Catskill Mountains and New York pt 1

The last week we spent in two fairly magnificent state parks - the Adirondacks and the Catskill Mountains (points for the cool park name there). Both of these are in New York State. The Catskills is quite the remote place, and we saw heaps of deer and even another bear crossing the road. Very peaceful places, although at one stage our GPS sent us on a dirt road over a mountain for 6km, the dodgiest 6km of driving you'd ever want to do in a 3,000kg campervan (we passed a 4WD on the one lane road). Well, we made it at any rate. Lucky as well, because just 150km later we sputtered into Poughkeepsie, the town we planned on taking the train to NY from. So the campervan is spending some quality time with a mechanic while we are in New York.
We've been here for 24 hours so far, and it's a super-busy place. We are staying on Manhattan, up near the northern part of Central Park. We've already taken the ferry to Liberty and Ellis islands (to see the Statue of Liberty).

We took the elevator to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. The view up there was pretty great, but if it wasn't kind of raining and completely cloudy, we think it probably would have been better.



One of the views from the top of the Empire State building.






We wandered around the bright Times Square as well.







Today Dave and Mel decided to go their separate ways and discover different sections of NYC. Mel went on a theatrical 'experience' called The Accomplice. I can't say too much about it (it kind of ruins it if you know too much about it), but lets just say that it is a Mafia-inspired trek through the streets of New York, where participants are introduced to a number of shady characters - and a frog. Mel had a great time and even managed to see a few sights through the clouds. Dave embarked on a massive walk from the South St Seaport all the way back to our hotel - a three hour journey which left him tired, but well acquainted with the city.
Tomorrow brings more shopping. Mel is planning on visiting the big stores - Macy's, JC Penney and Bloomingdales. When in Rome... In the afternoon we are going to meet up with a friend of Mel's from high school (hi Jess!) and then we're heading to the theatre to see 'Avenue Q'. Woo hoo! Here's hoping the New York weather improves so that we can see more of the city.

New England

We've spent a lovely and relaxing couple of weeks back in the States. After handing over all of our firewood at the border (a pest problem they are trying to quarantine), we moved through Maine and then New Hampshire, mostly along the coast. The good news about these places is that the people are extremely friendly and the scenery is beautiful. We've been largely taking it easy, but some highlights included:

- Slogging up a small mountain in Maine; being rewarded with a superb view at the top.









- An awesome campground in Groton State Forest. We went kayaking on the lake and had a swim (the water was beautifully warm). At night steam rose off the lake and the stars were all shining brightly.- Visiting the Ben and Jerry's Ice cream factory today. Hours have passed and we still feel a bit ill.

High Tide

These shots were taken 5 minutes apart (11:43am - 11:48am)

As some people know, the tides are influenced by the moon's gravitational pull on the earth. In some places and at some times, these tides are larger than elsewhere. Due to it's location and geographic peculiarities, the Bay of Fundy, on the southern shores of New Brunswick in Canada, has one of the largest tides in the world.
We visited a day or two ago, and it was quite spectacular. Have a look at these comparison photos to see the difference between high and low tide and note: we were there between 1-2 hours before the extremes of these tides (i.e. low tide was 8:40am, we were there at 10am).

These shots show the same view just 3 hours apart. The shots on the left show low tide, and on the right just one hour shy of high tide.

Campervan Fever

Dave goes postal

Mel goes Toyota

Prince Edward Island

We made it across the entirety of the continent! We are currently on Prince Edward Island, and while it is not the most easterly point in Canada, it is as far as you can get easily and as far we are going. In order to make it from the mainland to PEI we had to cross one of the longest bridges in North America - we think it is the longest bridge across ice-covered waters in the world! It's about 13 or 14kms, so it certainly makes an impact.

Upon arriving at our first campground in PEI, we had a little incident which provided much amusement for the rest of the campsite - we bogged the campervan. Completely. In fact, so far in were our wheels that they were declared "beyond boards" (wooden boards that would have been pushed under the wheels so that they had something to catch on to and roll over). After some very muddy pushing, pulling and sweating, we finally decided to give in and call in the cavalry in the form of the CAA. Inspired parking

A very nice tow truck driver arrived after an hour or so and attached a big steel cable to the car and pulled us out. The campervan was undamaged, although covered in mud, so we were able to just pull into another site and stay the night. Luckily, they let us stay in a different area, so we didn't have to go back and face the three enormous bikers who had stood by and laughed smugly as we were hauled out of our hole.
One of the main attractions on Prince Edward Island is the Anne of Green Gables house. The author grew up on PEI and used the island as the inspiration for her stories. Mel was very excited to wander through the house and gardens as she read the stories a lot when she was a little girl.




Wait, is that Anne? The ghost of Anne? Nope, just Mel.




We were lucky enough to be invited to stay at the potato farm of Shawna and Thys - friends we were introduced to in Australia in January this year. We got the tour of the fields and the cleaning, warehousing and bagging facility. They process a massive 20 million pounds of potatos each year. We had a nice meal tried out some potatoes fresh from the ground! Thanks for some fair dinkum PEI hospitality guys!

On the farm.

We spent a few days on the island, which was a good break from driving around over long distances. We stopped at some beautiful campgrounds, and although regular readers will be sick at looking at secondhand sunsets, the one below was a cracker.We head back to the Canadian mainland for a few days and then we will go back into the States for a while.

Ottawa and Quebec

Maurice National Park - Quebec

We finished driving across Ontario and visited the city we hope to settle in, Ottawa. Both Dave and Mel really liked the city, despite its strange parking laws (apparently they don't need to tell you that there is a parking limit to be able to issue you with a fine). We carefully parked in one of the few streets without parking limitations only to discover the Kafkaesque situation where streets without any parking signs are designated three hour parking only. Of course a non-local doesn't know this, but that doesn't stop the parking officers. Luckily, a visit to the service centre afforded us a tourist exemption. We will be much more careful in the future!
Ottawa was incredibly lively when we were there, with a large restaurant district that meant we were spoilt for choice in terms of eating. We wandered through most of the city area, discovering a great used bookstore that we will be visiting again. We saw the government buildings, the CBD and the university area. We are both looking forward to returning there to live for a while.
Our next stop was Quebec. We visited a lovely national park for a couple of nights and experienced the biggest storm we've encountered. The thunder was so fierce the campervan actually shook! After our rest days in the bush, Quebec city beckoned.



An entirely non-phallic photo of Dave with a cannon in Quebec city.

The tourist section of the city is very quaint and is surrounded by a wall. It's like a mini version of a French town. It is also a very busy place, with tourists crawling out of every doorway. Thumbs up to the maple syrup museum for providing us with free candy. We appreciated that.Tourist zone - Quebec city

Our road trip continues and we are heading towards the eastern-most part of our journey - PEI. We hope to arrive there in the next few days.