Day 10 – Heading East

After waking up to a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL vista (my favourite so far), we packed up, grabbed some supplies at the grocery store (including the holy grail of meat products – a roll of Maple Leaf bologna to fry up over the fire!), we headed to the beach and ate some food, admiring the view, before heading out on the road again.

We didn’t really know where we wanted to go in New Brunswick so we opted for a whirlwind tour. First stop – Moncton to see Magnetic Hill! The highways in New Brunswick are strange…you can go 110 km/hr (sweet!), but it feels like you are driving through the forest the entire trip. It’s definitely not like the 401 in Ontario where you have a truck stop every 50 kilometres. In fact, I found there were little to no signs along the way and there definitely weren’t any signs for gas stations! I realized I would have to be conscious of this on the trip through New Brunswick.

We got to Moncton and after a wrong turn towards Magnetic Hill we ended up downtown. We toured around the main strip and got some gelato and I used the wireless Internet to check on some things concerning work while she sat on some Freesmason Temple steps.

We then rolled into Magnetic Hill after paying our $5 entry fee. The scoop with Magnetic Hill is that you park your car at the bottom of a hill, throw it in neutral gear and your car will roll towards the top. Sure enough, we were travelling around 20km/hr at one point UP the hill! It was such a fascinating mystery that we had to try it a few other times.

Fast fact: After our trip, Dad was telling me how it was all an illusion. Sure enough, the hill actually heads downwards but appears to be going upwards! It has something to do with the horizon and the treeline which makes it look like you are going up. I would like to actually go back and walk the hill myself. I still don’t believe that it is an optical illusion!

We found a great little flea market before hitting the road where Vero bought a new pair of sneakers (to replace the ones which were still soaked from Perce Rock) and I found an ancient version of the Clue boardgame (circa 1965) and a tour book of New York City (which would end up helping us immensely even though it was 2 years old).

Hitting the road again, we headed towards Fredericton. We ended up there around 5:30PM and the town had essentially shut down for the evening. We dropped into the tour area and they said the only thing of interest would be the changing of the guard at 7PM. We toured around the main strip, then sat down to watch the changing of the guard which was a good time. There was a concert afterwards but we decided to head for the United States border that night and camp on the other side. Considering there was a timezone change, we figured it would save us time to get on the other side.

After we hightailed it out of Fredericton, Vero made me a great bologna sandwich (second one of the day!) and we almost ran out of gas before strolling into the smallest town imaginable. When I got to the pumps, the gentleman had to turn the pumps on and it wasn’t working! Just my luck. I stroll into the only gas station for miles and it doesn’t work! He switched the pumps on and off again and there was success! He said there was someone coming out to fix it but they were a few hours away.

After getting some helpful directions from him to the border, we headed to the Maine border. The sun was going down fast and I made a decision to just keep going instead of hitting up a campsite (the Yogi Bear campsite!) before the border. This was the biggest mistake of my life.

We approached the border to the United States. He asked us some standard questions like where we were travelling from, where do we live, where do we work. Then he asks if we have any meat in the car.

Me: “Why yes, I think there are a pack of weiners in the car for camping.”
Border Guard: “Oops! We’ll have to take that from you. Hoof and mouth disease, you know.”
Me: “What, really? Alright, well go ahead.”
(Border Guard is going through the cooler in the backseat)
BG: “Hey, look at this bologna! This has to go also!”
Me: (thinking) What the heck?! I forgot about my huge roll of bologna! NOOOOO!
Me: “Really, you need to take that?”
BG: “Yep.” (throws the weiners and bologna in the trash.
BG: “Oh, here’s some pepperettes!”
Me: “HOLD ON ONE MINUTE! I let you throw out my bologna, the least you can do is let me eat those three peperrettes!”

He was gracious enough to let us take the remaining pepperettes. If only I had that option for the sweet, sweet bologna that I was going to fry up that night!
He also threw out a Granny Smith apple which was from South Chile and made a comment about my firewood in the trunk of the car, but he said he would let that one slide. Personally, I wish he would have took the firewood and left the bologna.

He then let us know about a campsite down the road called “My Brother’s Place.” I replied “How convenient that it’s your brother’s place!”. We all had a good laugh.

While the border guard was amazingly nice, I was disappointed with their policies. I mean, if there is fear of hoof and mouth disease (aka the mad cow disease), how would it spread from my bologna? Couldn’t I just sign a piece of paper indicating that I would not feed it to an American? That’s what I’m talking about!

Distraught, we pulled into the campground (which was super cheap) and found out ginormous lot to set up camp in the dark. It was also getting chilly out so I set up a fire while Vero handled the tent. In the end, we sat around the fire while I fried the only meat I had (a pepperette) and drank a few beer. Oh yes, the border guard said there was no problem with my beer. What the heck? Why not take my beer and not my bologna?!

Clearly you can tell that I was very disgruntled about losing my bologna. I think Vero thought it was amusing.

—— (original posting while in Moncton using the wireless Internet)

Moncton has free wireless Internet.

Cool.

I guess I have time to add more to this entry. I’m in Moncton with Vero after a wrong turn towards Magnetic Hill (7th Wonder of the World?). She’s sitting eating some gelato on some Freemason temple steps so I figured I would get some time in to see if work emailed me about some human resources stuff.

Driving along the coast is fun. I find that it goes well with the iPod on shuffle with the Beatles.

Gotta run, Vero’s back. On the road again.