NEW BRUNSWICK

 It was only a 45 mile drive today from Amherst, Nova Scotia to Moncton,  New Brunswick

We'll camp at a Passport America affiliated campground in a  Moncton suburb.

When we crossed the bridge into New Brunswick we stopped immediately at the first tourist information center & gathered up LOTS of New Brunswick information. The women there were so very helpful & friendly. 

We learned there is a dinner theatre production in downtown Moncton on Wednesdays through Saturdays. Hey! Today's Wednesday...can we make it?  We hadn't even found our campground yet but decided to go-for-it. It was early & we felt we had time to do what we needed to do.

The tourist center gal went online to get more information for us & found out that there is a $10 discount this week if we call & make reservations from the information they found for us online. 

We hurried on to camp to get disconnected, setup & make the phone call to choose our entree, pay etc. 

We used Skype online to make that phone call & in two hours after setting up camp we would be off to the "Tide & Boar, McSweeney's" theatre on Main street in downtown Moncton.

HOLD ON NOT SO FAST: 

The clock we hang on the wall in the trailer has it's hands exposed , unprotected & apparently where I placed it for the ride to Moncton (things on the wall need to be taken down when we're on the road) the clock hands got moved & not even thinking of checking  my iPhone clock & we realized we needed to leave NOW. 

We were going to be late for the dinner and show. Chitna! ( that's an Alaskan town that somewhat sounds like my favorite word that I'm trying to break the habit of using.)

Joey had to drive like crazy to a place where we had never been AND find parking in a downtown area, in the dark AND it's had begun to rain a little. JEEZE !

WERE WE GOING TO MISS THE WHOLE THING ?

Nope. We got there only 15 minutes late….there was on- the-street-parking on Main St , right in front of the theatre. (just like Los Angeles, right? funny)   

We couldn't believe it!

They hadn't begun serving dinner yet but the interactive musical play had begun. We hadn't missed much at all. As Joey likes to say; "LUCKY LAGER !"

Amherst Side Trips Before leaving NS

SEP 24

In Amherst we stayed in the  Loch Lomand RV Camp

(exit #4 on hwy 104) .

Not a Passport America camp but $27 a night  incl tax with great wi-fi , trees , clean.....in other words really good.

 We'll be taking a few day trips from here.

We began this afternoon by driving about 30 miles to Joggins Fossil Cliffs

 http://jogginsfossilcliffs.net/

I Don't Remember how long it took me to go up & down THESE Stairs but somehow I made it!

Next Day:  Sept 25 Tuesday

Stayed in camp almost all day today. Did laundry, cleaned the inside of the "shoe box".

In the late afternoon we finally got out for a short drive of 5 miles or so around nearby Amherst. They have some old, beautiful homes to look at. 

Amherst is a border town & New Brunswick is just across a bridge.

On the way to Amherst, Nova Scotia Last Camp before NEW BRUNSWICK

SEP 23 SUNDAY

from Truro to Amherst we took the long coastal route via the beautiful  Cape D'Or where we spent a few hours hiking down to the Lighthouse & meandering around once we got there.  

We needed to leave the main paved road & drive several miles on a dirt road to get to the small parking lot for the lighthouse . 
We were lucky there was room for us to park with our trailer otherwise the out-of-the-way drive would have been for naught. 

Everything we had heard about Cape D'or really gave us the desire to not miss it.
http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=1018

 Cape d'Or ( Cape of Gold or Gold Cape)

The restaurant & guesthouse was closed for the season and would be a wonderful place to stay, I think. Minimal accommodations & the chef , they say, is very creative & never cooks from a recipe. THAT would have been something we would have liked.   

The road down to the  lighthouse was VERY STEEP & narrow.  Either driving (gate closed now) or walking  is a challenge. 
I just did it slowly in both directions and was SO happy I was able to make it.

It is truly spectacular!

We have so many favorite places on this Maritimes part of the trip & this is truly one of our favorites.

To add even more to this spectacular place the weather was sunny, cool & breezy to perfection. 
So leaving here we needed to get to Amherst before dark, preferably. Hate driving in the dark with the trailer.

TRURO Route from Middleton

It rained all night but We left our camp at Middleton, NS about 10:30 AM & drove from the campground in Middleton to Truro where on can see an unusual occurrence called a Tidal Bore.

 We've found that the weather often clears or at least gets a bit better around noon & it didn't disappoint us today.

The drive was beautiful (only a little rain en route) & we stopped as frequently as possible to take in the many views. 

That's often not so easy when we are towing, which we were. 

We even got into another dead end (not signed)  where we needed to attempt another of our famous U-turns. 

When the tide was out the long, long shore mud has a strange look.... asin the two lower right photos in the collage above. 

We were afraid to walk out into it for fear we'd sink more than would be fun. 
Guess that's what happens when one gets over a certain age !

OOPS A U-Turn wasn't possible but luckily there was a private driveway that enabled us to do the back-forth-dance-maneuver that got us out of there. 

That "dance" , while NOT fun, was worth it. We had no choice if we wanted to see this view.

The tide was out ……WAAAAY out…..seemed like miles & which left the red, mucky sand, some white sand & the rocks exposed; almost as some "innards" we were not intended to see.

At S. Maitland we went into the Tidal Bore Interpretive Center & only $2.50 each to see their center full of information.  We got there about 1hr before the tide was supposed to come in.
They had wi fi while we waited so I was able to double check our route for when we leave there.

When the time came we left the shelter of the  Interpretive Center & walked about 200 yards out to a Tidal Bore viewing area in a light rain; continuing to wait for the Bore. The timing schedule of the tides is pretty accurate.

  HEY, I knew what "tidal" meant but had no idea what "bore" meant other than certain people I try to avoid.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_bore  

A tidal bore happens when an outward flowing river meets the incoming tide & causes the river to flow backwards until the tide is finished coming in. 
This usually forms a backward moving wave.

I just thought it meant a place where you could watch the tide come in. 

As it turned out this time that's about all it was. 

It was almost a non-event BUT we were told that at the Salmon River just this side of Truro it's a much more reliable happening. 

We were going in that direction so we'd have a 2nd chance an hour or so later according to the tidal schedule. YAY!  After all; We were in Nova Scotia & didn't wish to miss this unusual phenomena so we would try again.

We did go the Salmon River spot  & it was much better. The white wave that was  created might have been as much as a foot high….still not a biggie but at least we got to see it. And NOW I know what "Tidal Bore" means.
This one was MORE LIKE IT ! 

 We Boondocked in Truro @ Canadian Tire parking lot, after seeing that the Walmart in Truro had a sign "No Overnight Parking" sign so we didn't.

We also tried at the "Atlantic SuperStore" where we didn't see a sign saying anything about overnight parking so I asked a woman manager & she said, "Our policy is, No."

I shouldn't have asked, eh?

It had been a long day. It now was dark & we were tired so we were lucky to see the big Canadian Tire parking lot with a few big rigs parking overnight too.

It rained cats-and-dogs all  night. 
Lightening, thunder...the whole kit-n-kaboodle ! It was so windy that the parking lot looked like a lake with agitated surface waters. (actually making tiny waves)

Next  morning we continued on to Amherst stopping at this ROCKY SHORE ...no more mud.

Next blog will be Amherst, NS & day trips from there.

Annapolis Royal Wharf, NS

Foggy & drizzly today but we drove to Annapolis Royal anyway. It's an old French settlement. 1600's…guess THAT'S old enough!

 We just drove among the streets looking at the beautiful old homes. Lots of gingerbread. Lots of color.

The population is under five hundred.

One  of the main reasons for going there was to visit the interpretation  center for the Tidal Wave Power plant.

www.fundyforce.ca  

 Joey & I are both interested in things like this. We read that Nova Scotia gets about 13% of its power from renewable sources and working on getting lots more.

Today when reading TripAdvisor blogs I learned about Cape d'Or which isn't too far out of our way to Amherst. It's going to be about 85 miles added to the shortest route to Amherst. 

Hey, we're actually on the last leg of our outward destinations & headed westward in a few days.

Weather would be the only thing that might keep us from going to Cape d'Or.  Some of the roads aren't paved out to the Cape & we will be towing the trailer.

Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia north side

SEP 19 - 21 2012 

Surprised!  I'm not too tired today (yet)…after staying up until 4am working on our trip photos.

They are worth it BUT we take hundreds of them daily & when I get too far behind I need to do a lot of cross checking with my Quicken entries as well as a little calendar I try to make notes in and not always doing so.

Woke up to heavy winds today. We are planning to make our move to the north shore of Nova Scotia later. Just heard on the radio that rain will begin this afternoon, heavy tonight & expected to continue into Friday.

Yea, now what? 

To wait it out or not ? 

We're not in any hurry.... 

 Don't like the wind when towing AND rain could make it even worse. 

Our next campground is on the north shore, Middleton, which is only about 65 miles from here in Lunenburg........................
We decided to go for it.

En route to Middleton, we stopped for lunch in a town called 
New Germany , NS.  The restaurant was called DeLong's. 
That's my maiden name! 

Hey, maybe I'll be able to get some more information to add to the little amount I currently have.
 Nope! No one with the name DeLong was there at the time. DRAT! I was so excited.  Oh well, I didn't get much information from the friendly waitress but the fresh fish lunch was really good & there was a large parking lot with room for us with our "shoebox" trailer which made things easy.
Joey discovered if you click on the map or any photo it gets larger.
Doesn't work for the videos though. 

The expected windy drive turned out to be a non-event. 
Ole worrywart, me.

 Checked in at Orchard Queen Motel and Camp in Middleton, NS. No discounts, new owner, $34.50 cn incl taxes.

Good WI FI ….heavy rains expected for the whole of Nova Scotia tonight, tormorrow & possibly through the weekend.

Sept 20 Thursday

We decided to drive all the way down to Yarmouth, NS about 120 miles from  our camp in Middleton. 
Yarmouth was to be the furthest southern point on the north side of the NS peninsula that we planned to go.
On the map above you can see Yarmouth almost at the tip of the peninsula. 
It has a  black square around it's name.

 I figured out we could dilly-dally the slower Hwy #1 along through  the coastal villages on the way BACK to camp & then if/when it got dark we'd just jump onto the major/faster Hwy #101 to quickly get back to camp & then tomorrow we could  return to the point at which the darkness came & start over from there with our dilly-dallying……

Reasoning that the longest distance part of the trip would be out of the way on the first day & a much sorter segment for tomorrow.

WELL, the weather turned out to be just fine. It was cool and the sun kept peeping through from time to time in the afternoon.

Yarmouth had many Sea Captains Homes to peek at in a drive-by.

The Yarmouth's lighthouse is as beautiful as it's location location. 

It's called Cape Fouchu. 

OOPS ! YOU NEED TO TILT YOUR HEAD 

TO THE RIGHT TO SEE THIS ONE !

==================================================
Ok, Yarmouth is as far south as we went so:

On the return to camp, Heading northward on Hwy #1 the first impressive area was Mavillette & it's long sandy beach (that’s a change from previous rocky beaches)
and it's near Cape St Mary.

Met 2 guys, Acadian (French) motor-bikers on the beach of Mavillette & spent some time chatting with them. They told us about an Acadian restaurant in Meteghan just north of where we were. 

We were on our way back to camp & were hungry, Why not try it?    

The sun was setting & we needed to get on our way to Meteghan 

I was anxious to try some more Rappé Pie 

It's a shredded meat pie. The  recipes vary quite a bit.
It often includes shredded potatoes along with the meat as well as  with a sauce of some sort. Upper left photo has a berry sauce.

It's not something I'd make a habit of but; "When In Rome"

Well they had music there too. One lady customer got in the mood & danced in the hallway.
 I wasn't able to capture much  on iPhone camera but here're my 2 attempts.  

I MUST stop taking videos in the horizontal position ! 

Tilt head sideways again to the right....JEEZE !

 

AND NOW THE DANCER:

================================================

LAST STOP OF THE DAY

Fort Anne National Historic Site:           HEY, another FORT  !!!

We will return to Annapolis Royal tomorrow to see more of the town as well as the Tidal Wave  Power Plant Station & it's Interpretation Center.

Lunenburg part 3 ; Blue Rocks

Blue Rock Is a short drive from Lunenburg so the 20 minute drive took us a few hours.....taking lots of photos of this very scenic area & driving on many of the spur roads off of the main one.

 I have a crazy compulsion to take a "peek" at every little road that looks interesting; so off we go!

 

Below is a slideshow/video & you need to click on the triangle/arrow to make it go. Some of my friends said they didn't know this .

Well we finished up the day by driving back into Lunenburg to watch the tide come in. We found a great spot across the harbor so we could look back at the port. 

This gave us a nice view of the waterfront with it's line of the "famous" red buildings as well as the colorful buildings up the hillside behind them.

This is our favorite time of day for photos.
 Long shadows & yellow-orange tints to most things. 
We drove to a place where we could just park at the side of the road & enjoy the wait for the tide and the sunset...….just taking it all in as the boats and sea gulls did their thing. 

We really felt so calm & relaxed, even after driving & touring all day....... Windows open in the car letting the breezes come through. 
We sat outside at times too just spending about an  hour hanging around & watching.

Oh one funny thing happened when I went to pull the binoculars out of it's shoulder bag. We usually  store the protective rubber caps ON the binoculars….I hate them! Silly me.
 I know they serve a purpose but every time I wish to use the binoculars I need to remove them. Big deal, eh? 
Hey, I'm always anxious to begin using the binoculars as quickly as possible so I don't miss some important happening! 

Well anyway, with the previous use I'd only thrown the rubber caps into the bag & instead of placing them on the glass ends. One fell out onto the ground when I did so.
 I picked it up & tossed it into the car willy-nilly (somewhat belligerently not wanting to put them back in the bag.)
 As I tossed it;  it went NOT into the car but straight THROUGH the car & outside the opened window on the other side....... over the 5 foot sea wall into the briny rocks waiting for the tide to wash over them….soon.

GONE! I didn't even care. Good riddance! Now I don't need to mess with them ever again!

I was waiting for Joey to react. He hates it when I have a little fit like that but he just laughed & didn't say a word. (smart man, eh?)

About 1/2  hour later after meandering around the rocks he shows up with the rubber cap in hand. (damn, just couldn't get rid of it)

Hey, what a retriever!

I should have know he'd have found a way before the tide came in all the way.

Stayed up until 4am handling photos.

That's it for the Lunenburg area & we'll be off tomorrow for the other side of  this Nova Scotia peninsula to the BAY OF FUNDY!

Lunenburg part 2; The Ovens

We didn't leave the rig until 1pm today because the destination for today's side trip is only about 10 miles away; THE OVENS.

This is a private, natural park on cliffs. There was gold rush here, 1861

The trails were beautiful & involved a LOT of steps up & down but my knees handled them well enough and I'm SO glad I didn't have to miss this !

THE OVENS are rocky  cliffs with caves that the water thunders into.

I never did find out just why the name "ovens" has to do with it !

P.S. re the OVENS walk;  The woman we bought the $4  "senior"  tickets from said it's usually abut a 45 minute round trip trail-walk. 
We spent just over  two hours….LOVED it. Every minute of it….
..........SO beautiful.

Well I thought I'd be posting THE BLUE ROCK photos here too but this has already gone too long so:

NEXT post will be : Lunenburg 3 Blue Rock

Lunenburg, NS & Nearby Towns

To get from the Peggy's Cove campground to our next camp in 

Lunenburg, NS is only about 60 miles so it was a short driving day.

 We would be spending several days and  taking side trips out of Lunenburg. 

Lunenburg became a designated  UNESCO World Heritage Site site in 1995.

So it's picturesque beauty will be preserved for all.

 It is one of the most beautiful places we've ever been. 

(I'm afraid with each new travel discovery I'm beginning to say that more & more frequently ! )

This map below will help us remember the location relationships & distances for our last  week or so. 
We will have some side trips out of Lunenburg  The Ovens & that's only about 10 miles. However, we would take many little side roads en route  just to see what we could see :

  Coves, Inlets, Blowing Laundry, Wind-Worn Buildings & brightly painted ones too, Fish Nets, Lobster Traps, Bouys, Boats: big ones, small ones, grounded "dead" ones.........

Again LOTS of nice "laundry" shots....just couldn't resist ! ...BUT not posting the laundry shots here.
Then Blue Rock was only 4.5 miles out of Lunenberg.  
So we had lots of not-too-far-away 'splorin to do !

We stayed in another  Passport America RV camp just on the edge of Lunenburg for $21 a night: Little Lake Family Campground

Lunenburg was established in 1753 by the British, then came the   French, Swiss, German & Dutch. Famous for shipbuilding & related industries as well as fishing, of course.

There's so much more history & I won't type here because it's just easier to check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunenburg,_Nova_Scotia

Lunenburg is built on a fairly steep hillside & the houses & business are all quite colorful with lots of "gingerbread" architectural trimmings .

It's famous as a picturesque fishing village with it's line of red buildings on the waterfront which one often sees on calendars and such. 

YARD SALE ANYONE??? SURE, WHY NOT?

While at this yard sale we spent as much time talking with the 
old-timer running it as we did looking at the "junk".  
That's what often happens at yard sales & it's the most fun & interesting part.

We got talking with him about things like "making a living" & paying ever increasing bills there in Nova Scotia just as in the States. 

As an example ; He told us about an elderly man he knew that actually froze to death because he was unable to pay his ever increasing heating bill & the service company turned his heat off !

ALSO Lunenburg is famous for the Bluenose  Sailing schooner a tall-ship, which had never been defeated in a race. 
It's image is on the Canadian dime as well as license plates, stamps & commemorated in many other places.
It's replica the Bluenose II is being refurbished in these photos. We're sorry we didn't get to see it with all of it's sails up.

NEXT: Lunenburg part 2

Halifax Day 2 Fortress & Waterfront

September 12 - 14 2013

This capital city of Nova Scotia offers several interesting & fun things to see & do.
This Fort was one of them.  
It was used as a base for rescue operations for the Titanic in 1912 & there are some Titanic victims buried there.
This citadel sits above the city with fabulous views of the city & the
port.

 

We made 3 or 4 trips into Halifax from our camp near Peggy's Cove.
Next is the WaterFront Area

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic sits down on the waterfront.
The waterfront has  a lovely boardwalk that not only passes behind he museum but several outdoor cafes. It's about 2 miles long with many cafe's, condo's & shops.  

Maritime Museum 

There are many exhibits highlighting the Titanic.

This ship the HMCS SACKVILLE is part of the museum too. We got to climb all over it.        Beautiful  day to do so too.

That night back at camp we again joined our new Canadian friends, Malcom & Myrtle Kennet  & their kids & grandkids for a campfire by their rig.

It rained like hell while we were at the campfire & we all piled into the Kennet's RV & shared stories , had a few drinks & finally walked back to our trailer in the rain.
It was Wonderful!

NEXT: Picturesque Lunenburg, Nova Scotia  

HALIFAX , Nova Scotia Day 1

SEP 11 Tuesday

We returned to Peggy's Cove BUT no more photos of rocks, waves & red & white lighthouses!  In reviewing my videos I see I got carried away with those, eh?

 So after leaving Peggy's Cove the 2nd day we continued on into the SW part of Halifax & had a Chinese Buffet lunch.
 This buffet offered quite a bit of seafood: mussels, salmon, shrimps plus the regular Chinese fare. 

Lunch for Seniors $11.95 . That was a $2 discount from the regular price. 

It all adds up especially after their 15% tax is added & tips.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, EVERYTHING in Canada is more expensive even before the high tax is added.

We were lucky to find an on-the-street parking spot  a few blocks from the
  "Alexander Keith Brewery" where we were going to take a tour we had read about.
 In our walk we saw these murals below. 
 ( oops. I stuck in  photo of the Chinese Buffet building)

Now on to the Brewery

Did you notice the price of the 24 Can Pack?

The "tour"  cost $34 CN for the two of us which we though was a lot for a brewery tour BUT it was WAY more than just a tour AND it was well worth it!
There were several of the period costumed-actor tour guides that not only explained the brewing process but they sang, danced, served us beer 
(no extra charge) & were VERY entertaining. 
They AND WE were all part of the show!
We had a great time for an hour or so.

Day 2 to follow on next blog entry.

Peggy's Cove

On the 4 mile drive between our camp & Peggy's Cove we saw a place that couldn't help but catch our eye. 

This is the house of a fun-loving, artist, author & whimsically funny fellow;

 Ivan Fraser. 

That's him in the yellow rain hat below..

He painted that dead tree above  so it would 
just be a "pretty" thing in his yard.

....And several of his other artistic endeavors 
are in the video & collage below.

One might even say Ivan Fraser is sort of a mascot for Peggy's Cove. Everyone seems to know  him & vice versa.

 We've seen lots of Coves & Lighthouses 

but nothing quite as beautiful as this area.

I'm adding the signs below because the Danger one was in the video above but the last line about the Rocks wasn't visible AND....I had to ask someone what the SANDING thing was.

Give up?  In the winter where there is snow, most areas salt down the roads to melt the snow & ice BUT in certain areas, when you see these signs you are not allowed to use salt....SAND ONLY. It has to do with the watershed & in these areas if salt were used their well water would be contaminated.

Tomorrow HALIFAX.