New England Trip

This was the best day of our trip so far. The weather was beautiful, and Steve was feeling so much better that we decided not to spend the afternoon with doctors. He had slept well, and had no fever.

We left the campground early to drive around 25 miles to the ferry. The route was well marked, which we especially appreciate, driving a long rig that can’t back up and requires a huge circle to turn around. We waited in a line of RV’s to board, then had fun driving down a ramp onto a lower deck of the ferry, and squeezing the rig between a row of other RV’s and the wall of the central stairwell to the upper passenger decks. We made it fine, and even had room between our rig and the one beside it to open the door and get out easily.

We had to leave Wicket and Pumpkin in the motorhome, but they seemed to manage the ride very well. We spent the trip on the upper decks, where there were lounges, snack bars, and open outer decks where we could enjoy the passage outside.

The ferry trip was about 3 hours, and it was great to be out on the water. We joined a group watching for whales, including the Right Whales that breed off the coast of Georgia but travel all the way up here to live and feed in the Bay of Fundy. There are only about 350 of them left in the world. We didn’t see any whales, but did see some porpoises.

The Bay crossing was about 45 miles, and we docked at Digby, on the north side of the west end of Nova Scotia. We had about a half hour’s drive to our campground (Parkers Cove), which is unbelievably beautiful, a broad stretch of grassy lawn with a 180 degree view of the bay, all the way to the New Brunswick Mountains on the far horizon, and only about half a dozen other camper sites occupied. The campground is next to a little fishing village. There are several lobster boats that rest on cradles beneath them on the bay bottom twice a day when the tide is out.

The motor home is parked facing the bay – about 50 from a cliff to the rocky shoreline. Wicket even had some open grass where he could run “Crazy Ivans,” his flat-out run in wide figure-eights around us, making close passes beside us at full speed. Most campgrounds are very strict about keeping dogs on a leash, so it’s great to find a place where he can run.

After we set up camp, we explored the town of Annapolis Royal, stocked up on supplies, and toured the power plant that makes power from the tides in the Bay of Fundy. The tides here rise as much as 40 feet, turning about every 6 hours, as the ocean tide pushes the water up into the narrow neck at the back of the bay. The ferry tour guide explained that it takes the water about 6 hours to flow back out of the bay, where it meets the ocean tides that give it another shove back up the bay, much like pushing a child on a swing. There are wide dry stretches of shoreline when the tide is out that remind us of Lake Hartwell with no rain.

We had dinner at a little pub in Annapolis Royal, and came back to enjoy a beautiful sunset and a new moon rise over the bay.

Attached is a picture of the campsite and the sunset.