ON THE ROAD

Yesterday was a long day. Here is what I can remember of it:

Arose at the Delta hotel in downtown St. John NB. Downtown
isn't much, a few busy streets and a deep harbor plus outlying
neighborhoods and vast ship repair and heavy works. A recent
blog mentions the refinery on the hill.

Getting on the road to Fredericton was easy and the way
quickly turned into a long stretch bordered by pine woods
and moose warnings. The road was high and surprisingly
hilly above the woods and swampy patches. Vistas opened,
some for miles. It was a gray day and that made driving a
little easier. 90K with me gawking.

Just before Fredericton, I took an interstate West. This is
the trans-Canada and I could stay on it all the way to
Vancouver. Again, a high road with evergreen woods.
West, OK, but too far North and I wanted to cross into
Maine. I stopped for directions at a gas station off the
highway. This would be the way it would go for the next
14 hours.

A couple of things here: my cell phone GPS doesn't work
in Canada. There is no cell phone service in remote areas,
anyway. I thought I had a map of NB but it is only a map of St. John area. Try reading a map when you're doing 65. I have
a good map of Maine but I could barely read it and it didn't spill over much into Canada. Advice for next time: map out the route carefully. Do not think dead reckoning will get me there.
Do not try to be such a smarty pants.

The gas station ladies between them decided how I should
go. I got off the Trans Canada and headed roughly southwest
toward Harvey, a town on a blue highway. This rough road,
not nearly as bad as the ladies said, goes through miles of
evergreen and through tiny settlements of mobile homes
and ruined houses with little sign of human activity. At Harvey,
I thought I was near the border, but no. I went on to MacAdam
and then to the crossing at St. Croix.

No problem with US customs. The officer asked questions
about how long, any live plants, liquor, purpose of trip,
where I live, etc. and looked in the trunk. Then I was on
my way, surprisingly happy to be back in the US and on
Route 6, all the way to Bangor, 193 miles from Fredericton.
I like the back roads. I enjoy being the only car in sight although
this can change at night as I was to discover.

I cancelled hotel reservations in Bangor because it was only
11 AM. NB time is an hour ahead, so this was a travel bonus.
It had started to rain and I wondered if I could possibly make it
all the way home to Burlington. Give it a try? I pulled out of
the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot. I tried to stop every two hours
and never let the gas tank get below half.

I wanted Route 2 West which I would take forever, all the
way to Montpelier. I plugged in the GPS lady and she sent
me onto I95 where I absolutely did not want to be. I finally
overrode her, got off at Route 69W, again going by my
own GPS which had failed completely more than once.

Route 2 winds up and down through sleepy towns speed
limit 35. Rain hard at times. I stopped at a little gas
station -- two pumps: one diesel, one regular ($3.09) where
hunters were gathered after coming out of the woods. It is moose season but I didn't notice they had any luck. Got a coke for the caffeine and a delicious sandwich for the road. I went along
enjoying the scenery and the varying road conditions. Still
raining although not too hard.

Went through Skowhegan, Rumford and Bethel and finally
entered New Hampshire. Maine is a fat state and Route 2
went on and on. Rain. Now I was in the White Mountain National Park and the afternoon was getting on. Thank goodness I could
see the most spectacular scenery of the entire trip, except for Acadia National Park. I was deep in the mountains and the road wound through river valleys and on up and over. There is still a little fall color to add to the bliss.

As I entered Vermont, the light was failing but there was
still enough to see where I was going and to read the signs.
I stopped in St. Johnsbury as it got dark. For years, I have not driven strange roads in the dark and worried I was making a big
mistake. I wasn't tired but I was stiff and going along at about
45 with a string of cars behind me, lighting the way a bit with
and traffic coming toward me, bright lights and all, the road
shining in the wet. I got used to it slowly and was sorry I couldn't see anything out there except the white line along the right side of the road. Rain. Windshield wipers on slow, plus the one on the back window.

Entering Montpelier and finding signs to I89 was a terrific
relief. Even if I had wanted to stop for the night, there was no
way. Now I knew I'd make it home. Piece of cake after
all that. 290+ miles Bangor to Burlington.

OFF TO THE BAY OF FUNDY

Sunday morning in Bar Harbor, Maine, waiting for a B&B breakfast and looking again at the map. This is a kind of staging area before I push off into Canada to see/find/experience the
tides in the Bay of Fundy.

For the first time in more than 50 years, I am footloose. No
ailing parents, no child, no husband, no dog and no reason not to get up from the end of the couch and see something of this
great, amazing country.

The drive from Bar Harbor to St. John via Calais (pronounced
"Callis") ME was longer than I thought, mainly on blue highways.
The land is full of ups and downs and the most glorious Fall
landscapes made firey red by low bush blueberries. Whole
hillsides were aflame with an evergreen backdrop.

It is still hilly across the border. I was not sent right through
by Canadian immigration and they opened my car and looked
inside while I waited in a small building. I crossed at a backroad
and was scolded by the (gorgeous) officer because I had gone through a stop sign. Canadian stop signs are smaller than ours.

It is a little unnerving to drive where the miles are in kilometers
and the signs are all bi-lingual. Everything seems to be just
slightly different and I find that adds to the uneasiness. My
usual stellar sense of direction failed me more than once and
I backtracked, turned, caused hazard to other drivers, etc.

This is an industrial city although the scale is small. It is on
a deep harbor and the port activities (containers, a gigantic
cruise ship, derricks, cranes, all kinds of shipping) are
right down town. From my hotel window I see the ship and I
can see the containers piled up on the other side of the harbor.

A major refinery is on the outskirts with a tank farm flanking
the hills. Ships were built here although probably not much any
more. Plenty of wood not far away. There has been
a recent renaissance in the city center or downtown. A food
hall seems to attract crowds but it is not at all comparable
to our farmers' markets or the big food halls elsewhere.

The population is mixed with plenty of recent immigrants.
Public housing is evident as is everything else. There are
lots of blue collar jobs and many "For Sale" signs on
houses, whatever that signifies. Oh, and don't confuse St. John
New Brunswick with St. John's Nova Scotia. They are about
120 miles apart.

This hotel adjoins a large indoor shopping center with the
Canadian version of various store chains we know. There is
a MacDonald's. The main atrium and all available seating are
taken up with young people, mostly black, using free internet
access, hanging out in the late afternoon. This is mall
activity new to me. 

This morning I went to see the "Reversing Rapids" and had an
awful time finding the spot. Driving in fast moving city
traffic to places I've never been is hair raising. The tide
(High: 10:45 am) flows up over the falls and rapids and
then during the ebb, flows back out to the sea. It is interesting
but not especially thrilling.  A bridge for trains and autos
goes over the rapids.

I drove about 60km east to St. Martin's, another tide spot
where there are caves that fill and empty with the enormous
tide changes. When I arrived (sunny and not so windy) the
caves were about half full of water. When the tide is low,
you can walk into them. The area around St. Martin's
is poor and trailers are the thing. It is pretty but the road
is bad  and the poverty obvious. Nothing exotic or
fascinating about that. The gift shop dealers were expecting
3 busloads of tourists from the cruise ship.

Then I came back to St. John on a byway and ran into
detours due to road repair. Once again, I just kept trying
until streets looked familiar. I put the car in the hotel
garage ($20 per day, not so bad) and went for a walk.

In the food court again, I bought two corn muffins and
an inferior ice cream cone. We are spoiled by our local
stuff which costs the same as this. I think everything is
so expensive but I'm behind the times.  

I'm not sorry I made the trip although am pleased to be
leaving tomorrow. Rain is on the way and I see how this
tide thing works. It is not as fascinating as the Panama
Canal, but it is the kind of ebb and flow you see there.

I think there may be such a thing as the Fundy of the Mind.