It has become news to me that anything that is wide enough to accommodate 1 vehicle width is considered a highway in the Maritimes.
Today, we have decided to try to go to Hopewell Cape to see the rocks, even though it still hasn’t stop raining and they have a rainfall warning in effect. We set the GPS and headed out. I first got concerned when the GPS told me to turn down a road that clearly hadn’t been used in years and had a barricade with ‘Road Closed’ marked on it. I had seen a newly paved road when we went to the Fundy Trail yesterday, so I figured it was probably the way. The computer showed a road going around Fundy National Park, and the only other way was to go north to Sussex, so this had to be the right way, even though the GPS was doing everything it could to turn me around and get me back to the closed road. I guess my first clue that we were going the wrong way was when the pavement ended. When the GPS didn’t even recognise that this was a road we knew it was time to turn around.
When we got to the covered bridge we had to decide if we should head back to the campsite to get the laptop for it’s GPS and gas up, or follow what the GPS was saying and head north. For the sake of a few minutes, I chose to follow the GPS. What a mistake. The road once again turned to gravel, but I kept following it. The gravel road got narrower and rougher, but I kept following it. With the heavy rainfall, the gravel road had turned to mud and ditches and ponds were overflowing onto it, but I kept following it. By this point, I had no choice but to follow it. The road was in such poor condition that stopping or trying to turn the beast around on that narrow road would have landed us in big trouble for sure. The GPS kept happily guiding us through every turn – trying to get us to drive through overgrown `shortcuts`to save precious seconds instead of sticking to the main… uh…road. Finally, after 50 minutes of this, we emerged on highway 111, about 20 minutes from the campsite. Now we were miserable. It was cold and rainy, and we were wasting what little time we had getting lost. Not to mention we were running really low on gas. We drove through Sussex and then got on the 2.
We stopped at Tim’s and for gas. Upon further inspection I found red mud everywhere. I had red mud inside the door of the gas tank, inside the doors, in the wheel wells.
Shortly after we saw the sign for the exit with Hopewell rocks on it, so we got off even though the GPS said to keep going. Shortly down this road, we decided that there was no way a major attraction could be down this cow path. We turned back and decided to give the GPS another chance. It took us down a small highway, which got smaller, and smaller, until finally it crossed another highway. We crossed this highway and over a bridge where there was some logging being done, and then we hit gravel again. I had had it. I told Guylaine we were going back to the trailer. By this time we had been in the truck for 3 hours for a trip that was supposed to take 1.5 hours. We turned back and headed to the highway we had just crossed. Luckily, Alex still had all the info he grabbed from the visitor’s centre yesterday and one of the books had a good old-fashioned map. We figured out where we were and how to get where we needed to go and we just went. Finally, we hit the 114 just up the road from the rocks.
We arrived at the rocks at about 5:00pm. (We left our campsite at 1:20.)
Low tide was at 2:00, but we still might be able to see something so we went in. We decided to stop by the gift shop and buy some rain ponchos because it was raining pretty good by now. They had blue or red. Guylaine picked blue. Now we all looked like smurfs. They have a shuttle, which will take you directly to the site for only $2 (per person – on an eight-passenger golf cart – one way. Guylaine asked if they had a family discount and then told the woman at the desk all the fun we had getting here, and she just handed Guylaine 7 tickets – no charge. People down here are just like that. We went to see the rocks and they were unbelievable. The pictures on the Internet don’t do them justice. Even with all the rain and fog and mist they were magnificent. Well worth 4 hours to get here. In the short time we were there, the water had already come up several feet, and it was time to get back to the trailer. This time, we shut the GPS off and used the map. We stayed on the 114 all the way and took an amazing ride through the Fundy Provincial Park. It was free at this time, and we were high up in the clouds and mist. It was really neat. We came out at the same cow path we had original gotten off the highway and turned around at. We could have saved at least an hour. Now, we knew the ride was about 2 hours, we left at 7:30, and the gate for our campsite shuts down at 10:00. And we owe the kids a meal for behaving so well, not to mention that I have no intention of firing up the BBQ at 10 at night. We decided to stop at a pizza place in Sussex and for this one time, let the kids eat in the car. From Sussex to Saint Martin’s is an hour on a narrow winding and very hilly highway 111. But I was determined to get back before 10:00. The fog and mist on some of the corners and hill tops made driving interesting to say the least, especially given the speed I was driving at, but when a moose crossed the road just ahead of us, it scared me enough to slow down and take my chances at being locked out. We made it with three minutes to spare.
When we got back to the campsite we found that the septic tank was very full and would not empty. I worked on it for a bit, and then gave up to help Guylaine put the kids to bed. We worked on it for a while after that by reverse flushing the tank, and finally it let go and everything came out. Now the only problem is the plugged bottleneck I have in the base of the toilet. Hopefully the ride tomorrow will break it up.
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