Cardigan PEI

Hi All,
I just stopped at an internet cafe for the first time but unfortunately I can't upload pictures. It's a rainy day so I'm traveling south along the shore of King's County.The island is divided into three counties: you guessed it - Prince, Queen, and King counties.
They predict sunny days tomorrow and Thursday so I hope to get set up somewhere on the shore so I can enjoy the sun.
Hope you are all well and thanks for all your comments. It's really fun to read them and helps me not feel so far from home.

Anne's Land on Prince Edward Island

We’re staying at a nice large campground called ‘Vacationland Campground.’ Here’s the view from inside my screen room looking toward the Brackley River.

Here's another shot of Roxie enjoying herself at the camp site.

On Saturday we took a walk along the boardwalk outside Cavendish. It was a beautiful day with just a light breeze. These people have it made here on this island.

We toured ‘Anne’s Land’ farm and drove along the coastal highway to Malpeque. I wanted to see Cabot Beach but didn’t find the turn off. Hopefully I’ll see that on the last leg of the tour (North Cape Coastal Drive). We toured the house that Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote about in her stories "Anne of Green Gables."

We went out for a drive on Sunday. It was another beautiful drive first to Brackley Beach and then to Dalvay and Stanhope beaches in PEI National Park. The beaches are unspoiled and it’s like stepping back into time. The Stanhope Beach parking lot might hold 15 or 20 cars. There was a very plain changing house; one side for men and one for women. Look at the sign showing a woman’s silhouette with a clothes hanger. There was also a separate bathhouse and a two-seater outhouse. Very quaint.

At an access point near Stanhope Beach, I talked briefly with a woman who was dragging her wind sail up from the beach. She said she learned to wind sail when she spent a year in a camper van on the west coast. She’s an elementary art teacher and her husband just retired. She said all their friends were retiring but she had a few more years to work, being younger than her husband. She said she lived for a few months in Colorado and New Mexico and she loved those states; the only places where she didn’t yearn for the smell of the sea air. She also said she lived for a few years in Ontario for love; that is where her husband is from. She says she has an old farmhouse on PEI and comes for the weekends. She lives and works in Halifax NS. It was very interesting to see her having such fun wind surfing in what she called a very ‘friendly’ ocean.

We drove up Route 6 and then to Route 2, which took us along the coast on East Coastal Drive. Everywhere I looked was beautiful and picturesque. The entire province that I’ve seen so far has been pastoral, neat, uncluttered, green, and very well cared for.

We decided tomorrow that we would head for the campground at Brudenell River Provincial Park. Then spend the day touring the northern loop and the next day touring the southern loop. After that we’ll explore the North Cape and then on to Nova Scotia. It should be around Friday or Saturday by that time.

Touring New Brunswick Canada

Hi All,
We left St. Andrews on Tuesday. It looked like another beautiful day was going to happen in St. Andrews. I decided I might try to spend more time there on the way back.

I drove through St. John, which looked like a very nice city and it had a huge cruise ship in the harbor. So far, I have not run into alot of traffic in New Brunswick. I have run into lots of people who are curious about my T@B - what's inside, how is it to tow, how cute it is, etc. Lots of folks with huge travel trailers appear to be considering downsizing - they might have what we call 'trailer envy.'


On to Fundy National Park. Although it is very nice, it is heavily wooded and I'm looking for beaches and sunshine. So I spent one chilly night there and then moved on up the coast. Here's a picture of the coastline just outside a prettly little town called Alma, right on the coast but still inside Fundy National Park.
I sidetracked to a place where people like to rock climb - a place called Cape Enrage. It sounded intriguing so I took the 20 mile detour to see it. Well, I was the only one there! I guess all the rock climbers went back to school? Here's a picture of the lighthouse up at the top of Cape Enrage, which was up a very steep and twisty road.


Then it was on to Hopewell Cape with the famous flowerpot rocks. It's 99 steps down to see them and 99 steps back up to the top. Whew! They had a very nice visitor center. Here's a shot of the rocks from above and then from the ocean floor. The big deal is that you can walk on the ocean floor at low tide and then when the tide comes in, the top of the rocks look like small islands which people like to kayak around.


















We drove up the western coast of New Brunswick to Kouchibouguac National Park. Again it was a beautiful wooded park with lots of marshland to explore. It would be a wonderful place to visit in the summer because there were lots of bike trails and opportunities to kayak. But I was there three days after they closed up the bike and kayak rental places as well as the restaurants. There were a few birds sitting in the river, looking for a free dinner.
Roxie has been a good girl on this trip, although she's had a few 'oh no' moments. One was just yesterday when I left her in the camper and forgot that I had two sandwich rolls within her reach. She made short work of them, and there went my dinner. She's actually been quite patient but was acting up a little after having several days of freedom at my cousin's place where she had several people taking her for walks through the woods several times a day. Unfortunately, Canada does not allow dogs on the beach so we got as close as we could this morning at Kelly Beach in Kouchibouguac National Park.

On the way out of the park, we saw not one but three bear cubs cross the road. First one trotted across and stopped quickly to look at me. I waited to see if the mother would cross and a second cub crossed, looked at me, and ran off into the woods. Then again a few seconds later, the third did the same. How cute. No sight of the mother. I tried to get a picture but was not very successful. Here's the only shot I could get - look closely at the lower left corner and you'll see the back end of the third bear cub!

Route map - Hancock Maine to St. Andrews NB

Here's the route we'll take throughout the Canadian provinces. Not sure yet which way we'll go first. We're going to decide as we go so we can move on if we don't like a place or if the weather turns bad. We checked into the ferry from Yarmouth NS to Bar Harbor Maine and it would cost $450. Needless to say I'll have to revise my plans even though it means I'll have to do some backtracking to get back to Maine.

Tabette goes island hopping

Hi All,
Today (Labor Day) we're in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. We traveled yesterday from Hancock Maine to St. Andrews via Campobello Island and Deer Island. We took two ferries to get from Maine to New Brunswick. Here's the view of sunrise from my window this morning. I'm camped oceanside in St. Andrews.










While on Campobello island, we toured Roosevelt's summer 'cottage.' Very beautiful grounds. The cottage had several guest rooms and at least three servant's rooms. It was quite simply and tastefully decorated. Given the lack of closets, it was obvious they did not have a lot of stuff. They did have several children and even a small school room, with a bedroom for the tutor. Here's a shot from the spot they said was the best view of the cottage and also a picture of one of the many flower gardens.














Driving north on US 1 on Sunday, we drove through Lubec, the easternmost town in the US, and crossed over into New Brunswick at Campobello Island. People there are very proud of being the easternmost anything. There was even a sign for a gift shop that claimed to be the easternmost gift shop in the US. I didn't stop to see if their stuff was any better because of it.

Before we left the US, we stopped at Quoddy Head State Park. There was a wonderful light house (this picture is for Jeannie). It's called West Quoddy Head Light.










From there you have to take a ferry to Deer Island and then take a second ferry to get to the mainland. The second ferry is free. The first one cost $15.00 plus a dollar a foot for the trailer. This is the first ferry - it holds about 20 cars when packed full.






Cindy and I went to Bar Harbor on Saturday afternoon. We tried to catch the ferry from Winter Harbor but we missed it by just a few minutes. We were impressed with this sign at the 'parking arer' which was around behind a barn-like structure. And there were refreshments available while you waited for the ferry.














It was a beautiful day in Bar Harbor with the bluest sky and biggest cumulus clouds I've ever seen. The ice cream cone was also the largest I've ever seen or eaten.

While at Cindy and Jim's place, we spent several lazy hours lounging under their apple trees and then later in my front 'porch' when the bugs got bad. We had a good time getting caught up on all the family doings. Here's my front porch, aka tent/screen room. It comes in real handy when the mosquitos find us at dusk.

Route map - Niagara Falls to Maine

This is the route we took to get to Maine. We dropped down into Vermont and then cut across New Hampshire and Maine, all on Route 2.

Hello to cousins in Hancock, Maine

Hi All,

We made it to Maine yesterday. Stopped in Vermont to visit an old friend and then took a couple of days to get to the coast of Maine. They live quite close to the Schoodic Pennisula, which is part of Acadia National Park. The weather has been wonderful - typical late summer Maine, temperatures in the low 70's with a slight breeze most of the day. I'm camped out back under a couple of apple trees and it's very quiet.

Here's a picture of my cousin's cow. She puts it out by the road to signal that her shop is open for business. She only opens the shop about once a month. Whenever she feels like it. That's how they do things here in Maine. The shop is called the "Cowgirl's Emporium" (she lives in Houston over the winter). The locals were quite curious when she first opened the shop.

We went to see an old covered bridge in Western Maine just north of the White Mountains. Built in 1872. It was near the Sunday River and there was quite a lot of new development going on. Sad to see that developers have discovered the area this far north in Maine.

I spent one night on the north shore of Lake Ontario. That was very nice and very quiet. I saw another T@B which was camped just two sites down from me. They were from Prince Edward Island and were going to Toronto.

Niagara Falls was a bust but here's a picture taken near Horseshoe Falls on the canadian side. I didn't like the town of Niagara Falls at all. It was extremely crowded and full of signs and small shops (like tatoo parlors and casinos). Not a very friendly environment. I was surprised at how many families were still touring this late in August.

I'll write again when (if) I find an internet cafe in New Brunswick.