Day 20 – Friday Sept. 20th 2013 – New Brunswick.

After sleeping in much too long (again) we found we were out of coffee! Yikes! That’s just one more reason that camping at Wal-Mart is a good idea so off I went to get some good Nabob coffee.

Its cool and cloudy here this morning, much different than it was when we rolled in last night. We are slow getting going today it must be something to do with our age?

I can’t understand why we get so tired as all we do is sit there in our big comfortable captains chairs watching the scenery and the miles go by? But we are tired.

At this point we have put on 3578.0 miles.  For you Canadians out there that’s equivalent to 5724.8 kilometers. Soon we will need another oil change!

Our hope is to make it up to the Miramichi today and in particular over to Bay du Vin where Barb’s Mom was born and raised. We will leave the Motorhome parked somewhere in Moncton and make it a day trip in the Honda. That will save money on gas.

GAS PRICES:

I was surprised on the gas prices here. I thought they would be higher.

They are at $1.25.9 per liter for regular. For our American friends that works out to about $4.75.9 per US gallon! Still an ouch!

We filled up the motorhome with gas in Maine hoping we won’t need to buy Canadian gas while up here but I’m not sure that we will make it? Yesterday we managed to only average just under 8 miles per gallon.

Someone recently asked me how much I have been paying for gas on the trip. Since being in the USA the highest we have paid is $3.79.9 a gallon and most often we find it in the $3.50 to $3.65 range.

I still believe all in all, it is cheaper than a hotel room every night and if it isn’t I do want to believe that! The other advantage I use to justify this crazy expense is that we get to sleep in our own bed every night and use our own bathroom with out packing luggage twice a day up and down stairs at hotels. J

Its 930 pm Atlantic time and we just got back to the Wal-Mart campground where we left the motorhome today. No one bothered it and she was all-secure.

Earlier today we ventured about 1.5 hours up the road to Miramichi and Bay du Vin where Barb’s Mom was born and raised. We found the home with no problem. 

The home where Barb's Mom was raised.

We found it much easier than we thought!

Bay du Vin, New Brunswick - A beautiful area!

What made it nice was that the home appears to be well loved to this date and it backs onto the bay, what a nice spot. It’s a small acreage on a quiet road. We took plenty of pictures. It was really neat to see where she spent her early years!

After that we headed up to where the Memorial was for the Fishermen lost at sea in here in 1959. A hurricane blew in on June 19^th and 35 men were lost at sea. One of them was Barb’s Grampa (Barb’s Mom’s Dad) and the other was her uncle (his son). Their surname was Kingston and you maybe able to see that in the photo. 

Middle row at the top, The Kingston's - Grandpa Clifford and Uncle Windsor.

A short story on what happened that fateful day in 1959.
Fishermen have one of the most dangerous jobs known to man.

Barb at the Memorial site.

We were able to buy some fresh cooked Lobster at the wharf there as well.

Nothing better than some freshly cooked Lobster for dinner! Hmm!

We toured around the area a bit and visited Miramichi as well.
It says on the sign there its Canada’s Irish capital. Unlike when we visited another Irish area in Chichester NH, everyone here seemed to be over 4 feet tall!

The famous Miramichi area!

The countryside here is heavily tree’d almost everywhere except for in the yards, on the acreages and of course on the ocean. At dusk there is a large risk of seeing Moose in a way one doesn’t want to meet with them. There are warning signs everywhere and one lady told us it is very much a true risk on the roadways. So we did drive home to Moncton quite cautiously.

FRENCH.

As of tonight both Barb and I are fully bilingual now.
After reading all the French signs and me doing things to the pronunciation of their language I’m quite sure they would be horrified. When in the stores and gas station today in most places we stopped they spoke to us first in French, then English once they realized. I really do have to say that I like the sound of their language but in reality probably really don’t understand anymore of it than before we arrived here.

In my day as a youngster in Canada we had to learn French in school for 3 years from Grade 4 thru 6. Unfortunately I remember very little of what they taught me.

Being a naive westerner I was surprised by how much French there is in this province. I knew for sure it was bi-lingual but thought most of the French was closer to the Quebec side of the province. Boy was I wrong! 

Most of the signs are bi-lingual and some of the private businesses are just in French. I have no problem with that in fact find different languages and cultures to be quite interesting. The people have all been very friendly.

All in all a very good day and interesting too. 

We still don’t have Internet so you won’t be reading this until long after we have moved on. Tomorrow we are moving on. I thought we were going to PEI for a day tour in the car but now Barb says we are taking the motorhome and the car and heading to Nova Scotia! So in normal context for us we again have no idea where we are going or when? 

I guess you will find out once you read the next post.

I would have loved to add in Newfoundland and Labrador as well. 

But as we only had a limited amount of time that trip will have to wait until another time. It is a long ways from here to both of those places and one forgets how big Canada really is. It is huge!

I may have mentioned earlier that we were going to also visit Niagara Falls and Quebec City but had to cancel on both of those as well. 

Just not enough time. Perhaps if we would have left on August 1^st instead of September 1^st this could have happened.

As of today we have 17.5 days left until we fly back home to Calgary so time is of the essence. You might ask “why are you flying home Jim?”

We have a wedding to be at and I have a medical appointment that I have to attend as well. So we will fly out from Charlotte, NC on September 8^th and be home for about one week. 

After that we return to North Carolina and the journey continues!

The only thing I didn’t get to do today was eat some good French Poutine! I am saddened however I’m also one to think positive and I’m sure that tomorrow I should be able to find some. 

If you haven’t experienced Poutine yet you are in for a real treat. 

The real French Canadian Poutine is french fries, gravy and melted cheese curd. Some places mess it up by using cheese instead of cheese curd so don’t be fooled. 

If you live in Canada and perhaps out west my favourite Poutine is at KFC (I don’t think KFC has this in the USA?). I'm sure it is an insult to the French but I love KFC gravy!

TIP of the DAY: Try Poutine - it is good for your arteries too :) !