#47 - Coveys Great Adventure – July 2018 – Eastern Canada

July 2018 – Eastern Canada

Kayeanne took this one. Crystal
Beach wan't all bad

Ten campgrounds in five provinces in one month made July pretty hectic, and it didn’t start out very auspiciously. I had a bad feeling when we were directed to back into a pull through site on grass at Crystal Beach. A lot of rain had fallen in June and the campground management was clearly worried that the ground might be too soft for our heavy coach. I should have listened to my gut, because after sitting for four days we had to dig trenches in front of the wheels and fill them with gravel to finally claw our way out of that campsite. Charlie’s lighter coach pulled right out, but not ours. Unfortunately we were so focused on getting out that we didn’t take any pictures, but I had blisters for a couple of weeks. I am not planning a return visit to Crystal Beach.

Yes, we did go to Green Gables

From Crystal Beach we explored Summerside and the western part of PEI. Summerside is quite pleasant and offers a lot of services that can be in short supply in the smaller towns on that side of the island. We stopped at a Tim Horton’s to try poutine, which is french fries topped with cheese curds and smothered in gravy. Yum!

Friends

Right next door was Bishops Machine Shop Museum. “Machine Shop Museum” is a phrase that I simply cannot ignore. My father was a machinist. Long before the days of automation, CNC machining, CAD design and 3D printing, guys with lathes, drill presses and forges built the tools and machines that fed the world and moved goods and people in ways that were unimaginable to their grandfathers. In those days the plows and harrows and threshing machines were often built in the community, because money was scarce and shipping took months. When it broke down the local machinist was usually the one to fix it. Four generations of Bishops supported their community, finally closing shop in 1980. I’m glad that the people of Summerside value that contribution and support the museum the way they do. Noah, the enthusiastic young docent on duty that day was a pleasure to meet.

We moved to Northumberland Provincial Park on the southeast side of the island to see Charlottetown and the north and east coasts. Northumberland was our first experience with Canadian provincial parks and we were impressed. Our sites were on a bluff overlooking the Northumberland Straight. We had 180º views of the ocean, the Wood Islands Lighthouse and the ferry that connects PEI to Nova Scotia. The dogs really enjoyed the beach below the bluffs. Two or three times a day they got to run off leash, sticking their noses into everything.

Charlottetown is the capital of PEI and its largest city. It has all the shopping and services that we wanted but was easy to get around. One day we visited Peakes Quay, a park, marina, shopping and entertainment area in Charlottetown harbor. The shops got us for a few dollars, and we had a very good lunch at the upper deck restaurant.

Charlie and Mollie suggested a road trip to North Lake on the northern tip of the island, with a stop at the historic East Point Lighthouse. We got a bit of a late start so we stopped in Montague for brunch at the Captain’s Cove. All the food served there is made from scratch and everything was delicious. The seafood chowder was outstanding; be sure to try the onion rings, too.

East Point Lighthouse is on a dramatic headland that is slowly eroding away due to its very exposed location. Like the US, the Canadian government stopped maintaining the old manned lighthouses years ago. Most of the lighthouses that survive have been turned over to local organizations who maintain and develop them as attractions. We’ve climbed enough towers and lighthouses that we decided not to pay the $5 per person fee to visit the top of this one. The gift shop, though, had a very interesting collection of handcrafts produced by PEI crafts people. We had a great time.

While it certainly attracts tourists, North Lake is still primarily a fishing village. It was cod fishing on the Grand Banks that first brought Europeans to northeast Canada hundreds of  years ago. The seemingly limitless cod were finally exhausted and since 1992 are carefully protected to try to restore the stocks to sustainable levels. Lobster is the main fishery, but I saw a few boats rigged for fin fishing. 

  

If you go to PEI be sure to allocate a day to visit the Orwell Corner Historic Village. The Village presents an unvarnished view of the lives of farmers and their families from roughly 1890 through the end of the 1940’s. Most of the original buildings survive; I found the store to be particularly interesting. Tea and cookies at the town hall were quite good, and others also lauded the sandwiches. If the blacksmith or the machine shop is giving demonstrations, be sure to attend. The visitors center has a very interesting collection of farm equipment, and the narratives that the residents of the area have provided were really fascinating. There are several Youtube videos of the Village; here’s one.

I think I may have forgotten to mention just how strikingly beautiful this island is. Everywhere you look is a picture-postcard view of verdant fields, lovely harbors and tidy villages. Every house seems well cared for, every yard is manicured and there is NO trash along the roads at all. Oh, and no graffiti, either. It grows on you after awhile: PEI is a really, really nice place to visit.

July 7^th came all too soon, and it was time to leave PEI, and to leave Charlie and Mollie. The last six weeks have been great. They are the epitome of what “good friends” means, and it was really hard to say goodbye. We will always remember this time together. They headed home to New Hampshire and we crossed back over the Confederation Bridge and turned left to Nova Scotia.

For some reason, the mosquitoes that plagued us everywhere we went in New Hampshire, Maine and PEI have (mostly) avoided Nova Scotia. If nothing else, that made NS one of my favorite places.  

I picked Amherst Shores Provincial Park because it was about the right driving distance from Northumberland. The park turned out to be very nice, and we discovered a few local attractions, too. 

The Malagash Salt Mine Museum is a small gem. This mine once was the largest in the world, and all that is left is this museum in the basement of the old union hall. Check their website for dates and hours. The food at The Chowder House in Tatamagouche was quite good. The Tatamagouche Brewery was a pleasant place to sit and people watch, but the beer was just so-so. 

After a few days at Amherst we moved on to Graves Island Provincial Park to explore Halifax, Lunenburg and the surrounding area. Graves Island is one of the nicest parks we’ve stayed in quite awhile. The sites are huge, and ours was like having our own private yard. The dogs were able to be off leash most of the time, a real treat for them.

Lunenburg is all about the sea, and the focal point is the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic right on the waterfront. The history of the Maritimes is inextricably linked to fishing. The Fisheries Museum was interesting, but to me it attempts to serve too many constituencies: the fishermen, the communities they live(d) in, the fisheries, the processors, the politics, the boat builders, etc., and seems to come up a little short in all respects. I came away feeling like I didn’t get much real information about any of the topics, but I did enjoy the building itself, many of the exhibits  and the setting right on the harbor. The gift shop was quite good, too. We had a great lunch at The Grand Banker overlooking the harbor. 

Chester harbor

On the way home that day we drove through Chester and were quite taken with this small, very pretty town and picturesque harbor. We liked the town so much we went back the next day to window shop.

Halifax is a small city with all the congestion issues of much larger places. We tried to go to the Maritime Museum but construction, traffic, and general craziness led us to turn around and head home. That was certainly disappointing, but the route to Halifax led us through Peggy’s Cove. Everyone we talked to about Nova Scotia urged us to go to Peggy’s Cove and the Swissair Flight 111 Memorial, and they were right.

Peggy’s Cove is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The vivid sunlight, the incredible blue sea, the pure white foam on the hard gray rocks, the huge sky and the stark view of the lighthouse against that sky are images that stay with me. The cove, a small harbor is a strikingly attractive place, too. It just seems so… perfect. If you go, go early because the place is small and the number of visitors isn’t.

Swissair 111 crashed into the sea about five miles offshore of Peggy’s Cove in September, 1989, killing all aboard. The memorial to the victims and to the spontaneous all-hands rescue effort by local fishermen is quite moving. The site is a rocky promontory that serves as a fitting backdrop to the stark granite plinths that mark the memories of all who died, and that acknowledges the humanity of those that rallied to help. It is a marked contrast to the exuberant beauty of Peggy’s Cove.

And, for something completely different, we moved directly across Nova Scotia to Glooscap Campground in Parrsboro, right on the Bay of Fundy. This is an old town campground, now a county park, that has been managed by the same character for almost 25 years. 

Most of the RV sites are seasonal renters who have been coming here for years. Size does matter because there are only five sites in the park that can fit our coach, and only one that didn’t require too much creativity to get in or out. Site 15 is right on the Bay of Funday, with sweeping 180º views. Wonderful.

Bay of Fundy at half-tide

Once a center of wooden shipbuilding, Parrsboro is busy reinventing itself as a destination. The Fundy Geological Museum is clearly something the whole town is proud of. It is small, but well designed, curated and enthusiastically managed by the volunteer docents. We spent a couple of hours there one afternoon and quite enjoyed ourselves.

It has also become the site for Parrsboro’s main event, the annual Gem and Mineral Show. 

Fundy Geological Museum was fun

FORCE, the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy, was one of those serendipity discoveries that we hope for. FORCE is developing systems to use the huge tidal flow of the Bay of Fundy to generate electricity. That turned out to be a bigger challenge than they originally thought. Their first generator lasted less than two days before the force of the tides tore it apart. They are about to deploy the next one. They envision a field of generators that will compliment wind and solar power generation. The visitors center is several miles down a dirt road, but well worth the effort.

Model of tidal power generator to be set on
the sea floor of the Bay of Fundy

We realized at this point that the time we had allocated to Nova Scotia was woefully short of what we needed. There is so much that we didn’t get to see like Yarmouth, Sydney and all of Cape Breton Island. We’re not planning a return trip just yet, but we are hoping that we can make it back soon. Now, though, it was time to head North.

"World's Biggest Ax" 

Mariners Point Campground in Nackawic, New Brunswick, wasn’t quite where I thought it was when I was searching for a place for us to stay on the way to Quebec. You’d think I’d have figured out how to read Google Maps by now, but I still managed to put us in the middle of nowhere, 45 miles from Fredericton. The park was ok, we got a nice spot facing the St. John River. The huge wood fiber plant nearby really, really smelled badly when the wind shifted. We didn’t regret moving on.

No idea: it's July!

Riviere du Loup is about a hundred miles northeast of Quebec City on the Saint Lawrence River. It’s a popular vacation destination for Quebec residents. Camping Du Quai reflected that: we were the only US campers and there were only a handful of non-French speakers in the whole place. No one could explain why they have a Christmas-in-July celebration, at least not in English.

I picked R du L because we needed a small city to rest and resupply, and to ease our way into the Francophile culture of Quebec. I was surprised at how many people speak no English at all. They weren’t refusing to speak English, they simply couldn’t. Many of those who tried were virtually incomprehensible, at least to me.

I wanted to make Kayeanne’s 65th birthday something she would remember. After much googling and examination of the internet tea leaves, I picked Le Saint-Patrice. It was everything I hoped it would be. If you find yourself in R du L, grab your favorite honey and go. It was an exceptional dining experience in every way. Kayeanne had cod in bacon butter sauce and I had salmon with lemon confit. Five thumbs up!

Quebec City was on Kayeanne’s gotta-see-it list. Our stay at Camping Transit in Levis began poorly when the coach wouldn’t start after we checked in, blocking their driveway for about 30 minutes until I fumbled my way to getting it to respond. The campground was pretty disappointing. The electrical power wasn’t very robust and the weather was hot. We were unable to run more than one of our three A/C units without blowing the breaker. Needless to say, we weren’t happy campers.

That and a couple of other niggles aside, Camping Transit was ideally placed to visit QC. It’s only ten minutes to the ferry in Levis that crosses the St. Lawrence and docks right at Old Town Quebec. If you visit QC, stay in the city or stay in Levis and use the ferry. They cross about every 30 minutes all day for $3.

Upper Quebec

Quebec City is a lovely, vibrant place that is almost overwhelmed with tourists. We spent most of two days walking all over it. We visited the Citadel (boring, terrible guide), the Museum of Civilization (quite PC and not interesting except the Michel Dallaire exhibit), the Chocolate Factory and Museum (yum! fabulous ice cream, too!), the Basilica (eh) and lots of other places. We walked miles soaking up the textures and the life of the city. I think the residents must look forward to winter when the hoards of tourists recede and life can return to normal. The number of visitors from every corner of the world is really pretty staggering. It is certainly worth visiting, but in the Spring or Fall. 

Old Town Quebec

Our next stop was Niagara Falls, from the Canadian side. It is too far to drive directly there from Quebec City, so we boondocked at Walmart in Kingston, Ontario, to split the mileage. The lot was ok, and we were able to get Wifi from the Lowe’s store next door.

We had been having a problem with some of the coach systems like the wipers and the cruise control intermittently turning off. When we started the coach the next morning, none of those items would turn on. I’d been hoping that would happen because it is much easier to diagnose a hard fault than an intermittent one. I had an idea what the problem might be and a test confirmed that one of the solenoids feeding power to one of the accessory fuse banks had failed. The auto parts store across the street had one in stock at a really painful price (3x the US cost!) but an hour later we were on the road with everything running.

Scott’s Family Campground in Niagara was a mixed bag. It is as close to the Falls as any campground in the area and it is less expensive than the others, always a good thing. But the utility layout was the screwiest I’ve ever seen. The sewer connection ended up under the coach, behind the wrong-side rear wheels. Oh, and it sloped uphill. Draining the tanks took some creativity to avoid an unpleasant event. The power connection and water spigot were also inefficiently positioned, but at the end of the day we coped with it all and focused on seeing the sights.

I was a little underwhelmed by the Falls and overwhelmed by the crowds. I guess falling water, even large volumes of it, don’t excite me very much. We took lots of pictures, got drenched by the spray and dodged hordes of other tourists. Several people recommended the Behind the Falls Tour. Had I known we would have to stand in line for almost two hours as we slooowly shuffled our way to a couple of small elevators to stand in line to shuffle by an opening to watch water fall….I would have passed. Sorry folks, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. On a positive note, the sushi in the lobby of the visitor center was quite good and not expensive, and Kayeanne was much happier and more impressed than I was.

Very tight fit

The Welland Canal Museum and Lock 5 viewing area was a few miles from our campground in St. Catherine. We arrived just before a 750’ long bulk carrier arrived at the lock. Given that the lock is 78’ wide and the ship is 75’ wide, it was a real treat to see it enter the lock under its own power without touching anything. Not to belabor the point, but that is 18 inches of clearance on a 750’ long ship! Really impressed. And, the Museum was interesting, too.

The next day we set out to see Niagara-on-the-Lake, have lunch and visit a couple of wineries. The town was completely jammed. Their annual music festival was being held in the park in the center of town. There was no parking for any price, and the crowds had decided that the streets were easier to navigate than the packed sidewalks. Absolute chaos! We finally crawled our way through town and out the other side. We quickly decided that what we really needed was ....wine.

The first winery we came to was Konzelmann. We lucked out; the wine was good, it was reasonably priced and the staff were fun. We sampled everything, bought some Cab to go and headed home in a much better frame of mind than when we arrived. 

The next day we headed for the Dearborn, MI, back in the USS...A (thanks Paul and John).

That wraps up our first Canadian trip. We both hope it won’t be our last.

More soon,

Bob

#46 - Covey Great Adventure - June 2018 - NH and the Maritime Provinces, Part 1

June 2018 – New Hampshire and the Maritime Provinces, Part 1

Schroeder loves Casa Kendrick, too

We finally rolled into Campton, New Hampshire, on May 28 to spend six weeks or so with Charlie and Mollie Kendrick. We were excited to find a new sewer hookup and cable TV connection at Casa Kendrick. If they could eliminate the mosquitoes, New Hampshire’s state scourge, Casa Kendrick would be damn near perfect.  

Coach maintenance is a never-ending process and we arrived with a long list of things that we planned to do. UPS had been delivering packages to Campton for a couple of weeks with the parts we needed. At the top of the list was to replace the engine air filter, replace the y-valve and one-way valves in the fresh water inlet system, change the water filters, add an additional (third) sediment filter to try to keep dirt out of the plumbing fixtures, replace the shower head, clean the batteries and battery terminals and replace the tow dolly tires. Oh, yes, and wash four months of road grime off the coach and get several service items handled on the car. The list was long, but for the first time in many months all of the tasks were done before we pulled out for Canada! Thanks, Charlie for all the help.

As if there wasn’t enough to do, a few days after we arrived we discovered water coming out from under the shower pan. That is really, really not good. Water anywhere that it isn’t supposed to be is a serious problem. I tried everything I could think of to avoid opening up the walls, but finally concluded that it had to be coming from the shower valve itself. After cutting access holes through two bulkheads I discovered that the plastic hot water supply fitting on the shower control valve was indeed leaking. That fitting is now brass. A space heater took two days to dry everything out, but it looks like we escaped without damage to the coach structure.

Clearly not all work!

Outstanding local ale

It wasn’t all work at Casa Kendrick. Kayeanne flew to Salt Lake City to spend a few day with Liesa, a visit that they both enjoyed. The dogs and I waited anxiously for her return. Despite the bugs, we spent several evenings at the large fire pit that Charlie and I upgraded two

years ago trying to make an appreciable dent in his vast wood pile. The wood pile doesn’t look much smaller but our wine supply certainly needed replenishment.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

While Kayeanne was visiting Liesa, Charlie and Mollie invited me to go cruising to the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast. Their daughter Holly and her husband Mike own a large power boat that we had a great time on two years ago, so I was really looking forward to seeing them again. Mike and Holly are wonderful hosts and the day couldn’t have been better. Mike’s day turned a little cloudy, though, when one engine died as we reached the mouth of the Piscataqua River. He detoured into a local harbor and we picked up a mooring while he tried to find out what happened. Unfortunately the problem persisted, so we enjoyed a terrific lunch and good company on the mooring watching the unending streams of boats passing in and out of the harbor. Later, Mike had no trouble returning us up river to his marina on one engine.

One twentieth the size of Biltmore
but twice the house

This seems to be our year to visit out-sized homes. In the past couple of months we toured Monticello and Biltmore, so when Mollie suggested a visit to the Castle in the Clouds we readily agreed. I have a somewhat jaundiced view of what people with lots of money spend it on, but I think I would have enjoyed meeting Tom Plant in 1913 when he built his house on 6,300 acres on a mountaintop near Lake Winnipesauke in Moultonboro, New Hampshire. Given its age and history, the house is in remarkable condition. That is a tribute to the original design and construction, and to the work of the Castle Preservation Society, the current owners. 

The gardens caught Kayeanne and Mollie

If you are in the area, definitely make time to visit the Castle. I’d go back just to take the basement tour that details the construction and the systems that were state-of-the-art in 1913. That is a new tour that opened the week after we visited.

We have been planning to visit Prince Edward Island with the Kendricks for four years. You may recall that in 2016 we got as far as Bangor, Maine, when their coach broke down. While waiting for parts we got a call from Liesa that sent us dashing back across country. Before we left Bangor, the four of us vowed to try again as soon as we could. 

Low tide across the street

Well, this is it: on June 25th we pulled out of Campton bound for PEI. We camped at Wally Word in Palmyra, Maine, that night and crossed the border at Calais, Maine/Saint Stephen, New Brunswick the following day. A short drive brought us to lovely Saint Andrews and the first of a series of waterfront camp sites with terrific ocean views that Charlie and Mollie set up.

Moonrise

St. Andrews is a lovely town on Passamaquoddy Bay, which opens to the Bay of Fundy. While it’s a very popular tourist destination, it hasn’t been overwhelmed by the visitors, maintaining much of the historic character and charm of the town. The Kiwanis Oceanfront Campground is exactly what it says. Our sites were literally across the street from the ocean. The view from the windshield was worth whatever it had taken to get here.

Kingsbrae Garden was a surprise to me; I actually enjoyed a botanical garden. Plants, even exotic beautiful ones aren’t my thing, but after wandering around many acres of them we finally got to the sculpture garden. Canadian artists are invited to contribute works every year, so the exhibit changes annually. Some of the pieces were a little hard to fathom, even with detailed explanations by the

creators, but many of them were very interesting. I’d go back just to see this part of the garden again. I’d also return to have lunch in the café, one of the most pleasant rooms I can remember. The food and the service were great, too.

As much as we would have liked to spend more time in St. Andrews, we needed to press on to PEI, our main goal for four years. Mollie’s family is from PEI and she and Charlie have made many trips to the island over the years. We couldn’t ask for better tour guides.

The eight mile long Confederation Bridge joining PEI to the mainland was “interesting” in the coach. We sat way above the railing looking a long way down at deep water. Luckily we had calm weather going both ways; I think it would be another story in foul, especially windy, conditions.

It just doesn't get any better than this

Crystal Beach Campground near Summerside was our first destination. Once again, our campsites were right on the ocean, this time on Malpeque Bay. The campground itself was pretty rustic. The many seasonal campers seemed to like it, but the electrical service was unreliable and the facilities, roads and campsites were badly in need of upgrading. As we quickly discovered, the mosquitoes in PEI are at least as bad as the ones in New Hampshire. Liberal lashings of bug spray were needed to enjoy campfires at sunset overlooking the bay. Tough duty, but we are all troopers. 

Crystal Beach was our base for exploring Summerside and the west side of PEI. The town isn’t large but it has all the services needed and a number of restaurants and shops to explore. Lunch on the upper deck at Peakes Quai Restaurant was very good. For the mechanically inclined, Bishop’s Machine Shop Museum is a must-see. Four generations of true craftsmen turned out farm implements, marine hardware and machinery parts for the island’s economy. It’s a really fascinating place, and Noah, the young docent on duty when we visited was outstanding.

 One of the first things that we noticed when we crossed the bridge was how pretty PEI is. The whole place looks manicured. There is a picture everywhere you look. I don't remember where this harbor is, but it doesn't matter; there are dozens like it everywhere you look.

Of course we went to
Green Gables!

After four full days spent exploring, it was time to move on. Watch this space as we move to the other end of the island to explore Charlottetown, the Northumberland Straight and the north end.