After packing up and saying good-bye to our Georgia family, we started off on our 2-month trip to the Canadian Maritime Provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Neither of us have been to this part of the continent, but my folks enjoyed an Elder Hostel in Nova Scotia and raved about what they saw and learned. Now we get to see what they saw, but first we had to take the long 4-day trip to New Brunswick.
First stop was a South Carolina welcome center just over the Georgia/South Carolina state line. We’ve been here many times because of our annual trip to Cashiers in the fall to see the leaves changing colors.
Second stop that day was at the North Carolina welcome center.
This drive through North Carolina was on the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of the most beautiful drives in the eastern part of the U.S. with so much history. Here are a couple of signs at the welcome center about the state.
“Ancient landscapes enchant the eye and age-old traditions warm the heart.” This is a National Heritage Area.
Highest mountain, deepest gorge, oldest river, most visited National Park lands, Cherokee heritage, largest home, roots of music, handcraft traditions, and delicious food from local farms—what a wonderful place to visit!
3rd state for today, we can’t wait to come back to Virginia!
We spent our first night on the road in a Walmart parking lot outside of Roanoke, VA. A thunderstorm welcomed us to the area. The scenery we saw is so different from where we live and where we’ve traveled. It’s so easy to forget how large and different our nation is.
Day 2
On day 2 we continued on the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove through the Shenandoah Valley, names we heard about when we were young and were finally getting to see. We saw lots of beautiful farms and huge warehouses along the highway. A few of the trees are starting to change colors.
Here are some of the countryside views we saw while in Virginia.
view across the highway while at a rest stop
land looks so lush and productive, and the farms looked prosperous
We kept seeing the West Virginia state line on our GPS as we were driving through Virginia and finally got to spend about 20 minutes in this new state.
and only about 10 minutes in the northwest corner of Maryland
And then we made it to Pennsylvania, the Keystone State. Why that nickname? A keystone is the center of an arch and is an architectural design. The name came from Pennsylvania’s geographical location among the original 13 colonies (remember the constitutional convention in Philadelphia?).
We spent the night in another Walmart parking lot just north of Scranton.
Day 3
We passed through 3 more states today on our way to Canada. We try to avoid interstates and toll roads as much as possible. Takes us a little longer to go this way, but the countryside we get to see makes it worth the effort.
1st state was New York
The state is really trying to crack down on texting while driving so provide places to text at the rest stops.
texting room at the rest stop
even had a cafe—new one for us!
This map of New York shows its different regions; we’re in the Southern Tier right now. New York is certainly more than New York City!
Great description of all the vacation regions in New York.
Indians, traders, and settlers all called this area home over the years.
2nd state of the day was Vermont
Our favorite town was Wilmington, Vermont, so quaint. Reminded us of The Newhart Show and the Stratford Inn.
The back roads of Vermont and New Hampshire were such fun to explore.
Our 3rd night on the road was spent in another Walmart parking lot just north of Rochester, NH. So glad for these parking lots that are available because Sam Walton loved camping. But 3 nights with only the water we carried with us and a generator for power makes me long for full hookups at a campground. At least we got to enjoy this apple cake.
A recipe from our friend Susie in Raleigh. We made it at home and are enjoying it on our drive.
Day 4
One more state, a border crossing, a campground name we can’t pronounce, and the end of a second audio book from the library—what a day!
We had a great drive across Maine through lovely small towns.
We stopped just shy of the border for a final fuel top off so we got to see this sign showing us that the border is just ahead.
Border crossing—can you believe we didn’t have to wait in line? Most of the agent’s questions were about us and why we were visiting, where were we going, did we know anyone, and do we have any firearms. Barney had to give up his mace, but bear spray was okay.
We had read and watched a number of blogs about what can and can’t be taken across the border, and even looked up the information on the internet. So I had made a list of all the foods that could have been suspicious for taking into Canada in case they asked. We threw away the final veggies, fruits, eggs, half & half, and lactose-free milk. But the agent didn’t ask us any questions about food! The only real issue for us were the eggs and the half & half for our morning breakfast. A quick trip to a grocery after we set up solved our problem.
We made it—our first campground in Canada! Full hookups and great WiFi. We’re set.
campsite
We put a Canadian map on our RV for our travels and added New Brunswick. Canada is so big, and where we are is so small.
The maps are the same scale, but the land mass for Canada is so much larger than for the U.S. that we were shocked—we didn’t realize there was such a difference! Wish we had thought about this before we put on our U.S. map so Canadian map could be above it.
Once we set up our RV for a 4-day stay here, we looked at each other and agreed that we were glad we were “camping” again and felt like we were “home”!
This is our view as we step out of our RV. Isn’t it lovely?
We can’t wait to explore New Brunswick; bet you are too!
