The view from the Bar Harbor Inn. The Bar Harbor Inn is a pretty special place. It’s just pretty as can be with a beautiful landscape and a view of the water that’s picture worthy. In fact the whole thing is worthy of multiple pictures. Luckily we were still within the 48 contiguous states because we had lost the use of our camera while we were getting here. Also luckily, the iphone 5 has a really good camera. In fact, the camera is the only reason we spent $200 to upgrade.
Walmart. Purveyors of fine photographic stuff. We didn’t know if it was the camera or the chip and we figured we had to buy a chip to find out. One new memory card doubled our capacity and all we were out was about sixty photos of the first day. When we saw this picture we knew we didn’t have to buy a camera.
The first of several million views of water, green things, and sometimes mountains and snow. We had made one miscalculation so far. We had planned to travel based on the distance we could cover in Texas. 70 mph on many two lane blacktop changes to probably 40-50 mph in backwater Maine and Canada. This would be pretty typical of what we saw on the way. It was worth it but this was the day we were to travel to Halifax Nova Scotia. The route we had planned was going to include a Ferry across the Bay of Maine and hit Nova Scotia not too far from Halifax.
If you follow the yellow road down from the green maple leaf icon you arrive approximately where the ferry goes across. It takes the shortest route across the straits and hits near Halifax. The blue route is actually shorter than what we took because we wanted to avoid the heavy traffic that lives near the water. You get the idea. Beautiful trip.
The Ferry only runs two times daily this time of year. That meant our 6-7 hour transit became 11 hours. No problem with the scenery we had and the Department of Transportation of Maine was kind enough to insert this little building in a place where we had no gas station or McDonald's. There are some images in the slide show that came from here as well as the video just below.
We were concerned that the primary border crossing might be congested. It was when we went across at Niagara Falls once on a trip to Buffalo. We were the only ones in line this time and the lady just wanted to make sure we were going to have a nice day. Then she waved us through.
When we got across the border I thought we were going to get with the program and cover ground. Sally thought we were going to have lunch and some chocolate desert to celebrate Rosa’s birthday. As usual, she was right. This town, St Stephens is known as the "chocolate city of Canada." On the way to lunch we passed the downtown border crossing where cars were waiting in line to cross. Lucky choice on our part.
We stopped at a diner with a full parking lot and met a couple of workers for New Brunswick Power and Lighting. They were at a table for four and the place was full. I asked if we could share their table and they were immediately friendly and welcoming. It was a good lunch and the food was good too.They wanted to talk about electric cars and Texas when they found out a little about us. When he found we were Christians, one of them shared a tract with us. When they left, a property taxman sat down beside us. We heard about rich Americans and half million dollar vacation homes next. Actually he was very pleasant.
We stopped at a diner with a full parking lot and met a couple of workers for New Brunswick Power and Lighting. They were at a table for four and the place was full. I asked if we could share their table and they were immediately friendly and welcoming. It was a good lunch and the food was good too.They wanted to talk about electric cars and Texas when they found out a little about us. When he found we were Christians, one of them shared a tract with us. When they left, a property taxman sat down beside us. We heard about rich Americans and half million dollar vacation homes next. Actually he was very pleasant.
Very remote and very pretty. We left St. Stephens and drove through some of the most isolated roads ever while going through New Brunswick. Beautiful with mountains, mountain lakes, and salt water inlets. The next one just kept being even prettier than the last one. Imagine going through Sam Houston National Forest with some mountains and lakes thrown in. Then imagine doing it for 11 hours. One of the best days I’ve had in a while.
As we were entering Nova Scotia we saw this. There is always wind and there aren’t a lot of people. I expect this did just about all the power production for this area and somewhat beyond.
One curiosity was Folly Mountain. I don’t know where the name came from but I know what they do here.
But just in case it might be hard to interpret for us flatlanders, they gave us a mural on the side of a building that lays it all out.
A nearby town was named Londonderry in case we had any doubt as to the native ethnicity of the area. This picture was Folly lake.
This picture is within 1-2 kilometers of the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole. It’s chilly enough in May to make me think of all the water that’s locked up in ice further north of us.
When we hit Halifax, Sally had a map of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that we used to navigate downtown. We found our Bed and Breakfast with only a couple missteps. Strangely we weren’t very hungry. After we got settled in we walked to a little cafe about two blocks away and had some soup. Then we slept the sleep of the tired. Halifax, the city is a nice city but it's still a city. Peggy's cove is not and the next installment will probably talk more about that then Halifax.
When we hit Halifax, Sally had a map of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that we used to navigate downtown. We found our Bed and Breakfast with only a couple missteps. Strangely we weren’t very hungry. After we got settled in we walked to a little cafe about two blocks away and had some soup. Then we slept the sleep of the tired. Halifax, the city is a nice city but it's still a city. Peggy's cove is not and the next installment will probably talk more about that then Halifax.
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