We left Ponderosa Pines Campground this morning at 9:15. We stopped at the Nova Scotia Welcome Center to pick up brochures. We stopped for lunch at the intersection of Hwy-104 and Hwy-4. There was a vacant building near the exit with large parking lot and we parked there to make lunch.
Part of Hwy-104 is a toll road and we paid $5.25 at Cobequid Pass Toll Plaza. North of Truro we exited Hwy-104 onto Hwy-103. We stopped at an Esso station in Elmsdale, NS to get gas in the RV. We got 193.784 liters and paid $1.423 Canadian – which translates to 51.207 gallons and $5.385 US.
We then continued west to Wayside RV Park south of Glen Margaret. Wayside RV Park’s address is listed in Halifax, but it is about 17 miles west of Halifax as the crow flies. We got in to the campground around 3 p.m.
We’re in site #4 in a pull-in. Wayside RV Park, or Wayside-Supercity Camping Park, is a Passport America and Good Sam campground. We’re staying here under Passport America. We have full hookups (30 amp). It’s a gravel site and we’re mostly level. We have good water pressure, but here again the 30 amp service has low voltage. We do have a view of Mahone Bay out the front windshield.
We’ll be here 3 nights while we visit Peggy’s Cove and Halifax.
Ponderosa Pines Campground has wifi, but the signal isn’t very strong so most people go to the office/store/game room with their laptops to access the internet. The office was closed this morning and I tried to use the campground’s wifi in the RV. The only place in the RV I could pick up the signal was back in the bedroom (which is closest to the office), but the signal is still weak. It wasn’t too much later that the owner came back and opened the office. We took the laptop over to the office to get our e-mail and get a brochure on Hopewell Rocks with the timetable for the tides.
The campground is 1 mile from Hopewell Rocks and we got to Hopewell Rocks around 3 p.m. (low tide today was at 5:50 p.m.) At the Interpretive Center we purchased 2 tickets ($6.75 each for seniors) and learned about the formation of the Hopewell Rocks. The gradual tapering and shallowness of the Bay of Fundy causes the high tides here to be 52’ instead of the worldwide average high tide of 3’. People can walk on the ocean floor at Hopewell Rocks for 3 hours before and after low tide.
From the Interpretive Center we walked down a path to the stairs to go down to the Rocks; it was a 15-20 minute walk. There is also a shuttle service that will take you from the Interpretive Center to the stairs down to the Rocks.
At the top of the stairs are a couple of signs - one that has safety guidelines and the other with a clock and a notice when to be back up the stairs before high tide. Our favorite is the one with the safety guidelines - the last paragraph has instructions on what to do if you get caught on the ocean floor when the tide comes in.
We descended the stairs to the ocean floor. The first rock formation we saw was Lovers Arch. We waited our turn to take our photos under Lovers Arch. Mike took our tripod and both of us were in the photo.
We walked around and viewed the different rock formations until 4:45. It was cloudy and cool while we were there – definitely light jacket weather. We then walked back toward the Interpretive Center stopping to view Daniels Flats first. These are mud flats that are exposed during low tide. The mud is a milk chocolate color.
We had decided to not take Tinker to Hopewell Rocks and we’re glad we didn’t. Pets are allowed there and can go down on the ocean floor. They have to be on leashes and the “stoop and scoop” rule is to be observed and they can’t go in the buildings. But if we had taken Tinker we would have come back with a “chocolate” Bichon.
Hopewell Rocks is definitely on the list of one of the high points on our visit to the Maritimes. We missed visiting them at high tide, maybe on another trip.
It was rather cool this morning when we got up and we tried to run our electric heat. We kept getting low voltage readings and couldn't run the electric heat. . We have 30 amp service here, but it’s not “strong” enough to run the heat pump. We used the gas heat just long enough to take the chill off the RV.
Today is Father’s Day and we are celebrating it by going on the scenic drive along the Fundy Coast.
We took Hwy 114 and then Hwy 915 down to the Cape Enrage lighthouse. According to the travel brochures Cape Enrage has been designated the “Best view in Canada” and we weren’t disappointed. The light station was established in 1848. It is the oldest lighthouse on mainland New Brunswick and is still active atop the 150’ cliffs overlooking Chignecto Bay.
A group of students were in the process of scraping the old paint off and repainting the lighthouse as a school project.
We took Hwy 915 up to Hwy 114 to Alma. We entered the Fundy National Park south of Alma. There are 3 campgrounds inside the park, but we had decided not to stay there since Ponderosa Pines Campground is closer to Hopewell Rocks.
After leaving Fundy National Park we stayed on Hwy 114 to Hwy 1 to go back to Moncton. We stopped in Riverview, across the Petitcodiac River from Moncton, to buy groceries at Atlantic Superstore (similar to Wal-Mart Supercenters) and get gas at the Corner Store. We paid $1.369 Canadian for 9.74 liters, which is $5.182 a gallon and 8.686 gallons US.
We use RVer's Notebook software to record campground information and vehicle expenses and service. The software will convert Canadian $$ and liters into US $$ and gallons. When I enter the gas purchase, I select the Canada button and enter the Canadian liters and dollars into RVer’s Notebook software. Then I select the US button and the program converts the Canadian $$ and liters into US $$ and gallons.
Our round trip from the campground and back again was about 130 miles.
We got up early this morning and left Hilltop Campground around 7:30. We stopped for gas at an Irving station in Calais to get gas $4.259 gal) in the RV before going into Canada.
We then drove to the border crossing and got in line. There was only 1 lane open going into Canada and only a few cars ahead of us. We presented our passports and answered the customs official’s questions. We also showed Tinker’s rabies certificate and shot record. We were asked our purpose for entering Canada (sightseeing), how long we were going to be there (about a month or so), did we have any firearms (no), what did we have in the RV (food, clothing, household items), & did we have any liquor (a couple bottles of wine, a bottle of rum).
The total time going through Customs was about 5 minutes. Our having come across the border the day before had helped reduce our time this morning because our passport info was already in their computer. We left Customs at 8:09 – actually 9:09 since we entered the Atlantic time zone when we crossed into New Brunswick.
US-1 now is Hwy-1 in Canada and is a 4-lane highway that is comparable to our interstates. We crossed St. John Bay on the St. John Harbor Bridge, a toll bridge, and paid a $2.25 toll. We stayed on Hwy-1 until it connected with Trans Canada Hwy 2 west of Moncton.
We decided that instead of driving through Moncton and then getting on Hwy-114 to the campground, we would take Hwy-112 west of Moncton to Hwy-114 -- Big Mistake! Hwy-112 might not be too bad in a car, but it was so rough we bounced and rattled until we got into Riverview.
We arrived at Ponderosa Pines Campground around 12:30. It was 205 miles from Robbinston, ME to here. We’re in site #16, a pull-through, with full hookups (30 amp). It’s a gravel site and fairly level. We’ll be here for 3 days while we visit the Fundy Coast. We’re not getting a discount here, so we’re paying the full price of $27 a day.
We’ve been planning to visit the Canadian Maritimes for quite a while and are really looking forward to our time here.
We left Balsam Cove Campground this morning at 9:15. It was only 120 miles up to Hilltop Campground, but we wanted to have time after getting there to go into Canada to find somewhere to exchange US money into Canadian and visit the New Brunswick Visitor Center.
We took US-1 from Balsam Cove up to Robbinston, ME. We found a place about 2 miles north of Whiting where we could stop for lunch before going on to Hilltop Campground. We got into the Hilltop Campground a little before 1 p.m.
Hilltop Campground is a Passport America campground. The Passport America discount is good for 3 nights, but we’ll only be for 1 night. We’re in site #11, a pull-through, with full hookups (30 amp).
After getting settled in, we got our passports and drove to the border crossing at Calais, ME. The campground is about 16 miles from the Canadian border. There weren’t too many cars crossing the border then. We were directed by a Canadian customs officer to park our car and go inside the Customs building at St. Stephen. After waiting only about 10 minutes we were interviewed by a customs official as to our purpose for visiting Canada and how long we expected to be in Canada. The customs official entered our passport information in their computer and we were on our way.
We stopped down the street to exchange our US currency into Canadian – almost $1 for $1. Then we drove to the New Brunswick Visitor Center to pick up maps and brochures. The staff there was very helpful and informative and knowledgeable about the places to visit.
Then it was back across the border and the RV. This time there was quite a long line crossing the border into the US (it looked like workers going to their homes in the US after working on the Canadian side). The US customs officer checked our passports and we explained that we had crossed the border to exchange currency and get travel brochures. Then we were on our way back to the RV.
Our first border crossing experience went without any problems and all of the officials were friendly and helpful.
Today we drove into Ellsworth to the Verizon dealer and switched our cell phone service from AT&T to Verizon and got new cell phones. We also bought a broadband modem for our laptop. We had to wait until our AT&T contract ended on June 10 - it would have cost us $175 to cancel our contract early (they don't pro-rate the cancellation fee). When we were traveling out west last year we spent several weeks without cell phone service. We would see other people using their cell phones when we couldn't use ours & most people had Verizon service.
Verizon was giving rebates on the phones we got ($50 each phone) and a $50 rebate for the broadband modem. The rebates will help lower the cost of having to get new phones. The staff there transferred our contacts from the old phones to the new ones and set up our voice mail for us. We also added a Canadian calling plan to our Nationwide plan because we'll be entering Canada on Saturday.
We also added OnStar as a third phone - we have OnStar on the Vue & OnStar uses Verizon (which is another reason we switched to Verizon). We had let our OnStar subscription expire because the cost of their minutes was so expensive and we called today to restart our service with them.
We were told to not use the broadband modem while we're in Canada because we would be charged roaming fees and that it would expensive. So we only have today and tomorrow to use it.
We stopped by the computer shop and picked up our laptop. There was a setting that was interfering with our getting on the internet and they fixed it. We tried it out before we left the shop and it works fine. They didn't charge us for fixing it (which is good, since that wasn't the reason we took it in there to be repaired).
It was really nice to get back to the campground and have cell phone service!!! And, the broadband service is great - it is an extra monthly expense ($60), but we've sometimes had to drive 40 miles to find some place that has wifi & if it's a coffee shop/restaurant we always buy something. The savings of not having to drive somewhere to wifi may not offset all of the $60 monthly fee, but the convenience is worth it.
Today we visited Acadia National Park which is about 25 miles SE of the campground. We took Tinker with us since we would be gone most of the day.
We entered the Acadia National Park just north of Bar Harbor at the Hulls Cove Entrance and stopped at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center to pick up a brochure and map of the park. Before starting out on our drive through the Park, we watched a 15 minute audiovisual program about the history of the park.
Acadia National Park was established in 1916 by Woodrow Wilson and encompassed 6,000 acres. Today the park covers more than 40,000 acres because of philanthropists such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Charles W. Eliot, and George B. Dorr.
When we left the Visitor Center we took the Park Loop Road down to SR-233 west to SR- 102 and then south toward Southwest Harbor. We stopped at the Seawall Campground to check it out. According to the information on the campgrounds in Acadia National Park our motorhome is too large for them. The size restrictions for Seawall Campground states no RVs longer than 35' and taller than 11'8" and slides have to fit within the site pads. The roads inside Seawall Campground are narrow and the campsites are short and narrow, also.
We then went back north through Southwest Harbor where we stopped at a sandwich shop for lunch. The electricity was out in town because a traffic accident had taken out an electric pole north of town, so the only food available was cold since the restaurant used electricity to cook with. We sat outside at a table next to the restaurant to eat our lunch.
We got back on SR-233 and went south on SR-3 until we reached Sargeant Drive and took it south. We took Sargeant Drive instead of SR-3 because it is a beautiful drive along side of Somes Sound. Somes Sound is the only fjord in the contiguous 48 states. It is a narrow, 168' deep gorge of salt water that was carved by glaciers.
We took Sargeant Drive down to Northeast Harbor then east to Seal Harbor.
From Seal Harbor we drove north through the inland portion of Acadia National Park passing by Bubble Rock, Cadillac Mountain and Beaver Dam Pond. Then we drove south along the Park Loop Road stopping at Thunder Hole. We parked the car and walked down to see Thunder Hole. As the tides come in through the granite channel, air gets trapped and escapes through Thunder Hole putting on quite a show. We got there while it was low tide, so we weren't treated to the show. We continued on to Otter Cliffs which are 100 foot pink granite cliffs rising straight out of the water.
We stayed on the Park Loop Road to go back to Seal Harbor and get on SR-3 to Blackwoods Campground. The limits on the RVs are no longer than 35' and no taller than 11'8", which lets us out. We already knew that our RV wouldn't' fit in the campgrounds at Acadia National Park and that there are 4 low-clearance bridges that would keep us from driving our motorhome there.
After leaving Blackwoods Campground we drove to Bar Harbor and looked at the sights there. Then it was time to head back to the RV. We got gas ($4.099 gal) in Ellsworth before heading back to the campground.
I've created a map showing our route through the Park.
