Canadian Maritimes 2019

This morning I woke to a thick fog that had enveloped the campsite and my first thought was that I was glad to have gone on the whale watching voyage yesterday and not waited till today. I was only a short distance from the US border and the "Land of Donald Trump" so I was crossing over around noon. The border guard asked me where I was from and then asked me to open the trailer. He walked in, checked the bathroom and walked out. That was it. Nothing about citrus, drugs, firearms or even why I was entering the US. I guess I didn't have to eat my last two grapefruits for breakfast after all. The slogan for the state of Maine is "The way life should be". Pretty bold, eh? I had decided before leaving Muskoka that I would rely on wifi in the US rather than have to buy a plan or find a SIM card dealer. It's a bit inconvenient but I do have the truck GPS for directions and my blogging is done in the evening over wifi. Once I was on my way having just crossed ...

I woke up with a tough decision to make before I started my day. The weather was perfect. I hadn't explored the town of St. Andrews and USA Today had voted it "the best destination in Canada" so there must be some cool stuff to see. Check out time wasn't until noon so I hopped on my bike and rode into town to give it a quick once over to help with my decision to stay another night or not. It's a very cute little place and one thing I had never done was take a whale-watching cruise so I signed up for their 12:45 pm departure and rode like hell back to camp to book the extra night. It turned out that the site they had me in the first night was booked months ago by an RV group from the US so if I wanted to stay another night I would have to move to another site. I was a little short on time at this point but managed to detach my electric, sewer and water connections among other things and set up my rig at the new location. Now I still had some time to pack some w...

I planned to leave Ponderosa Pines this morning but first I wanted to return to the Hopewell Rocks to catch the scene at high tide. Below is a photo I took yesterday and below that is a photo I took this morning at high tide.  As you can see from the pics, there was a heavy presence of the marine layer this morning which eventually burns off to full sunshine.  I wanted to travel down the coast and camp near the US border so I could pop across into Maine tomorrow morning. One thing I've noticed just about every day down here, unless you're driving on main highways you're driving on really bad roads. These are roads that rival Alaska for how poorly maintained they are. I'm amazed that my trailer hasn't literally fallen apart. I tend to take the more scenic routes which are slow but extremely rough. I stopped briefly in the little coastal town of Alma and met this very cool pirate lass. She didn't talk much but seemed friendly enough. ...

I felt that I had seen enough of Nova Scotia and wanted to visit Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick before heading down into Maine. Back in 2013 I had gone to the Hopwell Rocks but left because low tide was over at 6:30 am that morning and I wasn't going to hang around waiting for the next one. From where I had camped last night I could see the other side of the Bay of Fundy but to get there took several long hours of driving to get around the head of the bay. The wind was insane even though it was another warm sunny day. Fortunately, I wasn't fighting it as I drove west but it was a nervous drive anyway because it was a powerful crosswind instead. I kept seeing those signs that warn truckers of dangerous wind gusts that could potentially tip the truck over. I finally made it to Hopewell Rocks around 2:30 and was excited because my timing was perfect. Low tide was at 3:55 pm today. It was a bit of a hike down to the beach but well worth it. I was under the impr...

My plan today was to take the coastal highway around to Yarmouth and Digby and just see what trouble I can get myself into. It was another warm and sunny day, perfect weather for exploring the coast. One thing I've noticed is that Nova Scotia is 90% covered in forest, very few open fields or cattle grazing. It's also a province with endless rolling hills which I might not notice if I wasn't constantly trying to maintain speed on the highway. I had expected Yarmouth to be another tourist mecca but besides their lighthouse, there wasn't anything grabbing my attention so I pushed on to Digby. I saw a lighthouse that was visible from the highway and because I'd been on the road for a while and needed a break, I stopped to check it out. It wasn't the traditional style of lighthouse and had not been used for many years as evidenced by the 60W LED bulb in the light and lack of giant reflectors.  This view is looking north up the coast. The tide was way o...

The weatherman was spot on today with clear skies and hot sun all day. I anticipated that it would take all day to explore Lunenburg so I upped my stay to two nights and I will be leaving on Saturday morning for Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Not being in any kind of rush I had a leisurely breakfast, a shave and shower and I was off on my bike to see the town. Lunenburg was founded in 1753 by the British. It was one of their first attempts to settle Protestants in Nova Scotia (New Scotland) intending to displace the Mi'kmaqs (first nations people living in the Canadian Maritime provinces) and Acadians (French settlers). An example of the brightly coloured homes and businesses in Lunenburg. This is, I believe, an old blacksmith's shop turned into Iron Works Distillery and they make rum. This is St. John's Anglican Church built in 1754 and is the second oldest church in Canada. The oldest church is St. Paul's in Halifax. The Bank of Montreal pictured ...