We left Bay City Michigan Saturday, 9 hours and 460 miles later we landed in Rhinelander, WI.
We skipped touring Mackinaw island because of the weather and crowds. We will put that on our list for next year.
From Rhinelander to home was an easy 3 hour drive on Sunday.
We left September 4th and arrived back home on October 7th. 7,131 miles.
We camped at Canadian National parks, provincial parks, private campgrounds and a few Walmart's.
We visited or just drove through Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York.
In the Maritimes we drove along coastal roads whenever possible, of course this added a few thousand miles, we experienced more of the culture and small towns and villages.
Just a few of the memorable highlights.
Nothing matched the sheer rugged beauty of the Gaspe peninsula from Quebec city north and around to New Brunswick. Froillon National park on the north end of Gaspe was our favorite camp spot.
Cape Breton and the Cabot trail, Bay of Fundy and the Hopewell rocks, wow!
All of the fishing harbors and the fishermen that we met. Prince Edward Island beaches and Ann of Green Gables place (Lorraine really liked that)
Acadia National park and Bar Harbor plus the view from Cadillac Mountain.
Niagara Falls and the night light show. Lots of other stuff. Learning about Acadian Scottish Gaelic history in the region and historical conflict's between France, Britain and the USA was very educational. Early North America settlers and immigrants left a history that is recorded in museums and towns.
We really were fortunate to have met some really nice people along the way. I now like sea food chowder, lobster I'm still not sure about. Our blog has a lot of pictures from the 6,000 that Lorraine took. She also documented the trip in a detailed diary.
We averaged 11/mpg for the entire trip. Fuel prices varied from $2.86/gal in the USA to $3.99/gal in Canada depending on location. (that's converted from liters and figuring in a exchange rate difference of 25%) A USA customs official interviewing us after we crossed from Niagara Falls to Port Huron asked if we stopped anywhere and I said yes, to buy gas he said, "What! you bought gas in Canada?"
I responded "We got lost. That's nothing we just spent a month in the Maritime's buying gas!"
"Welcome back", he said.
We intentionally wanted to take our trip after labor day when kids etc.
returned to school and before the major crowds arrive for leaf viewing. That worked out it wasn't crowded and most of the attractions, campgrounds and parks were still open.
Lorraine and I lived in a twenty-three by eight ft by eight ft camper and the front seat of our truck for almost Five weeks. We got along great with no major arguments.
Our beloved dog Maggie an eight pound Rat Terrier passed away a few weeks before we left. She had traveled thousands of miles with us over sixteen years. This time we brought her ashes with us in a small container wrapped in her favorite blanket, lying in her favorite bed, in her favorite spot in the truck. It was sad but nice at the same time.
That's it for now.
See you down the road somewhere.
Bob and Lorraine
Rhinelander had the best leaf show of the whole trip
Wow, that was quite the adventure, so many sights and cool things to see. I bet it is good to be back home so you can hit the water for some of those late fall monsters!
ReplyDelete