Letter 26 New Brunswick II

Harrington Travels East 2009
Letter 26: New Brunswick II
Monday, August 17 we left Nova Scotia after almost three weeks. Hooray for Nova Scotia—a wonderful Province! Fred’s favorite. Though we didn’t see any advertising about it, we asked at several information stops where you could be and be furtherest from salt water. Mostly we got puzzled looks. The consensus seems to be less than 40 miles. In other words, you can never be more than 40 miles, as the proverbial crow flies, from the ocean in Nova Scotia. The sea dominates here. Fishing dominates their lives. Mostly the land is covered with a variety of trees. There is a little farming in the valleys. Housing is modest, but well kept. People are very outgoing and fun to be around.

We drove through Moncton and on to Saint John, New Brunswick. after setting up in their city RV park, we drove to the Reversing Falls. At low tide the river flows over rocks to form rapids and whirlpools. The next day we compared to the high tide. Little boats and rapid runners were having fun showing their patrons a good time. We shopped at the last Canadian Wal-Mart for our trip, then headed back to our Magic Carpet. This park is on gravel with a row of hookups down the middle. We are in the first spot—we get all the traffic, every time a car passes it sounds like they are coming in the trailer, then they pass leaving a cloud of dust.

We were nearing the end of our Canadian part of this trip with mixed emotions. We have enjoyed all the sights here in the Maritimes, but we will be glad to see our dollar bills, instead of loonies, and the lower gas prices.

Tuesday,. August 18 we retraced our steps to the Reversing Falls to catch high tide, then drove into downtown to the Farmer’s Market. The inside of this building, a block long, is built to look like the upside down inside of a ship, representing the ship building industry in Saint John. There were all kinds of shops, from vegetables, fish, meat, crafts, collectables, and restaurants. We had hoped to find a good deal on tomatoes, but the prices were more like grocery stores, so we passed them up. Fred was especially interested in the fish markets. We spent a quiet after noon at the trailer.

Wednesday, August 19, we moved about 50 miles closer to Maine to a New Brunswick Provincial park at New River Beach. This was the first sandy beach we have seen in a long time as so much of the Bay of Fundy is a red clay. As we signed in another couple came in to pay through the weekend as they were enjoying it so much. Sure enough they are in the spot across the street from us. They live in Fredericton, so they are locals. After unhooking they took us for a little ride to the beach and picnic areas. We walked along the beach at high tide picking up a few rocks. After supper we went back to the beach at low tide and it was a
long way to the water. We watched and wondered how good the seiners did with no more sea life than we saw on the beach.

Thursday, August 20 we decided to spend our beautiful day, while waiting on Hurricane Bill to do it’s thing out in the Atlantic, to see the islands. We drove to a landing and took the free ferry to Deer Island. At the south end, about 10 miles away we were welcomed to the Deer Island Point Park where we viewed the famous Old Sow Tidal Whirlpool. It is in the waterway between Deer Island and Eastport, MA. We were that close to the USA! This whirlpool started at the inlet, swirled over by Eastport, then back to the Deer Island shore, about a mile. It was churning and creating little whirlpools all the way. We saw seals playing in this churning water.

Next was another ferry, this one to Campobello Island, home of the only International Park - between Canada and the USA. The Island is in Canada, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt spent all his childhood summers here at the Roosevelt cottage.

A “cottage” is a home that can not be lived in during the winter, no matter what the size. This one does not have a basement and is not insulated, but does have over 10,000 square feet and 17 rooms. The Roosevelt's spent July, August and two weeks of September every year on this island, roaming the countryside, picnicking, sailing, tennis, and all the luxuries of wealth.
FDR came down with and was diagnosed with Polio while here the summer of 1921.

The living room was bright and cheery with large windows and five foot wide doors. The picture window looked out to Eastport.
The dinning room
was simple and fed all the family. In the far corner was a huge megaphone that Eleanor used to call her children to meals. They said on a calm day, people in Eastport could hear her.

The very modern kitchen included a very shinny copper water heater next to the elaborate wood stove.

One of the Roosevelt's favorite coves was across the island at Herring Cove. Diana had told us to visit this cove for pebbles. We found soft pebbles like we found in California at Goat Rock Beach. These will make perfect prayer rocks to share with FUMC in Waxahachie.

After a pleasant day on Campobello we waited for the returning ferry. Fred thought this looked like the waiting line for the ferry on the Rio Grand at Ebony, TX because each had an unpaved road under a dense treed canopy.

Fred bravely drove on to this small ferry and as we took off the little attached tug made it’s turn around for us to head back to Deer Island.

Returning from Deer Island to the mainland a sail boat came between us and Eastport and as we came close to the mainland we went right through Old Sow.

Everywhere we have gone in Quebec and the Maritimes we have been greeted with large Signs. We have stopped at many and been helped with all kinds of answers to our questions. We have really appreciated having these to help us along and wish the states also had as many as the Canadian’s do.

Friday, August 21, we drove into St George (population about 1,000) for coffee and an internet connection in a state sponsored school. We prowled the town finding a hydroelectric dam on the Magaguadaic River with a meandering fish ladder for the salmon and alewives. For years St George was the center of the granite industry in New Brunswick and now it is the center of the Wild Blueberries. All granite mining ceased more than 50 years ago because it wasn’t competitive with cheap imports. We were invited to come back for their Blueberry Festival the next day.

After reading the invitation and list of activities Fred was ready to go on
Saturday, August 22 with taste buds ready we showed up at the Savory Grill for Blueberry pancakes with Blueberry Maple Syrup. Delish! Olivia took her third one to go. In their little mall a very friendly lady was offering samples from Granite Town Farms. Fred enjoyed questioning her and giving her a hard time. She was a lot of fun! From there we went to the Granite Town Farm Factory and Gift Shop for a tour.

The Wild Blueberry man met us and we signed up for the tour. The owner gave us an extensive tour of the operations. The wild blueberry cannot be propagated, it really grows wild. The earth has to be “sour” and the legumes spread naturally, so the farmers are very protective of the land where these berries grow. In the fields they have the “gun noise” makers just like the pecan orchards do in Texas, except this time they are scaring off bears! This company owns over 500 acres of wild blueberries and buys from two other farmers.. They have developed stand-up rakes to pick the berries and put them into boxes. The berries have a dusty look to them and that is part of their superior anti-oxidant property. There are leaves and stems in the boxes, so when they arrive at the factory they are put through a fan sifter to sort out the berries. As they go down an assembly line there are human sorters. The little baseball head in the bottom of this picture belonged to the grandson of the owner and he enjoyed eating as fast as he could of the good berries. Outside the factory they were selling 10 pound boxes for $20 and people were carrying them off as fast as they could put them out, along with all sorts of other blueberry products. The berries can be frozen just like they come without washing as that removes part of the anti-oxidant agent. To order from them go to www.wildblueberry.ca They ship their products all over, but not the blueberries.

Included on the list of festival activities was Blueberry Cream Pie at another restaurant, so to finish off our tour we bought a slice for later. All day long we thought of our friend Diana and her blueberries in Maine. We look forward to getting some of hers. At $5/ slice the pie was a bargain! It was hummmmmy!

Sunday, August 23, It rained this morning from the tail of hurricane Bill, then it cleared somewhat and we decided to take our chances and head for Maine. The wind blew more than we liked (maybe 30 MPH) but mostly the roads were dry. We crossed into Maine at Calais and the little lady border guard was very cordial, asked us a few questions, checked our passports and said, “Happy Travels.” We had figured after being out of the country for 54 days they would give us a thorough search. We didn’t have anything to hide, and were prepared for a search, but were relieved to be sent on our way. It is good to be back in the USA. Hooray for the USA!!!!! We enjoyed Canada but we are glad we are Americans and on our own soil.

Some last thoughts about Canada. Health care. We asked many Canadians about their health care plan which is near to that proposed in the USA. We had a mixed report. Some thought we are late in coming to such a great advancement. Some thought we are crazy to think of changing. No clear recommendation.

After nearly two months of KPH, liters, kilometers, looney’s and twoney’s and other foreign measurements, its great to see MPH, miles, gallons, dollars, bills, etc.

Many French speaking Canadian citizens feel strongly for separation from Canada. They feel out of step with English speaking Canadians. They travel to other parts of Canada and are forced to speak English. They don’t like it. Some even think Canadians refuse to speak French just to upset them. votes have been taken in the past for separation and have failed, but they see the next vote as passing and finally, freedom for them...their own nation. Its not just Quebec. A large part of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are French speaking. What a nightmare with a bi-lingual country. Separation should never happen. Back to the USA.

We drove on through town and to Robbinston, MA and a Passport America trailer park to get acclimated. After unhooking we went back to Calais to the only Wal-Mart this side of Bar Harbor to stock up on items we couldn’t get or didn’t want to pay twice the price in Canada. Of course we found some other items too. Then to the grocery store where we found some nice produce and our wine.

On the way back to the trailer we stopped at the Saint Croix Island International Historic Site. This island was France’s Jamestown in 1604. At the end of the point of the park, we could see the island and a miniature replica of the village. Champlain met us and welcomed us with a wave of his hat.

We hope you enjoy our ramblings so let us hear from you,

Olivia@bobheck.com or FredHarrington@yahoo.com