O Canada--Retirement Trip Day 7

I tried to post last night as I usually do before bed but despite promises that my Verizon Plan is in full effect in Canada, traffic on the local tower was so heavy I was unable to upload pictures. I am now in the camp laundry room with excellent FREE wifi--not even a bounce page login required. O Canada!

Algonquin Lodge St Andrews By The Sea NB

We left out about 8a and headed up US 1 towards St Stephens New Brunswick (Calais, Maine across the river) to go through the border crossing gates. US 1 runs through Sanford, NC, near where Greg grew up and I am regularly there for paddle club meetings and to visit Greg's family. It was fun to see the same brownstone rocks as in Lee County and pass through Jonesboro, ME and recollect Jonesboro, NC adjacent to Sanford. But it was NOT nice to drive long stretches of US 1 with absolutely wretched pavement, and for a couple of miles under repair, no pavement at all. I realize the Maniacs have to deal with weather extremes, but at times I was forced to drive in an otherwise 50 mph zone at a crawl to avoid beating my equipment to death. So no pictures here. Of course, Canada 1 with the same extreme weather was beautifully paved.

That said, we crossed the border (after waiting on background checks--why can't potential employers be this fast!?!) in about 15 minutes, a blissfully fast passing for a camper after having heard horror stories on the RV forums. Our first stop was the lovely resort town of St Andrews By The Sea on Passamaquaddy Bay. We pulled off at a public park for lunch and as we pulled out of town, drove through the arch of this incredible lodge.

Our next stop was at an Information Station (aka rest stop and welcome center) outside Saint John. While much of the driving is very similar to driving in the US, there are some differences. Because they  acknowledge that they are a multilingual nation, they rely a lot on international pictograms on their signs--hence the big question mark. The images make total sense once your autopilot adapts to them but there is an adjustment period. My truck speedometer does mark kph but in tiny, hard to read numbers below the mph. Fortunately, my gps translates both speed and distance into the more familiar miles. I really don't want a speeding ticket! And their traffic signals are smaller and not bright yellow as at home. I really am having trouble with that and nearly ran one. Ben is a big help!

Between the nerve-jangling roads in Maine, uncertainty about the border crossing, and adjusting to the subtle difference in driving here, and having pushed really hard these past seven days, we were exhausted. We took naps. Very long hot showers, fixed a lovely meal over the grill and hit a local grocery to resupply. While Ben fixed supper, I enjoyed my Margaret Maron mystery in the laundry room washing clothes. After our grocery run, we hit the hay early and have lingered over this morning #8.

We have some mysteries of Canada yet to uncover--like why these buses are pink and why all the plumbing fixtures look like 1980 and why you can buy wine in the grocery but ONLY non-alcoholic beer (which they have in wonderful variety). And why can't the US still have Superman phone booths? I am sure we will discover more. One item that is not a mystery is why everyone we chat with asks how it is we endure the current political situation, but that is another concern for another time.


Our campsite is atop a hill and part of a major downtown park with a restaurant, multiple lakes and over 50 miles of walking trails. We appear to be in the industrial district with heavy road traffic and perched high above a rail classification yard, which pleases Ben to no end. This pic, from over the fence behind our spot shows the expanse of this part of the city. You can see refinery towers in the distant left. The following picture shows last night's lovely full moon with the refinery exhaust fires burning beneath it.

We are taking it easy again today, puttering off to Fundy National Park. Will report in as technology

allows...