Wednesday morning we awoke to a gentle rain, broke camp, and headed out of the park to some coin-operated showers nearby.[two dollars for 4 minutes; note to self, open coin operated shower in my own home] We had read online that for those that intend to bum around Canada for awhile, it is best to arrive at the border looking clean and fresh, lest the border agents think you intent to become a permanent bum[number one rule of being a bum; don"t look like a bum]. After we showered another couple pulled in. We exchanged pleasantries and then they headed into the shower house. I had a hunch that they were midwesterners, judging by their mannerisms. I took a peek at their license plate, and sure enough they were from Iowa! Woo! Ike wrote them a short note and tucked it under their windshield wiper, then we were on our way: Canada bound.
We passed through a few small towns, then before we knew it we were on a long stretch of highway, with nothing but evergreen trees on both sides. It turns out there is not much going on between Acadia and the Canadian border. [times I"m happy we went ahead with a new engine...Also, with only the Maine radio to keep us company, we quickly learned that rural Maine must just be a nightmare of evils; every other commercial was a PSA: teen drinking, brushing your teeth, depression; basically every teen Mainer is a drunk, depressed, toothless wreck]We soon arrived at the border crossing, bypassing the new commercial crossing, and opting instead to go through one of the smaller crossings. [in downtown of the small town of Calais, pronounced, “Cal-is”]The border agent asked us a few questions about the intentions for our trip and the goods we were bringing across the border, then asked us to pull forward and take our passports to an agent inside the office. Once inside, we found out we had been selected for an “interview,” which really consisted of this agent asking us the same questions as the first guy. He then told us he needed to run our passports through their system and that it would take a “few minutes.” Twenty minutes later he assured us we were all clear, but he wanted to see our bear mace. Apparently using mace on humans is illegal, so any mace brought into the country must be clearly labeled as intended for use on animals. We gladly complied with his request, then were on our merry way. Hello to St. Stephen, Canada! [We ended up lucking out at the border crossing, as the killer in Moncton that Bethany mentions later no doubt led to much more stringent searches at the border. We didn"t have anything improper in our vehicle, i"m just glad we didn"t have to deal with the rigamorale.]
We quickly passed through St. Stephen [well, we stopped and tried to sign up my cell phone with the canadian cell service but couldn"t get the SIM card to work on my phone, despite Verizon giving me the A-OK several months earlier that it would be fine] and then were on the interstate, headed across New Brunswick towards our destination. Shockingly were were one of the only cars on the two- or three-lane interstate. We couldn’t help but notice the wire fences that seemed to be 8ish feet tall that lined the ditches and continued for miles (or, kilometers, I should say). The had a sort of one way gate in them that would let things (we are guessing moose?) pass beyond the gate (away from the highway), but not into it.
The next thing we noticed was that everything was bilingual. All traffic signs were both in English and in French. New Brunswick is the only Canadian province that is officially bilingual. It was a good way for me to brush up on my rudimentary French from high school. [and for me to pronounce everything in an obnoxious fake french accent, oui oui!]
After driving for a few hours we arrived in St. John, where we attempted to hook Ike’s phone up to the Canadian cell network. We had called Verizon several months ago to request that they unlock Ike’s phone, and were told that the phone was already unlocked, and yes, it is compatible with the Canadian cell network. So we pull into a cell phone store, explain that we’re looking for a prepaid cell plan, and try out one of their sim cards. Doesn’t work. Ok…. we headed off to another store and tried their sim card. Same problem. By now we realize this is probably an issue with Ike’s phone, not with the sim cards. We found a pay phone in the mall and called Verizon. After jumping through a few hoops, Ike found out that his cell phone was compatible from a hardware standpoint, but that it did not have the proper software. Thanks, Verizon. The woman in the cell phone store gave us contact information for a few local cell phone stores that could unlock Ike’s phone. We decided to deal with that later, and continued on our way towards Fundy National Park.
We were treated to a stunning view of the Bay of Fundy on our way into the park: a rainbow over the bay on a sunny day. The Bay of Fundy has the world’s largest tides, with the record tide reaching ~46 feet (equivalent to a 4-story building). The registration office was closed when we entered the campground, so we drove around to pick our site. There were no tent campers around, so we naturally took the best site: the one with a bench that overlooks the bay from a hill. Bonus: the park has free wi-fi! We set up camp, made dinner, and took advantage of the wifi by skyping with our parents. We watched the sunset over the bay. Since we’re on the west side of the bay we could see the setting sun reflected off the cliffs of Nova Scotia across the bay. All in all, a pleasant night. [minus the gargantuan june bugs that kept dive bombing us as we skyped. THEY CAST SHADOWS!]
Overlooking the Bay of Fundy. If you look closely you can see the rainbow in the center.
View of the Bay from our campsite.
Thursday we woke to a light rain and lots of fog over the bay. We made breakfast, then headed out to see the tides in action. Our first stop was Cape Enrage, with a lighthouse set out on the cape with dramatic cliffs on either side. Unfortunately the fog prohibited us from getting much of a view, but we still enjoyed seeing the coast, the dramatic distance between the current water level (nearly low tide) and the high tide mark, and the thick, rolling fog. The coast was covered in lots of medium sized rocks, and all of them were as smooth as if they had been polished. Sadly we didn’t see any sea creatures, but for some reason there were a ton of moderately sized black spiders running around. Eep. [They didn"t seem interested in the delicious morsels that were bethany"s toes...]
Cape Enrage, surrounded in fog.
We hopped in the car and headed towards Hopewell Cape, to see the New Brunswick’s most popular attraction: the Hopewell Rocks. Here the tides have eroded the steep cliffs, leaving columns of rock that are narrow at the base (up to the high tide mark), and then widen at the top. These formations take hundreds of years to form, then crash down once the base becomes too narrow. [guidebook: the flowerpot rocks have many interesting formations! Some look like clouds, others flowerpots, some just look alien! Bethany: they all look like penises]
The flowerpot rocks at Hopewell Cape.
It was now early afternoon and my tank was running on empty, so we stopped at a local restaurant and enjoyed some fried (but very fresh!) seafood and a piece of coconut cream pie that was out of this world! It was here that we learned about the big news story of the last day or so. In Moncton, a town about an hour away, a gunman was on the run for thirty hours after he shot 5 police officers, killing 3 of them. This is a huge story and the locals in the restaurant were all quite frightened. The restaurant owner was considering shutting down the restaurant for the rest of the day. We figured there was not much we could do at that point besides listen to the local news on the radio to keep abreast of the situation. Next, we followed signs to a winery along the coast and bought a bottle of blueberry wine. I mean, it’s high in anti-oxidants, so we couldn’t pass it up! [There were also two couples from North Carolina there, and one of the gentlemen had an eye patch on, so that was awesome]
On a side note, we noticed that nearly all of the homes in New Brunswick have wooden chests/boxes sitting near the end of their driveways. Each home has a different version, but they were all similar in size. After awhile my curiosity got the best of me, so I hopped out of the car and peaked in one. They hold their garbage bags. I’m impressed that the garbage truck collects garbage in such rural areas, but it must be the case. We also passed a home with a sign posted that read something along the lines of: “Canadian Post: I support door to door delivery.” This then prompted me to notice that there seem to be clusters of mail boxes along the road, similar to a large apartment complex. So I can only infer that garbage collection is door to door, but mail is not. Interesting…
Friday, we stopped in Moncton [following the apprehension of the shooter], purchased groceries and alcohol [$23 for a 12 pack of beer. Canada, we need to have a talk], finally got a Canadian cell phone (we ended up purchasing a new phone) and made our way out to Prince Edward Island.
PS – The baby squirrels are out and about right now. They are almost too cute to handle. The squeak at you when you walk by, then when you are a safe distance away, they start start firing their laser guns at you. No seriously, that’s the noise they make. :) I caught one of them stealing the pineapple rind out of our garbage bag.
Adorable baby squirrels. They wait until you turn around to fire their laser gun at you.
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