Hiking and more music

On Saturday, our first full day at Cape Breton, we hiked part of the Acadian trail.  Beautiful vistas of shoreline and fall color (or as they say here "colour").  We are still very internet disabled, between the outrageous cost of Verizon data while roaming in Canada and the almost complete lack of coverage out in the national park where we are camped. I am learning to live without internet access and the withdrawal pains are frightening.  We will try to update the blog whenever we have wifi access as best we can, but expect some cool music snippets and photos of some beautiful sights as we tour Cape Breton this week.

We feel the cold breath of winter over our shoulders and know our time in Canada is short.  We will likely be here in Nova Scotia another week or so, then on to Quebec City.

FINALLY we arrive at Cape Breton Highlands National Park

Well, our trip from home to our first real destination on Cape Breton Island took a little longer than planned.  We were driving from the Magnetic Hill Winery near Moncton on Thursday hoping to reach Cape Breton that day when a warning message from our truck forced us to find a Chevy dealer which was luckily only about 30 miles ahead of us in Truro, NS.  It turned out we needed a part that had to be brought in from Montreal, so we settled in to a small, but very nice, campground near Truro to wait for the part to come in.  Miraculously it came in the next morning by 10 and we were back on the road by 1 and likely to hit Cape Breton before dark.

All-in-all it took us six days of driving to go the nearly 900 miles to get here.  Now we can stay put for a little while and explore the nearby Acadian town of Cheticamp, the national park and the Cabot Trail drive around the island, which we will do over three days next week. Our campsite is beautifully surrounded by yellow, red and green hills.

 

Last night we saw our first live music at dinner, which was really fun.

Scenes from Nova Scotia

The drive across much of the length of Nova Scotia was beautiful, with the fall color and even a few relatives.

Spending the night in the vineyard

Camping at the Magnetic Mountain Winery in New Brunswuck--beautiful!  Our hosts travel to Ft. Myers FL every winter... a looooong trip.

 

We are members of Harvest Hosts (www.harvesthosts.com), which is a very cool organization.  They have signed up over 450 wineries and farms who are willing to host RVers for free!  All they ask is that you purchase something from the winery or farm store.  'Course, this could be dangerous because there is so much good stuff to buy!  We stayed at Magnetic Mountain and ended up buying some of their awesome wine made with fresh local blueberries, some New Brunswick maple syrup and a cranberry wine.  We spent way more than the price of an rv park site, but this is way more fun.

Camden, Maine and downeast

After a grueling rainy drive from Kennebunk to Camden and visiting a yoga buddy of Lynnae's and a nice dinner at "Fresh" in town, we settled in Camden Hills State Park for our first "real" camping night. The morning broke clear and cold and we hiked up to the top of Mount Battie for some spectacular views.

Try downloading the panoramic picture to your computer for the full effect!

We had to make a few stops along the way to today, including shopping at the Belfast Natural Food Co-op.  I thought I had fallen asleep and woken up in Santa Cruz in 1969 ... except for the prices.  For a store whose main customers seemed to be back-to-the-land'ers and hippies, I couldn't believe how expensive it was--Whole Foods on steroids!  Well, understandable I guess because all the produce and meat seemed to come from local Maine farms (where they probably play classical music for the animals when they get slaughtered). They did a good tuna salad sandwich, though!

We had a beautiful drive along Highway 1 in "downeast" Maine and finally settled for the night about 15 miles from the Canadian border, but we've lost US cell coverage and have to watch our data usage. Tomorrow we'll cross the border and continue into New Brunswick.

First Night in Maine

Leaving The Pinehills was bittersweet.  Thanks to the Green Company's Oktoberfest, we were able to give and get personal best wishes for a future well lived.  Once we settled into driving mode we remembered that we did not completely empty the freezer...hope Jane can use some blue ice.  First stop in Kennebunk, ME, proved to be easily reached before dark.  Hosts Sundie and Gary Gentry graciously let us park in their driveway and served us delicious fish burritos for dinner.  Tucker took his nose to as many squirrel tracks as his leash would allow.  Great way to begin unwinding from a very busy summer.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

After long and sad goodbyes to great friends, we are on.the road north to Kennebunk, Maine tonight and the road stretching ahead as far as we can see.