Fantasy RV Caravan - Day 26 & 27

Tuesday, 27 August - Day 26

Today, our last full day of the caravan, was designated as a free day to explore Prince Edward Island.  Rain arrived during the night, and it rained pretty steadily all night.  We woke up to drizzling rain, gusty winds and cool temperatures.  A good morning to relax in the comfort of Sprinty.

We had hopes of golfing while on Prince Edward Island, but neither of us is particularly fond of golfing in the rain.  Initially, it looked like we might be able to play in the afternoon.  But the 12pm weather forecast called for periods of rain ending around 5pm.

Having hit the main attractions on Prince Edward Island, we decided not to venture out.  Reviewing the things to do in the area on PEI, we both felt we had fully met our quota of Anne of Green Gables-themed things.

We got invited to go to lunch for Neapolitan pizza nearby, but we had already eaten, and needed to save room for the farewell dinner at 6pm tonight.  

As the afternoon passed, we experienced passing showers and some gusty winds, making us glad we did not get out on the golf course.  Darrell spent part of the afternoon compiling the blog posts from the last six weeks into Word documents to make PDF archives, taking advantage that most of our caravan mates were out and about and thereby relieving the WiFi traffic.  Still quite slow, but with the wind and rain, he had nothing better to do.

Kris enjoyed her books.  After the rain let up, we got a walk in around the campground.  

The farewell dinner was catered by the Marco Polo Land Campground.  The owner, a Dutch lady named Henne, shared some history about the Marco Polo Land campground.  The property used to be a dairy farm, and like a lot of other nearby properties, was used by Lucy Maud Montgomery for the book Anne of Green Gables.  The barn near the front of the property is apparently original, and would have been on the property when Anne of Green Gables was being written.

The campground was opened 60 years ago.  The name is taken from the clipper ship, Marco Polo, which encountered a gale off Prince Edward Island, started taking on water, so the captain ran her aground near Cavendish, PEI.  The ship was carrying a load of timber, and salvaged wood from the Marco Polo was used in building some of houses in the area.

Today, the campground employs 61 people, with about 50 of them seasonal employees.

Dinner was a festive affair featuring steak or lobster.  The mood was very jovial, and it was obvious the group was having a great time.  

One of the main tropics was the Tropical Cyclone Warning.  A tropical depression off Cape Hatteras is expected to become Tropical Storm Erin, and bring high winds and rain to the Maritimes late Thursday and Friday.  A caravan of RVs arrived today from the ferry crossing, and the ferry was shut down after they unloaded.  Another caravan of RVs was supposed to take the ferry today and were not able to cross on the ferry.   While many in our caravan plan to depart PEI tomorrow via the bridge, some had planned to stay a day or two longer, and there is concern the Confederation Bridge might be closed due to wind.  Of course, that all depends on the track of the storm, which, like hurricanes, is somewhat unknown.  Fortunately, the campground owner said there would be spaces until Friday if weather delayed anyone’s departure.

Wednesday, 27 August - Day 27

The final event of the 27-day caravan was the farewell breakfast, also catered by the campground.  Some of our caravan mates skipped the breakfast as they needed an early start having various commitments requiring them to put in a lot of miles.   We were grateful that our travel plans for the day were a lot more modest as we transition back to independent Sprinty travel and adventuring.

Most of the caravan stayed for breakfast.  After we said goodbyes, Sprinty and the rest of the caravan headed out on their next adventures.

Sprinty enjoyed the Fantasy Rv Tour caravan to the Canadian Maritimes.  Fantasy RV made all the arrangements for campgrounds, tours, and activities.  For Sprinty, there was enough flexibility in the schedule, especially on travel days, to take Kris and Darrell golfing.  For almost four weeks, Kris, Darrell and Sprinty got to sample the “must do” things in the Maritimes.  Sprinty made a bunch of new friends, and now has a dozen invites for sleepovers should he be passing near at one of their home bases.  Lake Placid, FL; southwest North Dakota; Georgetown, TX; Gilbert, AZ; and Indio, CA to name just a few.