from here. Not sure what route yet; but sure the tour director will figure it out.
We bought some lobsters off a boat at the wharf and cooked them for dinner had too many so we cleaned them and put the meat in the freezer. We will certainly enjoy it when we get back home.
The weather here is surprisingly warm; it has been in the 70's all week. Everyone here says this is very unusual for this time of year.
Well enough for today, a cup of tea and a good book await.

Thursday June 10, 2010 Day 5

What a day!

We left New Brunswick this morning about 10 AM headed to Wood Islands, part of Prince Edward Island. It is only 200 miles, but it took almost 8 hours. The first 2/3 of it wasn't too bad - highway driving 4 lanes 70 mph. Then it all fell apart our directions told us to go on a certain route which we so obediently did. The road was 2 lanes and I mean a very narrow road, not for a 42 ft motorhome towing a car. The road was paved and I use that term loosely. We had to follow it for 28 miles because there was nothing on it so no place to turn around. It brought us back onto the highway we had gotten off of. Then we had to go another 60 miles. The directions were a little fuzzy, and the roads were awful.

We had to go over the Confederation Bridge that is 13.7 km; it was not pleasant for one of us who doesn't like bridges.

We finally made it and it was worth it; once again we are parked with water right in front of us. We are facing the Northumberland Strait. And if we look out to the right we can see a lighthouse, not sure which one it is yet. The lesson for today is the Canadians are so ecologically conscious they ought to use some of their ecology budget and FIX THEIR ROADS! Along our journey today we passed the town of Shediac, it is the lobster capital of the world. Tomorrow we will venture out and drive along the coast. In the car. Once we stop shaking we are going to just spend a quiet night.

June 9, 2010 Wednesday Day 4

Here we are in the Atlantic time zone. It was a little weird last night, it didn't get dark until about 9:45 PM.
Headed out in the morning to do the Bay of Fundy Trail. Arrived with a dead camera battery and no camera bag. Dumb Huh. Thank goodness we were only a few miles away from the motorhome, so off we went back and retrieved what we needed. The trail is only 13 km long, but there is certainly plenty to see. If you are a "experienced" I mean a tri-athelete you probably could do it in about a week. Ha Ha. They lable it for bikes, hikers, and vehicles. Needless to say which we were. But, Dorothy did hike down 60 steps and 1/8 mile to get a picture of "Flower Pot Rock"; really fat and really out of shape but so worth it. Oh and had to climb back up.We took our time driving and enjoyed the views from all the lookouts, we never realized how huge the Bay of Fundy really is.
After we were done we went to the Caves Restaurant for lobster rolls for lunch, they were delicious.
After lunch we decided to venture out and try to find The Reversing Falls. We used our GPS which we have used all over the US and has never steered us wrong - well today was an exception it got us close, but we ended up in a ghetto. Found a man leaning against his car and wasn't too scary looking so we asked him for directions. We were close but on the wrong side of the town.
When we finally got there it is in front of a steam plant and is something to see; the falls run down stream and the tide comes up stream and they crash in the middle. Pretty amazing.
When we were done doing all that we needed a little down time so we headed back to the motorhome for some R & R. Now we are sitting watching the lobster boats waiting for the tide to be high enough to come into dock. I guess it will be off to the dock later to buy some more lobsters at $5 per pound who can resist.
Tomorrow we head out to Prince Edward Island.

Tuesday June 8, 2010 Day 3

Wow what a change in weather, when we got up this morning it was 45 degrees and Robert put the heat on without being asked to - guess it is the altitude.
The town of Houlton, Maine where we stayed last night was established in 1807 and 2 miles from where we stayed was a tribe of Indians called Maliseet.
Headed out toward Canada along the way we traveled past the town of Nackawick which is the home of the world's largest axe yes axe. Who knew?
Driving along Route 7 we actually saw a young moose grazing along the side of the road; now Robert is a true believer he has now seen moose in 2 countries. The photographer was too slow to get a picture.
Arrived in the Bay of Fundy in St. Martins - New Brunswick - Canada.
We parked the camper and look right out of the windshield at the bay. Totally awesome, arrived at low tide so you can walk on the ocean floor or bay floor if you are that picky. Can watch the lobster boats going by too.
We took a drive over to the sea caves which you can walk to at low tide but can only get to them by boat at high tide.
It is just beautiful here, but the towns are very tiny and there are some magnificent old Victorian homes.

So here we were sitting outside having late afternoon coffee and tea and noticed that the lobster boats were all lined up waiting to dock - waiting for the tide to come in far enough for them - so we decided to drive to the dock which we can see from the campground and low and behold they will sell you lobsters right off their boats - bought one 7 pounder and a 5 pounder for $5.00 per pound - can't imagine what something like that in PA would cost - Robert is outside cooking them right now - yes we even brought a huge pot and burner for outside - we are no dummies when it comes to fresh lobster. We will try to get more tomorrow and freeze them. The tide in now coming in and it is just amazing they only have 1 low and 1 high tide in a day.
Tomorrow we will be taking the Fundy Coastal Drive - arrived her too late to do that it should take all day - we did one other small drive today and saw a lighthouse out on the point.
Some of these people have a million dollar view from their homes.
We got some really good pictures today and I am sure we will get plenty more tomorrow. This picture was taken standing next to the motorhome in the campground.
Keep you all posted!

Monday June 7, 2010 Day 2

Hi Everyone

Today we crossed from MA to NH and the roads in MA were horrific, we had drawers and cabinets open that have never done it before. It was like an I Love Lucy cartoon. And the most unusual thing was in NH there was a giant liquor store that had its own exit, interesting.
We have arrived safely in Houlton Maine.
What a beautiful drive today.
We got a late start today, it was really interesting trying to get out of the
"big rig" friendly campground. We definitely had to have the car unhooked, there was a tree right next to us and a fence along side the tree and then right across from us was a tree and pick up truck and the road was very narrow. But our ever capable driver got us out with no trouble.
We arrived in Houlton, Maine at dinnertime, so we asked the clerk at check-in about restaurants and he said there were 2 really good ones, but they aren't open on Monday. So we settled for burgers.
Along the drive today we pulled into a scenic overlook to view the Mattamiscontis Mountains which has a elevation of 1272 feet. It was just beautiful. Maine is just a green, lush, clean state. The campground is just 4 miles from the Canadian border. Tomorrow we head to Canada to New Brunswick for 2 days.

Sunday June 6, 2010 Day 1

Well here we are day one, we left our home and dog in the ever capable hands of our niece Emily. We didn't get started until 9 AM, but with all the time in the world what's the hurry.
We didn't hit much traffic, believe it or not, but when we got close to the campground in Sturbridge MA it rained like the world was ending. And yes when we went to pull into the site for the night there was a picnic table in the way. One guess who had to go out in the monsoon and move it.
Got settled - waited for the rain to stop - then were off to Webster MA to "The Chowder Bowl" much to our disappointment it is no longer. That is one reason we chose to stay the night here they had the best clam chowder we have ever eaten. Well we settled for grilled steak, mashed potatoes and green beans. Not quite the same, but are looking forward to eating lobsters until we can't anymore. Tomorrow we are headed to Maine, just overnight. Will keep you all up to date on our adventures.