Leaving New England

Hi All,

We are now just south of Montreal. I'll try to catch you up on what's been happening with us. We changed our plans to go south on the way home because my sister Bonnie invited us to join them in Yellowstone for a few days. So now I'm heading directly west to Montana via Quebec and Ontario. We are sorry to be leaving New England and the fall colors. It's not quite peak season for the colors, so I haven't taken any good fall color pictures yet. I hope to get some in Ontario tomorrow and maybe the next day.

Sunday, September 30, 2007
For the past few days we've been playing in and around coastal Maine: Hancock, Bangor, Ellsworth, and Schoodic Point (part of Acadia National Park). My cousin Cindy had her shop open for the weekend so we were busy getting furniture painted and ready for the sale.

Yesterday, my cousin Pete took me for a ride on his Honda motorcycle. It was a warm and sunny day. We rode out to Schoodic to watch the waves. On the way, we stopped in Winter Harbor to look at a fish packing plant and the wharf where they unload and package lobster. While we were there, hundreds of sea gulls swarmed above us and unfortunately left a couple of gifts on my cousin's motorcycle. After Pete cleaned off his motorcycle, we proceeded to the real mission -- to see the wonderful rocks and water at Schoodic Point.

On Thursday I drove up to Smyrna to visit with my cousins Dennis and Kathy. My cousin Kenny from Ohio was even there visiting, and my mother's cousin Betty came over too. We had a very pleasant time telling stories and looking at old family pictures. On the way home I saw a lovely young Moose along the highway!

This picture shows the view toward Mt. Katahdin in Baxter State Park.

Too bad the weather didn't cooperate that day. But you can see some of the fall colors, which were probably about at their peak that week.

The drive up from Bangor is a very easy drive (about 2 hours) with very little traffic. I remember driving up as a kid (before the highway was in) and it was a 12-hour trek from home in Connecticut back in those days.

Monday, September 24, 2007
We left the Markland Resort and drove along the western shore of Cape Breton. It was very windy, which made the waves pretty outstanding.

Cape Breton is a delightful place. The people are very friendly and natural. The scenery is outstanding and the roads were uncrowded (although bumpy). They had road signs like this "/\/\/\" which I discovered meant "bumpy road ahead". These signs were on most roads in Canada, and yes I checked my tires often.

The eastern side of Cape Breton is just as spectacular as the western side. We took a ride down to Smokey Mountain.

Speaking of signs, I love this sign indicating that you shouldn't ever turn your back on the ocean.

Since the weather wasn't great on the day we left Cape Breton, we drove straight through to Five Islands on the Glooscap Trail, hoping to see the tidal bore. Turns out you’d have to stand around for about 6 hours to see anything and low tide was at around 5:30, so high tide would be around midnight. But here are some pictures of the area. We camped again right on the edge overlooking the Bay of Fundy.

We very much enjoyed our time at the resort in Cape Breton. Here are some photos taken from the deck off my room. As you can see, you can't see another house, road, or person. It would be a great retirement job to work here during the summers. But the women who worked there didn't seem to cozy up to the idea of giving up their jobs. Roxie had the option of being on the lawn or the porch or going inside to relax in her kennel.

I meant to take photos of the showers I've encountered on this trip, but I never did it. But I can tell you they run the gamut from open-air shower (no heat) complete with spider webs, to state-of-art spa-quality bathrooms. Excuse me, in Canada, it's a 'wash room.' Now I understand why most campgrounds close in early September - they have no heat in the restrooms! I found the nicest spa-like bathrooms at some KOA's and at the upscale campground in Vermont (Smuggler's Notch). That restroom even had an indoor water fountain (like someone would want to meditate in a campground restroom).