Greetings from Canada

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This will be a long entry. We have been communication challenged. Something happened to our voice mail at home and we can't access it. I should be able to access voice mail on my cell phone, but can no longer use the shortcut I established since we are out of the US. I don't have the instruction book with me and don't have complete number so can't access that voice mail either. We have also had difficulties finding campgrounds with wi-fi so we are basically incommunicado.

Since our last entry we have discovered a number of things. 1) Gray skies don't always mean rain. Today they do. We have had a lot of days that start out cloudy, clear up and then cloud up again, but no rain. This seems to be the pattern in this part of the world. 2) We think we are slowly adapting to the cooler temps. Actually felt fairly warm when I stepped out yesterday morning at 55°. I brought several tank tops with me and they work great as undershirts!

Now to update you on our activities. To recap some, we spent 6 days on Mont Desert Island (Acadia and Bar Harbor area). Most of the time we were there it was cool and cloudy. Very little rain so good for hiking and biking most days. Cooler our last day there and temps got down to 49º the last night. Was a little nippy since we had been on battery power for the 6 days and couldn't use heat all night. Saved the little battery we had left for in the morning. We had plenty of blankets and warm jammies from LL Bean so did fine. Woke up to beautiful blue skies, the first we had seen since the day we arrived.

On Friday, June 15, we headed north to Canada under bright blue skies and temps in the high 70's. (The only day it has been that warm).We had considered taking the ferry from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Novia Scotia to cut out driving time and save on gas. However, the cost 1-way with our rig would be $565 so we scrapped that idea. We drove instead and crossed the border at Calais/St. Stephen without any problems. We have found the visitor center's in the eastern US to be very nice with lots of brochures. The New Brunswick center was equally nice, but more personal. In addition to the wonderful brochures, they have hosts who greet you and ask what types of activities you plan to do in NB. They then select brochures for you targeting those activities and give tips you wouldn't get from just reading the brochures. Gives extra info and saves you time in hunting for the info you want. We drove on to St. John's where we stayed for a couple of days. We settled in a nice campground at Rockwood Park which is a 2200 acre complex in the heart of St. John's. Pretty wooded areas, hiking and biking trails, and small lakes. Nice to have an electrical hook-up again and laundry facilities which I utilized immediately.

On Saturday, June 16, we took a ferry from Black's Harbour to Grand Manon Island with the intent to walk some on the island and then go on a whale watching tour. Mostly blue skies as we drove to Black's Harbour, but as soon as we were out on the water we were in deep fog which continued all the way to the island and then turned into a misty rain. As you can imagine they were not doing any whale watching trips that day. We still had a great day. We hiked to Swallowtail Light House at the northern end of the island. It had stopped misting by the time we got there and the fog had lifted some - very quiet except for the fog horn, beautiful lupin and lilacs along the way, peaceful. We had delicious fish chowder and a lobster roll at the Back Porch Cafe (small and actually on the back porch of an old house) and wandered the area until time to come back on the ferry. When we got back to the mainland, skies again were blue. On the way back on the ferry we visited with a couple (Tony and Barb) from St. John's. They gave us additional tips of things to see. Barb is the secretary at St. John's (The Stone) Anglican Church which was built in the early 1800's. They invited us to Sunday worship which we attended on Sunday. The elderly gentleman who welcomed us at the church has lived in St. John's all his life and when he found we were visitor's he gave us lots of information about the 2 rivers that flow into the city and then into the Bay of Fundy and good tips for putting in our kayaks which we plan to do on Monday. Very nice service and extremely friendly people. We stayed for coffee and cookies after the service and enjoyed meeting several people from the congregation as well as another visitor from New Jersey.

We visited the New Brunswick Museum in Market Square which had great exhibits on the lumber, fishing, agriculture and ship building industries here in the 1800's and early 1900's. We also visited the Reversing Falls which are an amazing sight. Two rivers converge on the northern edge of St. John and then flow through a narrow gorge, go a short distance further, and then flow into the Bay of Fundy. The narrow gorge has some rapids and small waterfalls. Because the gorge is narrow and the tides in Fundy are so high, the water level changes by 14-25 feet between low and high tide. In fact, it goes up so much that at high tide the water runs upstream and the falls go the opposite direction. We visited the site Saturday evening at low tide and then again Sunday afternoon at high tide. They have an observation deck and 2 restaurants overlooking the area. We had Sunday dinner at the restaurant closest to the falls and had a perfect view

Got up Monday morning to chilly and very windy weather so decided to move on rather than kayak. Drove to Hopewell Rocks to see the tide in the Bay of Fundy. Stayed in the Ponderosa Pines Campground only a couple of km. From the rocks. Spent Tuesday, June 19, at the Hopewell Rocks to see both low and high tide. Unbelievable. In 6 hours the water rises 35-48 feet. Rose 39.4 feet the day we were there. At low tide the area is huge mud flats that fill with very orange muddy water at high tide. Unbelievable he rate at which the water comes up. Spent the evening visiting with a couple from Sacramento in our campground. Left Wednesday morning for Nova Scotia.

Drove to Grand Pre in Acadian country. Will spend several days here reviewing Acadian history, seeing the Bay of Fundy from the Novia Scotia side and hopefully takiing a whale watching tour. Plan to go from here to the Halifax area and then on to Cape Breton Island.

Tidbits: David had estimated our gas expenses for the trip. Our miles per gallon pulling the toy hauler have been less than he estimated so have tried to set up base camps and then do day trips in the truck. Gas prices, however, have gotten progressively cheaper as we came east. Most expensive in the US was when we filled up in BC before we left. The price was down to $3 by St. Louis and on the east coast has varied from $2.97 (lowest we found and in Acadia) to $3.09. It is now higher in Canada, but we haven't calculated by how much since it is price per liter and we haven't taken time yet to do the conversion. We might wait until we get home to do that. I don't think we want to know.

We had not seen a single recycling bin at a campground in the US until we were in the state park in Acadia. Our campground in St. John's was reminiscent of Europe with a bin for glass, one for aluminum and another for plastic. The one is Grand Pre is really reminiscent of Europe with a composting bin as well as the typical glass, plastic and aluminum.

This trip has reminded us of what it is like to live with humidity. Because of the cooler weather, the humidity has not been uncomfortable just noticable. I now have very dewy skin and my hair is 2 inches shorter than when we left Nevada.

Until our next entry - David and Barb

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