We were assigned site 11 when we arrived at the campground. It was a pull through so we didn’t have to unhook the toad because we are only staying one night here. We had our drivers meeting at 7 PM for tomorrow’s drive. We finally have a campground with good WIFI so I was able to update the blog. This is a really nice fairy new campground with a great view of the J.C. Horne Bridge that we crossed into New Brunswick on and the Restigouche River. We also have a great view of the Appalachian Mountain Range.
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| J.C. Horne Bridge |
The time switched to Atlantic time and our clocks jumped ahead 1 hour as we were crossing the bridge. About dark it started raining and rained until sometime after we went to sleep. Sure wish my home state is getting some of this rain.
I don't think I have explained much about how the Fantasy RV Tour operates. This is the first RV tour we have been on with any company so we didn't know what to expect. When we arrived in Montreal Canada to meet up with the group we were assigned a number. The numbers are assigned alphabetically so we are RV number 5. The Wagonmasters is number 1 and the Tailgunners are number 2. There is not a RV number 13 (bad luck and we don't need any bad luck) and the last RV is 26. So there are 25 RVs, two women are traveling solo so that makes 48 people in the group. All are motorhomes except one travel trailer. Each RV has a Fantasy sticker on the front and back with their assigned number and the toad has a sticker without a number. The stickers makes us easy to spot along the road so if anyone pulls off with a problem. Any everyone is carrying a handheld radio tuned to the same channel. The Wagonmasters leave the campground first so they can get to the next campground and prepare for our arrival. The Tailgunners leave the campground last so if anyone has a problem along the route they will be able to stop and help them. We use the radios to check out of the campground and to check into the next campground and the Wagonmasters direct us to our assigned sites. We are provided a turn by turn trip log of the route we are taking, that lists rest stops, points of interest and fuel stops. If a person wants to travel a different route they are supposed to tell the Tailgunners so they are aware of their route in case they don't show up at a campground, so they will know where to start looking for them. We are given a time window of when we can leave the campground on travel day so we will not get to the next campground before the Wagonmasters have time to get ready for us. When they get to the campground they take the list of sites assigned to our group by the campground staff and review it to make sure the site will accommodate the individual RV assigned, since all the RVs are not the same size.
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| That's us |
Day 24 Wednesday July 3, 2019 We had a 105 mile drive today along some really pretty country on our way to Colibri Motel and Camping in Bertrand New Brunswick. Even though we are still traveling along the Saint Lawrence River we were not able to see it as much today due to the dense woodland along the route. The roads were great today with very few rough patches. There were lots of signs along the road warning about moose but we didn't see a single one. We did see lots of cars stopped on the shoulder of the road and a person would be down on their hands and knees picking something in the weeds and grass along the shoulder. We were very curious as to what they were doing. We found out when we got to the campground they were picking wild strawberries. We passed through a number of small communities along the last half of the trip that were lined with some really neat color full homes.
As we travel we try to depart the campground so we are not a long line of RVs on the road bunched together which makes it difficult for faster vehicles to pass us but today some of us kind of got bunched up until part of us make a fuel stop. Also we are asked not to arrive at the campground as a group because depending on the campground entrance we could cause a traffic jam and we don't want to give the locals a bad impression of our group.
After our fuel stop we pulled off in a nice pull off area and had lunch and stretched our legs. We were assigned site M4 upon arrival at the campground.
Once we got settled in, us and Kathleen rode into the local town of Caraquet to check it out and run the toad through a car wash. It was looking bad and the windows were hard to see out of. I paid $10 Canadian for the wash and it was a total waste of money. All the wash did was wash off the loose dust. When we returned to the campground I had to get my window cleaner out and wash the windows.
We are seeing more signs now that are bilingual (English and French). There is about 33% French speaking people in New Brunswick. We are getting fairly good at figuring out some of the French road signs (of course some has pictures with the words so that helps).
Day 25 Thursday July 4, 2019 Happy Birthday USA.
The hard drive in my laptop died last night. I sure am glad I got most of the Blog updated prior to the failure. I only lost one days writing that I had to rewrite. If I can't get the drive working I will loose a few videos and photos that I didn't get backed up prior to the failure. I started having trouble with the laptop before leaving on this trip so I brought my old laptop with me, sure glad I did because I am using it now.
Everyone drove over to the nearby Acadien Historic Village to tour the facility. The Acadien people are descendants of French Colonists who settled in Acadia during the 17th and 18th century. The historic village is a large collections of buildings from the local area that were moved into a very large beautiful setting to create an authentic village. The tour was a self guided tour that we could do at our own pace with a detail map of the village. Almost every building was noted on the map with the name of the original occupant and the year of the building with the earliest being 1773 and the newest 1949. Almost all the buildings had an interpreter in period clothing that told the story of the building and its former occupants, They spoke both in French and English. Many of the homes had a lady either cooking in the fireplace or on a wood stove depending on the era of the building. The food they were preparing provided the noon meal to the men (dressed in period clothing) that were working at different task. Several farm animals were in the village including chickens, goats and cows. All the homes had a small garden plot with a variety of vegetables planted.
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| Hall in Hotel |
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| Barber shop and dentist office |
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| Bar in hotel |
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| Irving Service Station |
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| Train Station |
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| Cooper |
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| Making barrel staves |
There were houses, barns, chicken coups, cow and goat pens, churches, general merchandise stores, blacksmith shops, woodworking shops, saw mill, a cooperage for making barrels, a cobbler shop, a bank, railroad station, a newspaper printing plant, tin smith, grist mill, service station and a hotel with a bar, barber shop/dentist office and a tavern. The 1907 hotel is actually a working hotel. Rooms are for rent and the bar is a working bar. The room rates start at $99 (Canadian). The interpreter in the Chiasson home told us it was a farmer's home and he raised 18 children in the home, 9 each by two wives.
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| Grist mill |
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| Chapel |
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| Slate Tablet (wonder how much memory it has) |
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| School house |
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| Home schooling |
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| Water well inside house |
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| Blacksmith shop |
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| Newspaper office |
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| Wood Lathe |
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| Wood Lathe |
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| Tavern |
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| "Bossie" |
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| Yoke for carrying water buckets |
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| Died yarn |
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| Boiling the yarn |
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| Outside oven |
A lot of time and money has been expended to save all the buildings, move them and restore them to their original looks. They used architectural drawings for some buildings to make sure they kept them as original as possible and some of the descendants of the original occupants provided first hand facts. The 1928 Turgeon home had a water well inside the house right off the kitchen next to the dining room. A local politician owned the home and it had electric lights also and central heating.
We were told there are 400 employees working in the village but it is only open to the public 4 months of the year due to the weather. We really enjoyed touring this village.
They have a cafe in the visitor's center and we all had lunch there. Lena and I got some really good clam chowder.
At 6PM our group gathered at the picnic shelter in the campground for a 4th of July hot dog cookout prepared by the Wagonmasters and Tailgunners. Then we had our driver's meeting for tomorrow’s 241 mile journey to Prince Edward Island.
Day 26 Friday July 5, 2019 We departed today about 8:30AM for our four night stay on Prince Edward Island. After about 100 miles we saw a police car with blue/red lights on sitting on the shoulder behind a motor home. As we were passing we realized it was one of our group (one of the ladies traveling solo) so we pulled to the shoulder thinking she was having some issue with her motorhome. We called her on the radio and she told us she was getting a traffic ticket. We thought that strange thinking she meant a speeding ticket because we normally don't drive the motorhomes that much over the posted speed limit. She told us later it was for unsafe movement. The police office claimed she was making an unsafe movement when she passed a car in front of her. It will cost her $120. She is the only RV we have ever seen pulled over by law enforcement in all our years of Rving.
We crossed the 7.5 mile long Confederation Bridge onto Prince Edward Island and stopped at the Welcome Center to get some lunch and pick up some brochures. This bridge is the longest in the world over frozen waters. The water below freezes in the Winter but it was not froze today as it was in the upper 80's and rather hot to us since we have been having 50-60's since we left home June 10th.
We got to Pine Hills RV Park about 3PM and setup in site 177 after working at it for over 30 minutes trying to get the motorhome level. This is the worst site we have had on the entire trip so far and we will be here 4 nights. But we finally got it where we can live with it.
After a cool shower we met our group at Fishermans Wharf for our first lobster dinner. We had access to a really long salad bar that had a large variety of items including mussel in the shell. The waitress brought us a cup of clam chowder, prior to bringing out our lobster. Then we had strawberry short cake and I had a bowl of ice cream to top it off. The meal was included with our tour package as are many of the meals we are eating. Lobster is okay but for me it doesn't beat a properly prepared plate of fried shrimp.
Prince Edward Island is well know for growing over 100 varieties of potatoes. The area we are staying in has some really beautiful farms, with many of them growing potatoes, corn, pasture grass, wheat and there are about 160 dairy farms on the island. We saw several little buildings in front yards selling new potatoes. The Wagonmasters told us that if we had ever eat french fries at any Wendy's East of the Mississippi we had ate potatoes from Prince Edward Island. In fact about an hours drive from where we are staying there is a Potato Museum that we may go to before we leave the island.
Day 27 Saturday July 6, 2019 Today is a free day, no planned activities until tonight so we decided to do a little exploring along the coast. As we were leaving our site Emma was out walking so we stopped and asked her if she wanted to ride with us so she hopped in and off we went. As we got near the coast we entered one of Canada's National Parks. As part of our tour package we were given a National Parks Pass so we were able to enter without an additional fee. The island is 140 miles long and ranges from 2 to 40 miles wide so you are never very far from the coast.
We stopped at the Covehead Harbour Lighthouse for a photo op and continued driving around until we entered the end of the local rather large town of Charlottetown. Lena spotted a Tim Horton's so we pulled in so she could satisfy her Latte “fix”. Emma had never been to a Tim Horton's so it was a new experience for her. They have good coffee, pastries and good WIFI. I fueled up the Toad and we returned to the campground for some grilled burgers.
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| Lupine grows wild ever where you look in Canada |
At 6:15PM our group boarded a tour bus for a ride into Charlottetown to attend the Anne of Green Gables Musical. This is the 55th consecutive year of the musical. I started reading the Anne of Green Gables book a week or so ago and had almost finished it by last night. It is not the type book I would normally read but since we were going to the musical and tomorrow will be going to the actual Green Gables house I decided to read the book. I was really glad a did because I think I enjoyed the musical more since I knew the story behind the musical. It lasted 2 hours and was very well done and we had good seats. I think the group was tired when we got back to the campground about 10:30PM.
Day 28 Sunday July 7, 2019 We on a bus again this morning at 8:15AM for a day of sightseeing. Our first stop was the same lighthouse that we had stopped at yesterday. We had a local guide (Mauria Lee) that lives not very far from where our campground is. Our next stop was at the fishermen's dock right behind where we had our lobster Friday night. The guide showed us a lobster pot and explained how the lobster gets in the trap and how controlled the lobster fishing is regulated. It takes about 1 million dollars to get a license and equip a lobster boat. There is a controlled number of licenses issued on the island and they are very hard to get so the fishermen are very careful not to break any rules and loose their license and possibly their boat. The guide also explained how mussels are farmed. There is a line placed inside what is called a sock and is lowered in the water and the mussels attack to the sock/line. About 3 dozen mussels can attach to one sock. We could see the racks out in the bay where the socks/lines are hanging from.
We did a couple of photo op stops before arriving at Green Gables. They just opened a new welcome center on July 1st at Green Gables. We toured the house, barn, yard and walking paths on our own. The character Anne Shirley is fictitious person but the house was owned/occupied by the author's (Lucy Maude Montgomery) grandfather's cousin and she spent a lot of time at the house and grounds as a child. It amazes me that a book can generate so much interest all over the world. It has been translated into 17 different languages and it was the author's first book. Her first attempt to get it published failed, so I imagine that publishing company regretted that rejection after the book became so popular. Our guide told us that the book is required reading in the schools in Japan and there are lots of Japanese tourist visiting Green Gables. The house was last occupied in 1935 but has been kept authentic to when is was when the author's family lived there.
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| Lobster trap |
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| Green Gables |
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| Anne of Green Gables author |
Then it was on to Price Edward Island Preserve Company for a nice lunch and tour of the gardens behind the restaurant. Lena had Potato Pie and I had Chicken and Broccoli Crepe followed by Raspberry Pie.
As we were going into Charlottetown we stopped at the Cow Creamery for ice cream. We had just had dessert where we had lunch so we are getting our calories. Then it was on to town for a tour of the town before returning to the campground.
The Wagonmasters invited anyone in the group that wanted to join them at 6PM for a short drive to a local Ceilidh they learned about from Mauria Lee. This was not part of the planned events just a spur of the moment event. There were 18 of the 48 in the group that went. It was in the York Community Center about 8 miles away. They call it Sunday Night Shenanigans. They have a different group of musicians come play each Sunday night and the event has been going on for about 11 years. Tonight's group was two guitar players and a fiddle player. The guitar player sang, the man (82 years old) also told a lot of funny little stories and some really funny jokes. Several songs were the old style country music and they ended the night with Amazing Grace. Both him and the lady guitar player sang several songs they wrote. Later a 6 year old girl danced and then a 21 year old danced, both of them did Keltic style dance. It was a very enjoyable 2 hours.
Day 29 Monday July 8, 2019 Today was a free day to explore on our own so we stopped at Tim Horton's for a Latte and sweet roll for a “healthy” breakfast and drove about an hour and half to visit the Potato Museum in O'Leary. PEI, Yep, that's right a Potato Museum. It sounds kind of strange but it was interesting. They claim to have the worlds largest collection of farm related potato harvesting equipment and also the world's largest potato sculpture. There was a lot of information about the different types of potatoes and the history of how they are grown and harvested. There was also a section on the artifacts and history of the local community.
While we were touring the old machinery section we met Willey Dunbar. He owns and has restored several pieces of equipment in this section including a 1922 John Deere Hay Loader that belonged to his grandfather.
They had a small cafe with potato related meals but we weren't ready to eat so we headed to the Bottle Houses on the way back (www.bottlehouses.com). Edouard Arsenault, a fisherman, carpenter and lighthouse keeper built three buildings by recycling 25, 000 bottles. The Chapel has 10,000 in it and most of them are colorful votive holders that were discarded by local Catholic parishes. The altar is made of many varieties of liquor bottles. There has been a few weddings held in the little chapel..
The next building was a six gabled house that was built in 1980 using 12,000 bottles that he gathered from local dance halls, the legion, restaurants and the local dump. After the locals found out what he was doing they began to bring him discarded bottles.
The third building was the Tavern. All three building had to be rebuilt from 1992 to 1998 because of the movement of the buildings over time due to the ground freezing and thawing in the Spring.
There is also a replica of the lighthouse were he was the last resident keeper of the lighthouse that was located about 2 miles away.
The grounds were layout with lots of flowers, a fish pond and a vegetable garden.
We stopped on the way back to the campground in Summerside at Sharky's Restaurant for a good meal of Grilled Cod, baked sweet potatoes and a fruits/vegetables medley.
The group got together at 7PM for the driver's meeting for tomorrow’s 302 mile trip to Bras d'Or Lakes Campground in Baddeck Nova Scotia. This will be our longest driving day of the tour.
Day 30 Tuesday July 9, 2019 We had a departure time from 8-9AM so we departed about 8:15AM. We had to cross back over the Confederation Bridge and pay a toll of $65.25. They don't charge you to go to Prince Edward Island over the bridge but they do charge you to leave the island over the bridge. The Wagonmasters gave us a prepaid voucher to cover the cost but of course we paid for it as part of the cost of the tour package.
We had some rough road for a few miles but for the most part the roads today were good, even had some 4 lane roads but we had to pay a toll of $5.25 to ride the good 4 lane once we got into Nova Scotia. We stopped for fuel and I failed to listen to the navigator (Lena) and missed the turn onto the road and had to go around part of the cloverleaf to get going in the correct direction to continue on our way. We stopped at a roadside pull out and had lunch before arriving at the campground about 3:30PM and setup in site 30.
The 81 year old grandma (same lady that got a traffic ticket a few days ago) that is traveling solo with us had a breakdown about 127 miles into the trip and had to be towed to a repair shop where she will stay overnight and maybe even two nights until the parts come in. And one of our group got their motorhome stuck getting into their site and pulled the door to the generator off. They are waiting for a tow truck to get them out. It is a brand new 2020 motorhome with just over 3,000 miles on it. So our group has had some bad luck today.
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| Ouch!!! |
Day 31 Wednesday July 10, 2019 Today was a free day to explore or do whatever we wanted to do. The Wagonmasters suggested riding the famous Cabot Trail which is about 180 miles around. The trail
goes around about 1/3 of the land space of Cape Brenton Island that we are on.
There are lots of local craft shops, hiking trails and lots and lots of restaurants and cafes. We saw at least 4 bakeries. We stopped at one and two cinnamon buns and a loaf of homemade Porridge Bread jumped in a bag and asked us to take them with us. There also seemed to be an unusual number of cemeteries along the North side between the road and the water. There were several sections of the land mass that is part of the Canadian National Parks.
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| More Lupine |
We noticed that a lot of the rural mailboxes were not mounted on a post that was buried in the ground but are attached to rack that just sits on the ground. We first thought it might be so they could move them higher as the snow builds up in the Winter but it might be because they can't easily dig a hole due to the amount of rock in the ground.
The water off the North side as we made our way around the island is the Atlantic Ocean and the water on the South side is the Gulf of the Saint Lawrence River. We made several Kodiak moments stopps along the way. We did not walk any of the trails, due to the time to drive the entire trail. We did stop at a restaurant for a bowl of Seafood Chowder.
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| Seafood Chowder |
It was 56 degrees at 7AM this morning and cool enough since we have been here we open the windows in the motorhome and let the breeze cool us off.
Our lady with the broke down motorhome arrived about 5PM with her repairs complete and the motorhome that was stuck was pulled out today and we have a man in our group that knows auto body repair so the generator cover has been reinstalled with no damage. Tonight we are having a campfire smoors/icecream party to celebrate.
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| Team work |
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| 1952 Cookshutt tractor |
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