Day 130-31

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prince Edward Island

PEI Album

ROAD REPORT: My original plan was to drive to Edmundston, New Brunswick for an overnight stop and then on to Prince Edward Island (PEI). I would leave La Pommerie and take Hwy 209 up to Hwy 30, which would take me into the outskirts of Montréal where I could pick up Hwy 20 east and pick up NB-2 into Edmundston. Well, that went awry when I missed the turn for Hwy 20. Rather than turning around and going back into the Montreal mess, I just continued up Hwy 30 which turns into 132, and then across Hwy 122 to Hwy 20. After that I was back on track and, according to the S&T timeline, I hadn’t lost any time. Road conditions good to excellent all the way.

RV PARK REPORT: EDMUNDSTON CAMPING GROUND RIVER IROQUIOS.
Good Sam Park. No website

The stop at the Iroquois River RV park in Edmundston was an overnighter so there isn’t much to say except it was a nice park right on the river and is a Good Sam park. The only strange thing was that the park didn’t want credit cards or checks, just cash, because the bank/credit card companies charged too much. They did give me a larger discount than the usual Good Sam one. Of course the fact that the park was totally empty may have had something to do with it also.

ROAD REPORT: To get from the western part of NB to the eastern part you have 2 choices; 1 – Go south about 160 km on Hwy 2 to the Capital (Fredericton) and then turn east or, 2- Go east on Hwy 108 to the coast and then south on Hwy 11. I picked the Hwy 108 route. Big Mistake. Highway 108, which is supposed to be a “Highway” and is the only east-west arterial across the mid section of New Brunswick has won my “ Worst Road in Canada” award (so far). It is 84 km of potholes, patches (which stick up as far as the potholes went down), crumbling edges, and heaving pavement! Unlike some of the other bad roads that just shake you to death with the bouncing, this one adds a new factor – tossing you from side to side!! That’s the ‘heaving pavement’, which you can’t see in advance.

STUCK: When I finally got through this mess, I missed a turn and pulled off onto the shoulder to check my map. Bad idea, the shoulder wasn’t as solid as it looked and I slid part way down into a drainage ditch and couldn’t get out. I thought for a minute that the coach was going to roll over onto its side! The people whose house I was in front of called a tow truck for me and 30 minutes (and $40) later I was out and on my way again. These people told me that it happens two or three times a year on that stretch of road and they have been asking for warning signs for years but nothing has been done about it.

Actually, the incident worked out OK, they also showed me a better way to get to Hwy 11 that saved me some time and kept me off the main highway a little longer. It was 118 to 126 to 116, joining 11 at Rexton.

After joining Hwy 11 it was a straight shot to Hwy 15, Hwy16, and the Confederation Bridge but I took a little detour (thanks to S&T) from Hwy 15, across 955 to the bridge. It is a country road along the north side of Cape Tormentine, the mainland terminus of the bridge. Lots of quaint scenery but I wouldn’t recommend it for RV’er, primarily due to the width of the road. I have to remember to check the road maps and not rely totally on S&T!

Prince Edward Island:

How can you drive from Alaska to New Zealand in less than a day and make side trips to the following places; Albany, Alexandra, Arlington, Auburn, Avondale, Baltic, Bangor, Bedford, Belfast, Bristol, Brooklyn, Burlington, Cambridge, Cardigan, Churchill, Cornwall, Derby, Dover, Dundee, French Village, Glengarry, Green Bay, Hampton, Hebron, Kingston, Mount Vernon, New Haven, New London, New Perth, Newport, New Zealand, Norway, Richmond, Saint Andrews, St Lawrence, St Louis, St Nicholas, St Patrick, St Peter and St Paul, St Teresa, Shamrock, Selkirk, Southampton, Springfield, Toronto, Victoria, Waterford, Wellington, White Sands, and York?

Why, go to P.E.I. of course; all of those are names of towns and villages on the island. I’m not implying that the natives are without an imagination when it comes to naming places, but it does seem to show a certain amount of laziness.

This is a very beautiful and friendly island that’s 224 by 64 km. To get there you either drive across the Confederation Bridge (13km) or take a ferry. It’s comprised of wooded rolling hills, farms and small villages, beaches (red or white sand) and harbors, and lots of fishing/lobster/shellfish communities. The island is famous for its lobster, PE Island Blue mussels and Malpeque oysters. For the sports fishers, there is Brook and Rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon and Bluefin tuna fishing. Other than tuna the only other deep-sea fishing is for mackerel and cod, neither which interests me. Of course you can always go dig some clams or quahaugs (their spelling).

It’s also an island of churches of all denominations, almost all with tall spires, most with just one but a couple with 2 and at least one that I saw with 3 spires. In fact the church spires are, at about 12 – 15 meters, the tallest things on the island, even taller than the trees. There is at least one church in every small village, and there are a lot of villages.

There are also 10 Mount ‘something’s’ on an island whose highest point is 152m!

That brings up another puzzling item. The island has lots of lakes and rivers; but no mountain snow pack to support them with water! Can they all be spring fed???

If it wasn’t for the winters, I’d love to live here (if I was going to put roots down).

RV PARK REPORT: Sun-N-Shade Campground. www.sun-n-shade.com

Very nice park just across the Confederation bridge with full hookups. Owners are also musicians ( bluegrass/gospel) and have a clubhouse where they (or some of their musical friends) play just about every night for about 2 hours. Owners put on a hot dog feed on Saturday afternoon, just for the hell of it. I also found out what a “kitchen party” is; that’s where everyone with an instrument (or a good voice) sit around in a big semi-circle and take turns playing and/or singing. Of course everyone else joins in. There was some talented (and some not so talented) people there

Weather Report: Very nice and warm (20 C) the day I arrived but the aftermath of Hurricane Frances moved in for the next day and half. After that it was warm (22 C) and breezy for the weekend followed by another day of 14 C, clouds, and showers. The last 2 days it was partly cloudy, 20-24 C, and a light breeze.

On the first decent day after the rains of Frances passed, I toured the west and north parts of the island. I toured some art galleries in Summerside, and took the coast road up to North Cape.

North Cape sticks out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is the furthest point north on the island and is the home of a wind farm that supplies about 10% of the islands power. It is also the site of the Black March Nature Trail, a “raised” peat bog. Very interesting but no pictures, my big Canon had a dead battery and I forgot I had the Olympus with me until after I completed the hike. I did remember the Olympus in time to get some pictures of the cape and the wind farm though. There is a reef that extends about 2 km from North Cape out into the Gulf. It is accessible to hikers only at low tide; unfortunately I was there at high tide. There were some lobster buyers boats anchored off shore that were kept busy by the local lobstermen the whole time I was there. There was also a Coast Guard boat watching the whole operation. Come to find out, the reef is the dividing line between the open and closed areas (they alternate the open and closed areas twice a year). The buyers’ boats were actually in the closed area but that was the calm side of the reef.

Lunch at North Cape : The Seafood Cold Plate; Shrimp, PEI crab and lobster, on a Caesar salad bed with potato salad and coleslaw and a fresh dinner roll is excellent. They’re coffee is excellent also. The cheesecake with fresh strawberry topping was good but not much different than anyplace else.

Next I toured the northeastern part of the island. This is the location of the islands only National Park, Greenwich, which is actually broken up into two sections, east and west. I covered the east section this day. The park area is made up of bays of all sizes, dunes, pink and red sand beaches, small lakes and marshes. It is very well cared for with boardwalks on the trails where the ecosystem might be damaged, large public areas with plenty of parking, clean restrooms, showers, changing rooms, and snack bars at the major beach accesses. Of course all of these were closed (except for the restrooms) when I was there. I’m not sure if it was because of an ongoing parks employees strike or just because, since Labor Day has passed, the season is over. Either way I didn’t need my annual National Parks pass to get in at any of them, the gates were open and the booths were boarded up.

Lunch at Shipwreck Point: If you see P.E.I fish cakes, baked beans and “chow” on a menu, do yourself a favor and pass it up. The fish cakes are made with salted cod and are totally without flavor. That’s where the “chow” comes in; it’s a type of green tomato chutney that you can smear on the cakes to make them palatable, and by itself is delicious and shouldn’t be wasted on something as blah as the fish cakes. The beans are also very good, big pieces of bacon and a slight hickory smoke flavor. If I could, I’d add some fresh Bermuda or Walla-Walla Sweet onion as a topping, but that’s just me.

My travels through the north-central part of the island included the Anne of Green Gables historical site, lots of little villages and bays, and the other half of the national park.

Lunch at North Rustico Pier: Lunch was a cup of seafood chowder, followed by a trip to the salad bar and culminating with a monstrous seafood plate that included; a lobster, steamed mussels, breaded scallops, clams, oysters, & shrimp, an Atlantic salmon steak, and a breaded cod fillet. The lobster was an unexpected disappointment with weak flavor, not the rich flavor I’m used to. As to the Atlantic salmon, what can I say; it’s Atlantic salmon, which doesn’t have the taste of the Pacific variety. The breaded cod was the same as what you get from the frozen food section of your local supermarket. In fact this is where the supermarket stuff comes from. Or used to, the cod fishery has been closed for 2 years, according to a local commercial boat owner I talked to. Everything else was outstanding and I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!! I’m going to stock up my freezer with some oysters and scallops and maybe some lobster tails before I leave. I’ll pass on the cod, mackerel, and salmon. I don’t think you can freeze mussels, but I’ll check.

The surprising thing about this area is the cost of lobster in restaurants; the prices are about the same as on the west coast of Canada, a lobster dinner starts at around $18-20. My Deluxe Seafood plate cost $30.

While here, I caught a commercial on the TV for the “Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival” in Fredricton, NB (the Capital of NB). It has 150+ performances, 20+ venues located in a 5 city block area, and lasting 5 days, so I checked around and found an RV park with a vacancy about 20 km from downtown. So that’s my next stop. Some of the shows are already sold out but there is still a lot that aren’t, plus there’s a whole list of free shows. The weather may be a factor, some of the venues are outside and the remnants of Hurricane Ivan are expected late in the weekend.

It looks like I may not make Cape Breton Island this trip. I still plan on stopping at Truro, NS for the Tidal Bore and spend some time in Halifax before returning to the US and heading south. It just depends on the weather.

Confederation Bridge