May 7, Detour sign??? Magnetic Hill, Confederation Bridge

We departed NB today, not with out shedding a few tears as we said good-bye to our friends Rick and Susanne.  We cannot even begin to explain how much we care for this wonderful couple.  You are forever friends and in our hearts for a lifetime.

Just a few miles from Rick and Susanne's we arrived at some road construction. They had signs to say they were working but none that said the road was impassable and that we should detour. Our only option was to back up about a mile, uphill and around a corner to take the unmarked detour.  Well, Peter is amazing, he kept it straight and steady and slowly Zac and I helped lead him back to the road we could travel.  Thank you Lord for taking care of us always!

Unfriendly foreman

Detour!

 Along the way we stopped at the famous Magnetic Hill where your car will freewheel backwards UP a hill. Because we were the only one’s there, we did it over and over again, with both Peter and then Zac giving it a try in the Jeep

 Confederation Bridge is the link to Prince Edward Island.  Wow! It is truly an unbelievable 8 miles/13 Kms long bridge.  If the wind is too strong they won’t allow you to cross it, thankfully the winds were not too strong today and we made it to the island.

Again we had to ask to park at an RV park that was still closed for the season. The KOA at Borden, PEI was gracious enough to allow us to camp there.

May 6 -Canoe, Water Colours, Turkey Dinner

We had a very relaxing day, with Zane & I canoeing with Kelly (Susanne & Rick’s friend and neighbor).  Our mission was to canoe across the lake to rescue the buoy that went missing from its location during the winter.  Success!  Buoy rescued and great fun and a bit of exercise getting it too!

Genesis was blessed with a fabulous art class in watercolor painting with Susanne.  Zac worked hard on school. 

Peter ran into Fredericton to retrieve some important mail that we had redirected to Schapansky’s.

To top off a great day, we had a dinner with turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and the works, including pumpkin pie too!  Wow!  Thank you so much Perly and Sharon for your amazing hospitality. 

End product of art class. Beautiful!

Sunset at Oromocto Lake

Grant & Lynda Schapansky

May 5, McAdam Station, Rotary, Ganong Chocolates

McAdam Station

We drove to see McAdam Station in New Brunswick.  It was the largest train station east of Montreal and was built entirely of granite. It is now a museum, restored as it would have looked in the early 1900’s. Because a cargo  train was repositioning cars we took the opportunity to add to our pressed penny collection by putting some coins on the track and having the train drive over them.

I love it when God just works things out that are unexpected!  We arrived at St. Steven’s to go to our next stop and passed a sign for the Rotary Club and believe it or not their meeting was going to start in 20 minutes!  So, we all went to the Rotary meeting.  They did not have a special speaker this day, so Peter was asked to talk about our Rotary club in Lloydminster and our families travelling adventures. 

We’d been wondering about the viability of going to Newfoundland as most of the campsites were still closed as well as one of the ferries that crosses from Nova Scotia. We asked at the Rotary meeting and the common advice was that because we only had about 8 days to make the trip we should try it some other time. We were thankful to finally settle the matter.

After Rotary we headed downtown to the Ganong Chocolate Factory and toured their facility, heard the history of the business and learned how they make their chocolate.  And of course sampled ALL of the free chocolates along the way!!  Yummy!

As we continued to tour around we went St. Andrews to the Algonquin, a hotel built by CP back in the early rail days. Once we had admired the Algonquin we went out to the ocean and walked out onto the rocks that were poking up from the sea bed. Being land-lubbers we didn’t notice the tide coming in and just barely got back to shore before we would have had to get our feet wet. LOL

Algonquin Hotel

St. Andrews at low tide

Seafood Chowder

Blockhouse, Army fortification

Ouch!

May 4 -Harvey Baptist Church, Bathing Miss Daisy

We attended church with Susanne, as well as Perly & Sharon,  at the Baptist Church in Harvey, NB.  We were greeted with warm welcomes and enjoyed a luncheon after service.  Wonderful people and great conversations!

After church, Genesis helped Susanne give Daisy a bath and bake some dessert. Zane helped Rick and Peter build some shelves for the motorhome.

Zac pulled out his keyboard and set it up in their house.  He played for Susanne and then Zac and I sang together for her too! 

Rick’s mom and dad came over for supper tonight, what a pleasure to meet these two and spend some time with them!  The hamburgers and homemade fries were awesome!  The hospitality and love we have been shown is wonderful and we so appreciate God allowing us the to get to know Rick and Susanne Nason.  We love you guys!

May 3 -Rick, Susanne and Daisy

Daisy

We had a wonderful day just spending time with Rick and Susanne and their dog Daisy!  I was able to get some laundry done and Zane and Genesis were able to have a bath in a tub for the first time in months.  It is these little things that we often take for granted at home that we so greatly appreciate. 

May 2 -Schapansky's

We took the car today and headed into Fredericton, NB to get our phones sorted out with Telus.  

My first coffee in Canada,
Caramel Corretto from Second Cup 

We had lost touch with former pastors from Lloydminster, Grant and Lynda Schapansky

By coincidence ?!? Peter ran into their daughter Kristen, a few years ago at an orphanage in Mexico. He didn't recognize her, but  through a random conversation, she recognized him.  Back in the early 90's, we used to stay at their home in Saskatoon to attend moto-x races.

We contacted Grant and Lynda through Facebook after not having seen or spoken to each other in over 20 years. Grant is an Army Chaplain, and they now live in Fredericton, so we made arrangements to meet them for supper at Boston Pizza.  It was so amazing to catch up with them and hear about their family! They have 3 children, all of whom are engineers. 

After supper we arrived back to our motorhome, which was parked across the road from Rick and Susanne’s and they had left us a note to join them at Perly and Sharon’s.  So, we all headed up the road and had an enjoyable evening visiting and snacking on goodies that Sharon had prepared.