In Memory of Wayne Mayfield

Stephanie, my daughters finance passed away suddenly in his sleep on Sunday, August 17, 2008. Wayne was only 37 years old and left behind two wonderful children; Cameron age 10 and Jadon age 7. I am with my daughter in Reno and John is driving the motorhome back from our trip to Canada.

Out n About in St John

For more pictures of the caves and the park

http://picasaweb.google.com/jcrobnik/StMartin

We had a nice sunny day today. Since we came into New Brunswick we had heard a lot about the Fundy Parkway we decided to take a day trip and check it out. We loved it. This park is privately owned and was officially open in 1998. The park is 11.6 kilometers and you can walk the entire park on its multi use trail- off the main trail are dozens of smaller trails leading to the beach, lookouts, a suspension bridge, and others. Our first hike was the waterfall it was short but- we have never seen or been on a cable ladder- it was kind of scary at first the ladder wiggles. I found it much easier to come back up then to go down- it was kinda steep.



These are some views we saw on the way into St Martins. The beach looks like there is nice white sand- very deceiving it is like river rock and very hard to walk on. Much prettier to view from a distance.







On our drive of about 100 miles today we passed several covered bridges mostly from the early 1920's to the mid 40's.

The sea caves was another interesting stop for us. Since neither one of us have ever been in a sea cave. It was kind of a weird feeling to be inside the cave knowing that in about 6 hours the entire cave will be under water. There were 3 caves to explore we did two of them because the water line was still pretty high and made it very difficult to get into the 3rd cave.

Part 2 Bay of Fundy- St John, New Brunswick
Rockwood Lake Campground 8/8-11

We had a nice pleasant drive from Hopewell Cape into St John easy two lane highway for the most of the trip- then we found ourselves on a four lane highway with cars buzzing by us a record speeds- it has been quite a while since we have been on a multi lane road.
We headed out to the visitors center to see what there was to do in the area. We found a public market in town. It was considerably smaller than we thought, but the fruits and veggies all looked very good and expensive. Lots of crafts most of the businesses were gearing up for the cruise ship crowd which is due in on Monday 3 ships this was all the buzz around town.






Reversing Falls- another product of the tides- notice the picture on the left a lot of white water and 6 hours later same spot notice how calm the water is. This is where the Bay of Fundy and the St John river meet when the tide is out it creates white water and when the tide is in the white water disappears.

Jet boat rides during the low tide and the white water is present. They charge about $37 for a 25 min ride.













Carlton Martello Tower was built by the British in St John for the war of 1812, but, the tower was not finished until 1815- In theory- because the tower is round if hit by a cannon ball because it was round should bounce off. Since the tower was never under attack this is speculation. Inside the tower was the living quarters for for the soldiers. Beds lined the wall there was a table for dining and two fireplaces for cooking and heating. During WWII it was used as a lookout tower.

For more pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jcrobnik/StJohnSNewBrunswick

New Brunswick- Bay of Fundy Route Part 1
Ponderosa Pines Campground 8/4-8

Rain, Rain, go away- 2 days of rain - since most of the activities we want to do in the area are outside we had to find some rainy day stuff to do to keep us busy- we had heard about Magnetic Hill- thought we might check it out. The admission charge is $5 for this we drive the car to the bottom of the hill and put the car in neutral take off the break and the car goes up the hill- Yes indeedee the car did back up the hill on its own. Is this a trick an illusion or a huge magnet. I don’t really know but Magnetic Hill has been attracting tourists for 75 years.

Yay- it worked two days no rain. We took advantage of the beautiful days. We went to Cape Enrage to see the lighthouse and were very surprised to find out how the park operates. High school seniors run the park entirely they are responsible for the day-to-day operations and must generate $300,000 in revenue each year to keep the project alive. They do not charge an admission fee it is all done by donations they do offer for charge different types of adventures from Rappelling, climbing, kayaking and zip line.

Next day was Fundy National Park we did a couple of hikes and my favorite was the Dickson Waterfall trail- It was spectacular. We saw the waterfall from the bottom then worked our way up to the top so beautiful.

Another view of the Tide in Tide out both pictures same location 6 hours apart

for more pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/jcrobnik/BayOfFundy

Prince Edward Island
Harrington Campground 7/28-8/4

We arrived in PEI on a rainy Monday by the ferry it was a smooth crossing took about 75 min. For touring the island is broken up into 3 regions. Points East Coastal, North Cape Coastal, and Blue Heron Coastal (middle). We found a campground in the Blue Heron area very close to the National Park and Charlottetown pretty much in the middle of the island. We stayed a week and took the car out and toured the island. Even tho it pretty much rained the entire week we had some short sunny breaks. While on the island we were able to have “world famous lobster supper”, saw potato fields in full bloom, toured a vodka distillery that made vodka from potatoes, visited the world famous “bottle house”, ate Malpeque oysters, did a great bike ride and saw a lot of lighthouses. Still raining a week later when we left the island- we took the Confederation Bridge it took us 10 min to cross the 12 km bridge. We are now in New Brunswick going to do the Fundy Trail out of Canada and into Maine.

We really enjoyed our week on the island rain and all. For more pictures of PEI

http://picasaweb.google.com/jcrobnik/PEI

This is a 2 1/4 pound lobster