Day 27 (September 17, 2009) – Farewell Nova Scotia and On the Beach at Hopewell Rocks

We had one of our longer drives today, 250 miles, from Glen Margaret, NS to Fundy National Park in New Brunswick. Nothing remarkable happened on the drive except getting through Moncton on city streets, with the inevitable road construction. There was a big back up, going the opposite direction, thankfully. I paid “only” $0.954/liter for gas today, cheapest yet. This will be my last fill-up in Canada. We are now camped at Chignecto Campground in the Park. While Paul was parking I saw the dreaded bubble on the side of his left front tire. I guess there will be more on this tomorrow. There was also this little hill from the park entrance up Rt 114 to Chignecto.

After setting up camp we made the 30 mile drive back to Hopewell Rocks Park and walk the beach, uh, mud and rocks, at low tide. We drove the scenic route (915) back north that is a bit longer but gives great views of the coastline. It is very impressive to walk among the formations (flower pot rocks) that are islands at high tide. The bottom and rocks are comprised of soft sandstone with harder rocks, well worn by water/glacial action, interspersed. The mud is milk chocolate brown and sticky. Donna and I were able to walk south around and under the "islands" from the access point into Big Cove, perhaps 1/2 mile. At that point we ran into the sweep patrol herding us tourists back to the stairs off the “beach.” It wasn’t the tide chasing us, but Park closing time. We can go back tomorrow at no charge to see the formations at high tide.

On the way home we stopped at 2 covered bridges and a waterfowl marsh. We did see several black ducks. Back in Alma the fishing fleet was grounded by low tide. The boats have large cages surrounding the propellers and rudder. I wonder what the protective purpose they serve. Several had braces that they lower over the side to rest on the bottom and support the boat to keep it upright.

The others are probably (?) watching TV tonight. Tomorrow will be 4 weeks without TV for us, no newspapers, either. Well we did watch the last quarter of the Giants-Redskins game (?) last Sunday. I guess I’ll get an earful of the “Skins” from Stan, Joe, Dave, and Alex (the neighborhood crew) when I get home. I don’t miss the political B.S. either. By the way, for those that care, Canada has NOT switched to digital TV. The only digital station (in French) was in Montreal according to Harvey.