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.