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October 06, 2006
Summer 2006 - the trip home
Between Amherst, NS and Sackville, NB on the absolute flat of the Isthmus of Chignecto are a multitude of towers supporting the broadcasting facilities for the shortwave radio service of Radio Canada International, which broadcasts in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Ukrainian, and Russian to countries around the world.
Wed. Sept 27th, our destination was the farm of our nephew Jeff at Harvey Station, southwest of Fredericton. To get there we travelled Hwy 2 west from Moncton. It is an excellent multi-lane highway that has been cut through the woods, so except for a few communities there is little to see. No, that’s wrong. There were beautiful autumn colours, brilliant reds and golds among the evergreens and the sun was shining. This picture was taken at a high point on the farm and looks out across Harvey Lake.
My sister Joan moved to Fredericton the first of June, so we spent time with her checking out the city and visiting the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Fredericton, one of North America’s oldest settlements, is the capital of New Brunswick. It was wonderful to catch up with family and we appreciated Jeff and Lori’s hospitality letting us camp in their yard.
One day we headed southwest to McAdam ( it was pouring rain) to see the CPR railway station there. It was modelled after a Scottish castle and was built in 1910 using granite, quarried locally. In the past it housed a lunch counter, dining room and hotel and currently is being restored by local volunteers. At one point in the steam era, the railway employed 1,000 workers in the station and rail yards in the town. The station was on the mainline from Montreal to Atlantic Canada and was also a junction point from the U.S. It is said that Cornelius Van Horne (the great railway builder) who had a summer home on the Bay of Fundy, had this grand station built so that his friends from Boston had a suitable place to stay on their trips to visit him. 
Leaving Fredericton we travelled up the scenic St. John River valley. It is a very large river with great views of farm fields and rolling hills. The sun was out and the clouds made wonderful patterns on the hills.
Part way up the valley at Hartland is what is reputedly the world’s longest covered bridge. It was built in 1921 and is 1,282 ft long. Hwy 103 uses it to cross the Saint John River. Apparently, the life expectancy of a covered wooden bridge was 80 years and an uncovered one is 10 years. I guess this one is now well past old age but with the current upkeep it looks like it will continue for a long time
Further up the valley we stopped to hike and photograph Grand Falls and Gorge. At this time of year the water flow over the falls is minimal as the river is redirected for electrical production.; However, we were told that in the spring, the river fills the gorge to the height of the greenery. I think they said to 60 feet depth.
The cataract is 75 feet high.
We would like to visit in the spring when the gorge fills with water.
We crossed into Quebec Sunday October 1st and decided to head directly to Ontario.
With a stop just outside St. Hyacinthe we came through Montreal on Monday morning. Happily the traffic was reasonable although the weather was quite dull. The Montreal skyline from the Champlain bridge over the St. Lawrence is quite impressive.
We stopped in eastern Ontario for a couple of nights visiting friends and arrived back at the KOA just west of Milton on Wednesday. We plan on staying here until the end of October when the park closes and then will head up to Green Acre Park in Waterloo for the month of November. We expect to be on the road again by the first few days of December.
We are looking forward to seeing our family for Thanksgiving. Mandi and Ricardo arrive from the Bahamas on Saturday and we will all celebrate at Michelle and Barnaby’s house. Can’t wait to see that grandson of ours!!
We’ll be back in touch when we head out again.
Bernie & Ross
Posted by Bernice at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)