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| We spent July 23 at Pumpkin
Patch Campground in Hermon, Maine with plans to head to Campobello Island,
New Brunswick tomorrow. We had a pretty uneventful trip on Highway 9
from Hermon to Calais (just before the Canadian border) except for the
moose who ran across the road in front of Bubba! Jer slammed
on the brakes and just missed him. When we arrived in Calais, Jerry
noticed that he had an email from the broker in Mountain Home about
closing on our property. At almost the same moment, he got another email from
Verizon saying that we had latched onto a Canadian tower and our emails
were costing us moolah as we did not have Canadian coverage. So,
Jerry called Verizon arguing with them that we were in the US, NOT in
Canada. They said that was too bad . . . pay or stay off. So,
after about an hour of wrangling with Verizon, we purchased a 3-day
"pass" to use the internet while in Canada. Next, we
needed to find someone to notarize our paperwork for the sale of our
Mountain Home property. Jerry went to the Bank of Maine and was told
that, since we didn't have an account with them, they couldn't notarize
for us. Well, duh! We're from Arkansas - of course, we don't
have an account with them! How's that attitude for attracting
tourists? We tried the City offices but, since it was an election
day in town, the offices were closed. As a last resort, Jerry
stopped in at an insurance agency where a very nice lady notarized our
paperwork and didn't even charge us. We then headed to the post
office where, while addressing the envelope to the broker, Jer's pen ran
out of ink! Talk about Murphy's Law! He finally got everything
signed, sealed and delivered to the mail box with only 10 minute to spare
before closing time. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Life on the road
ain't always easy. All this on a rainy day! |
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| It was a nasty day as we
finally crossed the border but we were determined to make it to Herring
Cove Provincial Park that night so, even though it was after 5:00, we
trudged on. |
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| Canada, oh Canada! What a
lovely country . . .and the people are lovely, too. We can honestly
say that we have never met a rude Canadian. They seem to always be
gentle people. I'm sure the bad ones are out there. We just
haven't met any yet. :-) |
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| This was our first trip to New
Brunswick. It is considered part of the Maritime provinces which
also include Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and
Labrador. We have now visited all the Maritime provinces except
Labrador. Better put that on the bucket list! |
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| Our first adventure on
Campobello was a visit to the East Quoddy Lighthouse, one of the oldest
wooden towers in Canada. We had to hike across the floor of the Bay
of Fundy at low tide to reach the lighthouse. That meant we had to
hike back out before the tide began to come back in. And so did the
volunteers who staff the facility! In fact, we hiked out with them
at closing time. |
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| Proudly looking over the Bay of
Fundy, the East Quoddy Lighthouse (also known as the Head Harbour
Lighthouse) is the most photographed lighthouse in the world. The
lighthouse, caretaker's cottage, and other buildings, with the bay as
their background, create quite a spectacular sight. An isolated home in years past, to many lightkeepers and their families, it now
stands unmanned. A victim of technology, hovering on the brink of
fate that has befallen many other such monuments, "The Friends of the
Head Harbour Lightstation", a concerned group of local residents, has
rallied together to pick up the torch in a whole-hearted attempt to
preserve, protect, and promote this beautiful piece of history. |
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| On July 25, we toured the
Roosevelt Campobello International Park to see where former President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt spent his childhood summers and where he contracted
polio. I love the park's logo . . . very clever. Roosevelt spent many enjoyable vacations at his summer home on
Campobello Island, in the Bay of Fundy. His magnificent 34-room residence
is today the centerpiece of Roosevelt-Campobello International Park,
preserved as a memorial and as a symbol of the close friendship between
two nations. The park is owned, funded, staffed, and
administered by the peoples of both Canada and the United States. |
