Adventure Time!

 Being cooped up for a long time we decided to go on an adventure again. One of the Fundy islands is Grand Manan. Compared to Campobello, "grand" says it all, as it is much bigger. GM, as everybody here calls it, is 35kms long and has still around 2000 islanders call it home. In order to get there we had to cross the border to Maine, drive along coastal route US1, cross borders again into Canada and mfollow Trans-Canada Highway (TC1) to the turn-off to Blacks Harbour, from where Coastal Transport is operating 2 ferries connecting GM with the rest of the country.

In order to have some ready-made food for the journey, I had prepared a delicious potato salad and BBQ'ed sausages to go with it. Bea had made nice meat patties and we sure were looking forward to it.

After carrying tons of stuff from the house to the trailer we finally were ready at 8am.

20kms down the road, well into Maine, the van begun making strange noises. Strong vibrations seem to come from underneath and a rumble emanating made us stop. A walk around the rig didn't show any signs of wrong. But the problem continued down the road. 

After we noticed a strong small of burned material, another stop was made by a lake. This time I touched all wheels. The last one was the right rear and I quickly got my hand off of it. It was extremely hot. So here I had the reason for the rumbling and vibration. A seized up brake caliper was causing it. In order to cool it down I got some water in a pot and splashed it over the wheel. It was sizzling hot and steam came off it. I had to do this several times to cool it down.

At low speed and with no or very little braking we made across the Saint Stephen border and to a GM-dealership. Fortunately they were able to fix it within a couple of hours. But while we were still waiting in the trailer, we thought of having lunch. "let's have a sausage and some potato salad I suggested and went to the fridge.

Looking for the potato salad I did not see it anywhere. What the heck? 

Now it dawned on me that I had forgotten the potato salad, the sausages and the meat patties, and even bread and milk in the fridge at home! What a stupid thing to happen!

So when the van got out of the shop I quickly drove to the food store to buy replacements for forgotten food items.

After our lunch we could finally continue our trip towards the ferry. Of course, we got there too late to catch the 1:30pm ferry, so we had to wait 3 hours for the next departure. But see, that is the beauty of RVing. You got the comforts at home right there with you. Relaxing in the rig and taking Dixie for walks made the time go by. The ferry terminal was filling up quickly 1hour before departure time. 

The trip across to GM was the best one could wish for. 

     Waiting for the ferry at Blacks Harbour

The "Misses" on board

We went to the outside deck and enjoyed a calm and sunny ride. To the east we were passing along "The Wolves", a group of uninhabited islands, and to the east we saw over to distant Campobello Island. 

It was around 7pm when we landed on GM. As we had stayed here before, last September, we had no problem finding the Provincial Campground. The office was already closed, but we followed instructions placed on the door and found a great site. We were reasonably tired after the excitement of the day and retired for a good nights sleep.

When I woke up this morning, sun was already out and after some coffee and breakfast, I took Dixie along for a very nice walk on the beach. A fresh breeze cleared my head, while Dixie had found a plastic bottle and was burying it in the sand. Dixie has a great memory. From the moment we arrived yesterday, she took the lead on the trail. She knew exactly where we had landed. 

The campground is not busy yet. A few permanents and maybe a few bird watchers is all we can see.

We are booked for 5 nights and are happy to have some change of surroundings.