Massive Tides in Fundy Bay, New Brunswick

We got off the barge in Portland, Maine without incident and after stopping for a propane fill, drove to Freeport to visit the LL Bean flagship store. After a great time browsing, we left quite a bit poorer and drove to stay the night (Friday August 7th) with Peem, John’s niece and Laura’s sister. Peem was recovering from knee surgery so hadn’t been able to come to the family gathering on the island. We were happy to see her and spend time catching up. Very sadly we received the news Al, her dad passed away that afternoon. John shared some great stories of Al and John’s sister Caroline from when they first met. They both created a loving family of four children, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild, what an amazing legacy!  

Saturday August 8th, we drove to Bass Harbor, on the Acadia peninsula for two nights. We enjoyed a late afternoon walk to Bass Harbor lighthouse and waited until past sunset to get photos of the lighthouse. It was a magical walk in the dark back to the campground listening to the crickets.  

We were ready to head to Canada! After an overnight stop half-way we arrived in Calais, Maine the afternoon of Tuesday August 11th. Right on the Canadian border it was perfect to pick up an antibiotic for John due to a suspected tick bite. Thanks Dr Deb for calling in the prescription as a Lyme disease precaution! 

Our first stop was New River Beach Provincial Park in New Brunswick. It was a wonderful massive sandy beach and a sunny afternoon, so we headed to the beach so Sara could swim. To celebrate our first night in Canada we had fish and chips at the Gull and Herring right next to the beach. What a great first day!

We were slowly driving along the Bay of Fundy, an area known for rugged coastlines, massive tides and the Acadian Forest, a highly diverse, critically endangered mixed-wood ecosystem in Canada's Maritime provinces. At most of our campgrounds we saw northern conifers like red spruce blending with southern hardwoods like sugar maple and yellow birch. We planned to spend four days working our way up the coastline, ending at Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park to see the massive rocks which can be explored at low tide. 

Since we follow the “no plan plan” and only book sites a few days ahead, we have to take what is available. Most of the time it works out great, and our next stop was one of those gems. We were staying in a new Fundy National Park campground called Lakeview. It was small, the sites were large and private, and Wolfe Lake was stunning. Sara enjoyed an afternoon swim and paddle board and we both enjoyed views of the lake and the amazing reflections in the water. 

Thursday August 13th we woke to another beautiful day and Sara paddle boarded round the lake, which was smooth as glass early in the morning. The cats enjoyed exploring the trees and grasses around the campground and we finally left for our next stop early afternoon. Most campgrounds have a checkout of 11am which we are really bad about missing, thankfully so far we haven’t been scolded!  

We explored a little on the way to the next campground, only 25 miles away, and deeply regretted taking a narrow twisty road. It’s hard to drive the van on these roads and Zeke and Flash have a tendency to get car sick if there is too much bouncing around.

Friday was our day to visit Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park where you can see massive rocks in the ocean at high tide and also walk around them on the ocean floor at low tide. That day high tide was around 2pm and low tide around 8pm. We arrived in the afternoon and took a golf cart to the viewing area; best use of $4 per person ever vs the 45 minute walk each way carrying cameras! The Bay of Fundy has one of the highest tides in the world, with 160 billion tons of water moving in and out of the bay every 25 hours. This is about one year and nine months of water from Niagara Falls! The tide changes by about 46 feet vertically and two football fields horizontally and due to the massive drop the ocean floor is exposed at low tide. 

After exploring the views at high tide we returned to the RV for the rainy afternoon. Luckily by 6pm the rain stopped and we could return to the viewing area and walk down to explore the ocean floor! It was a lovely evening, and we enjoyed walking around the base of the rocks and the views from the ocean floor. The park guides were very friendly and informative, and we learned the high tides are caused by the shape of the bay, which is deep and wide at one end and narrow and shallow at the other end. It was a memorable day and we were glad we had seen both high and low tides.

Our campsite that night was at a horse ranch which had a small campground and excellent facilities. Sara found this location via iOverlander, a site that is very useful for finding free boondocking locations and more unusual camping sites. It was a wonderful location, close to Hopewell rocks, peaceful and even better had horses! In the morning Sara walked to the stables area and was early enough to see the 20+ horses being brought in from the field. She enjoyed chatting to the owner, whose family had owned the ranch since the 1950’s and eventually turned it into a riding and lodging facility. It all started because one of the son’s had polio and started riding as therapy to recover. 

It was a wonderful end to our time in New Brunswick. Time to move to Nova Scotia and connect with John’s eldest son John who was visiting a friend.

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Magical Chebeague Island

We arrived on Chebeague Island on Wednesday July 29th for a magical week exploring the island and hanging with family. Chebeague Island is the largest island in Casco Bay, Maine. About a 15-minute ferry ride from Yarmouth, Maine, or an hour from Portland, Maine, the island is about 5 miles long by 1.5 miles wide, forested in the middle and with sandy beaches and rocky coves. It has around 360 year-round residents, and a summer population of about 2,000 people.   

John’s niece Laura and her husband Geoff live on the island year-round. John’s other niece Tina and her husband (John Jorden) spend the summer on the island with their daughters Catarina, Lucia and Ana who were enjoying a break from college/school. Their sons John and David are working and visit when they can, along with many other family members who pop in to join the fun. This year our great-niece’s Julianna Stanford and Cici Stanford were staying with Tina for a few months. 

In the 19th-century "stone sloopers” were sailors and shipwrights who used custom built sailing ships to move massive granite blocks quarried in the Maine area down the coast for major US landmarks like the Washington Monument. The "Sloopers" built what are now historic homes on Chebeague island and John Jorden’s parents had one of these homes where he spent his summers. Tina and John now use this house during the summer, and it has a large barn attached to the house where everyone meets in the evenings for dinner. 

We setup at Laura & Geoff’s house which was perfect, a outside patio, fire pit, plenty of shade and a delightful outside shower. The cats loved the area, very quiet and lots of areas to explore. We settled into what became a pattern for the week. Exploring during the day, followed by a wonderful family dinner prepared by Tina every night. We spent the next five days cycling round the island, swimming and relaxing. We have always heard Tina talk about the island being a summer paradise and it was wonderful to really experience it ourselves. 

Sunday August 2nd was a big party day to celebrate both Laura’s birthday and her daughter Caroline’s birthday. Laura’s son John and Caroline and niece Caroline Fernandes came over from the mainland for the celebration. We spent a delightful afternoon in the barn eating great food & birthday cake and chatting with everyone. John Jorden’s mother Shelia lives on the island full time, and we really enjoyed getting to know her. Connie who is Tina's aunt was visiting for a few days with her granddaughter Riley, so it was quite the family gathering.

Laura and Geoff had to leave on Tuesday to travel to Madeira island, Portugal as Laura's father was very sadly close to passing. We drove them to the ferry and sadly waved goodbye after a wonderful week together. 

We really made the most of our last two days before our barge pickup on Friday August 7th. Both days we got up early and Sara went paddle boarding. First up was Hamilton beach a lovely sandy beach cove close to Tina's house. There were many terns diving for fish and it was delightful to sit on the board and listen to their calls as they flew around before diving into the water. That evening we were treated to a magnificent lobster dinner at Tina's. John Jorden and his son (John) are both lobster fisherman, and the lobsters were caught and delivered by son John that morning!

Thursday was all about the sea. We started with a paddle board from the boat yard, driving there with the board sticking out the back of Laura's "island car". Sara paddled out to Crow island and explored the pools visible as the tide went out. That afternoon son John treated us to a personal tour in his lobster boat. We went out to where John Jorden was working pulling lobster traps. We saw the whole process of hauling the lobster traps, removing the lobsters, throwing back the small ones and then re-baiting the trap and putting them back in the sea. Not an easy profession!  We met John's girlfriend Whitney who had been out the day before as the stern person helping her grandfather pull traps. Maine folks are very tough! We finished off with lunch at Erica's Seafood a fabulous classic waterfront seafood shack located just across the water in Harpswell, Maine. What an amazing day!

Friday was departure day, and we drove to Bennett's cove for our 7:30am barge pickup. Tina, Lucia and Julianna came to wave us off and it was quite tearful to leave after such a wonderful visit. We were nervous again because the beach looked pretty rutted, but Brian got us loaded no trouble and we were back off to the mainland. 

Family Gatherings - Click here for the photos

Around Chebeague Island - Click here for the photos and videos

New York State Biking and Barging to Chebeague Island

We sadly said goodbye to Robin and Vinnie on July 23rd and thanks to them left beautiful Pennsylvania with a fully functioning RV! We had originally planned to drive to Niagara Falls, but cancelled due to the RV issues; we will visit in the future. We now had a few extra days and could take our time heading through New York state. We still had over 700 miles to drive before arriving in Portland, Maine for our barge reservation to Chebeague Island. 

We drove north to Chenango Valley State Park, New York for the night and then stopped at Stysh's Brown Barn campground, Boonville which is 70 miles north east of Syracuse. The campground used to be a diary farm, and is now a large campground mostly for seasonal renters and ... a large brown barn rented for events. The area is very rural and peaceful and we had a great site in the trees which the cats loved. The next morning (Saturday July 25th) Sara took all three cats for a walk. Zeke and Rocket spontaneously started to run up the steep wooded hill, with Rocket shooting up a tree and then jumping across to another tree. We certainly named him correctly! Flash decided to also join us, all three exploring up the hill with their leashes trailing, and waiting for Sara to untangle them. We spent an hour exploring, except for Zeke who found a log to sit on and watch out for unsuspecting prey!

That afternoon we rode up the road 1/2 mile to the Black River Feeder Canal path. The canal was completed in 1855, connecting to the Erie Canal and still holds the world record of 109 locks. It was a peaceful ride through the woods and fields, with some scary obstacles and surfaces at the many rural road crossings. We were relieved to return to the campground unscathed!

We had a lovely drive to Meadowbrook campground outside Lake Placid. We were now fully in the Adirondack mountains of New York, and it was a beautiful drive past lakes and through small towns. We loved the campground which was grassy and surrounded by trees. Even better there was direct access to the Adirondack trail, the reason for our stop. We went for a quick ride that evening and rode to Lake Placid. The trail was amazing, past lakes surrounded by trees on a wide crushed stone surface. It was definitely our favorite so far. 

The next day (Monday July 27th) we rode the trail in the opposite direction, past Saranac lake and almost to Lake Clear. It was stunning scenery, past lakes covered with lilies and over bridges all while listening to the many birds in the trees and on the water. We ended the day with bar-b-que and shrimp at the restaurant right next to the campground. What a great day!

The next day we left early for a long hard drive to Portland Maine. The first 120 miles to Bethel, Vermont took over three hours on steep windy roads, including a road closure and subsequent diversion. Between the rain and tense moments we did enjoy the beauty of Vermont and plan to explore more on the way back. We stopped in Bethel for a fuse to replace the one that was preventing our solar from charging the batteries; and then got on the interstate for the next 180 miles to Portland, Maine.

Wednesday July 29th was barge transfer day to Chebeague Island. We arrived at the east end boat ramp early as our ability to get on and off the barge was dependent on high tide. We were nervous because our RV doesn't have great ground clearance and we didn't want to get stuck or rip something off the undercarriage. We were using Lionel Plante, a local company who specialize in moving large vehicles between the mainland and the islands. Our boat captain Amery and his loading assistant Brian did a great job getting us on the barge without any issues. There was a comment of 'hope we can get you off ok on the beach at Chebeague", which we thought was a joke. Turns out we were actually driving off the barge and onto the beach at a small cove! Everything went great and Laura (John's sister's daughter) and Tina (John's brother's daughter) were there to greet us. It was the start of a magical week with family and enjoying island life which will be the next update!

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Summer 2026 - Maine and the Canadian Atlantic Provinces

For our summer trip this year we are adventuring east for a change. Our first big stop is Chebeague Island just off the coast of Portland, Maine to stay with our nieces and their families. Our plan is to take two weeks to drive the 2,400 miles from Texas to Maine, stopping along the way visit friends and ride our bikes on famous hall of fame rails to trails rides. After a week in Maine we will explore the Canadian Atlantic Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland for a couple of months. We are ending the trip in mid October in Charleston, South Caroline at John's Citadel college reunion. Should be a fun trip exploring a totally new area for us both and what is now three black cats! We adopted Rocket from our RV Tech in Houston and he did well on our short Texas trip in April.  

We left on Monday July 13th and after a quick overnight in Oklahoma arrived in Boonville, Missouri. Our first ride was the Katy trail and we started early due to the heat. It was a very  enjoyable riding under shady trees, thorough a tunnel and alongside rocky cliffs and the Missouri River. We were having a lovely time until John got a flat tire about 7 miles from where we had parked the RV. We changed the tire but had a failure with the both our portable CO2 inflaters. We were standing there in the sticky heat being attacked by bugs when a guy from Austin stopped to assist and pulled out a tiny electrical pump - definitely getting one of those!  Feeling more optimistic we started  back and John got another flat tire! Out of options we started walking, until some more folks stopped and shared a manual pump to inflate enough for us to complete the remaining 2 miles. Turns out John had a tiny thorn in his tire that caused both flats. We were glad to get back to the campground, get a cold shower and relax after the 27 miles. 

We had realized on our first night we had a water pump issue which we thought was just air in the system. After some troubleshooting we determined we had a small leak in the water pump itself which needed fixing. We also had an inverter that wouldn't turn on unless we had electrical service at the camp site. Needless to say when we left Missouri on Thursday July 16th we were rather stressed!  We stopped in Columbia for extra bike tubes (can’t find our backup spares) and plumber putty to try and fix the water pump leak. It was long drive mostly on Interstate 70 to Indiana before we arrived at Summit Lake state park. 

The next morning we drove 10 miles to a trailhead and had great bike ride on the Cardinal Greenway trail. The trail was wonderfully paved, so no thorns, and very shaded by trees curving over the trail, so cool temperatures. We really enjoyed seeing the rolling farmland and fields of never ending corn and soybeans. The cats enjoyed exploring the trees and nature area before we all got hot and headed back to the campground for some air conditioning. 

We left Indiana Saturday July 18th and spent a delightful evening in Cincinnati with Sara's friends Ronny and Mike. They are great hosts and it was wonderful to spend time with them. We had shipped the fancy miniature electric bike pump and a new water pump to their house, so if our application of JB Water Weld didn't fix the leaking issue we could install a new pump.

After a relaxing morning with Ronny & Mike we set out for our next stop, driving through Ohio and briefly West Virginia before arriving in Confluence, Pennsylvania about 80 miles south east of Pittsburg. It was a really pretty area, very green with rolling hills and lots of trees. We had a great evening ride and were all relaxed until we got back to the RV and found we have an electric issue when connected to the campground power, and the water pump fix didn't work! The electrical issue was getting dire as no power from either batteries or when plugged in was a showstopper.

The next morning the core of engineers repair guy determined our 30amp campground pedestal was worn out, so yeah not our RV! We had a wonderful ride on the Great Allegheny passage trail, a crushed limestone surface, flat and shady running alongside the river with trees full of singing birds. The temperatures were much cooler and the cats enjoyed getting out of the RV to explore. We spent the afternoon calling some RV techs, using ChatGPT for troubleshooting and the multimeter to confirm voltages. We think the inverter issue might be corrosion on a post and a blown high current fuse. Hopefully we can fix these issues at our next location. We decided to skip the two days in Niagara Falls, in case we needed to stop in Philadelphia at an RV service center. 

Our next step was with Sara's friend Robin and her husband Vinnie who live about 50 miles north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Sara worked with Robin in England when Robin was living there for a few years. They had lost touch for a while and it had been 30 years since they last saw each other. We had a wonderful time catching up, and enjoying the peaceful town where they live. We had no idea Pennsylvania was so pretty, full of rural communities, lakes, rivers and forests. Definitely worth a more detailed exploration in the future. 

We had planned to explore the area the next day (July 22nd), but really needed to work on the RV issues. Turns out Vinnie used to work for Thor RV building RV's, and was an expert at fixing problems so he and John spent the day working while Robin and Sara caught up on 30 years of life! The inverter issue was related to a corroded post and blown fuse, and after a lot of effort the connection was moved to a new post and voila the issue was fixed!  After installing the new water pump we ended the day with local ice cream - the trip was back on!

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