This Paul Bunyan statue was in a small park in front of the civic center just off Main Street in Bangor.
We left Bangor, ME headed down Alt. US 1 to Ellsworth not realizing it was under major reconstruction from the roadbed being regraded to complete realignment with repaving. This was for miles and miles. after lunch we continued on to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.
This park was not what we expected: the major scenic twenty-seven mile route was inaccessible because of low height restrictions where the road went under overpasses. Clearly the founders and designers of this park in the early 1900s got exactly what they wanted: no auto traffic. the route is also a one-way ten-foot wide road. We ended up taking the less scenic route following Rt. 3 then returning to Ellsworth thinking we would go north on Alt. US 1 to Calais to cross into Canada.
I attempted to use the new GPS to get us on that route and on our way. It took us almost all the way back to Bangor through all that construction and off onto a short cut to Rt 9 into Calais where we did cross over into Canada. We were instructed to pull over to a covered multilaned area for a search by an inspector.....the RV would not go under it and after the search we had to back out. We continued on to St. Stephens where the GPS instructed us to go around a route that was not showing up on the screen and we found ourselves at a tiny crossing back into the US. About 15 minutes later we had returned to the Calais crossing and got back into Canada and told to turn the GPS off and to stay on that highway to get to Saint John.
We found the Reversing Falls viewing site without a problem as it was well signed. When the tide rolls in, it creates whirlpools and causes the 'falls' to appear to reverse going up river.
Getting back on the road going in the right direction was a biggie! The signs are confusing and took us through downtown crossing over the route we wanted but without on ramps. We took the one we thought would get us on only to find out we were going back southwest. The next exit then carried us way, way down a road without any place to turn around. Finally we were able to see up on the on ramp enough that we could take a left turn and get back on that road and return to Saint John going northeast and Hopewell Rocks.
We traveled to New River Provincial Park to get a camp site for the night. The next day we traveled through Fundy National Park to get to Alma and Hopewell Rocks. We were way too late to get on the beach for low tide but I decided to stroll down to the viewing area just to take a look and some photos at high tide. The steel staircase was about 8 levels down to the ramp onto the beach. By the time I climbed back up, I was so winded I had to take the shuttle up to the parking lot. We decided to return the next day for the low tide event.
Stopping in Alma, we bought a lobster for Frank and a half pound of scallops for me at the Lobster Shack. It was really, really good. I couldn't finish that many scallops so Frank ate a couple.
Our campsite that night was in the only open campground in the National Park not far from Alma, one pump gas station/quick stop. We think the entry pass and campsite of $48 CA is way too much when the provincial park campsite was $22 CA.
We got to Hopewell Rocks just as it opened and walked down to the beach. (photos to be posted later!)
Leaving Hopewell Rocks, and using the GPS, I tried to locate either a RBC or Scotia Bank ATM without success. We got turned around in Moncton, then were able to get onto the correct route to Sackville where both banks had ATMs. Then we were back on the road to Truro, NS, to visit the Glooscap Heritage Centre that closed before we got there so we went on down the road to a private campground where we could not get leveled up as much as we would have liked. So far the weather has been clear but it certainly is cold: down in the 40's at night and only about 65 in the day.
We decided to remove Newfoundland from this trip as that would eliminate a little over a 1,000 miles and a week of time plus it's taking longer to get from one point to another and the price of gas here in Canada is at least $1 more than in the States. Plus taking these side roads is also eating into the mpg.
