Our trip in review so far.........

By the time we got to Asheville for Christmas holiday ,we had traveled a little over 10,000 miles from July 1st thru Nov. 15th, 2010. We have been to 19 states and 4 Canadian Provinces.
 The following is a compilation of" best ofs" and" worst ofs" as we experienced them. If there are two answers it's because we experienced things differently,  go figure.

Best Grocery Store-  Ingles Supermarkets ( They are all over the south and originated in Asheville,NC, who knew we have been spoiled)

2nd Best Grocery Store- Hannaford's ( found in the Northest)

Astonishing  Natural Phenomenon- Tidal Bore in New Brunswick, Canada

Best scenic drive-   Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Best and Cheapest Lobster-  Maine, Maine, Maine, Maine!!!

Friendliest People-  Michigan or Maine

Who smokes the most-    St. John, New Brunswick

Best Fishing- A lake in northern Wisconsin that must never be revealed

Favorite Tree-   Magnolia Trees or for Rob, the tree that he shot his 455 pound bear from

Biggest dissappointment-   Amish Country in Lancaster county in Pennsylvania-(way to commercial, isn't that an oxymoron?)

Best Blue Crab- Chesapeake Bay, Maryland

Best overall campground- South Higgins Lake State Park, Michigan  or Campbell Point Campground, Shell Knob, Missouri

Worst Campground-Tapps Rv Park, Asheville NC.  Not only is it a crappy park but the owner is looney tunes

Best cheese- Vermont white aged cheddar. Rob says Wisconsin

Best beaches- Outer Banks, NC (one side has great waves and beaches you can drive on, other side is calm and both sides the dogs can run free because there are hardly any people)

New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia

New Brunswick was like being in northern WI or MN. The terrain was the same. The city of Moncton is about 30 miles inland from the Northumberland Straight. So this Tidal Bore that Rob told you about is coming from quite a ways. It actually originates from the Bay of Fundy. One of only two places in the world this occurs and this is the only one that happens twice a day . It really is fascinating. Ok, so Magnetic Hill was so stupid. This spot used to be the actual point of magnetic north, but since the poles are ever shifting, that is in Alaska now. Somebody needs to tell these charlatans.
Don't know exactly  what I expected but Canada does definetly feel like an extention of the US. Moncton had the Walmarts, Michaels,Mcdonald's,DQ's, etc. All the packaging of goods sold are different  from in the states, probably has something to do with imports. Gas is a little more expensive, sold by the liter and they call it the "Imperial Gallon" (4 liters to a gallon) so not something you can easily compute right on the spot to compare.  When listening to the local radio stations it's 95% american music. This part of Canada has alot of French Canadians so everything is in English and French.

We decided to take a drive over to Prince Edward Island, mainly to drive the Confederation Bridge and see a little of the Island and say we did. We took Mollie and Bear with us. The bridge is a marvel, it is 8 miles long, a one of its kind in the world. It is only 10 years old, they used to go back and forth by ferry only. What a way to live!  They are obviously still paying for this bridge as we soon found out because to get OFF THE FRIGGIN' ISLAND WE HAD TO PAY $42.00!!!!  Ok I'll calm down, but some lady had told us it would cost $7.00 so we never paid attention to the signs.  It kind of ticked me off since we are on a budget and all and it was my idea, again and well that was a hell of an expensive bridge ride. I did buy a cute t-shirt for only $8.00  to commerate the experience.

It took us another 7 hours to get over to Cape Briton,Nova Scotia, where we are camping. We had a tire on the camper literally BLOW out that set us back a couple of hours and $195.00 to replace the spare. The people at the tire shop were quite surprised that this tire blew like it did. We pulled into camp with just enough time to set up before dark. Nova Scotia is beautiful!! It is what I would expect Ireland or Scotland to look like and feel like. The wind is just whipping, right here where we are camped, right next to the sea. Years ago, about two years before Rob's mom started to go downhill, she talked about wanting to make a trip to Nova Scotia. She, being a Kennedy had some serious Celtic roots. Well this trip is for you Fran.
This area is steeped in Scottish and Irish tradition. It is going to be fun to explore