Landmark Journey 2015: May 27 Into Canada!!

We are actually excited to head out this morning, as we decided to cross over into new Brunswick. We got up fairly early, and after a nice waffle breakfast got onto highway 1 north. We weren't sure whether to follow #1 on the coast or take #9 which we thought might be a better road. #1 it was, but soon realized it wasn't that great; lots of uneven pavement, I think the winter took its toll on some of these older roads; keep in mind this is the furthest northern state and roads, and we could tell. Densely populated so maybe the tax dollars don't stretch this far north in the good old US of A :(.
We detoured a little inland hoping the road was better but not! very narrow with absolutely no shoulder to speak of; the whole trip I do think about the possibility of needing to pull over for a punctured tire or some emergency; these roads to not equate to a safe pullover. Well we finally got to Calais and entered a brand new border crossing which was designed mainly for the trucks as the old crossing couldn't handle the larger vehicles. As we're pulling up to this beautiful facility we were the only ones! The main questions asked were of our liquor on board. We actually had beer still on board which we had bought in Palm Springs; I did notice a bit of a grin from the TFSA officer! Seems he was more interested in "spirits". After indicating I had an open bottle of rum and about 2" of vodka left in another bottle, he was quite satisfied I was not a drug smuggler! When we left baaa haaarbe Miss garmin told us it was a 4 hour drive! I could not fathom that a 130 mile drive would take this long. As we are on the road I kept hitting the statistics on the gps to see how far we were away and still didn't realize one thing; when crossing into NB the time changes. We are now 4 hours later than Langley! DUH!
Now im not sure if because this crossing was so new this affected the condition of this highway, but wow! such a nice road which puts our #1 through the valley to shame. We'll see if this trend continues.
Our spot to stop was St Andrews NB, we found an RV spot (again) right on the ocean.
After pulling in (and my trusty sidekick actually beating me this time to set up) and settling in (you guessed it a small gelaashe wine as our reward for another gruelling day behind the wheel), I unhitched (sounds like our horses!!) the bikes, got our helmets out (we're in Canada now, its mandatory) and headed for the small town of St Andrews. A very cute little ocean front town with neat little shops. We found some cool stuff; wood carvings, trinkets, Caroline found a very nice scarf ; very pretty! :).
We then biked up the hill to a garden which was recommended called Kingsbrae Garden. it was off season, they offered 2 $10 coupons to their on site café plus we had a 50% off coupon, so wow did we Dutch at heart take advantage of this. We were just a little hungry so we scurried over to the eating establishment and ordered a salmon and salad appie with two glasses of Ontario wine. The waitress reminded us that this "café" is rated in the top 100 restaurants in Canada. They even hosted a Trudeau fund raiser last year!
A leisurely stroll through the gardens topped off another good day.

this was the #1 road north to the border, drove this one for 20 miles. you notice I'm part way on the other lane; this was the only way to avoid the ruts and holes on the side of my lane. when another vehicle came along I had to slow down and be careful I didn't go too far right.

ok so I put this one in for my driving prowess. we saw the sign for a rest stop and needed to take a break. Now most rest stops are huge pull thrus with nice facilities. So as we're coming up I see a sign and pull left, not realizing what it actually was. First thought is how the heck am I gonna back onto a highway with semmies zipping past at 55 MPH on a curved stretch?? Well this was a challenge to get this 65' train turned around; but one shot! I was close to the 5th wheel hitting the cab but managed to pull a U-turn to get me out straight. Phew!