Prince Edward At Last

August 4, 2010, Our move into Canada was uneventful.  We headed for St. Martins, New Brunswick, the start of the Bay of Fundy area, with the largest tides in the world.  Heavy fog obscured the view for most of the time we were there but we were able to walk the beach and into the caves which are covered during high tide when the water rises 35-40 feet.  Headed the following day to Hopewell Rocks.

Our GPS was functioning somewhat erratically and the three hours trip to Hopewell ended up becoming a five-hour trip.  The GPS led us astray on numerous shortcuts with roads in serious states of disrepair.  Once, the route was blockaded after traveling 30 miles.  It was not easy turning a 26-foot RV towing a car on the narrow road, but we just chalked it up to another adventure.  On our approach to Hopewell, we had an unusual overview.  There were salt marshes followed by long stretches of reddish-brown sand and then muddy brown water as far as we could see.  From a distance, it looked like a desert with a mirage.  Upon arrival, we walked the cliffs and beach exploring the uniquely shaped rock formations which have been carved by the 45-foot tides.

Linkletter Provincial Park

From New Brunswick, we crossed over the 8-mile Confederation Bridge into Prince Edward Island (PEI).  Finding a campsite 25-feet from the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the Linkletter Provencial Park, we enjoyed a lobster dinner overlooking the water and a gentle sunset.  The 30 mph winds the following day made it perfect for visiting the wind farm in North Cape.  Operated by the Wind Energy Institute of Canada (WEICAN), the trail at the farm is bordered on one side by steep red dirt cliffs overlooking the ocean and on the other by cypress trees, stunted in growth by the severe cold and strong winds typical in this area.  There was an eerie feeling as we walked below the towers (over 250 ft. tall ) with the whish-whish-whish of the large blades.   The windmills seemed alive---large robotic monsters plodding through the cypress forest.  While at the wind farm, we saw a man harvesting seaweed, which is called Irish mossing.  This process can be done mechanically but is frequently done by a mosser with his workhorse.  The seaweed becomes the key ingredient in Irish moss stew or seaweed pie, but more commonly these days the carrageenan, which is extracted from the seaweed, is used in items ranging from ice cream to face cream.