We packed up and left the campground at 9:15, Skies were cloudy, but there was no fog over land this morning. There was a thin fog bank over the water and the air temp was 70 degrees. We drove the last 25 miles to the border and reached the border station for customs at Calais, ME.
We arrived at the border at 9:50 and took a spot at the back of the line of 15 cars.
We moved through the line slowly and reached the final checkpoint at 10:00. The agent asked us a lot of questions, stamped our passports, and told us to pull ahead, park, and take our yellow paper inside the building. Bob was only inside for about 5 minutes when he came out to the parking lot, got 2 bottles of rum out of the trailer, and walked back inside. As I waited in the car, I wondered what that was all about. Three other cars pulled up into the same area and had to go inside as well. They came out before Bob and drove off. I found out from Bob later that we were 2 bottles of rum over the limit, so the border agent worked with Bob to figure out the cheapest way to keep the rum. It was cheaper to pay duty on it than to give it to them and buy more in Canada. So that’s what we did. It cost us $85. Bob called it “our admission fee to Canada”. All that worrying about documentation for the dog, my medication, vehicle registration, car insurance, and food was for naught. They never asked. They are much too lenient in Canada. They let US in, didn’t they? After finishing customs, we were finally in New Brunswick.
As we drove along, we had to remember that mileage is in kilometers and not miles and the temperature was in Celsius, not Fahrenheit.
We are also in the Atlantic time zone which puts us an hour ahead. (We didn’t know there was one.) All the signs on the road are also in French. Too bad those years in high school French class didn’t pay off for either of us, but we might learn a few words just reading the signs. We got back on East Coast Highway 1 to St. John. It was a brand new highway and we were pretty much by ourselves on the road.
They moose-proofed the highway with a tall wire fence along the edge. We hit a fog patch in a low section that crossed the St. Croix River, but then it was gone.
When the Interstate ended, we were still on Highway 1 where we were more apt to see moose, except for the fog that we passed through every now and then. The temperature kept dropping as we went up and over the higher elevations.
We had to drive into downtown St. John to get to our campground. St. John is at the mouth of the St. John River on the Bay of Fundy, one of the most active seaports on the Atlantic Coast. We kept thinking we were going the wrong way until we were directed by the GPS to go into Rockwood Park.
The campground was located on the top of a hill in the park and has sites both in the woods and on the flats. Our trip today was 98 beautiful miles.
Rockwood Park is 2, 150 acres and offers a wide range of outdoor recreational activities. We located our campsite #63 and set up camp at 1:15.
It was still cloudy and cooler as the fog rolled in, off and on. We settled in and I worked on my blog. We finally got access to some fast Internet. Bob put my bike together and I was off for a ride around the campground and the nearby Lily Lake.
The Lily Lake trail is 1.1 miles long and encircles the lake itself. The path is nicely groomed and fairly easy.
I stopped on the bridge that crosses the valley along the trail. It had a great view of the lake and pavilion.
At the pavilion, there is a swimming beach and kayak rental. Believe it or not, there were kids swimming in the water! Bob said they must be a hearty bunch!
Campers continued to arrive all afternoon. When I arrived back at the trailer, I did some reading and Bob worked on the Internet. He and Auggie had taken a walk around the campground and up to the overlook for a view of the city and seaport. It was still pretty foggy.
It remained pretty grey and cloudy all day. We got a short rain shower before dinner, but it didn’t rain very hard. Bob cooked chicken on the grill and we had a nice evening at the campground. Tomorrow we will go into St. John and explore more of the area.
Have you checked out the reversing falls? Very weird!! (Mike’s dad was born in St. John.) Don’t forget to pick up Labatt’s blue at the duty free store on the way back! Have fun and safe travels.