Just the Stats, Ma'am

Days on the road = 55
Number of Provinces visited = 7
Number of States visited = 24 (if you count Washington, DC)
Kilometres travelled = 18, 549
Highest Price of Gas in Canada =  $ 1.389/litre
Lowest Price of Gas in Canada = $1.179/litre
Highest Price of Gas in US = $3.999/gallon (Yellowstone, of course)
Lowest Price of Gas in US = $3.333/gallon
Average cost per km or mile = Don't ask

Number of Federal campsites = 5
Number of Provincial/State campsites = 23
Number of Municipal/Regional campsites = 3
Number of Commercial campsites = 3
Number of Walmart or other Boondock parking lots = 0 (hey we always meant to do this, it just never happened)
Highest Price of a Campsite = $48.03 (Albion Hills, Toronto including reservation fee)
Lowest Price of a Campsite = $12.00 (Springhill, National Forest Service)

Total cost of the trip = Priceless

Back Home

We decided to take a different route back to BC via Hwy 2 through Idaho to the Kingsgate border crossing. (Got to add another state to the tally - neither of us had been to Idaho before). However, that did not seem to be a valid reason to the somewhat grumpy CBSA agent when we were crossing back into Canada. We passed up spending the night at Yahk hoping that we would get cell service (and internet via Huwaei) and be able to make up for over a week of no blog posts. But even when we got to Moyie Lake Provincial Park, where we did spend a rainy night,  there was no service.

It wasn't until we stopped at Creston for gas the next morning that we re-entered the connected world; and the sun returned. We climbed and descended the Salmo-Creston and stopped for lunch at Christina Lake but continued on to Osoyoos (no sites at Haynes Point and even the overflow was too crowded for comfort) and eventually settled into a less than perfect site at the north side of Okanagan Lake Provincial Park. Here at least blogging could resume and that evening we were able to upgrade to a better site for the night and in the morning made yet another move to a site much closer to the water which meant much less road noise. We spent a final sunny Okanagan day getting some maintenance (oil and filter change, transmission flushing, etc) on the van, making the requisite winery visit,  having the final swim (me)/wade (Mazy), prior to the last dinner al fresco,

before hitting the Coquihalla for the last drive home on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon. Turns out we left just in time as the mountain behind the campsite was ablaze with a forest fire the next afternoon causing road closures that would have forced us on to the Hope Princeton.

More Montana Moments

Leaving Yellowstone on Labour Day morning there was frost on the ground after a clear, cold night. Four days before we had been sweltering in near 100F temperatures; now we were wishing we had brought toques and gloves. But as we descended the mountains along the Madison River out of the park to Montana we were back in temperatures in the 70s and 80s F. However, we were also in the smoke of the many fires still raging in this neck of the woods. We are remarked earlier how we had been lucky to avoid forest fires considering how dry it had been for so much of the trip. We seemed to go in and out of smoke depending on how high we were. When we were in the valleys the smoke could get pretty thick but we had no idea of how close or far away from the actual fires we were.

I had promised Pete shorter driving days so this route took us up Hwy 287 for a short stretch on Interstate 90 before exiting after Butte at Anaconda (yes copper mine country) to Montana Hwy 1, the Pintler's Veterans Memorial Scenic Highway.  This road travels through Deerlodge National Forest and we opted to find a campsite at the first National Forest campground we encountered, Springill. Here for $12.00 we had one of the three occupied sites of the 15 total in the quiet campground with a picnic table, fire ring (with firewood left by the previous occupant) access to water, and the clean and spacious vault toilets that we have found in other National Forest sites. A perfectly pleasant place to spend the night.

The next morning after we passed Georgetown Lake, we took a short diversion off Hwy 1 to the restored mining town of Phillipsburg, In addition to an incredible candy store still using the antique candy making equipment, the town is adjacent to the largest sapphire deposit so has many gem and jewellery stores. 


















Back on the highways we travelled through even more areas of thick smoke and passed by a fire camp just outside Missoula,Mt. But the smoke cleared as we headed north towards the Flathead Valley and Flathead Lake. Here we found a great large pull through lakefront campsite at Big Arm State Park.

This, our last stop in the US,  proved to be one of our favourite sites, a beautiful, relaxing spot on a crystal clear lake with gorgeous mountain views, certainly worth a future return visit.

Yellowstone National Park

Our route northwest from Boysen to Yellowstone took us through some beautiful scenery, red cliffs, tunnels, and mountain vistas.

We passed through, but did not stop at, the town of Cody with it's Buffalo Bill tourist traps. As we approached the eastern entrance to Yellowstone the clouds descended and we had sprinkles on the windshield as we made our way down the shores of Yellowstone Lake to our campsite a Grant Village near the southern entrance. Our first glimpse of wildlife in the Park occurred just before we arrived at Grant Village, the rear end of an elk in the trees off the side of the road.

Yellowstone, the oldest US National Park created in 1872, is like Banff on steroids. Thousands of tourists (there are well over a thousand campsites as well as the lodges and inns to accommodate them) visit every day during the busy summer season. Our campground alone had over 400 sites but the park is also huge, almost 3500 sq miles. Our site was OK but awkard and noisy as it was directly opposite restrooms. The average elevation is the park is 8,000 ft. and we noticed the effect of the evelaton on the temperatures immediately as we quickly changed from shorts and t-shirts to jeans and fleece and then to gortex as the rain started to fall on our first evening in the park.

It was still overcast and cool the next morning when we started our exploration of the park by attending a 1.5 hour ranger program at West Thumb Geyser Basin. The ranger, Ali Paul, was extremely knowledgeable and the program has a great overview of the history, geography and geology of the park. Initially only ourselves and a family of four started on the tour but others joined us as Ali led us on a tour of the basin and explained each feature from hot springs and geysers, to mud and paint pots, fumaroles, and the fishing cone.

The program was punctuated by intermittent showers that just seemed to accentuate the steam and odors bubbling out of the geysers.

We travelled north from West Thumb to the very busy Old Faithful area. Although the distance was not long traffic moved slowly as cars pulled over for wildlife (mostly bison) viewings so we missed the noonish erruption of the Old Faithful geyser so we strolled through the shops and Visitor's Centre and had a bite to eat before taking a seat to await the 1:45 erruption on the ampitheatre like seating surrounging the geyser. After a few teasers the geyser started to emit great bursts of steaming water into the sky and did so a number of times 

Our last stop of the day after driving past the Lower and Upper Geyers basins and Madison Village was at the Rainbow Paint Pots.

(Oh we did have another ho hum walk by of a bison on the drive back to Grant Village.)

Back at the campsite we discovered that Mazy had not appreciated a long day alone in the trailer and did a little redecorating - good thing we bought lots of window screening in Cape Breton. Just as we sat down to dinner (this is getting to be a bit of a trend!) the rain returned in earnest and the temperature started to dip into the 40's F. We retreated to the trailer glad at least that this would further diminish the forest fires that had been burning here and in the Grand Tetons.

Sunday of the long weekend dawned much brighter (although not warmer yet) and we set off, with Mazy along for the ride this time. (The US National Parks all seem to have these rules that forbid dogs on the trails and boardwalks meaning we had a choice of leaving her in the trailer to do more redecorating or leaving her in the van to whine and yip if we were still within sight.) We drove up the west side of Yellowstone Lake

with more wildlife viewings,

to Lake Village

and past the Hayden Valley and into the area known as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Here we were able to enjoy the great scenery of the upper and lower falls

 and the dramatic views of the canyon.

Our final stop was at the Norris Geyers Basin

and then we cruised back, crossing the continental divide yet again to our campsite and enjoyed a dry, relatively warm evening and a campfire.

The Mid West Drought of 2012

Nowhere was the drought of 2012 more evident than on our drive through Nebraska and into Wyoming. For much of these 4 days we were off the interstates and travelling on lesser highways and byways through farm and ranching country. Where irrigation was in use there were patches of green, otherwise the fields were dried and brown. The impact of the drought was also reflected at our nightly camping spots. They were all centred on dammed man-made lakes that served as irrigation sources as well as recreation opportunities for the local area. Water levels were drastically down at all our campsites from Kansas through Wyoming. We found the park ranger at Johnson Lake SRA in Eastern Nebraska hauling a large drum of water behind his John Deere so he could water some of the young trees in park and hopefully save some of them. After Labour Day they were taking the lake down even further but at least when we were there it allowed a bit of a swim even if the water never got higher than my waist.

 At Lake Minatare SRA in Eastern Nebraska where the temperatures soared to 104F they had not had rain since before July and the camp host showed us the marks on the trees where the water had been at that time. Here the water levels were too low (and the mosquitoes too vicious) to even think about a swim. 

We had a short drive from Lake Minatare to our campsite at Glendo State Park in Wyoming so it allowed a detour to visit Fort Laramie National Historic Site just over the Nebraska/Wyoming border.

The Fort was originally built to support the fur trade but was soon bought by the Army to serve as a way station and supply depot for those on the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail to Salt Lake City, and in the 1860s as a place to negotiate with the Indian tribes. However, the gold rush to California and later the discovery of gold in the Black Hills (which had been ceded to the tribes as part of the treaty negotiations) resulted in some major battles between the settlers and tribes led by Red Cloud with the Infantry and Cavalry stationed at the Fort in an awkward position of defending the treaties. The Fort was decommissioned in the 1890’s as it no longer had a strategic purpose and many of the buildings removed but it was designated a national historic site in 1938 and work begun to restore it.
After our visit to Louisbourg it seemed a poor comparison, and given that it was stifling hot our visit was short and we were at our campsite at Glendo State Park shortly after noon. The park has over 300 campsites in 8 or 9 campgrounds but there were only about two other sites occupied in our campground, Two Moons, which has 81 sites and sits high above the reservoir providing a view of the dam and the low water levels here too.

This proved to be a very pleasant, quiet, respite despite a short shower in the evening just as we were starting dinner.
Leaving Glendo we had a drive through some very desolate looking territory, characterized by tumbling tumbleweed and long vistas of cattle country. We arrived at the slightly more populated (the long weekend was approaching) Boysen State Park further west in Wyoming. After some time trying to sort out which sites were available we settled into one right on the lakeshore with private access to the beach.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and listened to a neighbouring camper from the local area complain about how they had spent so much money fixing the place up and making all these rules like no camping on the beach just so the government could charge more money (our camping fee here was $17, state residents paid less). I don’t think he’ll be voting for Obama. This campsite won the distinction for the most bugs of the trip. As soon as the sun went down and the lights went on in the trailer these tiny noseeums that were too small to be blocked by the screens invaded and we had to resort to turning off the lights at 9:30. We woke in the morning to the walls and blinds coated in the little black devils. We discovered three more (less populated) campgrounds in this park as we made our way north-west. Don't know if they would have had the same bug issue.

Where the heck have you been?

Thanks to the big black hole of T-Mobile's coverage over the northern mid-west we have been out of wifi range for the better part of ten days. Not that we are back in the land of Telus and Huawei we hope to catch up on the last few thousand Kms.

So this is Kansas, Dorothy

Our route out of Pere Marquette State Park was via two small barge ferries across the Mississippi.

Our license plates encouraged conversations on both of the short rides; both wondering how we were surviving the unusually warm weather and one also inquiring our views on our healthcare system. Our positive review resulted in a thumbs up - obviously a democrat.

The drive along this rural penninsula in the middle of the Mississippi was a pleasant reprieve from the interstates they we were to experience for the rest of the day. However, wherever we drove today we witnessed examples at every turn of the drought that is devasting the mid west this summer. Corn crops that were stunted but green on our earlier northern crossing, here are completely dried and brown.

Today's temperatures started in the 90's but as we approached Kansas City the clouds rolled in and intermittent rain showers contributed to cooling temperatures. We decided to stop for groceries in Junction City, the closest town to our campsite at Milford Lake State Park, just as the clouds blackened and as we found our way to the grocery store the rain started to team down. We grabbed for coats but by the time we made it from the parking lot to the store we were soaked. After completing our shopping we returned to the van to find that Mazy had tried to escape the thunder and lightening and had managed to climb into the second seat from the third while still attached to her harness and was trying to bury herself in my bin of spinning fibre. After we waited out the worst of the storm we made it to the campsite and set up on a lakeside site and tried to dry out.

Sunday, our day of rest from the road, dawned a little brighter and the clouds gave way to sun by noon. The obliging camp host brought around a map, postcard, and brochure for the area and encouraged us to explore the park surrounding this dammed man-made lake.

The campground we are in is just one of about 6, including one complete with horse corrals for equestrian campers. Others seem to be dominated by seasonal sites for the boaters who frequent this "fishing capital of Kansas", but there is even a Marina and a "Yacht Club" with a number of sailboats. Our campground is practically deserted on Sunday afternoon, the weekend campers having departed so it is quiet and a perfect day for a break from the road.

And then we enjoyed a lovely evening with a beautiful sunset.

Heading West

When we left Pohick Bay I discovered that I could ask Garmin Gertie to find us a route that avoided traffic so I used that setting and although we made a slight error in choosing an off ramp that saw us practically drive up the backside of the Lincoln Memorial, she recalculated our error and with a left turn at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had us back over the Potomac and cruising along the scenic George Washington Parkway

until it was time to join up with the first of the interstates of the day. At one point the road signs offered us the alternative of the I-68, the National Freeway, rather than the I-70. A check of the map saw that this routing we eliminate the tolled stretch of the Pennsylvania turnpike so we choose this option and were pleased to discover a beautiful, green, mountainous, countryside of Northern Maryland (much of this territory had been the scene of civil war battles noted by highway markers).

Once we did get back to I-70 we were reminded of a more recent hostilities, as the opposite side of the highway was blocked for several miles as hundreds of motorcyclists (many wearing colours as Vietnam Vets) paraded by carrying US and POW/MIA flags.  Once through West Virginia (actually our route took us through two different parks of West Virginia separated by Pennsylvania) we made it to our campsite at Barkcamp State Park just over the Ohio border. This would be the first of several successive state parks of this leg which were remarkably under-utilized. 

The next day was a long slog all along the I-70 (dominated by truck traffic) through Ohio, Indiana, and just across the state (and time zone) border to Lincoln Trail State Park in Illinois. Here fewer than 25 of the more than 200 sites were occupied. The camp hosts who did the check in were decidedly laid back (no book of rules given out with the receipt), the sites were spacious, treed, with power and close access to water, the shower building clean and well maintained for a cost of $20 per night. We found the similar site for the same price at Pere Marquette State Park on the other side of Illinois – although given that it was a Friday, perhaps about half of the 80 sites at this park on the banks of the mighty, muddy, Mississippi were occupied. We are not sure if it’s the economy or the lack of interest in this mode of camping that has resulted in this situation but it works for us although cell or wifi coverage is iffy or nonexistent in these locations.

This was a short travel day which allowed us a relaxing afternoon and the opportunity to give Mazy another shower (the first had been at Barkcamp) having discovered she had been chewing away at a hotspot and had much matted fur that had to be cut out and cleaned to try to dry out the sores. Poor girl. 

 

Washington DC

Our campsite at Pohick Bay Regional Park in suburban Lorton, Virginia, just south of Alexandria put us in reasonable commuting distance to the major sites in the heart of Washington DC. The drive to the metro parking garage was still hairy even without the trailer and after the worst of rush hour but from there it was about a half hour metro ride some of it elevated, some subterrainian on very long multi car (15 - 20) trains. Stops included Ron Reagan Airport and Arlington National Cemetery but we exited at Capitol South and embarked on our exploration of the many historic buildings in this vicinity. The Library of Congress was the first of these.

The Supreme Court building was shrouded in scaffolding. (Many of the buildings in DC seemed to be undergoing repair - some related to last year's earthquake).

The Capitol itself is a very imposing structure.
 I nipped into the Visitor's Centre briefly.

The area on the east side of the Capitol was surprisingly uncrowded, but the west side, facing the mall saw a considerable increase in the number of tourists, including numerous bus tours of many different nationalities. We wandered up the mall noting the various government buildings and then the chain of remarkable Smithsonian Institution national museums. Of these we had the longest tour of the National Museum of Air and Space.

By this time (lunch) the overcast skies were being burnt off and the sun was out with temperatures rising into the low 80sF. However, with a breeze it made it reasonable for an afternoon of walking from site to site, far better than the hot humid weather with temperatures up to 100F that you can often expect in August in DC. A tour through the Hirschorn Sculpture Garden was a pleasant reprieve before continuing on to the Washington Monument (closed due to the earthquake). 

We walked on and over to Pennsylvania Avenue (passing Homeland Security enroute) for a view of the gardens and rear of the White House, then around the block and past the East Executive Bldg to the front entrance. (President Obama, however, was not at home. This being an election year, he was out showing the flag, in New Hampshire, I think.

We took what I thought would be a short cut via the Metro but the walk after we got off at Foggy Bottom (yes that’s the name of a metro stop) seemed just as long passing George Washington University and the Department of State as if we had walked directly from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial.

We took in the memorial from the base of the steps, deciding the view of Lincoln in his chair was just fine from here and made our way past the Vietnam War Memorial

(where National Park rangers were assisting visitors making rubbings of the names of their fallen family members. On past the lovely fountains of the World War II Memorial and back to the Washington Monument, we gazed at the Jefferson Monument but did not have the time or stamina for an upclose viewing. Back to the Smithsonian Metro stop and back to our car about 5:00pm. I managed to coax Garmin Gertie into finding us an alternate route back to the campsite that did not involve the I-95 at rush hour and we were pleased to find that Mazy had not done anything requiring repairs on her long day alone.

We were just settling down to relax under the trailer awning prior to dinner when the raindrops started to fall and we barely had time to take the tablecloth off the picnic table before a real downpour started that lasted several hours – no campfire tonight.

We used the next day to relax, tour the park down to the marina area (Pohick Bay is one of several bays off the Potomac) do chores (laundry, trailer cleaning, and shopping). I found a corner of the campground close to the office that let me access wifi and sat at a picnic table and tried to plan out our route home.  A quiet day with no touring and no driving that we both appreciated.

By the Time We Got to Woodstock...

It seems that this phase of the trip has old classic tunes running through my head. When we left Salisbury Beach under overcast skies we were heading for Kenneth L Wilson State Reserve in the Catskills in New York. I had booked this site as it was the only public campground I could find that was available and allowed me to book one night arriving on a Saturday. As we travelled along the Mass Turnpike the weather gradually improved and by the time we reached the Berkshire Mountains the sun was out and continued to shine as we passed over into New York state and the beautiful Hudson Valley. This area of the state is remarkably beautiful, forested hillsides, glimpses of the Hudson river, and soon we were in the Catskills. Little did I know that the route that Garmin Gertie would lead us on to get to the campsite once we left the NY Turnpike was through the infamous village of Woodstock, which just happened to be having their annual town picnic in the afternoon as we tried to make our way through the narrow, congested streets lined with galleries, craft shops and everything crunchy granola. When we stopped for a few groceries I did find that being exactly of the age of the “Woodstock Generation” had its privileges and netted me a discount in the natural foods store. We continued on to the very well hidden park (how would anybody but locals find these places without a GPS?) and set up on what we decided as our most spacious well treed site of the trip so far. The lack of services wasn’t a concern and was well compensated by the privacy and quiet the site afforded. On our evening walk with Mazy we ran into one of the park staff and had a long conversation that touched on geography, politics, medicare, and the resident brown bear that had wrecked havoc earlier in the day when a camper had been less than cautious in their food storage. Turns out the park ranger had seen said bear about four sites away from ours just shortly before we met him. Maybe it was Mazy’s presence but we never saw him through our visit.

The next day required an early departure as we knew it would be a long arduous drive to get us to our destination in Virginia just south of DC. Little did we know that our route would take mostly along toll roads and end up costing us over $50 in tolls.  But considering that we passed through five states (well 6 if you count DC {New York, New Jersey – our longest stretch and very poorly laid out service plazas, Delaware - $15 in tolls for the about half an hour’s drive???, Maryland (including negotiating through Baltimore) DC – awful traffic along the Beltway, and finally Virginia to our campsite at Pohick Bay Regional Park in Lorton I guess we should not have expected less. I picked this site as it was only about 20 miles south of DC, and with semi-serviced sites it was about half the price of the commercial option in Maryland. Pete did an amazing job of piloting the van and trailer through the heart of the Eastern seaboard. At one point we even got a distant view of Manhattan and the Empire State Building but were too slow to get a camera out to take a picture. And this leg had Springsteen running through my head except for Delaware where I kept hearing my mother singing “What did Dela Ware boys, what did Dela Ware “. (Barry, Andy do you remember the rest of that?)

Two National Parks - one Canadian, one US

Leaving PEI via the Confederation Bridge to New Brunswick (thanks to Don and a fellow we met at Wheatley Provincial Park in Ontario) for advising that it is cheaper to leave the island via the bridge than the ferry). Here we touched on the Acadian coast before travelling through Moncton and then on to a long and not very interesting drive along Hwy 1. After leaving the highway we ended up on a smaller road with a long stretch under construction so it was a bumpy/dusty ride on gravel for awhile. We arrived at Fundy National Park early in the afternoon, took a look at and rejected the Headquarters Campsite, toured the nearby town of Alma, right on the Bay of Fundy,
for essential supplies (gas and beer) as the fog lifted off the shores, home to the highest tides in Canada. We found a much better campsite at the Chignecto North Campground with well spaced, treed sites with power and water. It was nice to have made an early arrival and be able to spend a lazy afternoon in the quiet campsite reading and spinning.

In the morning it was back up the dusty, gravel road to Hwy 1, through the surprisingly large city of St. John and then an uneventful drive to the border just past St. Stephen's. However, here we found that all the RVs were being given a thorough inspection for contraband fruits and vegetables or firewood by Homeland Security. Fortunately the line up was not too long and we were glad we had finished the last of our grapes at lunch before heading to the border and deciding to throw out the carrots we'd bought in Indiana on the previous American leg of the journey. We stopped in the small Maine town of Calais for gas and to replenish the groceries and then made our way on Hwy 9 as the rain began to fall. It teamed down most of the afternoon(a terrible drive for Pete) and in the town of Ellsworth, as we were getting close to our destination, I saw a sign giving a temperature reading of 68F, certainly our coldest afternoon of the trip. Fortunately at this point, the rain let up so we continued our way into Acadia National Park under cloudy skies but with the hope we would not be setting up camp in the pouring rain. We found navigating through Acadia to our campsite at Blackwoods Campground challenging and despite my best efforts we ended up travelling through the narrow streets of the crowded, tourist town of Bar Harbour. However, we were pleased that we persevered as the campsite itself was excellent;

an easy drive-through, well treed and equipped. It was still quite damp, though so dinner was inside the trailer for a change. In the morning, the sun was out and it was warming up so we took in some of the sites of the park (twice actually - our navigation challenges from yesterday continued)

 

and then it was back through Bar Harbour, a stop at the LL Bean Outlet in Ellsworth (only new socks for Pete, Mora) before we connected with I-95 for a long stretch of interstate driving, broken by a side trip to the historic town of Bath, the home of Halcyon Yarns. Primarily an online vendor of weaving, spinning, and knitting supplies they still maintain a large storefront and I picked up some top to supplement my supplies for my locker hocking rug. Back on the interstate we went through four toll booths and could not figure out why we were charged different rates at some of them and why some are so close when others are many miles apart. (Well after the roads of PEI, it was worth it!) This was another three state day (alright we were only in New Hampshire for about half an hour) and we ended the day at Salisbury Beach State Reservation (don't know why they call it that) in Massachusetts. This is a beach destination for the locals from
New Hampshire and Mass. and the people at the next campsite have a real Boston accent. When we arrived it was hot and humid but true to the forecast a thunderstorm arrived about 10pm but we were shocked that Mazy has ignored this one and did not leave her den under the trailer table to let us know of its imminent arrival.

PEI

We had a foggy climb up Mt. Kelly as we made our way off the island of Cape Breton and through Pictou county to catch the ferry to Woods Island, PEI. Unfortunately due to road construction near Antigonish we missed the 1:00pm boat and had to wait until 2:45 for the 75 minute passage. These ferries reminded us of some of the older BC Ferry vessels on the shorter runs, like the one between Comox and Powell River or to the Gulf Islands. There was not enough seating inside for all the passengers but that was OK because by this time the weather had cleared and we had mixed clouds and sun so many people spent the crossing outside listening to the fiddle music on the deck.

We even got an escort by small whales (Minke?) into the harbour.

I decided to take the scenic Points East Coast Drive to our campsite at Red Point Provincial Park near the northeast corner of the Island. The route jigged and jogged and although it afforded many views of small villages, harbours, and seashores, it was very slow; made even slower by the condition of the roads. We were to discover that PEI has the worst roads we have encounter anywhere so far, the side roads especially but even the Trans Canada was awful in sections. So after Montague, as the rain began to fall, we decided to forgo the scenic route and take the more direct. However, given the roads, even this was slow so it was close to 7:00pm and teaming with rain with the wind blowing when we pulled into our campground and got soaked setting up. Our site for the night was right on the bank overlooking the red cliffs and the sea. Our first impression of PEI was brought to you by the letter R: Rain, Red dirt, and Rotten Roads.

Although it rained sporadically during the night, we had the sound of the pounding surf to lull us to sleep (just like Maui) and in the morning we woke to improving skies and a walk on the white sand beach.

We had to change sites ended up in the predominantly tenting area a bit further from the bank but still with a front row view of the sea and with some trees for privacy and clotheslines.

In the afternoon we drove the rest of the way around the Points East Coast Route and then over to the Central Coast route. Again the roads ranged from fair to awful but at least we weren`t pulling the trailer over them. The province is known as ``the gentle island`` or ``the green province``. Considering the condition of the roads, I think the latter is more appropriate.

There are farms and lush green hillsides (not very high hillsides, mind you) everywhere you look and then there is the sea. You are never very far from the ocean anywhere in PEI. Every few kilometres you come to a signpost announcing another town or village (which may be no more than a handful of homes/farms) a white church with a steeple and a graveyard. We toured through the PEI National Park but as dogs are not allowed on the beaches in the park we just had a brief walk down to see the dunes and walk in the sand as we could only leave Mazy in the van momentarily as the temperature had climbed to 27C. This area is one of the most touristy with signs advertising cottage rentals all along the route. Cavendish is the centre of this area with the Anne of Green Gables site and Lucy Maud Montgomery's home.

When we returned to the campsite for dinner, we managed to enjoy a campfire until the thunder and lightening forewarned us and we retreated from a short rain shower.

After two nights at Red Point we left the north east and drove down to the village of Belfast so I could visit the Belfast Mini-Mill and Fibre Store. I was able take a tour of the mill which walked through the various processes from washing the fibre, picking it with an automated picking machine that then blew the picked fibre into an adjacent room, to de-hairing (the employee explained this using qivuit), carding, spinning, plying and setting the twist. They also have a felting machine and offer classes in felting that can produce large felt "pictures" as a souvenir of PEI. I didn't manage to leave the store without some mixed batts that included some qivuit. While I was inside, Pete and Mazy explored the farmyard that included sheep, alpaca, chickens, guinea hens, dogs, etc.

From Belfast we joined up with the Trans Canada and had a quick view of Charlottetown and then on to Summerside (in the middle of a power outages- forget about filling up here) to our campsite for the night at Linkletter Provincial Park.

Again this park was right on the ocean with a distant view of the Confederation Bridge and when the tide came in far enough Mazy and I got our PEI swim in some of the warmest water I have experienced. Here even the sand is red. We were surprised to find that our neighbouring campers in a big fifth wheel were from Vancouver and on our evening walk we also met a woman room Victoria.