My first drive around New Brunswick

A little drizzly still today, but I’m going to give it a try, as most of the day is driving anyway.

My first stop was Florenceville, about a 3 ½+ drive, to the French Fry capital of the world and the Potato World Museum, and onto to Hartland, the home of the longest covered bridge in the world.  It was cool driving across.

The covered bridges here are not the pretty red ones I saw in the Mid-West USA.

The next stop was King’s Landing, a historical settlement.  In one of the period houses, the docent was quilting and she gave me some scraps for my memory quilt and explained about the fiddlehead ... a fern that only grows in this area.  Ironically, the only fabric with a fiddlehead pattern is made in Maine; I have to either go to the quilt shop or order it online.

While I was out driving around I passed New Maryland.  Their claim to fame is the location and grave of the last fatal duel.  I thought that was kind of fun.

My last stop of the day was going to be Fredericton, a walking tour of the historic district and a scenic drive and ferry ride … but there was lots of construction and the turn I needed was closed and it was raining again.  Since I was tired, I just stayed on the Trans Canada Highway and headed for home.

I stopped in Alma for dinner – scallops.  I am REALLY going to miss the seafood when I leave this area.

It is a little disturbing how much I voluntarily drive.  I don’t think twice about going 300 miles or more every day driving around looking at stuff.  My original vision was to do a 200 mile surrounding area and then move the coach, but I seem to be driven (pun intended) to see as much as I can.  I’m going to try to slow down and see less each day as I’m starting to get more tired.

As I drove around New Brunswick today I saw some signs that I was close to the US border.  For instance, they advertised DEF available at one of the gas stations!  And I asked Google for the closest quilt shop and it was in Maine ….

It is obvious from the abundant number of visitors’ centers available everywhere that tourism is very important to Canada.  That is probably the reason they “advertise” all the local business with signs along the road pointing them out.

When I tell someone I’m from California, after they comment how far from home I am, their response is either a remark about my escaping the heat or how tragic the wild fires are.  It always surprises me that they would be interested about what is going on in California.  My license plate gets a lot of looks and comments as well.

Slow day ...

And it’s raining again. Apparently it is following me, because I’m told this area had a very dry summer.

I don’t mind the rain.  I do get some sunny days to tour around and take pictures, and the rain is relaxing … sitting in my home with the music playing and the fireplace going, drinking my tea.

My next door neighbors had some friends over visiting; they all go to Florida for the winter.  We got to laughing about the little Canada down there.  Since I will be there this winter, it will be interesting to see the effect.

After the sun came out I had an opportunity to take the Fundy Coastal drive and also to run some errands.

The ranger station has decent internet, so I was able to sit in the lounge for a while to publish one of the posts to my journal.  I’m only about 3 weeks behind now.  Ha.

My drive to Fundy National Park, NB

I found a guardian angel today. 

I started my move to Fundy, which involved going down Smokey Mountain and through all the construction zones.  After I got past the worst of it, my coach was acting “funny”; I thought maybe I had a flat tire or, at least, one in need.  When I got to the freshly paved smooth part of the road, it didn’t get any better and I was afraid to get stuck where there wasn’t any place to get off the road, so I made a U-turn into someone’s driveway, which, of course meant I was going to have to unhook the Jeep to turn around, but that was the least of my issues if I had a tire problem.  I had no cell service to call road side assistance.

As it turned out, an oil rig mechanic and his wife were at home; this is their weekend cottage.  He came out to see if he could help.  We couldn’t find anything amiss, so I unhooked the Jeep – as I had made the U-turn and the Jeep was at a major angle and the hitch was fully extended, I couldn’t get the pins out to release the hitch.  My guardian angel got out his “work” hammer and we finally got it released  -- then I drove the coach down the road about a mile to see if I could narrow down the issue; nothing wrong.  The coach was fine.  So I went back and did the same thing with the Jeep; nothing.  I don’t know what happened; maybe the jack was tweaked (or something else was) by the road down, but it seemed fine now.

So I thanked my angel and hooked the Jeep up again …. Only, since everything is on a hill, when I released the brake and put the Jeep in neutral for towing, it rolled right into the back of the coach.  I didn’t know what else to do, and thought it would straighten itself out on level ground, so I drove back onto Cabot Trail.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on the circumstances, the Jeep’s brake “sets” itself during the towing-ready process and I have to be very careful to unset it at the right time.  Once, when I was new to towing, I thought I had it released and it wasn’t and I drug the Jeep a short distance before I realized the error.  So now I immediately check the wheels when I start to move to be sure they are turning.

When I turned out of the angel’s driveway, the Jeep didn’t look level, but the wheels were turning so I went on to the place where I had previously turned around … to check and be sure all was OK before continuing down the mountain.  What had happened was the tow bar locked in the storage position when the Jeep rolled forward and the front of the car was off the ground.  You have to tow it 4 down, so I couldn’t continue on, and there was no way to unlock the  tow bar with the car attached and I couldn’t unhook the car in its current position .  Having no better idea, I tried backing the car up a foot, hopefully releasing the tow bar from the “slot” it was locked in, without doing any damage to the front of the Jeep.  Luckily, it worked, but really tore up the tow bar in the process.

About this time, my guardian angel and his wife pulled up next to me in their truck.  They noticed the car was raised when I left their driveway and knew that wasn’t right, so they came to help me.  He was driving his “work” truck, so he got some tools and went to work on my tow bar, fixing it enough that it is serviceable until I can get it repaired.

They had made several offers, both at their home and at the turn-out, to follow me down the mountain to be sure I was OK, which was extremely nice (they have a satellite phone), but I didn’t want to impose any further …. But was very thankful they had been there when I needed them.

I don’t know what the original issue was, but everything seemed to be fine now and I didn’t have any further problems.

On the Cabot Trail there is a Celtic College that has a sign out saying they have crafts.  I didn’t stop any of the times I passed it, but today there were 2 tour buses parked in the lot, so maybe I missed an opportunity.

As I was filling (sort of filling – they place a limit on the amount you can charge on your credit card and it isn’t enough to completely fill the tank) my tank today I realize it was the last diesel I will be buying in Canada for a while.  I will still need to put gas in my Jeep though.

There are two roads into this campground; my GPS gave me a choice … I choose the wrong one.  The roads are the same distance and time; if you take Hwy 1 to Hwy 114, you end up having to drive over a mountain; this one wasn’t twisty/turny – it was straight up and straight down. The view from the summit was beautiful, but then you had to come down.  Downshifting didn’t save my brakes; wow.    The ranger said the other road doesn’t cross the mountain.  Unfortunately, the only option out of the park toward Maine is over that mountain, so I get to do it again.

When I drove through Moncton I thought it a good idea to get some groceries, since I didn’t have anything “fresh” in the refrigerator.  The prices in Canada, and as I travel east in general, are much higher than “home,” especially food.  The produce is poor and limited and everything is much higher than I’m used to paying.  Even with the favorable exchange rate, it is half again to twice as much.  For instance, I use lunchables for a quick snack on my travel days, which I buy at Walmart for $1.00 each.  I paid $4.00 for one in Ingonish and $2.00 each today at Walmart.

I am definitely going to come back when I tour New England.  I didn’t see much of Nova Scotia and there is more of New Brunswick I want to see.

I don’t usually experience “road rage” at other drivers; the worst is usually when they pass and then cut you off …. Like you can stop on a dime … but today I could have run over a car and not looked back (not really, but …).  He was in front of me, driving well below the speed limit on a Trans Canada Highway, but every time we came to a passing lane, he would speed up so that I couldn’t pass him.  There was no way it was coincidental, and this went on for a couple hundred miles.  Apparently he was making a statement only known to him.  There were a couple of kids fighting in the back section of his car almost the whole time, so maybe he was oblivious.  Anyway, eventually he turned off and I did a shoulder roll, took a deep breath and drove on.

The ranger at the Marconi Museum said that the Mounties and Municipal police don’t usually give out speeding tickets so I didn’t need to worry, unless it was the end of the month.  I saw three Mounties alongside the road on Highway 104 with the radar gun pointed; luckily I learned my lesson a few states back.