Day 6 recap:
After checking out from the Hotel, I asked the desk clerk about the time, and realized we
were not in eastern time, we were in Atlantic time, so I did not get to sleep at 2:30, I
got to sleep at 3:30 and woke up at 9. Then later we left our contest winner the other day
in search of Wolfville, Nova Scotia (2 hours away) and hopes of finally getting back on
schedule. That 2
hours turned into 4 hours, so we did not get to the hotel until midnight. I could not
connect with a 1-800, calling card or direct dial. I finally tried dialing by hand and
found out why, there was an operator answering the phone to ask me my room number. It was
not a hotel operator, it was a town operator. I felt like I was in Mayberry:) & :(
Day 7:
We got up at 8 am and had a very nice breakfast and got on the road by 9 am heading for
the ferry 3 hours away. We had a nice drive and got to the ferry on time. But because we
were driving fast to make up time the last few days our fuel mileage suffered to the point
I went less than 600 miles on a tank for the first time in months:(
The ferry loading was awkward compared to the ferry in Victoria in June, the cars loaded
and unloaded in the back, and made like a U-turn plus there was like a spiral parking deck
and the lanes were closer. Sort of like the parking lot at BCBS of Alabama:)
The ferry was cool and fast, it took about 90 minutes to load but less than 3 hours to
make the trip. I had hoped to connect up during the trip and send the post from the
previous day, but they had no phones:( It was also smaller than I expected, but had a
casino for those wanting to play. I
spent most of the time looking for whales. I saw one pod of sperm whales (I was told).
Then we went through a fog bank for about 30 minutes.
We got to Bar Harbor, Maine and Katie just wanted to go to the lobster hatchery. So we
took the dime tour and learned about lobsters. Saw 5 blue lobsters (which are suppose to
be 1 in a million) and a lobster with 3 claws on one hand. Then we headed for our hotel.
Katie did not want to stop & eat, so we stopped and got take out, she got a burger and
I bought a lobster roll. It looked great but messy, so I figured we were just a 30 minutes
from the hotel, I would eat it then. 2.5 hours later we finally find our hotel in Augusta,
Maine. We picked this spot for it's namesake in Georgia and it was on the way.
We went in to check in and they had no record of our reservation. Then we were told our
reservation was at another hotel, just a mere 45 minutes south, in Ellsworth, Maine. It
was only about 8:30 and we were going south anyway, so we got in the car and headed south
on 95. About half way there I had Katie check it on the Trip Maker and we could not find
it. Then we
realized the clerk was wrong, Ellsworth is not south of Augusta, it is north, just next to
Bar Harbor, probably real close to the hatchery we were at just a mere 3.5 hours earlier.
We stopped and called the 1-800 number, they were able to cancel the reservation and get
my free night back, but could do nothing about making another reservation.
Maine does not mark their exits well with hotel/gas/food, like in Georgia which lists most
of the places by name with Icons. We stopped at 2 exits which claimed to have hotels and
there was nothing. This was even more painful, since it was a toll road. At least we still
had plenty of Canadian quarters:)
We drove out of Maine, through New Hampshire and into Massachusetts before finding a
hotel. The clerk was nice enough to give us the room for free after talking to the 1-800
reservation folks about 10 minutes. I throw away my lobster sandwich which was now 4-5
hours old:(
Katie is now washing clothes while I type this very long and boring message. I am a little
tired but more disappointed than anything. Our trip went sour with the broken window. We
never got back on schedule throughout Canada so we saw nothing. We did not even see any
wild life in almost 2000 miles of driving. Show generally no sights at all after Niagara
Falls. The only high lights were the few people we met (Howie, Benoit, and contest winner
Paul). Katie loved the way everyone speaks north of the border. The Ferry was great, it
would have been nicer if you got to get on the bow part and it had phone service. Maine
was a disappointment because of the hotel mix-up.
 The only Canadian wildlife we saw in 3 days:( |
 B & B we stayed at in Wolfville, very nice except phones:( |
 Katie handling the wildlife |
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 On the drive down 101 to the southern tip of NS |
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 The CAT |
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 Old truck Ford? |
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 On the Cat |
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 Captain, "there be whales!!!!" |
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 2 of the 4 jets |
 Roster tail from the jets |
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 The other 2 jets |
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 The bridge |
 Pretty sailboat |
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 Island |
 island through bridge |
 fog over island |
 Sailboat |
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 Blue Eyes in hole of ferry |
 US border |
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 Lobster hatchery |
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 Blue Lobster... |
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 Fort Knox |
 ... but were is the gold??? |
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