21 May - Prince Edward Island

After a rainy night further up in New Brunswick, we drove over the Confederation Bridge onto PEI....our first time over the bridge and the sun started to shine and the skies cleared for us for a couple of days.  We drove the Island from Tip-to-tip over two days and once again, remarked about how red the soil was and how varied the landscape.  We saw the lighthouses at both ends, however the second day of travel was very WET and windy.....good thing there was a Cafe at the other end for coffee!  It was COLD!  We were left to imagine how miserable  the weather really can be in the dead of winter....the locals complained that they have not seen much Spring yet!

Took a trip into Charlottetown and visited the Government house where we "learned" that he Charlottetown Conference of 1864 was where the first discussions of Union took place.  They are celebrating 150 years this years of that conference that eventually led to our Confederation.  

We also learned about the difference between Maine Lobster and PEI Lobster....ours are MUCH better!  The flavour difference is remarkable!

19 May - Hopewell Rocks

Well, arrived to a campsite where only three of us in the campground.  Its cool and wet, but we do manage to get down to the water to see the "flowerpots".  Amazing structures in an amazing area.  The tides are so great here and I have taken some pictures of our first visit in the afternoon then next day with the low tide....not exactly the highest or lowest tides, but enough to get the picture!

High Tide

Low Tide next morning!

A most fascinating area!  On the low tide day, we wandered around on the beach which had been floded the day before....the rocks and erosion can be seen and hence, the name "flowerpots"....little croppings with trees and grass growing out of their tops.

18 May - St Andrews

Its been a few days since updating the blog mainly due to flakey internet connections, but are back into Canada now and hopefully things will change for the better.  The weather changed on our last days in Bar Harbour and we arrived back into New Brunswick under miserable rainy skies.  Our first night spent in St. Andrew's by the Sea and a little tour through one of Canada's oldest settlements.  Very pretty little town on the water, so in spite of the weather, we did a little tour through town.  Back to Tim Horton's.......yeah!

From here we travel to Hopewell Rocks to experience some huge tide variations. Hope the weather changes a bit for us!

16 May - Bar Harbour, Maine

Our shorter trip up to Mount Desert Island which houses Bar Harbour was a wonderful experience.  The National Park lands on the Island were traveled extensively and we started with two visits to Cadillac Mountain....our first trip up on day one found the highest point on the island  and boy, was it windy and cold at the top.  This area is apparently the FIRST place sunrise is visible in the lower 48 States.....at least in the early months of the year.  Naturally, we had to experience it for ourselves, so got up the hill the next morning for sunrise at 0502....again, naturally, it was cloudy for us, but did manage so sneak a peek of the rising sun!

As you can see, we were not the only ones....it was cold and everyone was taking shelter from the wind along the rows of rock at the top!

The park area is quite beautiful and quite extensive....we were surprised to learn that most of the land for the park was acquired as bequests from private citizens in an effort to preserve some of the natural beauty....of course we are talking names like Rockefeller and the like...

The weather was not exactly spectacular as we did get rained on a fair bit...our trip up Cadillac mountain was the best morning we could have chosen! All in all, our explorations were very interesting and we can see why it is a popular destination!

We had our FIRST lobster dinner in Bar Harbour and everyone really enjoyed the experience!

We will have to compare this experience with a PEI lobster and see if we can taste the difference!

Some of the rocky coast in the Park...this spot called Thunder Rock was impressive with the sounds of waves crashing in!

13 May - South Hampton

After leaving Cape Cod, we traveled North again through Boston, MA and landed in a place called Tuxbury Pond, New Hampshire...we spent a few days in the area, but highlights include our visit to Salem....much more than the town of witches, i might add.  There is a whole other nautical side to this town and many great old houses as we walked along the "Port" area.  The even had a great looking square rigger tied up called the "Friendship"...she was quite colourful!

We toured a local candy shop near the port and sampled some of their traditional candy..it was neat to see some of the old machines that they used to make "ribbon candy"....the stuff we saw as kids around Christmas each year growing up.  Some beautiful park area by the water as well lined with weeping willow trees, but like so many areas we have visited, Spring is just springing all along our route! Leaves are just coming out!

This is a view of one house where the book "House of Seven Gables was penned....a very interesting area all told.

From here we also toured the beaches of North Hampton but the winds were very strong and the wave action was interesting.....some palacial houses along this stretch of beach!

12 May - Cape Cod

Ann Murray sang the song about "falling in love with Old Cape Cod".... it was easy to see what she was singing about...I think Patty Page did the original version of the song....anyway, we managed to heed the songs advice.  From our visit to Plymouth rock on up, it was a great experience.  We actually learned that the puritans from England that sailed over in the Mayflower, actually landed North of Plymouth in a place called Provincetown....we visited there as well and found this out...it was a year earlier than Plymouth before they sailed down the coast and established the settlement there!  Who knew?

Here is the famous "Plymouth Rock" at the waterside in Plymouth.  Note the date on the stone!

I have to sign off right now, but will pick this up on my next session....stay tuned!

OK... the story continues....we have moved again and are now in New Brunswick on our way to PEI in the morning....those blog entries will appear later, internet access depending!

We saw the replica Mayflower in the harbour and had a hard time visualizing the 66 days at sea on their crossing!

We traveled around this area quite extensively and made it up to Provincetown where the first landing took place....pretty much a sand dune type area so no surprise they moved down the Coast to find some fertile land.  There is a huge monument erected on top of a hill there and the views from the top were breathtaking!

Of course, light houses are an interest of mine, so Maye indulged s by finding some to check out along the way.  This one was just down from Provincetown and had alternating coloured lens of white and red.  Quite unique.

In Maye's thirst for information, she picked up a guide book from the Pilgrim Monument and read about a phenomena in the area at a Grist Mill where herring spawn in the river about this time of year...off we went!  Just happened to be the best day of the best year in ages for returning herring and the river was teeming with fish.  We watched as some gulls descended into the area and had their meal of fish!  We learned that these are special Herring Gulls and no other species of Gull has the ability to "fish" and ingest fish of this size in one piece!  Quite a spectacle to behold!

The area had fish ladders built much like what we have seen for Salmon....difference being, the herring come back every year and don't die after spawning....just keep returning for about five years each year at this time.  The figure they wait in the ocean until the stream temp is just so, then up they come.  Fascinating to say the least!

On the way back to our campsite, we visited the Town of Barnstable and checked out the beaches there.  Just beautiful.....our intrigue came from our visit to Barnstable in England a few years back....the British influences in the names were remarkable!

Blue sky, water and beautiful sand.....what more could you ask for!

May 12 - Killingsly, Connecticut

The Stateline campsite here was right on the border and took us on day trips into some great sea side areas again!  We dropped in on Bristol that had a great wooden boat museum and lots of sailing in her history.  Incredible old houses that have been restored and amazing landscapes!

At the museum, they even had one of the America Cup racing sloops parked outside!

Very beautiful town and signs of patriotism everywhere.....even the center line in the streets was painted red/white and blue!  Just loved the area!

07 May - New York

The BIG APPLE....we managed a campsite in Jersey City, just a stones throw from the downtown New York skyline...wow, what a wonderful city.  We had a small walk to the water Taxi from the campsite that took us over to the base of new World Trade Center.  Lots of construction going on but we managed to get to the Hop On-Hop Off bus area where we did New York for the day.  Needless to say, one day is NOT enough, but it was enough to convince us that it was worthy of another visit.... probably a fly in in the future for a show or something!  It was a great visit, but I did manage to LOSE my cell phone here...believe it or not, but a local found it and put it in the mail to Bar Harbour where we were reunited.....what a great fellow!
We have a great impression from this visit and this action!

This was the view from across the water where we stayed, and the Statue of Liberty could be seen from here as well!

Did you know that the fellow that designed the Eifel Tower in Paris also designed the framework for this wonderful piece!  Pretty majestic presence in the harbour!

04 May - Millsboro

Well, we arrived in Millsboro, Delaware and booked in to this beautiful resort right on the canal and experienced a beautiful sunset from the campground (first picture).

Some great houses across the canal.....I digress....we used this area to visit a number of places along the coast with the first being Lewes Harbour.  We discovered that this was the FIRST city in the FIRST State of the nation.  A very lovely seaside village with beautiful beaches and very little commercialism.  Some interesting "critters" discovered on our beach walk and having never seen a "Skate" shell, this was pretty impressive.....forgive the almost-worn-out sandal placed for perspective!

From here we traveled down the coast to Ocean City, Maryland and found yet another area packed with tourists and commercialism....much like any other seaside "carnival" atmosphere.  Maye did find a yarn shop there called  "Salty Yarns" so all was not lost!

The weather was warm and the beach very inviting, but now we are far enough North that the water temp in the Atlantic is getting quite cool.

30 April - Cape Hatteras, South Carolina

Now things are starting to get bit more exciting.....here we are driving down the highway just minding our own business and over the radio, we get this strange "alarm" sound....."What could that Be?" we ask amongst us.  We find out shortly that this is a Tornado warning system.  I guess the conditions were right for tornados and here we are!  The winds were howling and at times, we almost had to pull over to the side of the road due to the amount of rain that was falling! Incredible forces at work.....

We stopped at the visitor center as soon as we got over the bridges to the outer banks and spoke with a fellow who seemed a little nonchalant about the whole deal....he actually commented that over the water, the tornados are waterspouts and they are "really cool to watch".  We did not see any over the next few days on the Cape, but we were NOT sorry to leave the wind behind.  It blew hard for three days here as evidenced by the number of Kite Boarders we saw at times!

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was great, however we could not climb and go out at the top as the winds were too strong and the Park would not allow it.....starting to sound like a broken record, but, "We may have to come back....".

The little hut behind the trailer is on the beach....what a great location and beautiful view as we opened the window blind every morning!

We took a little ferry off this part of the Cape to another island and had a fun little day exploring more sand dunes and incedible beaches.  There is some thing about being by the water!!! We had decided years ago that any holiday had to have a "water" component and this location certainly checked a lot of boxes!

Now the really cool departure from here took us to Kill Hill....mean anything to anyone?  That is where the Wright brothers conquered flight.  Now this National Park was REALLY great!  We saw a life size model of the Kitty Hawk and the hangers where they built the "bird".  Pretty good for two preacher's kids that were running a bicycle repair shop!

This was taken from the top of "Kill Hill" where they first launched their gliders in the early days! They have erected a monument here now and if you look to the right of the long walkway at the end of the field, you can see the hanger where Kitty Hawk was built and the building beside where they lived on site during the project.....a really interesting study!

April 29 - Cave City, Kentucky

OK... so we arrived at Diamond Cave and our intent was to compare this area to the Cave we visited in Nevada.  No comparison.  This area is a National Park as well and is known as the Mamouth Cave National Park.  Our tour took place at a private Cave across from our campsite and was fascinating!  I think the consensus was we were more a "part" of this cave as we walked through and it was every bit as interesting.

We got so involved in this tour that we actually missed any tours offered by the National Park Service....I guess that means we have to come back!?!?!  The Park visitors center was great and we learned so much about their 350+ mile network of caves.....all this time, none of us had really given much thought to "caves or cavers", but our thoughts are shifting!

26 April - Nashville, TN

We made it over (back inland) to a little campground called "Made in the Shade"...this was the most "Rustic" campground yet, but afforded our jump off to Nashville......what a great City!  We toured the Grand Ol Oprey and got our pictures taken on stage with Maye singing.....quite a hoot!  A very well laid out City and there had just been a Marathon run this date, so the streets were alive with people.  The walk about town was very interesting .... lots of music being pumped from all the bars on the main drag!

This last picture is the Ryman Theatre downtown where it all began....the next picture is the "new" venue built in the early '70's.

April 25th - Waynesville

We travelled in to an area around the Smokey Mountains and were to use this as a jumping off point to Dollywood....discovered its just a theme park with rides and the like so opted not to participate!  We did however take a trip around the Smokey Mountains and visited some great places...again, lots of commercialism and saw where everyone flocks to for their holidays.  Beautiful country side and incredible roads to drive.  One area called "Tail of the Dragon" boasts 363 curves over an 11 mile stretch....it was great!  Would be even better with the top down in our Miata!  Somehow the GMC- HD  does not perform that well in this environment, but it was adequate!  The road ends in a little town of Fontana with lots of lakes and dams in the area.  Very picturesque.

April 23 - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Well, we have been plagued with poor or no internet for awhile now and it has been hard keeping things up to date....we spent one night in Myrtle Beach on our way North and can see what the people in the East see when they come to this area.....it is very built up and the commercial presence seems akin to Miami/Fort Lauderdale in Florida.....jst not quite as far away!  The beaches are great, but not our cup of tea with all the shops and mini golf setups along the strip....I think we counted about 27 of these "golf" courses along the main drag!

The campground was great and had good facilities, but not likely to come back this far in the future!

April 24, 25 - Jacksonville, Fl

Well we continued down the road to Jacksonville then carried on over the Florida/Georgia Line (Country Group does "This is how We Roll")......seems fitting, I must admit...anyway....we checked into a camp ground called "Walk About Camp" run by a young couple from Brisbane, Australia.....man have they ever had a lot of rain...standing water everywhere!  The "shiela" says they had eight inches in the last week...has flooded lots of their campground....glad we missed it!

Next day, we took a trip to a great little town called St. Mary's...quite quaint and of course, waterside which always adds to the experience.          

From this location we headed back South of the campground and discovered Jekyl Island....home of some of America's oldest family "cottages"....names like Goodyear, etc.  Amazing location and the beaches are home to a number of species of sea turtles that use the area for spawning/incubating.  Sand for miles!

                                                                                            

This days outing was followed by a trip down to St. Augustine just out of Jacksonville......what an amazing area with the Fort and protected sheltered harbour area...this is an area worth coming back to as a destination.  

Jacksonville is just another big City, but short strikes out from there uncovers some great beaches and area to enjoy the sun....yes it was hot this day...got to 84 degrees!!!