Fantasy RV Caravan - Day 2

Saturday, 3 August - Day 2

For a nearly full campground, we were delighted to have as quiet a night as if we were Boondocking out in the wilderness.  It was as if everyone went to bed at 8pm.

Today was a scheduled transit day.   Normally, we use Google Maps for our navigation assistance even through Sprinty has a built-in navigation system.  The user interface on Sprinty’s built-in system is nowhere near as user-friendly as Google or Apple maps, so we rarely use it.  However, even through our Verizon cell plans include talk, text and data while in Canada, data is limited to 500MB/day.  To conserve data, we plan on using Sprinty’s navigation system while in Canada.

As we researched golf options along the route, we had a choice of two nine-hole courses in Maine, and one 18-hole course once we crossed into Canada.  We put the golf course in Google Maps (since most of the day was still in the U.S.), and the campground in Sprinty’s system.  Both routed us a more direct route than the trip log provided by the tour organizers.  No doubt the recommended route was big rig friendly, but we decided to drive as we normally would if we were traveling on our own, so before we left the campground, we were already deviating from the organizers’ instructions.

As we were up early (did you know sunrise comes earlier in Bar Harbor?), we decided to go ahead and get on the road.  As we departed before 7:30am, we checked out via FRS radio with the Tailgunner (one of their instructions), but left well before the Wagonmaster who was scheduled to depart at 9am.  So before 7:30am on the first travel day, we had already deviated from the organizers instructions twice.

As we followed the more direct route to Highway 9, it was a typical blue highway that Sprinty travels a lot on.  It even had a real centerline (not all the roads Sprinty roams have line painted on them).  It was a little twisty and very bumpy, which we might not appreciate if we were driving a big (and wide) Class A diesel-pusher with a Toad (towed vehicle).  

When we turned east on Highway 9, we appreciated much better road conditions.  Much smoother most of the time, and there was a section near Calais, ME that had just been replaced.  Not much to stop for from Ellsworth to Calais, ME.  As we traveled along, we wondered if the terrain and forest resembled that in British Columbia, and would be representative of what we might see traveling to Alaska.

When we got to the intersection of Highway 9 and US 1 on the southwest side of Calais, we joined the crowd filling up with gas/diesel.  Diesel was $3.02/gallon compared to $1.27/liter in New Brunswick (about $3.75 US at currency rate).

Once we topped Sprinty off (who was nice enough to get 19.3mpg this morning, in part due to a brisk tailwind), we headed for the border crossing.  We made the crossing into Canada last year, had read up on what you can’t bring into Canada, and vicariously experienced many other border crossings via other RVers we follow on YouTube.  At the orientation meeting yesterday, they provided additional tips:

     (1) The usual: no guns, no mace, no pepper spray, papers for any pets, have or declare any cannabis, etc.

     (2) Only answer the question asked.  Do not offer additional info/explanation.  Only provide documents requested.  Do not provide anything else.  If you do, then they suspect you are hiding something, and will likely do a thorough search.

     (3) Do not wear dark sunglasses - take them off for the border crossing.

     (4) Tell the truth, and expect they put notes in their system, so tell the same truth at subsequent crossings.

We rolled up to the crossing with only three cars in front of us, so we waited maybe three minutes.  Standard set of questions, and we were on our way in less than 2 minutes.  In crossing the border, we entered Atlantic Daylight Time, which is an hour ahead of Eastern Daylight Time (so we lost an hour).  Canada is also on the metric system - so distances and speed limits are in metric, as well as bridge clearance heights.  But our trip log directions are in miles.  So we will be working on our on-the-fly metric conversions for the next month.

We then headed for St Stephen Golf Club in Oak Bay, NB (east side of St Stephen).  There were more cars in the parking lot than we expected from their on-line tee time system.  But as we looked around, most of the golfers were already on the back nine.  We are developing an opinion that golfers in Maine and Canada do not like to golf when it is hot.  Golf courses seem pretty empty by mid-day when it is, for this region, considered hot.  We were able to get right on.

Without our customary warm up on the range, we both hit good first tee shots.  We stayed within a shot of each other until Darrell made back-to-back birdies on holes 8 and 9, to make the turn 4 over par and two strokes ahead.

Kris took the lead with a long lag putt on hole 11 for birdie, while Darrell’s ball went for a hike in the woods.  Kris followed up her birdie with four consecutive pars and appeared uncatchable.  Darrell just focused on executing good shots, and wound up tying on the back nine to remain two strokes up on the day.

After golf, we headed for the campground about 30 minutes away.  As we entered the outskirts of St Andrews, eagle-eye Kris spotted at Tim Hortons.  Darrell remembered from last years trips that Tim Hortons had a Caramel Iced Capp which was similar to a Frappuccino, so we stopped so Darrell could pay up.

When we arrived at the Kiwanis Passamaquoddy Park Campground in St Andrews, NB, the Wagonmaster had everybody pre-checked in and was out at the entrance to tell us which site we were assigned.  Sprinty got assigned between Tom and Diane with the Leisure Travel Vans Unity (Class B+) and Bill and Lyn with the Roadtrek Popular 210.

After we got Sprinty settled, Bill and Lyn next door were getting their chairs out and told us there was a happy hour gathering going on a few coaches down.  After we took a short walk around the campground and admired the amazing oceanfront location

we retrieved our chairs and joined the group of 9 or 10 couples for happy hour.  Interestingly, all of the group were first-timers, and half were in the smaller rigs.  We enjoyed getting to know our caravan-mates better.  We even worked out a swap of the visor in our welcome packet (neither Kris or I like visors) for a ball caps (neither Bonnie or George like ball caps).  A win-win.

We learned that most of the caravaners got stuck in a long traffic backup due to an accident on the designated route.  We missed it, either due to our early departure or alternate route (or both).  When we shared that we had stopped to play golf, several others were quite jealous.  Seems there are some golfers amongst some of our caravan mates.

After dinner, we enjoyed the campground showers.  Probably among the fanciest showers we have ever seen in a campground.