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Wednesday, 27 August

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program of independent Sprinty travel and adventuring.  Breakfast broke u before 9am, and we had positioned Sprinty near the campground restaurant so we would not have to walk back to the campsite.

A beautiful day for traveling , we enjoyed a bright sunny day driving through PEI farms.  Fantasy RV included the bridge toll to cross the Confederation Bridge.  As we crossed, the wind was only about 20mph from the WNW, and we did not feel much buffeting.

We had a 12:04pm tee time to play the Pine course at Pine Needles Golf & Country Club at Haute-Aboujagane, NB.  We selected a tee time after 12pm to take advantage of their summer special of $75 for two persons with a cart (plus tax).  Pine Needles Golf & Country Club has 36 holes, and we we selected the Pine course based on the web description indicating it might not be as challenging as the River course.

When we arrived, we found the parking lot quite full, and learned they did not have a driving range.  A bit concerned on how we would fill an hour before our scheduled tee time, the staff indicated we could probably go off early.  We did some chipping and putting, and were able to tee off about 30 minutes ahead of our tee time.

With several days off from golf and no opportunity to practice on a driving range, we both were just a bit off.  Darrell initially got ahead, but Kris managed to tie it up by the turn.

On the back, it stayed close for awhile, then Darrell got ahead, and his birdie on the final hole sealed it.  We finished in three hours, which was pretty remarkable as we were behind a four-some walking for 14 holes.

Another unexpected experience was that the predominant language has changed to French.  As we have traveled the Maritimes, we learned that they were bi-lingual, but with only a few exceptions, the default language was English.  Signs have been bi-lingual (sometimes tri-lingual reflecting First Nation residents) since we crossed into Canada.  And we have encountered a number of people speaking French over the last four weeks.  When we arrived at the golf course, which was only about 20 miles north of Moncton, everyone was speaking French - the golf course staff and other golfers.  The staff transitioned easily to English for us, so we had no challenges in communicating.  

As we were checking in at the golf course, a group of ladies was in the next room conversing in French.  However, when they wanted to exclaim, they said “Oh My Gosh”, as if it was a French phrase.

Our campground for the night was Parlee Beach Provincial Park Campground in Pointe-Du-Chene, NB, near Shediac.  When we checked in, we had to leave a $10 cash deposit on the gate card to be able to get into the campground.  No early departure (before 8am) tomorrow unless we want to forfeit the $10 deposit.

With a lot of the afternoon left, we decided to go to the Visitor Center in Shediac  about 5km away to see if there were any good rainy day activities nearby or along our planned route tomorrow that looked interesting.  The weather forecast is for 2.5” of rain tomorrow, starting about 8am.  

At the Visitor Center was the worlds largest lobster, commissioned by the Shediac Rotary Club.  It is 10.7 meters in length, 5 meters in height, and took three years to construct.

Back at the campground, we got showers.  At this campground, a five minute hot shower costs a loonie, a $1 Canadian coin. 

Thursday, 29 August

With rain expected for most of the day, we had a slow start.  Our weather apps said the rain would not start until 9am, so we took advantage of the campground laundry facility.  A search of laundromats nearby or along the planned route did not find many, and the reviews of the closest ones were not good.

An unexpected surprise was that the washer was $1.50C (we have been paying $2) as was the dryer.  About the time we finished laundry, it started a light rain.

Our destination for the day was Kouchibouguac National Park located about 54 miles away.  The weather changed our plans to play golf.

While at the Visitor Center yesterday, we learned Moncton was only about 25km away - somehow we missed that we were that close to a large (for New Brunswick) city that had 6 Starbucks stores.  Kris wanted Darrell to pay up for yesterday, so off we went.  The Starbucks was in a large bookstore, like a Barnes and Noble, so Kris browsed for books while we were there.

We then got some steps in by wandering the indoor mall across the street.  After lunch in Sprinty, we started heading for Kouchibouguac National Park via the blue highways.  When we got near the coast, we got on the Acadian Coastal Drive.  The route wandered through small villages along the coast, and took over an hour longer.  With it lightly raining, we had no reason to hurry, and Sprinty returned 20mpg on the day.

There was obvious displays of pride about being Acadian as we saw many Acadian Flags along the way.  Some parks along the way had their benches and tables painted in the Acadian flag colors.

When we arrived at Kouchibouguac National Park, we stopped at the Visitor Center.  No video, but the exhibits told the story of the formation of the land in this area, the history of settlement, and the decision in 1969 to create a National Park and expropriate the land from the 200+ families living within the newly established park boundaries.  Not unlike the Great Smokey Mountain Park story.

Not knowing whether we would have cell service at the campsite (it was 12km into the park from the Visitor Center), we took advantage of available cell service to make a tee time for tomorrow.  There were tee times left, so we will be making an early start in the morning.  The good news is that it is far enough west (2.5 hours) that they are not getting the rain we are.  Our other choice enroute tomorrow, that was closer, is getting the same rain, and had no morning tee times left.

Sprinty has a nice campsite for the night with full hookups.  We even have cell signal at the campsite.  While 500MB/day of high speed data on our Verizon plans seems limiting, while wandering the mall, one of the cell phone providers was advertising 15GB of data/month for $65.  No doubt that was a cell phone plan - a MiFi data plan is likely even more.

Friday, 30 August

With a 2.5 hour drive to Campbellton, NB for our golf today, we were up before the sun.  The rain had stopped, and the sky to the east was looking promising for pretty sunrise.  On the road before 7am, we encountered fog as soon as we got to Route 11, and drove in fog for over an hour, with visibility down to less than 1/4 mile at times.

The drive was through New Brunswick forests, and only through a couple of town.  For the most part, a pretty nice road.  We saw several stretches of highway with moose fences up - a tall fence with one-way gates spaced out to allow a moose to get back on the desired side of the fence.  We watched for moose throughout the drive as there were many caution signs to watch out for moose.

Kris saw a moose by the moose fence - our first moose of the trip.  It happened so quickly, she did not have the opportunity to point it out so Darrell and Sprinty could see it.

We arrived at the Restigouche Golf & Country Club in Campbellton, NB a little over an hour before our scheduled tee time of 10:36.  The pro shop said we could go,off after the threesome on the first tee, and knowing that the day was going to be busy and their not having a practice range, we took advantage of it.  The diets hole was a par 5, hilly, with the fairway sloping from left to right.  Darrell pulls Shia tee shot left, while Kris was nicely in the fairway.  Darrell made par and took the lead.  Kris tied it up,over  he next 4 holes, and we swapped the lead back and forth.  We made the turn tied up.

Darrell made par on the first two holes to take the lead, and kept the lead to have honors on the day (and only losing one ball all day).  We played the 18 holes in about 3-1/2 hours, which was pretty respectable as there were foursomes in front of us.  

The course was set in the hills overlooking Chaleur Bay (Baie des Chaleurs).  Some of the holes offered a view of the bay.  The fairways were somewhat bumpy and we saw a number of unexpected bounces with some of our hits, especially when the ball hit a bare spot.  Some of the greens were in rough shape, suggesting they have a tough winter and short growing season.  It was still fun to play.

After golf, we headed into Campbellton to a Tim Hortons for Darrell to treat Kris to a caramel Iced Capp.  A quick stop at the grocery stores and to fill up with diesel on the way to Sugarloaf Provincial Park Campground in Campbellton, NB.

Sugarloaf Mountain is an ancient volcano and one of the oldest mountains in North America.  The 1,000 foot mountain is claimed to offer breathtaking views, and can be accessed by road our trail.  It has the only lift-serviced mountain bike park in the Atlantic Canada with trails for all ability levels.  The park also has cross-country biking and hiking trails.  Sugarloaf Provincial Park is the second largest provincial park in New Brunswick.

After we got Sprinty settled in the campsite, we went for a walk around the campground and down to the park entrance.  

Sitting out on the restaurant deck, we watched bicyclists come roaring down the mountain trails, then load their bikes on the ski lift to ride back to the top to do it again.