Blogs from Prince Edward Island, Canada, North America - page 8

Someone flipped the ‘Fall’ switch on Sept 21st and the day after the birch trees here started to change colour. There are already some vibrant reds mixed in with the rich green of the pine trees here on the island. Today we headed NE to the North Harbour. The North Harbour is yet another cove housing a fishing harbour. At least a dozen fishing boats were there. The island has an incredible amount of these harbours dotted all along its shoreline. Our tour today took us to many of the lighthouses on the eastern shores. As a result, the drive has had the most incredible views. You’ll see a shoreline, water, red beach, shoreline then water again all at once as the jutting out of land creates a cove that the road winds around. Another thing ... read more

You don’t go to PEI and not take in an attraction involving Anne of Green Gables. You’re not going to find Avonlea, the place where Anne Shirley lived, because she’s a fictional character. What you will find is tributes to the author Lucy Maud Montgomery who wrote Anne of Green Gables and had the first book published in 1908. There is a provincial park in Cavendish dedicated to this and onsite there is a house and barn and trails that are similar to the ones L.M. Montgomery encountered when exploring the nearby farm owned by her cousin’s Grandfather. These are the ones that inspired Avonlea in her books. We also found a bookstore run by a descendent of the McNeils, the Grandparents who took L.M. Montgomery in when she was young. Almost all of the little ... read more

We loaded up the truck and with some quick verbal directions made a quick dash out of Sydney with the goal of reaching the PEI ferry for the 13:00 departure. Two minutes later we’re already lost and for some reason the gps was not making any sense, seemingly making us go around in circles or down dead end streets. After mistaking the turn in 150 metres to a turn now and ending up going the wrong way on a one way street, We stopped and tried to get our bearings. Finally we head out on what we figure is a main road only to find it’s sent us on the slower path back out of Cape Breton again. Down the road, we figure we’ll save some time by taking the 216 across so we can meet ... read more

31 July, 2013 It was foggy yesterday morning, so we weren’t in a big hurry to get going. Bob and Gena came over (all the way from next door) and we ate bacon and blueberry pancakes. The blueberries were from their wild blueberry plants in Florida. Then we headed out for a day of sightseeing on Prince Edward Island. We drove west on Highway 2 to Portage, then took Hwy 12, the North Cape Coastal Drive. We stopped at Northport on the Gulf of St. Lawrence to see the lighthouse there. We spotted a lighthouse and drove over. Unfortunately, it was a fake lighthouse next to the community center, but we got some nice pictures of the harbor, in spite of the fog. We finally spotted the real lighthouse just visible through the fog and got ... read more

Day 5: Late start from Houlton, ME as we were only expecting about a 4 hr drive. When we stopped on the way out of the campground to dump the holding tanks, I found that the top wouldn't go up more than about 2 inches at a time - - even with the truck running at a high idle. Did manage to get it up high enough to get the sewer hose out of its storage place and dump the tank. Went straight to the grocery store to provision and then to Walmart for a new battery. Sure, enough when we put it on the Battery tester, it had at least one bad cell. So about $75 later, we had a new battery installed and it seems to be working correctly. Finally got on the road ... read more