Mid-Trip Musings

I can’t believe we’re half-way there. No, I’m not “trunky,” but there are things I miss about being home—family most of all, and friends next. Other things I miss: A real tub bath. Chocolate covered acai berries. I miss my dishwasher.  An oven—we do have one, but it uses too much propane, and burns hot. My house. I thought I would miss Mexican food, but now we can get salsa, tortillas and such all across the country and even in Canada, but the tortillas in Canada look more like wraps or thin pita bread. I miss being able to write every day. Did I mention my dishwasher? I miss watching the local news. San Diego County weather. We’ve had more than our share of cold weather, but it finally started warming up June 12th , then it  cooled off again. June 29, when we entered the US again, that changed drastically—from low to mid 60’s to mid 90’s.
Random things I’ve learned: People don’t have regional accents any more, very few anyway. I could count on one hand the people I heard with southern accents, New York accents, Texan accents, or accents for any of the other places we’ve been. I can survive without the Food Network, TLC, Discovery Channel, and such. We do have TV when we can get satellite, but we don’t watch that much.  I can make a bed while on top of it ... with only 20 inches above me (we have a cab-over bed). It isn’t that inconvenient to take the cereal out of the cupboard so I can get to the canned goods then take those out one by one until I find the one I want, or pull out all of the spices until I find the one I need. (I can’t see what’s in that shelf without doing gymnastics.) No need to get perturbed when one of us makes a wrong turn or gives the wrong directions—the other one will do it next. Our GPS device is right 98% of the time, but we have to watch out for that 2% like the time it tried tirelessly to get us to the ferry landing for Campobello Island until we finally got close to the road the bridge we wanted go over on was, or the time it was about 10 miles off and we missed our campground (it gave the wrong side of the road also). Still, our instincts get us into trouble more often than not when we disobey it. I’m a tough old bird now. When I was young if there was one mosquito within 3 miles, it would find me. Now I hardly ever get bitten even though they eat Dan alive.
I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I love every minute of it even the difficulties make the rest even better, but I don’t want to live on the road all the time like some seniors do. The best part of any trip is getting home, but I’m NOT ready to do that yet. There are too many adventures ahead of us, and too many temples to attend.
I’m amazed as I think of all of the things we’ve already seen and done. Who would have thought that a boy growing up in the barrios of San Bernardino, and a girl from a broken home whose mother, with only an 8th grade education, cleaned houses and babysat to raise her would ever be able to see and do these things?
Heavenly Father truly has blessed us. I won’t even start on His tender mercies because they would take up more room than I have here. Attending church each week brings a sense of stability as well as being able to partake of the sacrament and being uplifted by inspiring talks and lessons. The most important thing we’re doing is attending the temples.

Leaving Quibec, Entering USA (Vermomt)

Monday: Today we went to the woodcarving capital of the world in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli and visited the museum.  There were woodcarvings by craftsman from the early 1800’s up through today with Harry Potter included. They carved several of Norman Rockwell’s paintings.

Next we wound our way to waterfalls in Parc des Chutes d’Armagh. They were lovely, but they use them to make electricity, so they have buildings and ironworks around them. The hike was also beautiful, and the rapids further up the river were delightful. We had to shorten our hike due to rain.

Tuesday: More rain today. It was foggy and rainy all morning until we got near some other, larger and more majestic falls near Sainte Anne de Beaupre. It was still cloudy and quite chilly, but the falls were worth it. We walked across the suspension bridge over the falls. The last picture is the staircase we had to climb to get to it. It started raining again when we got near our campground, and hasn’t stopped as we get ready for bed.

Wednesday: It rained hard until 2:00 today. I’m thankful I have counted cross stitch, and that we’re in our campground in Roxton Falls, Quebec so we have electricity and I can write. At least I had something to do.  We did get to walk along the river next to the campground in the late afternoon.

Thursday: Another slow day without much to do. The best part was attending the Montreal temple. There is a lot to do in downtown Montreal, but NOT with a 22 foot RV, so we spent another day resting up. There are pluses and minuses of having a smaller RV and no backup transportation, but for us, the pluses outweigh the minuses. We do miss some things like downtown Quebec and Montreal, but we don’t have to worry about towing anything, can park in most parking lots and only take up one space. I don’t know how Dan does it, but he parks between the lines with about half an inch to spare on each side. We do hang out a little beyond the end of the lines, but where the aisles are normal sized we do just fine IF we're there before the lots are packed with cars. There are more pluses and minuses, but I won’t bore you by listing them here.  Bottom line, we like our little 22 foot RV.

Friday: USA!!! It’s fun to visit another country, but I love coming back to my own country. We walked along the river and downtown Burlington, VT. It was a picturesque town, and walking along water of any kind is always soothing and beautiful.

Saturday: We visited Shelburne Farms near Burlington. It was a comparatively easy hike with some uphill climbing, but on a smooth path. The farm has the biggest, most decorative barn in the country.  How many barns have you seen with a decorative metal roof? Yes, there were animals in the left hand side of the barn. The rest contained a wood workshop, cheese-making factory, and bakery. The farm has 1,400 acres and is a non-profit environmental educational organization as well as a working farm. It was planned with an artist so there would be picturesque areas of forest, fields, and naturally the river. The building pictured below is the barn.

Leaving New Brunswick-Entering Quebec

Monday: World’s largest axe. No, it doesn’t belong to Paul Bunyan of American folk tales. They haven’t heard of him here in Canada. It’s the symbol of the city Nackawic, New Brunswick to honor the early loggers due to the importance of the logging industry to the founding of Canada. It was a leisurely 2 kilometer stroll with (the round trip being 4 k). Notice the grass path. Yes it was like that most of the way except in the forested area. In the afternoon, we took another 4-5 kilometer walk through another beautiful forest along the banks of a river.

Tuesday: Two more peaceful walks (too easy to call them hikes), one in the morning, and another in the afternoon. The morning walk was in the Meduxnekeog Valley Nature Preserve.  After driving to Florenceville, we walked through the woods on the Shiktehawk trail. I’ll never get tired of trees and water. We also saw the world’s longest covered bridge, 1,282 feet. Our RV made it through with a few inches to spare, but I still found myself ducking. Tonight we are in Clearview, New Brunswick.

 

 

Wednesday: The falls at Grand Falls, NB was a disappointment at first. They are damming up the water for repairs. However, after lunch and a nap, they opened the floodgate, and water started pouring in. We also walked along the gorge.  Majestic.  It was a fairly long walk, but nothing strenuous.  After a few easy days, I’m good to go on a more difficult hike, but there aren’t any in this area.

Thursday: A day to kick back. We took a leisurely walk along the river in Grand Falls then drove less than an hour to our next gorgeous campground. We’re going slowly because the Palmyra Pageant doesn’t start until July 13th.

Friday: Last day in New Brunswick! We had a nice walk around Edmundston then went to the Maple Leaf Queen’s Buffet. It was mostly Chinese food, and just as tasty as the sister that recommended it last Sunday said. It was a lovely day when we went for our walk this morning, almost too hot, but it sure felt good after all of the cold weather we’ve had. While we were eating at the buffet, the sky faucet turned on—real pouring rain just like Thailand. It rained like that last night also, but the morning was delightful. I love hearing the rain when I’m in a cozy place, I even like going out in it when it’s warm. Not good for hiking, though.

Saturday: Quebec! The province, not the city. More rain, so we didn’t get to go to the gardens near our campground. Today we’re in St. Fabien. It’s a charming rural community.

Sunday: We visited a French speaking branch. I did better with my French than I thought I would, I even bore my testimony part in French. It was a beautiful drive.

More New Brunswick Canada

Monday: It was rather slow day except for our 3 hour walk from Shediac, New Brunswick to Point de Chien Warf and back. The warf didn’t exactly live up to the brochure. It was sort of interesting, but small not much to do. The stores were closed, and so were most of the restaurants. The walk on the biking/walking trail was lovely; I never get tired of seeing trees. The high point was a lobster dinner in the “lobster capital of the world.” I liked the world’s largest lobster too. If I were ever in a position to highlight a city or business, I’d have the world’s largest something or the other made to draw people to whatever it would be.

Tuesday: We walked along an isthmus of sand dunes in Bouctouche, New Brunswick. The pictures tell the story. It was an easy walk, but we didn’t go the whole 8 kilometers. Some of the boardwalk has been destroyed by storms. It's too expensive to keep re-building it. I like walking along the sand anyway.

Wednesday: Today we went on a 7-8 mile hike in a lovely forest along the banks of the Kouchibouguac River in the Kouchibouguac National Forest. Please don’t ask me to pronounce it when we get home; I can’t even pronounce it now.

Thursday: More of Kouchibouguac then on to Baie Sainte Anne, NB.

Friday: Traveled to Miramichi, New Brunswick. We started out on an easy hike which led to a moderate one like we planned. Due to the lack of signs, we ended up on the difficult trail for awhile. It wasn’t too bad but it was steep both up and down in places. Thankfully, we found a second bridge back across the babbling stream to the moderate, then easy hike. We needed the exercise anyway. The scenery was superb when we could glance up. There were rocks and roots all along the path. The stream made it worth the trip.

Saturday: Mostly a travel day to Hawkshaw, NB. We saw a covered bridge along the way. We went for a walk along the river. Much easier than the hike we went on yesterday. The flowers are wild roses! The last few days have been warm. Notice no more jackets!

Sunday: We didn’t take any pictures, but we went to the branch in Houlton, Maine even though our campground is in Hawkshaw, New Brunswick. I used to wonder if the church ever had wards or branches that cover more than one country. They do. The people were very welcoming. It’s interesting to visit so many different wards and branches. It’s so uplifting to feel the spirit of the saints no matter where we go. Some are more cordial than others, most introduce us in Relief Society and Priesthood, but more often than not they forget in Sunday School. Everywhere the spirit is the same. Just like people, some are more reserved rather than out-going, but that doesn't mean they aren't glad we're visiting. This ward was as friendly as can be.