Week of July 12

After checking the weather forecast and determining that the next day would be a perfect beach day,  we headed for Charlottetown. We visited Confederation Hall.

Next door, we were fortunate to catch an hour long performance put on by the Confederation Centre's Young Company. It was a musical play called the Talking Stick which was based on the Mi'kmaq tribe's legends.  After the performance we did some window shopping and then headed to Gahan Pub, a micro-brewery, for lunch. After stopping at the Cows company factory store for an ice cream cone, we drove around the south shore, which is the Red Rock scenic route of the island, stopping at the Port Joli - Fort Amherst National Historic site, and then the Argyle Shore Provincial Park to enjoy the views of the red rock cliffs along the coast and the warm weather.

Wednesday morning dawned clear and sunny as predicted. We headed to Prince Edward Island National Park.  There was not a cloud in the sky, 30 degrees, the ocean was wonderfully calm. We didn't swim, but we waded a little bit, dodging the jelly fish, which we were told could leave a rash if they stung us.  On the way back to the campsite we stopped at a roadsite stop to get some new PEI potatoes, then looked for a spot to fill the diesel tank.  It took three gas stations to find one with diesel.

Then next morning, the drive across Confederation Bridge was interesting. The truck is tall enough that we had a great view over the wall of the bridge to both the PEI and New Brunswick coasts. We stopped at Hopewell Rock Provincial Park, on our way to a campground in Fundy National Park, and walked down to the ocean floor among the rock formations.

Friday morning we headed out to do some hiking in the National Park. Our first trail was a short loop to Dixon Falls.

Our second was to Coppermine.  However, the coppermine trail was closed, so we headed down to the Wolfe Pointe beach to watch the tide go out. It was interesting to watch the ocean floor appear. Since we were done earlier than planned, we went into Alma, the little town next to the park, and browsed the small shops there.  That evening after dinner we walked down to Alma to see what the area looks like at high tide. What a difference.  The fishing boats that were resting on skids in the mud in the early afternoon were floating at the docks, high on the tide.

Saturday morning dawned grey and damp, a good day to be travelling, so we packed up and headed west. (Well more north than west really).  Joan always drive in the morning, so it rained  all morning, at one time, so hard that the windshield wipers were almost useless. Fortunately, it cleared up a bit when we had to get out of the truck to buy groceries in Oromocto.(I expect everyone to dig out their maps and find this place).  John drove the rest of the day, so no more rain. In fact the sun shone in a few places.  After driving up most of the St. John river valley, We camped in a nice four star campground just north of Grand Falls. 

Sunday dawned sunny and beautiful. We went into Grand Falls, took pictures of the falls and walked along the river, at one point taking 250 stairs down to a viewpoint.

We came back to the campsite for lunch and then headed for the nice beach at the pond at the campground to get some vitamin D. We also became domestic and did laundry later in the afternoon. This campground is very large, so it has many amenities. One thing we have discovered is that a campground that has a large number of permanent sites also has cheap laundry. We generally have been paying 2.00 to 2.50 per load, but the cost here was only 1.25 per load.

Monday we headed for Ontario, but of course we had to go through the 'country' of Quebec. At the border there were Canadian flags on the road into New Brunswick, but only Quebec flags heading north, with not a Canada flags in sight.  We camped at a 4 star campground in Drummondeville. The site was so bad we couldn't level the trailer without unhooking the truck (we were too lazy to do that for an overnight stay). The internet signal was too weak to get on line. What a disappointment for a four star campground.  To rub salt in the wound, it cost us more than any of the other campgounds we have stayed in so far.

Tuesday around noon, we arrived in Cornwall (Joan got to drive through the freeway congestion in Montreal since that was the in the first half of the day), and stopped at the info centre there to find out some details about KOA's in the 1000 Islands area.  We will see if the 33% premium for staying at a KOA is worth the investment for a couple of nights.