Lupine land

Hardings Point Landing, NB – We’re back on Canadian soil, eh? With Tim Hortons coffee sloshing in our bellies already! We’ve done some grocery shopping now that we won’t have to think about border crossings for a while, so we’ve stocked up on eggs (no bird flu there) and other fresh foods.

Last night in Canaan there were more lashings of rain and claps of thunder that happily subsided by the time we were looking to fall asleep – although after our long day an earthquake might not have roused us let alone a few low rumbles.

A fresh-washed morning greeted us with clear skies and warm temperatures as we took to the road once again, joining the I-95 north just east of Canaan, and then later on switching to US-9 toward St Stephens, New Brunswick.

As we had seen further west throughout New England, any rivers or streams we passed were swollen with water, some nearly to the edge of the highway. Big puddles were stunting the growth of the early corn in some parts of farmers’ fields. But Mother Nature seems done with the wet stuff for the time being, so we’re not complaining.

We negotiated several exits and exchanges around Bangor, Maine, before joining Highway 1 toward St Stephens. And, just before we ran out of US highway, we spotted a gas station with diesel fuel, so we purchased one last dose of cheap fuel. It cost us about 73 cents a litre in the US, where here we saw it selling for $1.13. Worth a short stop!

The Canadian customs at St Stephens went very smoothly, and soon we were enjoying the well-paved, wide TransCanada Highway with lovely vistas of open sky, rolling pine-covered hills and glimpses of coastal waters on our right.

I tried several times to capture shots of the tall pink and purple lupines growing by the roadside, using the sports setting on my camera. The flowers weren’t racing, but our speedy passage guaranteed a blurred shot at any other setting.  None of my efforts was very satisfactory, but when we stopped for groceries there was a beautiful clump of lupines by the parking lot which are my photo pick of the day!

Our campground tonight is on a small peninsula across from Grand Bay and Westfield, just northwest of Saint John, and to reach it we had to take a five-minute ferry ride. Fortunately we’d checked the website of the campground and were relieved to see photos of huge RVs and fifth wheels driving off the ferry, so we knew our little rig would fit. We pulled up to the queue just as the ferry was loading and were invited aboard in no time, plus the ride was free!

We are on a hilltop site with views of the Saint John River below, but there’s no wifi here, so I’ll have to trot down the hill to the office and make use of its hot spot to post this.