Day 12 - Canada

We switched rooms last night at the Stage Coach Inn. Tonight we had a suite. It was very lovely and roomy. We had a large entry room, bathroom, bedroom, and a comfortable sitting room. We had another yummy breakfast and headed out of town.

We stopped at a Native American museum. The Wabanaki Indians are well known basket weavers. I talked Jon into two small baskets. They were very costly, over $300. Jon’s only comment was that he was sure we’d find similar knock off baskets down the road for $5.99. I get the baskets and he gets a new lens for his camera, I think I see another basket in my future.

On the way to Canada, we came across an unusual sight. It was a blueberry stand that looked like a blueberry patch. It had all kinds of blueberry products. I had never heard of blueberry vinegar, but it is made. There were many types of Maine and blueberry tourist stuff. We bought the Escape and Garmie a present.







Today was a day mostly spent driving. After a brutal interrogation at the Canadian border, the Canadians finally relented and let us pass. We had planned on taking the Fundy Scenic Trail, it is hyped to be one of the most beautiful drives in New Brunswick. Only a small portion of the drive was scenic, most of the drive was scrub pine and hillbilly homes. The highlight was stopping to climb up a lighthouse and see a couple of covered bridges.





The girls at the information stop told us to drive through Sussex to get to Alma, our destination for the night. Garmie kept on telling us to make several turns which we ignored at first, but she got very insistent that we turn, so we did. The first mile of the road was paved, but then turned to dirt. We didn’t pay much attention as we encountered this earlier. We could cruise right along, but soon the road deteriorated and we quickly had to slow down to a crawl as we had to try to avoid deep ruts and small boulders in the road. Jon tried to cajole me by pointing out the scenic beauty surrounding us and sometimes scraping against us, but to no avail. It turned out to a 22 mile long path through hell. We have now learned an important lesson from Garmie, she doesn’t distinguish between road surfaces! The suspension of Jon’s car got an hour long workout.

We arrived at the Parkland Hotel in Alma, NB just before dark. The hotel is right next to a wharf. All of the fishing boats were just sitting in the mud. The boats can only get into and out of the harbor during high tide.