St.John NB & Maine

Where was Stephen King’s fictitious town – Derry supposed to be? To read about our latest travels our Blog update.

The answer to the question is Bangor Maine, the home of Stephen King, Gail’s favourite author. It is a rainy Saturday morning as we wait for hurricane Kyle to pass. I chose a campground on a hill so flooding shouldn’t be a problem. We left Halifax Sept 22 and made our way to Rockwood Campground in Saint John NB. The weather for that week was spectacular with sun,sun, & and more sun. Rockwood campground is part of a 2200 acre park in the city that is mostly inhabited by tradesmen working on new mega projects. You can not make a reservation and with limited sewer sites all that is available is power and water. The have a pump truck that will empty your tanks for $20. I had a long discussion with the campground director and sent a e-mail to the mayor ( No reply yet) about the lack of sewer sites. With tourism being down 50% they made a decision to fill the campground with permanent trades people to keep the revenue up. It is too bad because it is a spectacular RV park right in the middle of Rockwood Park. The city bus comes right into the campground twice a day and will take you on a city tour for $18. While there are many other campgrounds in the surrounding areas this is the only one in the central city. We had a good time because the weather was so great. Now they should rename St.John to IRVING. Most of us from the west have no idea how big Irving Oil is with diversity in refining,trucking,petrochemical plants, Nuclear Power, Pulp & Paper etc. While the down town harbour is pretty with a lot of old buildings the view from our campground on the hill tells a different story.

St.John is a massive Irving refining plant that stretches for miles. They are currently building a second refinery and a Nuclear Power Plant. All of this energy is exported to the USA and NONE is sold in Canada. I feel sad for St.John as I think it has lost its beauty with pollution.

We left Bangor Maine and crossed over to the US at Calais. The boarder police were really nice and didn’t put me in jail for the lemons and limes Gail forgot to throw out. They didn’t even ask about booze or meat. It was a gorgeous sunny fall day and colors had just started to turn as we took the south route- Highway 1 to Bangor. Originally I had planned on staying at Bar Harbour but Hurricane Kyle changed my mind. Thought we would find some high ground to be safe. We are in a nice campground called Pleasant Hill. It is just on the outskirts of Bangor but there were lots of choices. Yesterday we toured Bar Harbour , which is part of Acadia National Park and found it spectacular but crowded with lots of traffic. This is in the off season with all the huge hotels empty. I have no idea what happens in the summer. There is a KOA campground in Bar Harbour that has waterfront sites for $78/night. Not sure what we are going to do yet. The weather for the next week is not great even after the storm passes. This afternoon Doug & Louise Perry are arriving in their Motorhome. They parked next to us in Halifax and are from Cranbrook so we had two BC plates side by side. We are having them over for dinner tonight and will talk Canadian !!!!! Some facts- Diesel is $3.86/gallon, 2 liters skim milk $1.81, 5-liters of Mountain Chablis in a box- $14.99, two salmon filets wrapped in crab meat $3.99 each.

Keep the Emails coming and will work on uploading some more pictures.

Touring Nova Scotia & PEI Sept 22-08

Touring Nova Scotia & PEI
Sept 22-08

It is a frosty Tuesday morning and wanted to update this Blog before we leave for St.John, NB and on down to Bar Harbour. It has been a very busy 2 weeks and as I write this our friends Bruce and Judy Williamson ( B&J) should be getting on their WestJet flight bound for Comox. They are long time friends who arrived in Halifax on Sept 9 to tour the Maritimes with us. Lots of interesting people and places with specific dates being in the itinerary section. B&J stayed at a B&B at the entrance to the Woodhaven Campground just outside Halifax. It is an average campground with its greatest asset being close to Halifax but right next to a major shopping complex. Costco, Staples & Future shop. Yeah !!!!!!
We left our RV parked at Woodhaven and did two trips ( 3 days each) with B&J staying at B&B's. The first 4 days B&J stayed in the B&B and we did day trips around that included a city tour of Halifax, Grafton Dinner Theater, and brewery tour of Alexander Keith's. Peggy's Cove and Lunenberg were spectacular as we had calm sunny weather. The horse drawn carriage ride through Lunenberg was a highlight that narrated the old buildings interesting history. On Sept 12 we headed for the Cabot Trail and made out first stop Glenora at the Glen Breton Distillery. Now many of you might think that the reason that we stopped here is that it is a single malt whiskey distillery. NOT SO !! They had some cottages on the side of a big hill over looking the valley. After drinking the bottle of Scotch ( only 250 ml) we went to the main lodge for a great supper and local music. The drive around the Cabot trail was misty and overcast but very beautiful. The second night was spent at Baddeck in the Inverary Inn with a tour of the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Great scenery as we drove to Pictou and stayed at the Braside Inn which was a old turn of the century building that has been renovated to a B&B. Great dinner in a formal dinning room that had elegance with its old wooden floors and large picture windows of the harbour. We had lunch at the Chatterbox Inn in Pugwash which has great historical interest. In 1955 Cyrus Eaton arranged to have the leading scientists of his time get together to discuss nuclear disarmament. This led to a series of conferences at Pugwash that laid the ground work for the current nuclear disarmament treaties. Back to Halifax for 3 nights before going to PEI. Bruce and I took the bikes into Halifax and rode all over Point Pleasant Park and surrounding area. They really have some steep hills. Lots of cruise ships including the Queen Elizabeth 2 today.
We left for Charlottetown on Sept 18 and booked the Bagnall's B&B for 3 nights which was right downtown next to the shellfish festival. Confederation Bridge is an amazing structure that was completed in 1997 at a cost of one billion dollars. It only cost is $41.50 to cross both ways and NO FERRY. You can only appreciate how great it is to avoid ferries if you live on Vancouver Island. The first night we ate at a neat restaurant called the WaterPrince. Bruce had Lobster and we all had seafood. Day 2 was a trip to Anne of Green Gables and a visit to the Shellfish Festival in the afternoon. Day 3 we went to St.Peter's Bay and Greenwich and on the way stopped at a Vodka distillery. They make it out of Blueberries or Potatoes. That evening we had a lobster dinner at the New Glasgow Lobster Supper. The restaurant has been in business for 50 years and can sit 500 people. Dinner was fish chowder, mussels- all you can eat, Lobster, and pie with ice cream. I had the 1.5 lb lobster and about 3 buckets of mussels. It was probably the BEST meal we have had since we left Comox. It is a MUST if you visit PEI. The B&B was made special by the owner Nora. She was a lovely lady who cooked great breakfasts and spent many hours educating us about PEI. Bruce and I did a great bike ride around the city and waterfront. Only 30,000 people live in Charlottetown and about 140,000 on the whole Island. It seemed that they all left while were there as the roads and beaches were deserted. Sunday we sadly left Nora and PEI which left with a magic experience that only PEI can do. We vowed to return and spend more time there. We went back across Confederation bridge and took the south shore of Nova Scotia to Truro and back to the Airport Hilton where B&J stayed before leaving this morning. What a great two weeks and it is had to believe it is the end of September. Where has the time gone? We are now busy planning our trip to Florida. We will meet up with Brad and Sheri Whitman. Brad was best man at my wedding and have known him since we were 3 years old. We will catch up with them on October 19 in Atlanta for a week of camping together before arriving in Florida November 1.
Today I am getting the oil changed and tires rotated before we hit the road tomorrow for St.John NB. Thanks again for all your E-mail. It is always great to get news from home.

PICTURES:

Western Pond Boat Tour Newfoundland

Codroy Valley Newfoundland

Louisbourg and Glace Bay Nova Scotia

Halifax

Peggy's Cove and Lunenberg

Cabot Trail

Off the Rock

The seagulls are calling and the sun is rising as I look out over the water from our Spectacular campsite at Point of View RV park in Louisbourg Nova Scotia. We didn't stay here on our last visit but found they had a special on for $89/night. That included your full service camp site, Lobster dinner for two - with all the fresh crab you could eat - , and breakfast the next morning. WOW !!! Guess where we are staying for the next 2 days. There are 3-4 nice RV parks at Louisbourg so would recommend a visit.At dinner last night we met a 95 year old man , Mr.Cote who was the mastermind and planner of the reconstruction of Louisbourg. He was delightful and a great story teller who worked for PM John Diefenbaker as a high ranking member of his staff. He was visiting the fort with his daughter and are both from Ottawa. Great evening and must have ate 3 pounds crab !!! Lobster was just the appetizer. Picture of evening From Left to Right. Larry Johnson, Gail, Ellen Johnson, Linda ( Owner of resort), Mr. Cote, and Ron. Larry and Ellen are from California and became good friends and travelling companions in their Monaco Motor home.

Yes we left Newfoundland yesterday in a horrible thunder and lighting storm with lots of rain. The good news was the ferry left on time at 9AM for a smooth 6 hour crossing to North Sydney. It was about a 1/2 hr drive to Louisbourg and Happy Hour started on time at 4 PM. We were sad to leave Newfoundland as our 5 week stay will likely be the highlight of our trip. Tomorrow we will move to Halifax where we will park the RV for 3 weeks. Our friends Bruce and Judy Williamson from Campbell River arrive Monday for a two week maritime tour. We will do B&B's with them and use our Halifax location as a home Base. The last week in September we will leave Canada for Bar Harbour Maine and viewing the fall colours. We have to meet up with Brad and Sheri Whitman the 3rd week in October in the Atlanta region and be in Florida - November 1. Even though our trip is a year we never seem to have enough time. Gail & I are well and appreciate all the e-mails you send us. Our home for the next two weeks will be Woodhaven RV park in Halifax.