BLOG 12—ON TO CANADA!

On Sunday 5/3 we left the Acadia National Park Campground and drove the scenic coastal road up to Calais, Maine, the border town across the St. Croix River from St. Stephens, New Brunswick, Canada.  We camped at a very nice campground on a large lake  about 10 miles east of Calais called the Keenes Lake Family Campground, a Passport America Park, that pleased all 3 of us.  Incidentally Calais is pronounced by the locals as “Cal-us” not the French way of “Cal-A.”  Don't ask me why!!”

Late that afternoon 3 more Airstreams, all from Delaware and part of our Newfoundland caravan, rolled in the campground.  One unit had 2 wiener dogs (dachshunds) and another had 3 standard poodles, including a big black and white guy called a Party Poodle, a new breed for me!  We all got acquainted  with these folks. We were also happy to have good wifi here too, sometime in short supply at campgrounds!

The St. Croix River is the border between Maine and New Brunswick--you see Canada on the other side

Calais welcomed us -- War Memorial and the library  a beautiful old building

The next morning, we left the campground and drove to the Irving fuel station in Calais for a last long drink of $2.99 US diesel fuel!   

Then over the bridge to the Canada Customs station  and a very pleasant female agent who asked all the usual questions and decided that none of us needed an inside-the-rig inspection at the dreaded “secondary” station!  She also wished us a pleasant journey in Canada!  What a great start!

Yay, we're in Canada, finally, after traveling across the U.S. for 30 days!  The first thing we did was set our watches and clock ahead one hour to Atlantic Time, which is the time zone for all 3 of the Canadian Maritme Provinces—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI or Prince Edward Island.  The Visitor Centre was closed—not tourist season yet until mid-May!  2-1/2 hours later, we were in Saint John, the capital of the Province of New Brunswick and at the huge McAllister Mall complete with a Super Walmart, Sears, Canadian Tire, Timmies (Tim Hortons), a CAA office—the Canadian affiliate of our U.S. AAA so I could get city maps, Sobey's huge grocery and almost everything else retail.  We went to the CBC Bank to get Canadian $ from the ATM, had lunch at Timmies (Tim Horton) then off to Walmart to restock the refrigerator!

On the road again for 2 hours to the town of Shediac and Parasol Campground, again right by the water.  Some snow around on the ground behind our rigs but no problem.  As we all drove into the campground, the owner greeted each of us with a big cheery “Welcome to Canada!”  He made sure that we all got into our campsites and was very helpful. 

He also turned on the water for the laundry just for our group so we did our laundry then walked down the road to see the “World's Biggest Lobster”, which indeed was huge! The Chamber of Commerce here is obviously capitalizing on their lobster restaurants! Another pleasant quiet night!

On 5/5 we entered the Province of Nova Scotia and found the Provincial Visitor's Centre  was open although a major renovation was taking place.  The lady there called a couple campgrounds for us and we determined that our next campground in Pictou, also Passport America, would be open. She gave us maps and a 2015 Nova Scotia guide that will be very helpful on our return trip. 

The Visitor Centre is in Amherst, a town with several beautiful buildings.

Old City Hall - beautiful Victorian home and old church

Two more hours driving and we found an nice town park where we could all stop for lunch in a town called River John.  

 

Another hours drive and we arrived in Pictou, Nova Scotia and drove to Harbour Light Campground, a big park but not officially open yet.  We had emailed him several months earlier and he said sure he'd  let us camp even though he didn't open for another week or so.  We sent another email a couple days before arriving and he answered but we never had wifi to receive his message to come on in!  We were  surely welcomed on arrival by owner Cameron MacDonald and shown to our full hookup sites including wifi which were slightly muddy from earlier rain but no snow!   Again an extremely pleasant owner that keep coming by to be sure everything was fine and if we needed directions to anything in town.  But here's the most amazing part!  When we wanted to pay, he said the park wasn't open yet for the season and wouldn't take our money!  Somehow, I can't imagine that happening in the U.S.!   

                                                                                                             Lobster season is starting this week!

We loved the town—had everything we needed—big grocery store, hardware, auto parts, banks, laundry, restaurants and a war memorial with a WWII Lockheed CT-133 T-Bird jet trainer on a pylon in a large roundabout! 

One of Pictou's historical claims to fame is the landing of the Dutch ship Hector in 1773 with a cargo of 200 Highland Scots coming to settle Nova Scotia!  There is a full size replica of the Hector  in the Pictou Harbor that cruises in the summer. 

There are also many churches in Pictou, most dating around the late 1800s.   

And a few fancy looking houses too. Altogether a nice clean town that was very friendly. 

Here's an example—apparently from potholes on the roads, 1 headlight and 1 taillight burned out.  The auto parts store not only stocked the European (Mercedes) bulbs but the manager came to our RV out on the street to be sure he got the correct bulbs and then installed them at no charge!  Wow!!   

The 1895 post office has a chimney with a window in it!

The paper mill is the largest employer--there is a school of fisheries--- A WWI memorial

That night we got an email from our Newfoundland caravan leader that the campground in Bras d'Or (near North Sydney where we board the Newfoundland Ferry) wouldn't be open for us for another day.  We asked Cameron if we could stay a second night and he immediately agreed but we insisted that each of us would at least pay $10 a night for electricity that we used—and we did!  He was happy and we intend to go there again on the return trip!

We left early the next morning heading north and passed over the bridge to Cape Breton Island and stopped at the Information Center which was closed. But a lady working inside saw us outside and came to the door to see if we wanted maps or other literature and gave me a stack of literature for all 3 rigs!! Wow again, are these people friendly and helpful!  About an hour and a half later we pulled into the Arm of Gold Campground and met our Caravan Leader and others.  We went out to get fuel and groceries before the next morning's ferry ride to Newfoundland!

 

Little Bras d'Or lighthouse

Lakes are still covered with ice!

At 4 PM we all drove to the Army Navy Air Force Veteran's Hall  for the Caravan Opening Banquet.  The chef was very proud of his dinner!  and had a terrific catered lobster dinner with each of us getting a whole cooked 1-1/4 lb. Lobster, warm potato salad, cole slaw and a great dessert!   Delicious and what a way to start!  Back to the campground and a good night's sleep to be ready for the big ocean crossing tomorrow morning!

A sign posted at a campground -- we like the sentiment!

Trip Stats---When we arrived in North Sydney, NS on 5/7, we had racked up 4776 miles since leaving Olympia, WA on April 5^th!!