New England-Phase I

New England-Phase I
June 21-23rd

We left home in June 21st headed for Atlanta. Hotlanta lived up to its name, but the days got cooler if cloudier and rainy as we headed north. By day we traveled through the Shenandoah Valley, over the Delaware and Hudson Rivers. Seems we got out just in time, as the place significantly flooded several days after we left.

June 23-26th

It was great fun for me to see the familiar places north of Boston again, and share them with Marcia. It is always wonderful to reconnect with old friends, Helen and Ed-remembering old memories and making new ones.

Our local guides provided us with grand tours of the area including Portsmouth and another old favorite, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. I hadn’t been to the PEM since they rebuilt it and brought over the Chinese house. http://www.pem.org/yinyutang/ What a treat. They always have a nice Asian art collection, and I always enjoy it.

I am still feeling the effects of withdrawal from my gardening habit, so the drive by tour of homes and gardens was a good substitute. Small stonewall gardens featured so many varieties of hosta, clematis and roses all happily enjoying the rain. Pink wild roses proliferate.

One driving tour between Portsmouth and Kittery involved a stop at a full serve gas station, nearly a forgotten convention in itself, but the icing on this cake was an attendant who spoke real downeast Maine. Not since living in China has intonation and absence of r’s bathed my ears. And the gas was only $2.76 a gallon unleaded “regula”. This ranks right up there with the Elvis and Pricilla gas stop in 40 Mule Team, Nevada.


On the restaurant front, Andaman, the Thai restaurant in the Tannery in Newburyport is quite good. We enjoyed lunch there and did not imbibe, but there appeared to be a respectable wine list. Beautiful green (as in eco friendly) building. The Panang always does it for me-how can you go wrong with peanuts, coconut milk and hot peppers. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and tasty, and I even thought the bamboo shoots might be fresh. Probably not, but they were the best I have tasted in this hemisphere.

Friendly Toast in Portsmouth is the polar opposite of our peaceful relaxing Thai lunch-perhaps best described as an interactive lunch. The food was good and abundant, but the kitsch ambiance is mostly the point. . Plenty of visual entertainment. We surmise that you cannot be employed there unless you are tattooed. The very aged and worn talking leopard was a tad scary for me, but one little girl of about 6 just loved it.

I enjoyed the huevos rancheros, lemonade, and reading the menu, but the onion rings were a bit too bready for me. Blue Cheese burger with a big slice of red onion met Marcia’s approval with a smile. Good fries, but Ed and I agree that the hash browns are just as good if not better.

However, the best meals are to be had in the kitchen and dining room of a friend’s home. Ours was the lobster dinner we collaborated on. Helen says Dave’s on the Salisbury side of the Merrimack is a consistently good supplier, and if our lobsters are typical, we are with Dave. Great corn from the veggie stand in Newbury where Buffy the Buffalo and his/her llama colleges graze. Ed has new skills in the production of creamed corn. Only Grandma made it better, but that would involve bacon drippings.

New England-Phase II-Portland
June26-28th

We had an easy and uneventful drive from Salisbury Beach to just south of Portland, Maine, and got set up in the campground just as the rains came. Though the rains were not so thrilling, the 66 degree temps were quite a treat for Floridians in late June. We donned our Marmots and proceeded to shop our hearts out at the LL Bean outlet downtown, and followed this with a lively romp through Wild Oats grocery store-our idea of a fine rainy day.

For our next overcast and rainy day, we did LLBeans and enjoyed a lobster roll lunch with excellent Maine potato French fries doused with vinegar at Cindy’s.

June 29-30

The low point of the trip thus far was the overnight at Paul Bunyan’s campground in Bangor, Maine. Paul Bunyan’s mud bog would be more accurate. Lucky we have Rhonda Roomba onboard.

Canada on Canada Day
July 1st

Though we were prepared with papers for everyone and nearly everything, the perky Canadian border guard with hiccoughs just asked us a few questions and waved us through. It probably would not be a surprise to her that we do not intend to spend the winter here.

Off we went on the Trans Canada. We saw lovely views through rain and overcast skies.

Our campground was well worth our efforts. Perched on a hill overlooking the St John River, the views were fantastic, including an inspiring sunset. Helpful fellow campers directed us to a nearby store where we could stock up on Moosehead Beer. We hadn’t stocked up on alcohol or fresh fruit and veggies, not knowing what would be of interest to the border patrol and subject to ultimate confiscation. No fresh veggies to be found in the only little market we found, but we had plenty of food supplies to make a yummy hot dinner of chicken and udon with onion and ginger—lots of ginger! .

The Canada Day celebrations were, by my standards, quite tame compared with the 4th of July, and this is a good thing. Stella felt there were way too many fireworks and took up residence under the table beside our feet. Everyone seemed to enjoy the ride on the tractor wagon. There were flags all over the place-on cars, trucks, campers, mailboxes and T-shirts. I even wore white pants and a red polo shirt (thinking perhaps it wouldn’t hurt at the border crossing). Locals say there was way too little snow this winter and now too much rain. Intermittent rain storms through the night made for interrupted sleep but calmer by morning. We still like the temps. It was in the high 50’s when we woke up this morning, raining of course.


On to Nova Scotia
July 2nd

More forests and rivers scenery through the rain and wind as we made our way down to the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border. Highways are very good through New Brunswick and traffic was certainly sparse… remarkably sparse to tell the truth. Just a lot fewer people and cars ups in these parts. Very few semi-trailers as well. We arrived in Amherst N.S to a sparsely populated campground-always a bad sign. The rain stopped just in time for us to set up the RV, but rain might have been preferable to the horde of mosquitoes like I haven’t seen since camping in the Everglades in July. As the day progressed, we got 35mph winds. Too bad for the mosquitoes.

After lunch we braved a trip to the car for exploring in hopes of finding some fresh veggies at a supermarket. Little did we know that Nova Scotia observes the Sabbath by mandating grocery stores to close. Apparently this sans supermarket Sabbath is being challenged in some cities, but Amherst was not one of them.

We did find the N.S Visitors Center very helpful. Bad news about the C@P (Canadian Internet access points). There is about one for every major city, some cost $2 and some are free. There are computers in libraries. Here’s the thing. We rely on the Internet to find things like libraries. Back to old skills. There was an available Internet access at the Visitors Center. It will be our email check for the next three days.

July 3rd-Tidal Bore

We headed out for a daytrip to Maitland via the scenic Glooscap route. Enroute, we saw lots of farms and forests. We passed the Anne Murray center in her hometown of Springfield, along with the fossil museum (which we hope to return to). We noted that Five Islands has a campground with a view of the Minas Basin that is kick butt. Looks like a great place to camp and watch the tides roll in.

However, time passed and the tide was going to roll in before we could get to Maitland so we pushed on to Truro for their view of the tidal bore. We did the Pallisier restaurant On the banks of the Salmon River for dinner and were pleased. The haddock special was fresh and tasty-good fish chowder, loved the beets even if they were canned, but the peas were just that-canned. Since we just bought fresh sugar snaps, we knew there was better to be had. The apple crisp, however was quite fine.

The tidal bore might be a bore to some. It was a tiny little white crest this day, but we were quite mesmerized watching the effect of high tide on this river. The plan is to see the same effect in several sites as we travel. We understand the moon has it’s effect on the bore, as it has premium effect on the tide, and would like to see it unfold here or in Maitland.

Stella also had a good time rolling on the grass.

4th of July in PEI

Call us ex-pats, but we really enjoy the 4th of July in another country. No fireworks and few flags. Today, some were left over from Canada Day, but no one was cavorting around with them. Just back to work for most Canadians and very sane for us. Many stores were still closed and unavailable to us for yet another day. We planned another day trip over to Prince Edward Island to check out campgrounds and such for later use. Weather was still not with us but at least the rain was turning to intermittent showers and less wind.

We started our day with a stop at the Visitors Center just over the Confederation Bridge in PEI. I figured they would have wireless internet, and sure enough, the Canadian government was gracious enough to give us an hour online. I typed as fast as I could to catch up on email. I noted that if I composed beforehand and copied and pasted into my Bellsouth account, I could send and still have time to search or post to the website online. Good plan.

We did most of the blue heron loop around the main island of PEI. Our objective was to scout out a campground for sometime in August. Wireless Internet was the main criteria, but I hoped for high ground, as the evening walk with Stella is a mosquito fest here, and perhaps open and breezy campsites would be the best solution. We believe we have found both in the Marco Polo Campground in Cavendish. Lonely Planet has directed us to a few nice seafood restaurants nearby, so I am game to try them-perhaps spend a week there sometime in August.

None of the Anne of Green Gables stuff interests us, but PEI mussels and lobster is right up our alley. Maybe we will find other things to suit us as well.

We did find the Gouda Cheese Lady, and we are quite glad we did. So much cheese and so little time, so we took a variety of small cuts back to the Cronemobile with us. I sense a rarebit in our future after Marcia started describing the use of this wonderful gouda.

The $45 exit fee to get off the island was quite a shock to Marcia. I think we probably paid about that much in tolls coming through Maine. We are thinking about taking the ferry from Caribou, NS to PEI next trip (with RV). Shorter trip, but as the ferry company points out, the gas ($4.29-$4.49 per Gal) and vehicle use cost will probably be more than the staggering $77 for the RV and $57 for the car round trip.

The prices for groceries were higher than we expected as well. Even figuring in the exchange rate, things seem to be costly here. Perhaps we will get a large check from the government when we submit our tax forms at the end of the trip.
Halifax

July 5, 2006

We have arrived at our home away from home for the next month, and took some time to settle in and do housekeeping, and snuggle with Stella. We are thinking of getting a screen house at Canadian Tire-they are advertising them on the only channel we get here, and considering the mosquitoes, it might be a good idea to have an outside room.