Saint Andrews By The Sea Days 3-4

Our view, Passamaquoddy Bay

Saint Andrews Library

We made it. There was no wifi last night to make a report. Verizon doesn't reach here and the campground internet was overwhelmed. Monday is Canada Day and back in January, I got the last site available. Did I mention, the campsite is packed? As I write this, Jessie and I are in the Saint Andrews Library, a charming place with lots of kids and very good connectivity.

Lobster roll & Whoppie Pie

There is little to report from yesterday except a LOT of driving, the longest day yet. In contrast to the day before, however, it was smooth sailing all day. Even the back roads through the center of Maine were well paved and lightly traveled. The mountains are softer here, my guess is that they have been gentled by glaciers. We saw spectacular views of unbroken forests from the crests of ridges, then plunged back into those woods until we reached the next high spot. We are moving from a Temperate Rain Forest to a Tiaga, according to Jessie. Deciduous trees are giving way to birches and conifers. We are also moving backwards into spring with rhododendron in bloom along with spring flowers. But I digress.

LL Bean

The two big events of yesterday occurred within a block of each other in Freeport ME. Jessie had her first lobster roll and her first trip to LLBean. For their 90th birthday, this giant boot had been created to greet visitors. Jessie insisted I pose.

St Croix river crossing into Canada

Crossing the border was blissfully easy. We had all our papers ready but they only asked for our passports and the standard questions about destination, tobacco and booze. They also asked about cannabis. We didn't have any of that, either, just a properly vaccinated dog and lots of insurance info.

Downtown Saint Andrews

Saint Andrews Post Office

After 3 hard days, we were pooped. We cooked a simple supper, took a walk along the rocky beach and hit the hay. Today is my 65th birthday. We have decided to celebrate by resting and catching up. We walked on the beach while our laundry dried. Then we went shopping in Saint Andrews which is decked out for Monday's Canada Day celebrations. And we have confirmed the rumor that Canadian Kit Kat bars are amazingly better than those sold in the US and come in a variety of flavors.

I mentioned doing spring in reverse. The entrance to the post office was flanked by these magnificent rhododendron. And the lupines are absolutely glorious. I've never seen so many so large.

Lupines

Motorized Parasail

According to our brochure, Saint Andrews has been voted Canada's favorite vacation spot. I am not surprised. Vita had recommended Ben and I drive through last year and so we stopped for lunch at a lovely seaside park. Last night, driving past the park, Jessie and I saw deer grazing as residents walked dogs and visited with each other. The coastline is incredibly beautiful, the town charming and well kept. And so far, everyone we have met has been welcoming and friendly. I can't imagine living in all this beauty and being a grump. If I would not have to pay taxes in two countries, I'd consider moving.

The one intrusion to our sense of peace was this guy "paramotoring" over the camp site. It did look incredibly fun, but it was very loud and when he gunned it to gain altitude, his equipment belched a foul smelling plume of smoke that drifted onto the camp ground. You can see from the photo the rock brought in to protect the coast. Just across the street is the densely populated camp ground. Not a good place for a mechanical failure. All that aside, imagine the smell of fresh salt air and enjoy these photos of Saint Andrews By the Sea. Tomorrow we will be making camp on Pointe Wolf in the Bay of Fundy National Park and enjoying fish and chips in an Alma pub. Year 65 begins...

Oh, and just a reminder, you can click on any photo for a larger view.

Memorial to the immigrants from the Potato Famine

Following the Appalachian Ridge

Jessie at the wheel

I'm not going to write a lot tonight--mostly just comment on pictures. We hightailed it up the Appalachian Ridge today and ended up in Brattleboro VT. Another long day and we are pooped. The scenery was stunning the entire way with subtle differences between mountain ranges, but all of it was familiar and felt like the mountains back home. Jessie read the phrase "Appalachian Temperate Rain Forest", which I had not heard before but aptly describes the blanket of green that covered much of what we saw.

Vintage Shasta

A shout out to the KOA folks. I'd heard they were good employers at their corporate owned sites. I talked with the local site owner tonight and she said they were great partners. Glad to spend my money with them, they have been absolutely trouble free to deal with and their facilities have been consistently clean and convenient.

Summer slowdowns

Atop the Blue Ridge in New York

We had almost no construction traffic or slow downs yesterday. We paid for that today. We traveled nearly 100 miles less today but it took as long or longer. In addition, the GPS took us off the interstate through the scenic Poconos though that detour was well worth the time. The interstate mostly travels atop the ridge but the local roads took us deep into the woods, through small towns.

Local stone

The traffic was bad and we were pressed for time so most pictures are through the windshield. My apologies. Photography should improve once we can slow down in Canada.

Poconos

We pass through Hartford CT and Jessie snapped a picture of this huge building with lettering that said Spaghetti Warehouse. Since it looked like a warehouse, we were intrigued and she looked it up on the internet. Apparently there is a chain called Spaghetti Warehouse and they had a restaurant near this abandoned building, bought it and used it as a billboard to advertise the restaurant. The Hartford restaurant closed in 1996, but their sign remains an item of local interest. The things you learn..

Crossing the Hudson

Spaghetti Warehouse

We ended the day in Brattleboro, hungry and tired. The downtown looks a lot like Asheville without the influence of ridiculous wealth. Arty, full of students and funky shops and beautiful old architecture. And a nice spot to camp and sleep. Next stop Canada.  Good night!

Brattleboro

An adventure already--To Nova Scotia Day 1

Hair brained...

We actually rolled out of bed and the driveway on time this morning. We were on the road before 9a. I had estimated a nine hour trip and hit it on the nose. I have new tires on both vehicles, fresh oil, a safety inspection and I've had three practice campouts to test it all. So much for the best laid plans. We got to our first rest stop and the trailer door had come open. The 17 year old door latch has failed. I called Scamp to see if they could overnight a replacement to Brattleboro VT, our next stop. Well, for $104 FedEx would not guarantee next day delivery so I'm paying for snail post and having it sent to Ben. I had bought some thick cloth covered elastic hair bands to use as curtain tie backs. With a little ingenuity, they now hold the door closed. I'll be buying duct tape at the next opportunity. Were Greg Talbott with us, there'd have been a stash of tie wraps and bailing string to add some Clampett ambiance. At this point, we just look odd. But it works.

Mt Jackson VA

It's been blistering hot. And we've pushed pretty hard to make the 440 miles we made today and do it cruising at 60mph max. I am glad to report that the rest of the equipment has performed admirably. The tires apparently have been very well balanced and well aligned. I don't remembering the truck running this smoothly since I've owned it. And bless the Pennsylvania DOT, the road damage that nearly beat us to death last year has been repaired.

We are following the Appalachian Ridge, as we did last time, all the way up to the coast of Maine. This is all familiar territory so not much new to report. It does appear that the Gaffney Peach (or the 'Roid as Greg used to call it) has some competition in this apple basked near Mount Jackson, VA. Otherwise, the trip was gorgeous and blissfully uneventful, except for the door.

We are staying at a KOA near Hershey PA. It is remarkably comfortable--on a lively creek shaded by mature trees. I picked it for convenience and an abundance of drive through campsites since we are just passing through, but we've both been pleased with the amenities. Franklin has had a great romp in the dog park and the General Store delivers Broasted Chicken dinners with a phone call. Did I say, "tired"? We are trying to follow Jessie's recommended diet and broasted chicken is not exactly on it, but when they said they'd deliver, we opened a salad bag and placed an order.

The campground is full of campers, some appear to be permanent or long term and have planted gardens and added decorations. I was charmed by this camper ornament hanging from a tree. The creek looks like a good paddle and is crossed by this trestle bridge at the edge of the property. I am not sure how well you can see the structure. I've never seen a bridge like this. Instead of two truss structures opposite each other and connected top and bottom, this bridge is composed of three trusses offset from each other. Big trucks roll across is so it must be safe but  it's definitely unique.

When I took my Canada trip last year, I spent the first three days driving alone with the goal of picking Ben up at the airport in Portland ME. I spent my first night in Edinburgh VA. Edinburgh is almost three hours back up the road from where we are tonight.  I was tired and hurting that night--my hips and back still recovering from two years of slinging book bags at work--and feeling a little lonely and vulnerable, not sure just how intrepid I really was. The campground was decorated with antique train toys and I photographed them for Ben. I was delighted to find this big train toy in our campground tonight. I photographed it for Ben again.

There will be two more hard days like this before we will take a rest in Canada. Jessie's company and relief driving have made all the difference. Let's just hope the bungees hold...

Finally!

My shady campsite

The Music Stage

Finally, a beautiful weekend! I had no plans so I quickly made some! All the state parks were full but I found a private campground near Snow Camp, NC, striking distance from Saxapahaw Lake, one of my favorite paddle spots. The weather has been so bad this spring, I've barely had the camper on the road. The Canada trip is coming up and I wanted one last local trip to be sure everything was working well. Even more than that, I wanted and needed some quiet time. Forty five minutes up the road, I found it.

Cane Creek Campground is not the typical family vacation campground. There were no swimming pools or playgrounds or game rooms. Instead, it is home to the annual Little John's Mountain Music Festival and is set up to accommodate the festival crowd. There are a few long-term campers in residence, a few available sites with electricity and water for passers-by like me, showers, pit toilets, the stage, and lots of parking and tent camping spaces for the festival weekend. It is a lovely, quiet place  (on any weekend EXCEPT the festival) and I had a good stay. The weather was perfect--sunny, breezy and mild. I had a spot in the shade overlooking a pond. My neighbors were quiet and I was reasonably close to the things I wanted to do.

Headwaters of the Haw

My daughter's work schedule has prevented us from doing much trip planning for Canada. She's been
pretty stressed by the extra hours her employer has requested and I've been concerned for her. I called her Friday night and suggested we meet at the Haw River State Park to walk her dog and do some catching up. She'd told me about the trails there. It's a relatively new state park and I was interested to see it. I had no idea until I pulled in that it was the former Brown Summit Conference Center for the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina where I'd attended retreats in earlier years. A schism in the church caused it to be sold and the state purchased it in the early 2000s. The original conference center had 210 acres associated with it. The state has added another 1200 acres and has transformed the conference center buildings into the first residential Environmental Education Center in North Carolina.

Sunset Saxapahaw Lake

There is a small lake just off the main lodge and trails that branch out from the road around the lake. One leads to a boardwalk through a swamp and ends in an observation deck overlooking a roiling stream that is the headwaters of the mighty Haw River. The area is rich in both plant and animal life and we saw lots of interesting wetland plants in bloom. Just up the road in Reidsville, we found a great Mexican place for lunch and worked out plans for our Canadian adventure.

After a nap and some time to read, I started dinner and prepared for a visit from my friend, Ruthie. She has never paddled at night. The Haw River Canoe and Kayak Company (HRCKC) in Saxapahaw runs monthly Full Moon Paddles on Saxapahaw Lake, an empoundment of the Haw River

Moonrise over the dam

far downstream of the headwaters near Brown Summit. I learned to kayak at Sawapahaw and bought my first boat from the HRCKC folks. The first two years I had it, I made every full moon paddle the weather allowed. The river at night is both incredibly quiet and enormously full of sound. It's a totally different experience than daytime paddling and the moon is never more beautiful than rising over the water. This night was clear and mild. We paddled to a cove teeming with wildlife and sat in the dark taking in myriad sounds.

Moonlight on the Haw

So my last minute plans landed me a weekend soaking up the lovely weather, enjoying some much needed solitude, lots of outdoor beauty, and exploring new places with good people. Very worth the wait.

Stay tuned...Adventure Canada is next!

Medoc Mountain and Big Foot!

All the comforts of home...

Diggin' a hole in the shade

Did I mention that we went from nearly flooding to extremely hot and dry almost over night? There are so many campers on the road these days, I plan and book my trips in January and trust  the weather will allow me to enjoy most of them. And most years mostly it works. Back in January, I booked  two nights at Medoc Mountain State Park near Littleton, NC for the last weekend in May. Jessie had been intrigued with the nearby Big Foot Museum, which was closed on the day she took to drive up there last fall. So together we planned this trip to enjoy the park, paddle Little Fishing Creek within the park and check out the museum. And part of the plan was for Jessie to practice driving the rig before our trip to Canada in June.

So it all went well but the weather. Jessie did well driving. Ruthie got a site near us. Ben and Sydney brought the rest of the kayaks and their tent. I brought the large screen room and an electric fan. And thank goodness the trailer has AC. It was hot as, well, you know. Even Franklin was subdued. We did manage a good meal that evening and eventually enjoyed a camp fire once it got dark enough to really cool off some. 

Little Fishing Creek

Storm damage

We planned the next day to avoid the heat. Little Fishing Creek runs the length of the park and is billed as a 1 - 1.5 hour paddle. We started out early and it was an absolutely lovely trip, punctuated with downed trees and portages over mess left from last summer's hurricanes. The park service has tried hard to keep the creek clear and we saw plenty of evidence of chain saw work, but with heavy spring rains, weakened trees have continued to fall. With good teamwork, it took us about 2.5 hours to complete the run but we all agreed it was worth it. The creek is narrow and intimate and full of wildlife and one of the loveliest places we've been. And as far as I am concerned, anyplace we can go together is extra special.

Sydney and friend

Something I learned about Sydney on the Eno is that she loves to play Catch and Release with baby turtles. And she's good at it. There were lots of baby turtles to enjoy. We also saw a copperhead swimming the creek and disappearing into the bank. But mostly we saw beautiful, deep woods and the occasional hiker on the streamside path.

Plan your next visit!

It was after noon by the time we got back and still cool enough to enjoy lunch outdoors (with the help of the fan). After a little clean up, we headed to Littleton to find the Cryptozoology and Paranormal Museum, which happens to be in the home of a retired newspaper journalist who got into the paranormal writing documentaries for the New York Daily News.

Oh no!

Big Foot Ben

Prints from Medoc Mountain

Clearly, we had lots of fun. The museum guy had just been to Medoc Mountain State Park the week before taking castings of fresh Big Foot tracks. I'm not sure how much I believe any of this but Jessie got a great T shirt and we all enjoyed the AC.

This doll looks creepy even if it weren't haunted...

Had it been cooler, we could have stayed for a ghost tour of the house and neighborhood. Our host offered little electronic devices that pick up "abnormalities" indicating ghostly presences. Apparently nobody knew just how haunted the town was before he and his wife moved there, but scary as it may be, paranormal tourism has helped the local economy.

Ben in Halifax

We weren't quite ready to go back to camp and take on the heat so we checked the map for a cool drive and decided to head over to Historic Halifax. According to the web, "Halifax, NC is the nation's birthplace of independence.  The historic document Halifax Resolves was signed here on April 12, 1776, predating the Declaration of Independance by almost three months". The kids had been there years ago when I went to retrieve an antique loom I'd restored and loaned to State Historic Sites. The person who used it at Halifax for demonstrations had retired and they wanted the space back. It's now on display at Cedar Rock Historic Farm, but I digress. We needed a cool destination and we found it, and a Dairy Queen nearby. Another good cookout and we packed up for home and left out early the next morning. We'd love to come back for the ghost tour and the creekside hike, and we will--when it cools off!

Ancient Chinese Chestnut at Halifax

The Human Race and other adventures

The Human Race

I haven't posted in a while. The camping season has been slow to start this year. Eleven of the first 18 weekends of 2019 saw rain here and we've now morphed into intense heat and risk of wildfires. Clearly climate deniers don't own campers. That said, I've still had some fun.

Little River at Zooland

On the weekend of March 16, I took my shakedown cruise. I had to work that weekend (I am now the Volunteer Coordinator very part time at United Way) so I booked a site at Zooland just south of town. I've joined a local RV club--the Randolph Ramblers--and got to meet a few of them there despite very cold weather. Lovely folks. And I had no idea Zooland bordered this scenic river. On a warmer weekend, I'll go back and explore the trails along it.  But this time I was there for The Human Race.

Big fund-raisers can be expensive for small non-profits and the overhead can eat up much of what is raised. So The Volunteer Center of United Way hosts a sanctioned 5K walk/run every year in March. Anyone can walk/run for the non-profit of their choice or join a team and 75% of the proceeds are guaranteed to the designated organization. It's followed by a food truck rodeo for Habitat for Humanity and the local craft brewery, 4 Saints, has a St. Patty's beer garden. Over 300 generous souls braved bitter cold winds to participate. They wore costumes, brought their dogs, pushed their loved ones in wheelchairs and raised nearly $40K for area charities.

Three Sisters Swamp

My next two trips to camp had to be canceled but that doesn't mean I haven't had some fun. On March 30 the Central Carolina Paddlers took a trip 10 miles down the Black River south of Fayetteville, NC, and through the Three Sister's Swamp. The swamp is home to the oldest grove of trees in Eastern North America--2600 year old cypress trees. I cannot describe the sense of wonder at these ancient living things and my sense of gratitude that the state has the foresight to preserve them. I encourage anyone to take this trip. The 10 miles on sluggish water is strenuous and you'll need a guide but several area outfitters will accommodate you. VERY worth your time.

Tupelo Swamp

Laurel on the Eno

In April, the club visited Crystal Lake on another cold, blustery day. Crystal Lake was built as a vacation spot back in the 1920s before transportation was good enough to get folks to the beach easily. It's located between  Carthage and Southern Pines. It's a bit of a hike from home and the lake looked so small on the map (and the weather was so cold the day of the club trip) I almost backed out. But I'm glad I did not. Crystal Lake itself may be tiny, but it ends in a Tupelo Swamp and once we were within the trees, the wind died and that sense of the ancient and the sacred settled on us. It was such a lovely trip, I called a couple of girlfriends and  we met on a pleasantly warm Tuesday and explored it again. The ribbons we'd set the first time were still there and this swamp is considerably smaller so we were fine sans guide. I didn't get to kayak much last year and the weather again this year has been limiting, but the trips I've taken this spring have been more than special enough to make up for all that.

Lake ThomaLex

So for Mother's Day, when the kids asked what I wanted, I said I wanted a paddle trip with them. Ben, Jessie and Sydney all took a day off work and we paddled an impoundment on the Eno River with banks full of fragrant honeysuckle and mountain laurel still in bloom. When my college roommate, Kathy Abbott, came from Chicago to spend Mother's Day week with her mom in Thomasville, we had a lovely hike at Salem Lake and later in the week, paddled Lake ThomaLex (if you guessed the water reservoir for Lexington and Thomasville you got it). Ruthie and I went back yesterday and explored the headwaters. We were entertained by numerous waterbirds including heron, ducks and an actively hunting osprey. So despite little camping, it's been a perfectly lovely spring. I have lots more reservations to camp coming up and, in the words of my high school boyfriend, "God willing and the river don't rise", I plan to hit at least a few of them.