Our trip was planned to stop in D.C. for me to read for NSF. After that we went to the Constructivist Workshop. We left the Constructivist Workshop and drove on to the Maritime Provinces where we toured Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. We had a deadline for getting home because I had a hip replacement scheduled.
It’s August 8th, and this is the first time I’ve started writing about this trip. I’m going to try to go back and write what we’ve done so far, but I’m sure I’ll forget things.
Yesterday, August 7th, we took the ferry from Digby in Nova Scotia to St. John’s in New Brunswick. The weather was pretty for about the first time we’ve been here. Unfortunately, I had a headache and a little bit of an upset stomach again, so I tried to sleep most of the way across on the ferry--about three hourse. Rockwood Park CG, St. JOhns, NB, $29.00 CD.
July 20 (Sunday)--We left home this morning with Frodo. Dennis and Otto visited this weekend, but they left a little before we did. We only got to some caverns in Alabama. It was a really interesting cavern where a man who had run the property at one time, an artist, had dammed up some of the water in the caverns and made reflecting pools that created wonderful views. The entire property has been owned by one family since 1841, when the family came from Tennessee. The caverns are now being run by that family. Sequoyah Caverns and CG, $9.63 (They were part of this new half price club--Camp Club, USA)
July 21 (Monday)--We find that it’s really difficult to start moving very fast in the mornings, and are finding the 300 miles a day that used to sound so slow to be a goal now. Neither of us can remember this campground although I wrote down that it was nice and had nice pool. Fort Chiswell RV Park, Max Meadows, Virginia
July 22 (Tuesday)--We reached Washington today. The campground is farther out than I had thought. There is a bus to the Metro, but it’s a long ride on the bus--about 20--30 minutes and then about an hour on the Metro with one change of lines to NSF. The good thing is that I only have to be there Wednesday evening, Thursday, and then Friday morning, so it’s not too bad. This is one of the best run campgrounds I’ve seen. There is a large office staff and the office is open until 10:00 pm. There is also a large, well equipped store. I bought a collapsable broom for the RV since I’ve been using a little short child’s broom. Cherry Hill Park, College Park, Maryland
July 23 (Wednesday)--We made the trip into DC this afternoon, bought tickets for the Metro, and then ate at a Chinese restaurant near NSF before I went to the first meeting at 7:00 pm this evening. We were split into small working groups to review proposals. I found that our group was expected to view another set of proposals from another group as well as our own. Cherry Hill Park, College Park, Maryland
July 24 (Thursday)--I worked all day. I called Kathryn Parker and Tom and I met her at Eastern Market. We ate supper together at a very nice restaurant near there. It was good to see her. She’s in the process of selling her house and moving back to the West, but isn’t totally sure what she’s going to be doing. Apparently she wants to be closer to her mother. Cherry Hill Park, College Park, Maryland
July 25 (Friday)--I only had to work this morning, so Tom met me at around noon. We walked around a little and ate lunch, but then went back to the campground. Cherry Hill Park, College Park, Maryland
July 26 (Saturday)--We left College Park and started for New Hampshire for the Constructivist Workshop.
July 27 (Sunday)--Finding this campground was really difficult. We drove on many little roads that didn’t seem to go much of anywhere. In the long run, Gary (GPS) was a big help. Friendly Beaver CG, New Boston, New Hampshire
July 28 (Monday)--It was just about as difficult getting into Manchester as it was finding the campground. The directions given in the campground were difficult for us to follow. We were supposed to get a rental car, but there was confusion about who was doing what and we never got it. Tom took me in and picked me up in l”Escargot Rouge each day, and he learned the route relatively well by the time we left. We went to a minor league baseball game with the group from the workshop. It turned out that we ate and then sat in the area for people who were eating. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the game. Tom and I walked into the bleachers and sat for a few minutes before leaving and returning to the campground. Friendly Beaver CG, New Boston, New Hampshire
July 29 (Tuesday)--After Tom picked me up at the workshop we stopped at a restaurant we’d seen as we passed back and forth to eat. They had an herb garden in the back, and while we waited for our food, we saw one of the cooks go out to collect herbs for the meal. The waitress told us that the chefs kept the garden, but it was pretty as well as useful. The food was delicious. Friendly Beaver CG, New Boston, New Hampshire
July 30 (Wednesday)--After the workshop, we went into Boston with the group and ate at an Italian Restaurant, P----. I had tried to see Alexis, but his family was having a birthday party for his daughter that night so it didn’t work out. Friendly Beaver CG, New Boston, New Hampshire
July 31 (Thursday)--Tom came in to pick me up at the end of the workshop--about five o’clock, and we returned to the campground. Friendly Beaver CG, New Boston, New Hampshire
August 1 (Friday)--We reached Portland and realized that we could take the ferry to Nova Scotia and save some driving time and distance, so we decided to get reservations--which meant waiting a day--and take the ferry. Wassamki Springs CG, Portland, Maine, $82.82 for two nights
August 2 (Saturday)--We walked around town a little and visited some stores including one that had nautical junk and was somewhat interesting. Wassamki Springs CG, Portland, Maine
August 3 (Sunday)--The ferry ride over from Portland to Yarmouth was uneventful. It was about five hours across, and Frodo stayed in the RV. We were a little concerned about him, but he seemed to do quite well. Unfortunately, it was so misty that we could hardly see even the water, much less any animals or scenery. Our RV was at the very end of the ferry and was sprayed with salt water. Campers’ Haven RV Park, Yarmouth, $36 CD
(For more ferry pictures, click on the image above.)
August 4 (Monday)--We washed the RV to get the salt water off of it. The campgound we finally found had only 15 amp current, but even that didn’t seem to work well. We weren’t able to run the microwave. The hostess came around to collect the fee after we parked. Whale Creek Campground, Walton, NS, $23 CD
(Click on the picture above to see pictures of a church we visited.)
August 5 (Tuesday)--We drove to Truro to see the tidal bore. That’s the first tideal wave coming up the rivers of the Bay of Fundy. On the way, we saw advertising for rafting on the tidal wave and in the sand rapids so we stopped to make reservations to do that tomorrow. We watched the tidal bore come up the Salmon River at a restaurant/model that was right on the river. Unfortunately as we left, Tom forgot we were so close to the guard rail and put a hole in the rear of the driver’s side of the RV. It wasn’t into any compartment so it could have been worse. Scotia Pine CG, $30.50 CD.
(Click on the picture below to see pictures of the tidal bore.)
Click on the movies below to watch the tide.
August 6 (Wednesday)--Today was our ride on the rafts to experience the tidal bore and then the sand rapids. These rapids are caused by the tide covering the sand since it comes in so fast. We were told that we would get wet and we did--especially Tom because he sat at the front of the boat. Some of the waves were as much as six or seven feet tall. The difference with these and regular river rapids is that there are no rocks with these. If you fall out of the boat, you won’t hit your head on a rock, but just get wetter.
This was a very nice campground--and very full--almost in Digby. Fundy spray CG, Smith Cove (Digby), NS, $25.43 CD
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August 8 (Friday)--We went to the information stand that was adjacent to the campgound and asked for information on parking in St. John’s and on finding some dogfood for Frodo. By the time we’d figured out the parking--parallel on the street in two places--and walked across a lovely park we had arrived at the City Market. This is a building built for a farmers’ and craftman’s market by the city, I think, where they had take out food for lunch as well as fresh food to take home. We ate lunch there and then walked around St. John’s a little before going to find the dogfood and then heading back to the bay of Fundy. We had thought we’d stop at the Fundy park, but ended up going past it to the Hopewell Rocks area. We plan to walk around them tomorrow. Hopewell Cape Campground, Lower Cape, New Brunswick, $31.50 CD
August 9 (Saturday)--We did walk around the Hopewell Rocks. We were lucky that it was almost low tide so we could actually walk on the beach. On the way out we talked with Lisa and R. Jay Horwitz of Maine and Massachusetts and their well-trained black Lab. (RJ@FoliagePropertiesLLC.com) The rocks were interesting--some are also called “flower pot” rocks because of the shape with vegetation on the top. There were 99 steps down to the beach, but we walked down the beach a little to where there were only about 20 back up, and then we took the shuttle back to the top.
(Click on the image above for more images of the Hopewell Rocks.)
We ate our lunch and took naps in the parking lot before leaving for Prince Edward Island. We entered PEI by the bridge--13 kilometers long--and plan to leave by ferry. We stopped at the welcome center, which was an elaborate “Welcome Village” and then drove on to Charlottetown, the capital.
(Click on the Welcome Village picture above to see pictures of Charlottetown--I think)
We spent the night at a campground that overlooks the Hillsborogh River. Unfortunately our campsite didn’t.. Southport CG, Charlottetown, PEI, $39.90.CD.
August 10 (Sunday)--The weather was cloudy, but we decided to drive along the northern coast and then out to the North Cape--the most northwestern point on PEI. The campground host gave us a pass for the national park on the northern coast, but when we reached it, there was so much fog we couldn’t really see much of anything except the sand dunes and the surf, so we went on the North Cape. The entire drive was only about two hours. We’re having a little trouble adjusting to the smalll size of the island. It was an interesting drive across the island. We saw some coast, but it didn’t clear up untill later in the day. We did have a nice view by the time we reached North Cape. Frodo went walking along the edge with us and seemed to enjoy it.
(Click on the picture for more images of the North Cape.)
We drove back on the faster highway so we were mostly inland. Many of the yards were carefully cut, and quite a few of the barns are painted to match the houses. We’ve seen a crop that looks a little bit like soybeans in size, but has white (and sometimes purple) flowers and have decided that that crop must be the PEI potatoes that we hear about. We returned to Charlottetown hoping to eat at the Old Dublin Pub and see the “Anne of Green Gables” play, but the play and pub were not open on Sunday so we’ve decided to stay another day and see the play, at least, tomorrow night. Our time is getting really short, and we both want to come back up here. Southport CG, Charlottetown, PEI, $39.90.CD.
August 11 (Monday)--We’ve spent the day cleaning out the tanks, doing laundry, washing Frodo, and resting. In the evening we went to Charlottetown where we ate supper at an Italian restaurant near the water and then went to the “Anne of Green Gables” muscical. Our seats were on the very first row, and we could certainly see everything that happened including the actors’ faces and the orchestra--at least a little since they were in a pit below the stage. Tom made the mistake of putting his program on the top of the orchestra pit and was asked to remove it. The play was delightful. We returned to the campground after the play.
August 12 (Tuesday)--We drove across the southern edge of Prince Edward Island to Woods Island where we caught the ferry for Nova Scotia. We then drove on to Baddeck, which seems to be a good place to start the Cabot Trail. This is a road around the northern island, Cape Breton, that is supposed to be beautiful. We had heard that the road was very difficult with extremely sharp turns and poor surfaces so we’d decided to rent a car for the trip. However, someone suggested that we take a tour. Since the tour seemed not much more expensive than a car and we couldn’t find a car rental place, we decided on the tour. We made the arrangements for the tour and picked a campground by phone. When we reached the campground, we found that the campsites were very wet. It had been raining again almost all of the day. However, we did succeed in parking without getting stuck--and just have to hope that we can get out. We decided to stay two nights since we thought we’d be tired after the tour. Bras d’Or Lake Campground. $71.00 CD for two nights.
August 13 (Wednesday)--We set the alarm clock to get us up in time for the tour. We were to be picked up at 8:30 at the office. Tom gave Frodo a long walk, and the van was a little late for us because of road construction. The Cabot Trail was nice with some lovely views. The sun was out for part of the trip and it never really rained although there was some mist a small part of the time. We saw no wild life, but we stopped at one of the curio shops and saw a woman making a tapestry. At another stop we saw a village of scarecrows that was amusing. The road was not really so bad that we coundn't have driven the RV, but it was somewhat nice having someone else drive. We returned to the campground about 5:30 and spent the evening in the RV. Frodo was happy to see us!
August 14 (Thursday)--We didn’t make it to our reserved campground. We started about 9:30 and were in Halifax at about 1:30, but then we wanted to drive downtown and have lunch on the Waterfront, which took about two hours. We found Salty’s, one of the restaurants that had been recommended to us. It was pretty good. We then took a small detour to see Peggy’s Cove--a striking village just southwest of Halifax. It was all rock. There was a lighthouse, which had been converted to a post office, and they had a special Peggy’s Cove stamp, so we mailed some of the postcards we had for the grandchildren. As we left we saw a campground called King Neptune in a nearby town west of Peggy’s Cove (I think it was Indian something.) and decided we’d like to stay there if we came again to this area. We thought we’d drive all the way to Yarmouth, where we’d reserved a site for tonight, but it was too far. We turned off for Luneberg, but ended up at Oak Hill because it was closer. It has rained all day--probably fitting for our last day in the maritime provinces! Oak Hill Pines, Oakhill, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia--$30.50 CD.
August 15 (Friday)--We still had three hours to drive to make it to Yarmouth, which we did about 1:30. We first went to the ferry office and found that we had a few minutes to walk around Yarmouth. We had thought we might find a restaurant that looked good and have lunch, but we didn’t see anything that looked really good, so we decided to return to the RV, get in line, and eat lunch in the RV.
Tom took Frodo for a short walk before we were loaded on the ferry. They loaded two tour buses first--at least one of them backed on--and then loaded us. We had to enter the parking area in the ferry and then turn around so that we’d be facing the loading area and be able to leave without backing either direction. The ferry left at 4:00 pm. We had some time without fog this trip, but at least half of the time I would guess there was fog. Whenever the visibility dropped, the fog horn started going off regularly. There was noise from the car deck as several cars seemed to have security systems that went off. We also heard dogs--probably those in the kennels--barking at one time. We had popcorn and then pizza for supper. When we reached Portland, the bus tour groups went to the car deck first. We were only a little behind them. Frodo was very happy to see us. We went straight to the campground at Wassamki Springs, where we had a reservation.
August 16 (Saturday)--We drove most of the day--after our usual late start--but stopped just as we crossed into Pennsylvania. We found a good grocery store called Price Chopper--one of the most complete we’ve seen--to restock, and then went to the campground. It turned out to be a staging place for canoe and rafting trips on the Delaware River. The campsites are quite close and there are too many trees for our satellite, but we’ve had some luck getting the wi-fi at the campground. We talked with Rob briefly and plan to meet him tomorrow in DC. River Beach Campsites--$32.00.
August 17 (Sunday)--Tom wanted to balance his checkbook, with which he was having trouble, so we were very late leaving. We called Rob to be sure about meeting him and arranged to meet him at the Dupont Circle South exit. We stayed at the Cherry Hill campground again.
August 18 (Monday)--We found a Ford dealership, Darcars, that would change the oil on the RV so we made an appointment for 11:00. They discovered that the air filter also needed changing. I asked them about the cleaner for the windshields, and they discovered that the reservoir had a hole in it. More rodent damage? They didn’t have the part in stock, so I’ll have to have that done when we return home. We drove until about 6:30--partly because there was a wreck on the interstate that closed down traffic for the afternoon. We were lucky in that although we went on 11 to avoid the traffic and were caught in it for a half hour or so anyway, I took a side road that took us out of it and we were able to go around. We pushed on to Whythville, VA and unconsiously chose the same RV park in which we’d stayed on the way up. Fort Chiswell, Max Meadows. We were too late to sign in at the office, so we just parked and will pay in the morning.
I'm writing this years later and my memory has faded, but I think we stayed one more night in a city campground in which we've stayed more than once. To see pictures from the nearby park, click here. If anyone knows the name of this park and where it is, please let me know.