Our 2018 Canadian Maritimes Trip

Today we got an early start and drove all the way to central Massachusetts. We stopped at Freeport, ME for about 2 hours to go to the LL Bean outlet store, then back on the road. We arrived at our campground about 5:00pm. We have electricity, water and sewer here, so were able to replenish our expendables, do laundry, get showers and dump tanks. Today we're planning to drive to someplace TBD north of Scranton where we'll spend the night, returning home on Saturday.

We had a decision to make; whether to do another epic day of driving to see the East side of the island or pull up stakes and start heading home. We decided to do the latter, giving ourselves 7 days to leisurely make our way through the 1500 miles of adventures waiting to be found on the way back. We're returning via the Confederation Bridge to New Brunswick, the worlds longest bridge over waters that freeze, Pictures coming......

Today we drove the Western coastal loop. Our route today is the left part of the island. It's about a 150 mile loop One of several lighthouses we passed on the way These are everywhere up here PEI gets almost 90% of ots power from wind You can't appreciate the immensity until you get up close like this. Houses right on the sea coast are very common This is an example of what I call "Lancaster County by the sea". The farms go right to the sea edge. Wind power information canter and restaurant. We ate here. This is in the Wind Center's backyard Nice view for our late lunch A hub from a wind turbine A blade from a wind turbine

We're camped for the next couple daya in Prince Edward Island National Park in Cavendish on the Northern end of the island. We're very near the sea. Beautiful park with densely wooded pull-through site w/water, electric & sewer hookups, all for $22 Canadian per nite. Only downside is there's no satellite reception here. Today we drove around the Eastern coastal area. Not all of it, because there's too much to drive in one day. We toured the Green Gables house, which is right next door to our park. Note that Anne of Green Gables was a work of fiction, so there is no real house. This was a place the author spent a lot of time in as a child and it inspired the books. We stopped for a late lunch at a nice local restaurant where Barb got Lobster & Penne while I had fish & chips. Both were very ample and very good. We stopped to see a couple lighthouses along the way.

Today we got another ferry ride, this one about 1.5 hours from Caribou, NS to Woods Island, PEI. The drill was pretty much the same as the last ride. The Caribou, NS ferry terminal This is a ferry, but not ours. Ours will be in port in several minutes Queued up for loading Our ship with cargo hold open. There are 3 levels of parking inside. Loading begins... We're about 6" from the truck infront of us and only a few inches clearance for side mirrors. We drove about 40 minutes from the PEI ferry terminal to a WalMart in Charlottetown, PEI. We'll overnight here, then up to the PEI National Park on the North coast. At least that's the present plan; anything could change at any time.

The ferry to PEI is located about a 3 hour drive down to Caribou, NS. This route is part of the Cabot Trail and the roads are very rutted, potholed and nasty for large sections. We arrived at our night camp at the WalMart in New Glasgow, about a 20 minute ride from the ferry terminal. We bought some fuel for the MH, then went into the WalMart and bought some needed groceries, then off to find the ferry terminal so we know the route tomorrow, then to a liquor store. Liquor here is sold by state stores like in PA, but the prices are 50-100% higher...ouch! We returned to the MH and tried to get a satellite feed, but the signal this far north is weak and our dish was looking into a grove of trees, so we couldn't get it. We opened some of our expensive wine and liquor and made dinner. Tomorrow we'll take the 11:15 ferry if all goes well. We have to be there an hour before departure. We're told you don't pay on your way into PEI, only when you leave. Since we'll...

Today we got a late start, not leaving for our drive until about 1:30pm. We drove the whole Nprthern part of the National Park on the Cabot Trail, then returned the way we came....there's no other way back. The scenery is breathtaking with a new vista at every turn.