Parting is such sweet sorrow

Last night Bob, who is a morning person, asked us what would be the earliest he could wake us up. We said noon would be ok. And today right at noon we had a knock on our door. Mar was so tired she couldn’t get up, noon was too early for her. But Bernie accepted the invitation and went inside for breakfast. When she got to the kitchen, the table was beautifully set and there was a guest book on the table. Bob’s mom, Nana, asks all her guests to sign her book.

Bob made breakfast, thick sliced bacon with fried potatoes and eggs. Then Nana and Bob asked Bernie to make peanut butter fudge for their church’s yard sale. They do this every year to help the needy. Bernie made two batches of fudge.

Then it was time to say goodbye. Bernie finally made contact with one of her cousins here so we headed to Lower Sackville to meet them. We stayed a few hours and chatted about all kinds of family things. It was such a good opportunity for Bernie to meet her cousin and be able to connect with family. They invited us to stay for dinner and we enjoyed it immensely. The best part was dessert, home made apple pie from scratch. Usually Mar is not a fan of apple pie but this one was so good, she wanted seconds!

Finally we had to get on the road again. Parting is such sweet sorrow. We drove all the way to the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick border tonight, and stopped for the night at the same truck stop where we were our first night in Nova Scotia.

Step less

Today we said bye to our friend Elle as it was our last day in Halifax. It had been an adventure to get Bella parked behind the house. Well, it was even a bigger adventure to get her out. As we were pulling out and going around the bend in the driveway, we heard a very LOUD noise.

When we got out to check, it was our pull out step (ours is not electric) totally bent out of shape and yes, totally useless. Turns out we hit the dirt and rocks next to the house, so Elle got some new landscaping done without asking for it, and we decided not to charge her for our impromptu landscaping services :-) Actually she was very graceful and forgave us immediately.

Now step-less we headed towards Peggy's Cove. What an amazing place, the drive there is a bit challenging, but very rewarding in the end.

Peggy's Cove is the second most photographed spot in Canada, and it's easy to see why. It is such a peaceful place. We climbed the gigantic rocks, and sat to watch and listen to the waves crashing against the rocks. This is a picture perfect place and the weather was just perfect today.

When we left there, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up our groceries for the week. A gallon of milk was $7.29. We figured that was better than the $7.99 we saw before so we got it. Can't believe the price of milk here!

Or the price of gas ... in Prince Edward Island gas was about $1.26 per liter (approx 4 liters in a gallon). Here in Nova Scotia, gas is about $1.33 per liter. We filled up in PEI but will probably need to get gas again before we leave NS, unfortunately.

Next we drove to South Uniacke to meet Bob and Judy, they are here visiting his mother. We had met on a yahoo rv group and they offered us their driveway.

They weren't home when we got there so we waited. When they got home, we got to meet Bob's mother too. Bob helped us get the electric hooked up and then we all sat around the kitchen table getting to know each other, while sharing a cup of tea, with crackers and jam. We made some new friends today.

Lazy Sunday

When we got up we headed into Elle's for coffee. We don’t usually have breakfast but Elle was cooking. For brunch she made us homemade buttermilk biscuits, bacon, eggs, and fresh squeezed orange juice. We had a great time visiting while she cooked.

Then Bernie looked up the local Catholic Church and she went to Mass. She said everyone was very friendly there and she loved the music.

Meanwhile Mar worked on the laundry. Thanks to Elle's basement laundry, we were able to get all of our laundry done.

In the evening, Elle started dinner. It seems that Elle likes to cook for us and we like people who like to cook for us. Once again she made an amazing dinner on the grill and we could hardly stop eating. After dinner we enjoyed the rest of the peach cobbler with coffee, and played cards till the wee hours of the morning.

In the mud

When we woke up today the first thing we did was jump out of bed to look out the window to see if we had floated away. Lucky for us the tide did not come up as high as it sometimes does and we were on dry land.

We went once again to explore the beach. Almost as soon as we did, it started raining and Bernie started sinking in the mud, again. We gave up and decided it was best to just get on the road and go to Halifax today.

The drive from Five Islands to Halifax was a little over two hours and it rained the whole way there. Otherwise, the drive was very enjoyable, with a lovely view and gorgeous landscaping. It seems common here for everyone to have their own vegetable garden. That is pretty neat.

We arrived in Halifax and went to Elle’s house. Elle is a friend who Mar met online and this is the first time we got to meet her in person. Mar and Bernie felt very welcomed when a happy, smiling Elle came out to meet us. She greeted us with hugs and smiles. Elle lives on a busy street so she suggested we park around back. This was a challenge, as we had to back up Bella around a curve, going down hill, on the narrow driveway. But we did it, we were level, and then hooked up the electric and water.

We then spent the evening visiting and we truly felt right at home with our new friend. Elle prepared an amazing dinner for us. We had salmon and pork loin on the grill, along with baked potatoes and Greek salad. Everything was delicious, and as if that wasn't enough, then Elle made us peach cobbler for dessert, with huge beautiful peaches, in season. We ate way too much!

Life after moose

We were still upset by the moose incident and decided to take it easy today. We figured going to the beach would be ideal. On the map we saw a beach called Five Islands and decided to go there.

But first, we needed some supplies. We did our first grocery shopping in a Canadian grocery store, Sobey's. It was a bit on the expensive side. We didn't even buy milk because it was $7.98 a gallon. Outrageous! We got what we absolutely needed and decided to leave the rest for later.

Today while we drove the smell of the moose was so bad we just couldn’t breathe. There was no way to get rid of the smell, windows up or down, air conditioner on or off. So the only thing we could do was to wear bandanas on our faces to be able to breath. Who knows what the people passing us thought when they saw two people with covered faces driving a smelly rv on the road …

We headed to Five Islands. This is not as easy as it sounds. There aren’t that many road signs here, and the ones we can find are really not that helpful. Bernie asked one lady about this and she said the locals don't use signs, they just drive.

Well we drove right past Five Islands, we couldn’t find any signs. So we decided to stop to ask and the nice people gave us very clear instructions. They said turn down this next road and you’re there. As we drove down this gravel road we noticed plenty of mud and then we noticed the road ended. No sand anywhere, just rocks and mud. Lots of mud.

We were lucky that the guy behind us pulled up and asked if we needed help. We wondered where the beach was and he told us we were there already, but that if we parked there we may get wet when the tide comes in. He suggested we park at the wharf so that we possibly would not get washed out with the tide. We thought that was a really good idea, so we headed to the wharf.

Once we parked, we went to explore. We headed to the bank to take a look at the water. Mar didn’t want to get close but Bernie did and began to sink in the mud. First one foot disappeared into the mud and then as she was struggling to get that one out the other foot went in too, almost up to her knees!

The mosquitoes were plenty and we didn't know how she was going to get out. Mar was very helpful of course. She ran back to Bella and got the camera. But she also got shoes for Bernie, because in order to get out of the mud Bernie had to give up on her shoes. They were suctioned in the mud, gone. The whole thing was a little scary as she was sinking but in the end, everything was ok. We now have one less pair of shoes to carry in the rv.

Next we decided to try the Canadian sangria while Bernie made pinwheels, from scratch, and fried green tomatoes. It was great dinner. The sangria was not something we’d buy again. And this place was absolutely dark and quiet, quite beautiful. This is called boondocking, we boondocked today.

Bad news, the moose

It rained again last night, pretty much all night. At least it had stopped raining by the time we got up and were ready to go.

We went to Green Gables, which is the state park where Anne’s house is located. It wasn’t what Bernie expected. In the book it is clear that Anne and her family lead a very simple life but this house seemed to have too many frills. But Bernie was glad she got to see it, it was worth the trip to Cavendish.

Then we drove to Kensington and stopped at the visitor center, where we found out that the Woodleigh Replicas place is closed because it is up for sale. We were disappointed but decided then to take care of something else and we asked about hair salons in the area. They sent us to Karen’s Barber Shop where Karen allowed us to use her sink and chair, so Bernie could wash Mar’s hair (Mar can’t wash her hair in the RV). Everyone there was so nice. Thank you Karen!

Then we drove to Cap-Egmont to see the bottle houses. These are buildings built out of bottles. They are beautiful and fascinating structures. There are also gorgeous gardens there and there is even a veggie garden. Rejeanie, the originator’s daughter who now takes care of the place, told us the veggie garden produces more than she can consume and said we could have anything out of the veggie garden that we wanted. She handed Bernie a bag and Bernie picked some great things for us. It was that time of day when the mosquitoes were out in full force so she didn’t get to stop to pick the sweet peas, but the rest looks great, really pretty vegetables.

Then we got back on the road and drove to Summerside. As we drove through town we saw a place called “Eva’s Restaurant and Lounge” and we had to stop in because Eva is the name of Mar’s daughter. Bernie had the fish and chips, she said it was the best fish she has ever had. Mar wanted breakfast for dinner (again) so she had an egg sandwich that was good too.

Then we decided it was time to say goodbye to Prince Edward Island. We headed towards the Confederation Bridge, which is a toll bridge, but you only pay when you leave the island. So getting here was free and to leave we had to pay $41.50. The bridge is beautiful at night and it was nice that we got to drive it both in the daytime and at night.

We were headed to Nova Scotia. After the bridge we were driving down a very dark and lonely, two lane road. After a while we saw a couple of cars parked on the opposite side of the road, and before we could wonder why they had stopped, before we could even blink, there in front of us, right in the middle of our lane, was this fallen, huge, dead moose. There was no time to do anything. We both screamed as we drove right over the moose and Bella flew in the air. There is no way to know how many tires actually left the ground, but for sure it was more than one. It felt like we were flying. Once we landed, there was nowhere to stop or any way to slow down because there were a couple of cars right behind us.

We have no words to describe how scared we were. We finally were able to stop at the visitor center when we reached Nova Scotia. Bernie took the flashlight and got out to check if there was any damage. The good news is that it seems nothing happened to Bella. The bad news is really bad news. Long story short, Bella is covered in blood and moose fur and flesh. The smell is absolutely horrible. We went straight to a car wash in Amherst and Bernie tried to get as much off the under carriage as she could. It took $16 in quarters and it still smells terrible. This was not a good night, this was a horrible, horrible experience.

Then we drove around Amherst trying to find where to use wi-fi but didn’t have any luck. We then asked a couple of police officers and they suggested the Irving, the truck stop near the visitor center where we had been. So we headed back to the Irving, tested their wi-fi, asked permission to park, and parked for the night. And as all truck stops are, this is one noisy place, but we really needed to stay put, to calm ourselves, we were still so upset about the moose. But we are grateful and feel blessed, this incident could have been such a terrible accident.

Red sand

Today it rained again. Then it rained some more. When it finally let up we headed to downtown Charlottetown.

First, we went to Sand Land and that was really amazing. Sand Land is a collection of sculptures made out of sand (see pic). The sand in PEI is reddish because of the iron oxide in it. It’s pretty amazing the amount of detail these sculptures portray. These artists are very talented. We met Lin, one of the artists and she was very friendly, even gave us the tickets to get in, and told us where to park so we wouldn't have to pay for parking.

Then we went to explore historic downtown Charlottetown. We walked block after block, sometimes it sprinkled on us, but for the most part we stayed dry. The shops were very cute. At the end of the last block, we headed to see an outdoor concert in the park. Unfortunately they had packed up and left, about three days ago someone said. Around September is when everything starts shutting down in the Maritimes.

We then went back to Bella and pointed her towards Cavendish, the home of Anne of Green Gables, on the north coast of PEI. Bernie can’t wait to see Anne’s house and museum.

When we got to Cavendish it was already nighttime so we found a place to park, it is the parking lot of a mini-golf place that is closed down for the season, where we can use the wi-fi of the lodge nextdoor. We will go check out Anne’s place tomorrow.

The world needs more Canada

The weather was lovely today if a bit chilly. The sun was shinning and it made us very happy that we could finally get going again.

We went straight to Le Pays de la Sagouine, which is about two minutes from the Bouctouche visitor center.

Le Pays de la Sagouine is a very small island recreated to represent a story in a very popular book of Acadian folklore, about an old woman who cleaned houses. The island itself was very charming and the little village shows how things used to be. All this was very interesting to Bernie whose grandmother is from Nova Scotia and who probably experienced some of this history herself. www.sagouine.com

We then drove to Shediac where we saw the world's largest lobster. It attacked Bernie and tried to eat her (see pic). We looked around in the little shops. Shediac is the lobster capital of the world but it was too early for dinner so we kept driving. We headed to Prince Edward Island.

We stopped at the visitor center that is located right before the bridge. A few interesting things happened there. Bernie went down to the water and under the bridge to take pictures of the bridge and the water. This is quite an impressive bridge. Then when we went back into the visitor center we discovered that the toilets are very eco friendly. The toilets are just a big hole, there is no flushing, they don’t use any water or chemicals (see pic). Very interesting, and no, there is no smell.

Then as we were leaving a gentleman approached us and asked for a ride across the bridge. His name is Bill and he races horses, he had been waiting for over an hour for the shuttle that was running late, and he needed to get to the racetrack soon. He had his jockey uniform with him, he just needed a ride to the shuttle drop off on the other side and said he would pay us the fare he would have paid the shuttle. Mar said no, Bernie said yes, so we gave him a ride. But as we got there he jumped out and didn’t pay us like he said he would. Oh well, at least we get brownie points for the good deed of the day.

Next we went to the visitor center, where we got maps and some good info about local stuff to do. Then we drove to Charlottetown.

The drive there was very nice, PEI is very picturesque with charming houses and buildings, rolling hills, and pretty much nothing else.

Once we got to Charlottetown we were back in civilization. We saw every kind of fast food place, a Home Depot, a Walmart, and lots of other stores and businesses. We saw a bookstore called Indigo so we decided to stop in for a bit. The back wall of the store is red and in big letters it says "The World Needs More Canada" (see pic). Then we drove to Staples to park for the night and use their wi-fi so we could post this blog.

Raindrops keep falling on my head

What a day, it rained all day today, lots of wind and dark clouds. There was nothing to do but stay inside Bella all day, and it was so cold too. The rain is so loud on our roof and the wind had us bobbing around like we were on a boat. We had plans for today and we feel like we don’t have time for this kind of weather.

We were lucky we had internet access so we could get online and also used the time to catch up on our reading.

Around 5 pm the rain finally let up and we went in to the visitor center to check it out. The lady inside was very nice and we had a nice chat. She told us all about the fundraisers the town does to help their local organizations, like the women’s shelter. Every year in September the community comes together to decorate pumpkins to be sold to benefit the women’s shelter. We wish we could be here for that, but we’ll have to miss it.

It started raining again but not as bad as before. There was still too much wind to drive, so we stayed put for the rest of the day. We got a day off without planning for it.

Later we noticed the kitchen window was leaking right on the kitchen counter. Then we noticed that Mar's bed was all wet on the side against the wall, under the window. We looked around and under the bed, where the fresh water tank is, and we found that one of the water hoses had come off and somehow soaked that side of the bed, it must have happened when we filled up our fresh water tank the other day. Bummer.

All we could do was hope for better weather and we kept checking the weather online, we knew to expect more rain today but tomorrow should be a better day to continue our travels.