Would you believe, 1 months and no posts. :-[ Well we're back in L.A., and after a week recovering from a 4 month 9,500 journey, I'm starting to regain some energy. Here is the last post. It's rather long but then it covers a bunch of stuff.
Our last few days in the States were spent at Sunset Point RV Park in LEBEC Maine. LEBEC is a small fishing village with not much going on other than being the US port of entry to Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Campobello is a US/Canadian owned island accessible on the US side by vehicle over a short bridge. It is also accessible by ferry from the Canadian side. Its a small island and well worth a visit. There?s a short narrated tour of the Roosevelt home which includes a history of the island where FDR vacationed there as a child.
Sunset Point RV Park is a small campground advertised as the Eastern most campground in the lower 48. It is located on a bay about a mile from the bridge to Campobello Island. The sites are can accommodate 40 footers and offer water and electric. Most have a great view of the bay.
Other than a day on the Island and our continuing search for that elusive moose, (there?s probably more than one in Maine), there?s not much to do in LEBEC. After 3 days of some leisurely road trips exploring the area looking for a Moose, we headed to Calais ME and crossed into Canada. Surely we?d find those elusive animals in Canada.
Boarder crossing was easy and after a few minutes we were at the Visitor Center. Maria was mapping up while I found a bank and exchanged a few US $$$ for Canadian $$$?s. The exchange rate has become quite favorable over the past few years.
Our first stop after leaving the visitor center was St. John, an easy one hour drive along a great divided highway. Finally some decent roads. We spent a week in St. John and were able to explore most of the area from St. Andrews and St. Martin to just below Moncton.
Saint John is the largest city in the Province of New Brunswick and a good location to visit many of the areas great attractions. It is also home to one of several reversing waterfalls. While not exactly a waterfall, it?s the churning action created when two bodies of water moving in opposite directions meet. Quite interesting to watch but don?t fall in.
If you?re interested in nature and the natural beauty of an area the Fundy Parkway Trail is a must see. While the trail is not long, it is peppered with viewing points and requires a half day to do it right. The road is a bit of a roller coaster ride with significant grades. If I recall, one was about 19%. Fortunately they are short and very doable in a car. For those inclined, it also has many hiking trails.
One of the more interesting things we saw during the day were the many fishing vessels lying on their side in the mud during low tide. When we returned from our drive along the trail, those same boats were floating in water. A daily occurrence with any vessel moored in the Bay.
The Bay of Fundy has some of the highest Tides in the world. In some places the tides rise 1 inch a minute. Think about it. If you?re 5 feet tall and walking on the beach, you better know how to swim. Hopewell Rocks for example claims 50 foot tides. The admission to the Hopewell Rocks includes a free second day visit. The tide comes in twice a day so high to low takes approximately 6 hours. Consequently it takes too long to see both the high and low water levels in a single day.
As we were driving to the Trail, we observed a few adventurous types in kayaks exploring sea caves accessible only by boat, or so we thought. Later that same day, as we were leaving the Trail, we saw people walking into those same sea caves now fully accessible by foot with only a foot or two of water to cross before stepping onto the muddy ocean floor inside the caves. Of course Maria had to take some pictures from the inside of those caves. So we stopped for lunch at a nearby restaurant on the bay with a view of the caves. As the water level continued to subside the ocean floor became increasingly accessible allowing relatively easy exploration of the caves by foot. So after a quick lunch, we were off to the caves. A great way to conclude our week in St. John.
Our next stop was at Shediac NB, the summer home of Hfx Ed and Donna. Ed has room for a 40 footer in his back yard. Our 32 footer slid right in. Once hooked up to Ed?s electric we were good to go. Weather was pleasant so no AC necessary. That?s always a concern because of the furbies.
The beauty of visiting an area with a local is getting to see parts of that area most visitors will never see. In fact, I?m pretty sure we saw areas of New Brunswick most Canadians have never seen. Thanks to the generosity of Ed and his lovely bride Donna, we had two enjoyable days in Shediac. One of the highlights of our short stay was seeing the same Hopewell Rocks from across the bay. In fact, the water had dropped so much it almost appeared as if we could walk to the Rocks. However, considering how quickly that water rises, that probably wouldn?t be a good idea.
After saying goodbye to Ed and Donna, we were off to Nova Scotia. Not sure where we?d spend the next night, we stopped at the visitor center to map up. We also needed a few supplies and decided to make a quick trip to the local Walmart. Would you believe, while walking one of the isles, I ran right into Loretta Dodd, the better half of Team Lola. The Big Larry appeared within minutes. What a pleasant surprise. Larry gave me directions to the park where they and the Wishards were camped so after saying see ya latter, we drove to the campground and paid for a night. We could could only get one night so left the next morning for a small park at Spencer?s Island.
Driving to Spencer?s Island turned out to be quite an adventure. One of the more challenging drives. Hills and twists on roads that needed a bit of work. Did I mention how wonderful the roads in Canada were? Still we made it without mishap and spent two days at a full hookup park with spectacular views. At high tide, the narrow stretch of land with about 25 sites that could accommodate a 40 footer had water both in front and behind the motorhome. While the high tide would cover most of the muddy beach in the front, the water behind us never got too deep. The downside to the park was a good storm could leave a motorhome standing in several inches of water. Not that big a deal if it wasn?t for the fact that it would appear as if the motorhome was parked in the middle of the ocean. Not being a swimmer, that would leave me feeling quite uncomfortable.
After two days at Spencers Island, we headed to Halifax to rejoin the Dodds and Wishards for an enjoyable week at King Neptune Island, a small no frills park about 45 minutes SW of Halifax. King Neptune is only a few miles from Peggy?s Cove, a touristy area with some great hiking on rocks that are safe while dry but quite dangerous when wet. While the campground was pretty basic it was a great base to explore some of the many attractions in the area.
One of the highlights of our week at King Neptune was a day trip to Lunenburg. Now Lunenburg isn? that far and can be done in less than an hour if you stick to the highway. But we took the more scenic drive with stops at Chester and Mahone Bay. All in all, this was an all day adventure. These fishing villages are well worth a visit and are absolute 10?s on a 1 to 10 scale. We didn?t explore Halifax too much since, I?m not too keen on large cities. Halifax is not huge, but it?s close to 1/2 million people. We did drive into town one day to visit the Maritime Museum. Normally I?m not big on museums, but this one is well worth a visit.
We finish the week at King Neptune on the 3rd of August. That was exactly three months into what started out to be a 5 or 6 month trip. At least that?s what Maria had in mind. My idea was maybe 4 months. To say the least, I was pretty tired and ready to head back. While we hadn?t done the Cabot Trail and PEI, we had a great trip and saw more than I ever imagined. The Cabot Trail and PEI would have to wait. It also gives us reason to return. So on the 3rd of August, we began the return portion of our trip.
Halifax to Los Angeles can be done in 3,600 mile. We did it in a bit over 4,100. We decided to take the northern route since we thought the weather might be cooler and there were areas we hadn?t been to. Areas like Quebec City, Montreal and Ottawa. So two days in each city and some incredible site seeing. Now most everyone has heard of these major cities, but how many have been to or heard of some of the smaller cities. For example, Riviere-du-lup and Trois Rivieres. Those are two of the wonderful cities we stayed at while driving from Edmundston to Quebec City and eventually Montreal and Ottawa. If you have a bucket list, consider adding them. They will give you a flavor of Canada unlike any of the larger cities.
From Ottawa, we headed to Sault Ste Marie before turning south to Wisconsin to spend a week with two of my daughters and grand daughter. Once we said our goodbyes to the kids, we headed west toward Los Angeles. We did some long hard days so we could spend time in some areas we breezed through last year. Areas like Deadwood and Spearfish. Maria played the penny slots and got lucky. We left Deadwood $150.00 ahead.
Next,we spent 3 days in Cody Wyoming. We stayed at the Cody State Park. A great park along side a reservoir. The last time we stayed in the park was 2006 when we camped in the back of our F250. That was our pre-rving days.
Not wanting to challenge the Aerbus any more than necessary, we decided to forgo driving through the park on the return trip. The trip into the Cody area required one stop to let the V10 cool down and disconnect the toad. Only time the engine overheated. Actually it never went into the red. But it was climbing. Another time the brakes were smoking as Maria followed me down a steep grade. So rather than risk problems on a long uphill grade into the park, we opted to backtrack a bit and head Southeast through Worland and Thermopolis. On these back woods road, we discovered another area we plan on returning to. It?s the Wind River Canyon area which lies between Thermopolis and Shoshoni Wy. What an amazing country. From then, it?s a bit of a blur. Maybe too much driving or maybe asleep at the wheel but I think we were back in L.A. in three days.
The old Aerbus performed admirably. In one year and 3 months, we?ve logged 19,000 miles. This latest trip added about 9,500 miles which along with maybe 5,000 in the toad is way more than I anticipated. We had a few minor issues but no show stoppers. Things like the rear view camera that stopped working when we got to Truro NS. After a few days, it decided to start working again. But then it would work for a while and quite. Seemed to be bump sensitive. For the last three days, it?s worked flawlessly. Go figure. Then the leaks. Leaking from the front AC. Enough to discolor the ceiling around the AC. Then it stopped. No more leak. More rain but no leak. Go figure. Also from the front just behind the front marker lights. Dripping but no apparent source to any specific area in the roof. Then it stopped. More rain but no more leak. After all the time at Camping World in OK city fixing the lights, the front turn signal still doesn?t work. All in all, excellent performance from a 16 year old gasser with 91,000 miles. The old Ford V10 never skipped a beat. Well one minor beat. A vacuum hose replaced in Watertown NY. Then no more service engine lights and no more hard shifts.
