Finding a high spot

A high point of our summer road trip was the Fundy National Park in New Brunswick. Lots of people with campers,bikes and hiking gear. We were not doing any of that, but I'd love to come back again and really dive into this park instead of driving through it. The people are friendly and in fact, the biggest difference between there and the states is the friendliness of the people. There seems to be a lot of old guys with big camper trailers. One other surprise, the old guys must love old American muscle cars, they are everywhere and get lots of attention. Has Canada been settled by retired autoworkers?

Getting Directions

Bah...I've got a cold, no voice, but I can enjoy this trip regardless. I love the people of this region, everyone has been very nice and welcoming. I think that I'm so far away that none of these folks will have met a Florida person before, when I find out last night the lady working the counter at our hotel is from Clermont! How do you end up in Sussex, New Brunswick from Clermont?
One of the things that really has me smiling is getting directions. Everyone is helpful, but the directions sound like something from a joke. I'm in a relatively rural place and nobody ever knows street names. It goes something like this: go to the bridge and make a 'shop' left, a 'shop' left mind you, and then follow that road for a ways and look for a little pull off on the left. Or: Take hwy 1 to the flashing light, go behind the Chevy dealership and make a 'shop' right at the railroad tracks....I'm usually laughing before they finish the directions because my brain is unable to hold all of the details. We finally found our hotel last night after asking directions twice...the dang gps is useless and my phone has no data, so we are really doing this trip old school with paper maps and asking locals for help. It did help us find the secret 'Jasper Beach', which was a find that many Maine people probably never get to see!

Damn the allergies, full speed ahead!

Well, it's feeling more like a cold, but Pam got it almost exactly when I did. I overdid it biking one morning and feel like this is the payment for it. It's not keeping me from enjoying this trip though. Everyone is nice, the traffic is easy and the scenery is constantly changing. I still can't get over how, like the northwest, I'm finding really cool people in very rural places. I'm used to thinking rural equals redneck hicks, but that is not the case here. I can only believe that the people that are here are here by choice, escaping the big cities, not stuck in small town poverty. This moment, I'm in a little 12 room hotel on the side of the road, with giant windows overlooking the water. 50 steps away is a really good old diner, where I had the best ever "Haddock burger" last night. Besides the cold/allergies, the only problem on this trip is too much good food. While standing in the diner last night I heard a reference to bikers coming from all around to get their strawberry pie, so after ordering a piece of that, I found that there is a really cool trail, right next to the hotel...I'm leaving to go explore that now....