Jun 25, 2010 - Home, Home on the Reach

Well ,We’re back. Yes we have been home for a month and our travels seem like a dream. We have been busy starting up our lives again. Paying bills, buying cars, planting gardens and all that jazz. We both have looked at each other with longing in our eyes of when can we go again. Its really beautiful and we are happy to be here but after that many months we get the heebee geebees to see what’s around the next bend in the road. We have learned so much about this remarkable world we live in but most of all we have learned about ourselves...

Jun 10, 2010 - A Walk Around St. John, NB

Today we started out late, parked downtown and just spent the day strolling around historic St. John. We visited Market Square, an updated farmers market housing all the usual shops as well as produce in an old ship building buiding that dates from the 1800's and found the unusual 12 hour colock that shows the time by having a coiled serpent's tail point to the numerals. We admired the old buildings and stone carving dating from after the 1877 big fire on Prince William and Germaine Streets, and lunched along the way on soup and dessert at...

Jun 9, 2010 - St. Johns, NB

We spent a lovely morning strolling through Kingsbrae Garden again, covering it thoroughly, then walking along the historic streets of St Andrew. We lunched on the most wonderful seafood chowder in a small shop on Main Street before heading down the road toward St John. On the way we diverted on small roads to find a lighthouse, (hardly worth the trouble) and another to find a tea shop, which we never did find, but saw some pretty coast abd a lot of forest. We're spending a couple of nights here in St John before going on up the coast. We...

Jun 4, 2010 - Saint John, New Brunswick

6/4 – 6/6 It took us three days to travel 420 miles through Maine to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada (I 93, US3, US2, I 95, I 365, SR9, US1, PH1). On the first day we made a stop at Christies Maple Farm. We learned how they grade maple syrup: Grade A for maple syrup and Grade B for cooking syrup. Within Grade A there are three variations going from mild to strong (light amber, medium amber and dark amber). We also learned that each sugar maple tree supplies about 11-12 gallons of sap a season which produces one quart of syrup. We bought a...

May 21, 2010 - The Closing of the Loop

We closed the loop at the Westfield ferry 20 km from home, at 10:00AST after 8 months, 1 week (233 days) of travel in a westerly direction. When we head out again on Sept. 15th we are going to do it in an easterly direction, just kidding (maybe). Nickie and I are going to get Compass Rose tattoos on our bums to commemorate, just kidding(or not). Happy to be home, we can safely say we are blessed to live in such a great place (Long Reach, Canada).

May 20, 2010 - St John, NB

Watched falls from Falls View Park for outgoing tide. Drove to Irving Nature Park for marsh boardwalk. Found New Brunswick Museum Drove to Fundy National Park. Gampgound opens tonight, but electric is on and on honor system. Adirondak black files found Fundy Nat’l Park. Clouds have gone and sun is now out. Trip Miles 695 Diesel fill at Alma, NB $106 / liter 15.09 mpg (with some generator for microwave.

May 19, 2010 - St John, NB

Weather – hazy in morning, Maine forecast for some rain, still get Maine Public Radio. Bought ferry tickets for 11:30 ferry - $87.40. Walked wharf. Ron got WIFI and omelet at Sailor’s Landing. Drove to St Johns, NB, bought wild blueberries 5 lbs for $13. Rockland Provincial Park not open for camping. Visited Reversing Falls and ate at Falls Restaurant. Met Mennonite Pastor / Hog Farmer from Manitoba. Watched Falls reverse after high tide. Slept in Falls parking lot. Trip Miles 599

Oct 17, 2009 - New Bruswick to Maine, and back again, and back again ...

We spent a little while this morning seeing a couple of highlights in Saint John - the old defensive hill (which did have a good view of the city but not much else) and the Reversing Falls. The tide was quite high, so the chocolate-brown water was certainly flowing up over the cascades. We then drove west along the Bay of Fundy, and crossed the American border at St. Stephen. Nice border guard - a lot of jokes about having fun travelling while he checked out the fridge and looked for refugees in the bathroom, then he told us to have good...

Sep 30, 2009 - Saint John, NB

September – Wednesday Shaun’s back is somewhat better today – at least he’s moving without quite as much pain and says he is feeling well enough to drive, so we continued on our trip. We first went to one of the most unique attractions in the province, the Magnetic Hill, just a few kilometers west of Moncton. On a small gravel road we drove “downhill” to a spot indicated by a white post and then, with gears in neutral and brakes released, the truck moved backward, coasting “up” the hill. This phenomenon is attributed to an optical illusion...

Sep 22, 2009 - St. John, New Brunswick, Canada

Today, we're in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. We'll post pictures and write an entry about it tomorrow. St John, New Brunswick St. John: Actually at St. John I don’t remember doing anything except for going to the reversing rapids and the library. We took a tour but the guide didn’t seem to know anything. He kept making mistakes. We went to the public library where they had free internet connections. We went on-line to post some pictures from our previous stop at Bar Harbor. Thank goodness the internet connection was free since we were...

Sep 12, 2009 - Sleep-over

Our dog Allie will be staying with friends during our trip. She thinks she is going for a sleep-over. What she doesn't know is that it is for 8 months, sigh. But thanks to Caesar (the dog whisperer) we now know that dogs "live in the moment" so every morning Allie wakes up she'll think "Yippeee Mom and Dad are coming to get me today". This was supposed to be funny but I feel rather sad writing this.

Sep 12, 2009 - 2 Days....

Getting ready to close down the house, clear the gardens and yard and PACK!!! Had to book rooms in China in order to get our visas so they know where we were going. What did they think we were going to do stoke unrest among the Uighurs!? Strike the final blow for Tibetan independance!? So we booked rooms in Canton and Nanning (the green city) on our way through to Hanoi. Got our Viet Nam visa by mail this week so we are good for 30 days from 24 Dec to 21 January. More about all this later. Going to hit the "publish" button on our blog...