From Prince Edward Island (PEI)

My visit in Presque Island was both relaxing and productive. Donna was a wonderful hostess filling me with delicious meals and assisting as I did my laundry. Also spent lots of time catching up with the computer, phone calls and arranging my Newfoundland (I’m told to pronounce NufinLAND with emphasis on Land) ferry rides. I’ll be heading there on July 4 departing North Sydney Nova Scotia at 3:30 P.M. (Atlantic Daylight Time an hour ahead of Florida). I was warned the trip will be longer than normal as they have one of the four engines down and will be repairing underway on the July trips. Anticipated arrival in Newfoundland is Saturday July 5 about 11 a.m. (Newfoundland is ½ hour later than Atlantic Daylight time). My point of arrival will be on the east side closer to St. Johns, the capital. I’m told I may see whales, icebergs, seals, birds or be fogged in during the crossing. I’ve reserved a recliner seat for the trip and I’ll carry my bincoculars, and some food as well as toiletries. The cabins are all taken so this is second best. However I am sure I’ll want to check the waters periodically so being more handy will be good if not restful. My return will be on July 17 so I will have about 12 days which is probably a bare minimum.

Back to Maine. Donna and I toured Presque Isle after visiting the library. While there she received information on becoming a library volunteer. It sounded as though they have a number of activities coming up. That evening her son Chris, daughter in law Sherry and adorable granddaughter Olivia joined us for dinner. Chris worked on my computer and succeeded in getting it to download my email into my mail account. Unfortunately I am still struggling with sending out of the account.
Friday dawned foggy, drizzely and all in all not a promising start for my departure. All secured I departed about 8:45 a.m. after taking a photo of Donna in front of her log house on the lake. I headed for Fort Fairfield, ME where I made the crossing into Canada. The immigration people were very nice and recognized that I was driving a Canadian product (Chevy vans become Roadtreks in Kitchner Ontario). I told him I felt like I was bringing her home and he smiled broadly!
I turned onto what I thought was Canadian highway 2, a beautiful seemingly new four lane with very little traffic. The only sign I saw said 110. That worried me. Where was the “2” sign? I saw more 110 signs. Finally noticed the “Maximum” word above the 110. It was a speed limit in kilometers! I was in Canada. That 110 equated to 65 mph.
I stopped at a Irving Gas service plaza about noon. The gas was 1.375 a LITER. I pulled into the parking lot and cut up an apple to eat with peanut butter and then with a couple of oatmeal cookies added considered that lunch and was back on the road. Earlier in the day the GPS couldn’t locate the road and I had to turn it off. Now though it found me but the directions for heading to the PEI bridge were different than I had planned from the map. I decided to follow the GPS. It was now quite rainy and visibility was more marginal as I approached the coastal areas. Sure enough Greta didn’t let me down and I was crossing the very long bridge or “fixed link” as the area folks referred to it in 1994 when Les and I were here on our sailboat Partnership. Over the bridge (toll is paid on the way off the island) I headed west on 1A for Summerside and after one wrong turn pulled into Linda and John’s driveway.
They have a new dog, Lizzie, a rescue Collie, who was the first to arrive at the door. The house was beautiful as always and it has been great to visit again. Les and I were here in 2004 and John and Linda credit us with insisting they stop in PEI on their St. Lawrence cruise. They did and never left, building this house overlooking the harbor where we all sailed to in the 90’s.
A neighbor Bob joined us for Linda’s delicious dinner. He and his wife have visited Newfoundland in their motorhome several times and he gave me some suggestions. In the morning their neighbor Jim joined us for a bike ride (John thought we did 9 miles!) and he and his wife have visited Newfoundland several times as well, and he also had lots of suggestions as did others who I met. It seems like many here have gone there multiple times. In fact Sunday night we will meet a couple in Charlottetown for dinner who are headed to Newfoundland this summer in their sailboat. Around here what I am doing is more the ordinary than the extraordinary!
The weather is very cool and a lot of rain. We went to a Highland Music Festival at the local College of Piping. Bagpipe bands, scotish dancers, and fiddlers galore making the best of it in the mud. Fortunately they had tents for the venues.
I’ll head toward Cape Breton on Monday, June 30. I’ve really enjoyed all my visiting the last week. Now I’ll be more on my own for three weeks. Hopefully I’ll be up to the challenge.