Day 14 - Back to the USA

We had decided to make a last minute addition to the trip. We were close to Campobello Island. In fact, we had passed by the exit two days before. We wanted to see FDR’s summer retreat and the East Quoddy lighthouse. We had a 6.5 hour drive to get to our dinner reservations. This created a tight schedule, but we felt we could do it.

Garmie got us close. She was only off by 0.2 miles. We were the first people in the door at FDR’s summer retreat. There was a guide in each of the main rooms. They talked a little about FDR’s life and what he and his family did in these rooms. Most of the homes we had toured on this trip did not have their original furnishings. They were either sold or willed to the descendants. All but four furnishings are original. The owner after FDR had bought most of the furniture at sales and returned them to the cottage. He gave the property to both the Canadian and US governments when he could not sell it. They now both administer the property.







The East Quoddy lighthouse was at the far tip of the island. We really knew nothing about it except that it was the most photographed lighthouse in New Brunswick. We were informed that we had to be back from the lighthouse in three hours. We were not sure why we had the time constraint until we started on the path. Only at low tide, you can walk to the lighthouse. We had to do a lot of hiking in between three sets of stairs. It was a good thing I had brought my hiking flops!







After a search of our car, we were let back into the US of A. We had a long hard drive through the Main countryside to get to New Hampshire. On any trip in rural New York or Pennsylvania you will see houses with one or two junk cars sitting in the yard. Here you see one or two junk fishing boats in the yard.

On the way to North Conway, NH, we encountered our first rain storm. It thundered and lightning for about half an hour. We were afraid that it would rain all night and ruin our evening plans, but it didn’t last long. By the time we got into town, you could not really tell it rained. The Escape was happy to get the bath. It still had the dust from the off-roading experience in New Brunswick.

It was a big change to go from the relatively flat sea coast into the mountains. We were used to seeing boats on both sea and land. We now cars up on blocks instead of fishing boats!

Our goal was to get to the Conway Scenic Railway to catch a dinner train. We made it with a few minutes to spare. I took a quick tour to grab some pictures before the train departed. We had a good dinner. I was afraid I was going to be sober at dinner when she started to rattle off the beer selection. Her last selection was Sam Adams. It made me happy.