A dream come true!

YES!!  TODAY!!  First day of summer and WE MADE IT to NOVA SCOTIA!!!

So that will be the subject of my next post!  For now - just let me tell you about getting from Portland, Maine, to HERE!

Fri 17 Jun - What a crazy hair-raising drive through downtown Portland!  The "navi-guessor," (uh, that would be me) guessed wrong this morning and it's a miracle that Harold and I are still speaking!

But we are - and today we managed to get 130 miles northeast to Hermon, Maine, est. 1814.

Along the way, very beautiful Maine scenery  . . .

Pretty harbor on the Maine coastline

(oops - took this one through the window screen!)

Looks a lot like home - complete with raindrops on the windshield!

Beautiful waterways all along the route . . .

Whoaaaa - Moose crossing!!

Sat 18 June - Another 105 miles today - at one point drove about 80 miles without seeing so much as a tiny town!  We were definitely in the wilderness of Maine, nothing around us for miles and miles and miles but TREES!  And now we're in little Calais, Maine! We're about to enter Canada and, if you look on a map you'll see that where this little town is, Canada is already around us on three sides!  We were expecting rain showers today and we had that and more!  So I'll just say again - sure does remind us of home!

Ooooohhh - liquid sunshine!  Beautiful!

Wide spot in the road . . . .

Rain & churches all along the way . . .

So tonight we're at Camp Calais Walmart and we were the first RVers in the "park" tonight, but 4 or 5 more eventually pulled in. We talked a bit with some folks who were at Greenbelt Natl. Park near D.C. when we were there!

The Mulherins & the Germans at Calais Walmart!

This couple from Germany had their motorhome shipped to the US almost a year ago - they've been all over the States and now, at the end of their travels, are headed for Halifax to ship their RV home . . . wow, what a trip!

Sun 19 Jun - A banner day!!  Today we celebrate Father's Day AND 1/2 year on the road!  Yes, we left home six months ago today!  My, how time flies . . . .

Old library in Calais - 1892!

Crossing the St. Croix River into Canada

Also a significant day because we have crossed the border into Canada, New Brunswick to be specific, and are just a day away from Nova Scotia - woohoo!

But once in Canada, our GPS, like, had a stroke or something! Nothing on the screen, and Zoe just kept repeating "recalculating, recalculating . . ."   Floundering in the streets of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, was a most unpleasant experience! We eventually got help from a good Samaritan who led us through town and got us headed in the right direction.

. . . and finally through St. Stephen and on our way at last . . .

Along the road to St. Andrews

Taking a side trip down a small peninsula, we happened upon an interesting St. Croix Island Historic Site, and then St. Andrews, a lovely spot for a holiday, situated near the Bay of Fundy.  Very charming, scenic little berg.

And all along the byways - gorgeous lupine - mostly purple,
 but also white & shades of pink!

See that little patch in the bay there?  St. Croix Island!

Well, I took this picture thinking it was our first look at the Bay of Fundy!
Actually, it's looking south from St. Andrews at Passamaquoddy Bay.

We heard along the way about Fundy National Park and some amazing Hopewell Rocks, so we opted to delay Nova Scotia for a day and take in some of the sites here in New Brunswick.  So we headed in that direction along the Fundy Coastal Drive. . .

OMG!  Off the highway, the road got really rough and we were thinking maybe this wasn't such a great idea. But the scenery along that rugged two-lane made it all worthwhile . . .

More of these . . .  they are everywhere!

More pics from along the drive to Fundy National Park . . .

You can kind of see the basically sub-standard road . . .  (oh, I tell ya, it had Harold muttering . . )

But we finally  made it to Fundy National Park . . .

SO GLAD we did! We had a lovely and very quiet night at their very beautiful park.

Mon 20 Jun - Left the park early to get to Hopewell Rocks in time to see the bay at low tide!  The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides of any place in the world!

Near the park exit and on the way to Alma

Right out of the park, we drove through the little town of Alma on the Bay of Fundy.  Very scenic with old docks, old boats - scenes from yesteryear . . .

Coming into Alma

Well, we'd heard from some of the locals that a good place to stop in Alma is at Kelly's - so we did.  OMG!! Sticky buns fresh from the oven . . . to die for . . . .

Good-bye, Kelly, and THANK YOU!!

Then, putting the park and the very quaint little hamlet of Alma behind us, we drove through more beautiful country - farmland, waterways, covered bridges!!!

Trixie loves to experience that beautiful scenery
with the wind in her face . . .

Saw several covered bridges - they're still definitely in use today.

A couple more roadside scenes . . .

And then we were at Hopewell Rocks. These are actually located on Shepody Bay which empties into Chignecto Bay which is on the Bay of Fundy.  And the Bay of Fundy has the distinction of having the highest tides in the world!  Depending on, I think, the season, the phase of the moon, etc., the difference between high and low tides can be as much as 55 feet!  

Each day 100 billion tons of seawater flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy during one tide cycle!

Visitors can see two extraordinary high and low tides every 24 hours. The time between a high tide and a low tide is, on average, six hours and 13 minutes. 

We arrived at low tide - and here I am, as they say there, "walking on the ocean floor."  It's very muddy and brown and guess what!  This bay is fed by, among others, the Chocolate River . . .

Here we are by one of the "Flowerpots"

And here are some of the rocks - these are some of the Flowerpot Rocks . . . 

Here they are at low tide - lots of folks come to view this rare scene!

And just six hours later, we saw the tide up almost 40 feet higher!

Monday night found us in the city of Moncton, New Brunswick . . . at Camp Walmart!  Just gotta show you what a WalMart looks like back here!

"Parlez vous Francais?"  That's what they say here!

Today is Tuesday, June 21, 2011, and this is me in Nova Scotia.  

NOW we are about to explore NOVA SCOTIA!!!

The idea for this trip came from an old dream.  Back in junior high, I did a report on Nova Scotia and decided then I wanted to come here someday.  That notion grew into an item on my bucket list - to drive the eastern seaboard from Key West to Halifax!  Well, yippee!!, this is one major item to check off that list!

We were thinking a week or so here, but there's tons to see and do so it might take us a bit longer . . . .