Newfoundland Trip 2025

In the fall of 2022 we toured the Canadian Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec. Unfortunately we did not record that trip using this blogsite and used Facebook instead. In hindsight we have decided that using Facebook was a mistake. We are moving back to this blogsite to record our trips.

We did not make the ferry trip over to Newfoundland in 2022 because it was late in the year and we did not have enough time to see all the things the island had to offer. That proved to be a wise decision for several reasons and one was that hurricane Fiona hit the island. We had to leave Prince Edward Island two days early because of the storm and if we had been on the island of Newfoundland it would have been necessary to ride out the storm. Not something we would want to do in an RV. We are planning to spend 24 days on the island this year and have started this blog to document the trip.

We have reservations for both the short and long ferries and for every campground we plan to stay at while on the island. The ferries we are booked on sail at night and our dog, Buddy, has never spent a night without at least one of us with him. For that reason we reserved a pet friendly cabin on both ferry trips. The short ferry is about 8 hours long and the long one is 16 hours. If you don't have a pet friendly cabin you must leave your dog in the RV or put them in the kennel. You are not allowed to go to the RV while underway. We have been told the kennel is terrible so reserving the cabins where we could have Buddy and also get some sleep made sense.

We will update this blog as we get closer to the time to start the trip.

June 14,2025

We started our journey last Sunday morning, June 8,2025. We have been driving for six days for a total distance of 1700 miles to reach the Arm of Gold Campground in North Sydney, Nova Scotia. A number of years back we decided that driving more than 300 miles a day was more like work than fun and attempted to limit our travel days to 300 miles or less. Even that approach is hard on my 79 year old body when the travel days are consecutive. We reached the Arm of Gold Campground yesterday afternoon about 3:30 local time. As soon as you cross the border into Canada from Maine you are in the Atlantic Time Zone. That puts the time one hour ahead of Eastern time. What will take some getting used to is the Newfoundland Time Zone. Yes, they have their own time zone and it is 30 minuets ahead of Atlantic Time. You learn to appreciate the fact that your cell phone automatically updates the time as you travel.

We have crossed the Canadian border 5 times now and only been searched twice, the first time and this time. The first time was about 27 years ago when we went to Niagara Falls and stayed on the Canadian side. We were driving a pickup truck towing a travel trailer. The guard ask me if we had any firearms and when I replied no took one look at my Tennessee license plate and said pull over there. This time they asked about firearms, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, cannabis, mace, and tasers. When I replied no to all of those I don't think they believed me. What self respecting white headed 79 year old from Tennessee does not walk around with a cigarette hanging from their mouth sporting a side arm. So one hour later we managed to get our passports and keys back and were on our way. They opened every drawer and cabinet in the motorhome and also searched the truck we are towing. They seemed disappointed that the redneck from Tennessee was clean. I am sure they were scratching their heads over the quantity of tools we are carrying. I normally travel with a good assortment of tools but on this trip we have increased the number of tools significantly to include wooden blocks, a bottle jack, air compressor, tire repair kits, and my 1200 foot pound DeWalt 20 volt impact wrench.

Buddy is in heaven. He does not like hot weather and gets very frisky when the temps are cold. On our arrival yesterday the temp was 59 with a breeze. This morning as I write this the temp is 45. On our walk last night he was ecstatic. This campground is immaculate and we could not find any soil or mud anywhere. Every thing is either grass, pavement, or gravel. The property is large and on the water. There is a walking trail that goes down to the water with a view of an interesting church. Here is a photo of the church.

And here is a closer look:

Speaking of the temperatures, I was remiss in not making sure Pam brought a heavy coat on the trip. Knowing the mornings in Newfoundland will be in the forties with highs in the sixties I remembered to ask her about that as we traveled thru Virginia. That is when I found out she did not bring a heavy coat. We have three boat tours booked and a heavy coat is essential while on the water. Fixing my mistake was easy but not cheap. Since we would be traveling thru Freeport, ME, the home of L L Bean, we stopped and purchased her a coat. That cost me.

This morning, June 15, it is 41 degrees. Yesterday, June 14, we had a free day without travel and started the day by checking out the route to the ferry terminal. That had the advantage of a Canadian Tire store being close by. We needed to pickup a few items. For those that don't know, a Canadian Tire store is like a combination of a tire store and an Ace Hardware with a little Five and Dime thrown in. The lady in front of me purchased swim noodles. You can find them all over Canada and our first visit to one was in Whitehorse, YK in 2016.

Buddy is an accomplished vehicle passenger and at home knows all the routes with dog parks and walking trails. When we get close to one of his favorite spots he goes into a state of excitement and expects us to stop. We often avoid a route because we don't want to stop at the dog park. He also listens to the GPS and when it announces "you have arrived" he jumps up and looks to see where we are. We believe he learned this pattern from the fact we often put dog parks in as a destination while we travel. He has become accustom to a vehicle ride each day with at least one stop at a walking trail or dog park. After we left the Canadian Tire he went into his "when are we going to stop" attitude. As we traveled down the main street of North Sydney I could see a green area on the GPS which indicates a park or golf course. As we got closer it became apparent that it would be an excellent stop to walk Buddy.

The park was Munro Park with a boarded walking trail around the park. It turned out to be an old military base from World War I that mainly was occupied by Americans to protect ships from German U-Boats. When I think of submarines World War II comes to mind and I was surprised that they even existed in the first world war.

https://www.saltwire.com/cape-breton/all-about-munro-park-20745

https://tinyurl.com/y9npj7rb

We saw a few pilot whales out in the harbor and Pam stopped to talk the ears off a local man who was watching them. In this photo you can see the daytime ferry to Newfoundland that just left port. There is a senior living facility next to the park and we suspect the man walked over from there. He had a mobility assistance device so don't think he traveled far.

After Munro Park we headed over to travel the Cabot Trail, an all day drive, and did not get back to the campground until 7PM. We stopped at an ice cream store named Mr. Chicken that turned out to be the high light of the day. It sold the best soft freeze ice cream I have every sampled. We even purchased Buddy a cup of vanilla. If you look close you can see our truck on the left and Pam sitting at a picnic table enjoying her serving of soft freeze.

 
Pam concentrating on the task at hand.

After the ice cream stop we made our way on down the Cabot Trail until we reached the Cape Breton Highlands National Park where we had to stop and pay an entrance fee. The Cabot Trail winds along the coast with commanding views of the coast line and The Gulf of St Lawrence.

     The blue dot is the campground where we are staying.

This evening we will proceed down to wait our turn to board the ferry for our voyage to Newfoundland.

We lined up at the ferry terminal about 6 PM local time and managed to be first in line for lane 12. There are many lanes. This is the largest ferry we have been on and they loaded 30 or 40 tractor trailer trucks as well as RV's, cars, and other commercial vehicles. There were two levels with vehicles, level 3 and level 5. Level 5 was all tractor trailers and level 3 was a combination of everything. The crossing was smooth and we could not even detect that we were moving. We had a cabin that allowed dogs. Buddy has stayed in hotels and he thought we were in a hotel room. It was a long 8 hours to get to Newfoundland and at 4:30 am it was daylight. We did mange to get some sleep.

 

Lined up for the ferry.

Our first camp site in Newfoundland:

We have noticed that the evergreens this far north have more elaborate foliage than those in the south.

Mt Washington New Hampshire

On Saturday we left Eastport Maine and drove across the state on mostly two lane roads to the Twin Mountain/Mt Washington KOA in the mountains of Northern New Hampshire. This is a beautiful area with old towns with traditional main streets. All the major roads go thru these quaint towns with two and three story buildings on each side of the street. A few of the trees are starting to turn and we wish they would hasten the process but unfortunately we are a little ahead of the autumn colors. It is 48 degrees here this morning but when the sum comes out the temperature will go to the high sixties. On Sunday we first ate breakfast at a very popular old family restaurant and then drove thru some of the towns. We had to wait 15 minutes just to get in the restaurant and could not park until someone left. The food was worth the wait.

Monroe's Family Restaurant

  

Downtown Littleton, NH

Marquee in Littleton

The KOA is at the western base of Mt Washington. Wikipedia reveals the following facts:

"Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288.2 feet and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River.

The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934, the Mount Washington Observatory recorded a windspeed of 231 miles per hour at the summit, the world record from 1934 until 1996. Mount Washington still holds the record for highest measured wind speed not associated with a tornado or tropical cyclone."

Yesterday, Monday, we rode the COG railway to the top of Mt Washington. You ask what is a COG railway. The one going up to the summit of Mt Washington was the worlds first and commenced operation in 1868. COG refers to the method used to move the train and uses a large gear that mates to a center ladder rail. The only purpose of the railway is to move people to the summit and back down. The average grade is 25 % and the maximum is 37.4 %. The train goes up and down in the same position and the seats are angled for comfort and flipped over for the trip down. Originally the engines were steam powered but now are diesel. There are still two steam units operating for nostalgia but the one we rode was diesel.

Steam powered COG train

Diesel powered COG train

Of course the summit was in the clouds on our visit. We ask one of the employees if there were clear days and she said the summit was in the clouds an average of 300 days a year. In addition to the clouds the summit has hurricane force winds on average 110 days a year. Not a pleasant place and when we got off the train it was 27 degrees with strong wind. I made it to the summit sign but it was difficult to stand up in the strong wind. No chance for a selfie and Pam did not even make the walk up. 

What it looked like when we got off the train

Summit

View from the train once we got below the clouds

Eastport and Lubec Maine

Eastport Maine is on Moose Island connected to the mainland by a causeway. It was once the sardine capital of the world and had about a dozen canneries. Overfishing and the decline in popularity of the sardine decimated the industry and struck a  blow to the economy of Eastport. Before Charleston was dredged Eastport had the deepest port on the east coast. Eastport was incorporated as a town in 1778 and incorporated as a city in 1893. There seems to be no standard definition of a city because we looked it up. Eastport claims to be the easternmost city in the US and that is why we looked up the definition of a city because the population was 1376 in 2019. Eastport also is stated to be the least populated city in Maine. Lubec, a border town just a few miles away is the eastern most town in the US with a population of 314. We personally have difficulty calling Eastport a city but since we do not have a law degree will accept their claim.The Waco Diner in Eastport was established in 1924 and is the oldest diner in Maine. We ate breakfast there on Thursday and then walked up and down Water Street and the port area.

Yesterday we drove over to Lubec. By water Lubec is only a few miles from Eastport but by land it takes 45 minutes to get there. Lubec is connected to Campobello Island, NB, Canada by a bridge and is a border crossing. We wanted to go over and visit the Frankly D Roosevelt  summer home but in addition to a passport and COVID vaccination card, you need to have a negative COVID test within the past two days and we did not have time for that. The Roosevelt summer home is the only home owned by two countries.

Water Street in Eastport Maine

Eastport Harbor, the island center left is Indian Island and the one center right is Campobello Island. Both those islands are in New Brunswick, Canada.

Eastport Post Office

Coast Guard and Border Patrol

Bridge connecting Lubec to Campobello Island, NB

Water Street in Lubec

Welcome sign to Lubec

 

Bath Maine

Bath Maine is on the Kennebec River and is known for ship building. During World War II the Bath Iron Works launched a ship about every 17 days. The clipper ship Wyoming, the largest wooden ship every built (maybe that does not include the Ark), was constructed in Bath. The Wyoming was 450 feet long, 350 feet on deck, and had six masks. It could carry 6000 tons of coal. We rode over to Bath on Tuesday and visited the Maine Maritime Museum which is located on the site where the Wyoming was built. A monk up skeleton of the ship sits on the site where the ship was built. After the ship was completed it was slid down into the river.

Skelton and flag poles representing the size of the Wyoming

Model of the Wyoming

The museum had a section on lobster fishing with a display of lobster trap floats. We mentioned these in a previous post and that each licensed fisherman had a unique float to identify their traps.

Display of lobster floats

Each float has the name of the fisherman

 

Boothbay Harbor Maine

In early February 2020 we were in Florida and friends of ours, Ed and Connie Tilman, convinced us we should join them in BoothBay, ME in August. We made the reservation but after returning home COVID turned everything up side down. The deposit was non-refundable so we had the reservation moved to September 2021. We had not communicated with the Tilman's since February of 2020 and when they did not show up for their reservation at the Tampa RV Show in February 2021 we assumed they would not be in Maine this year. We got to the campground on Wednesday afternoon, September 1st, and had only been here about 30 minuets when to our surprise Ed and Connie returned to the campground from a shopping trip and saw us walking. It was a pleasant surprise.

Boothbay predates the Declaration of Independence and the sign as you enter the area says Established 1764. The area is referred to as the Boothbay Region and consists of Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, and several other communities in the area. The economy today appears to be based mostly on tourism and lobster fishing. We took a boat tour of the harbor and saw many colorful floats in the water. We were informed that they marked individual lobster fisherman's assigned trap location. The floats are unique to the licensed fisherman and no two are alike. Each licensee is allowed a maximum of five traps.

Our tour boat

Float marking location of lobster traps

Boothbay Harbor from a hilltop

There is a walking bridge across the inlet portion of the harbor that was built in 1901.

Footbridge

Inlet view of harbor from footbridge

Seaward view of harbor from footbridge

View of town from footbridge

Street near the harbor

There are a number of lighthouses in the harbor as well as pleasure boats. Boothbay is a popular boating area and there are many pleasure boats of all types including sail boats.

One of several lighthouses in the harbor

Sailing along on Boothbay Bay

  

Kennebunkport on Tuesday

On Tuesday we took a drive along Ocean Ave and stopped to take a few photos of Walkers Point, made famous by George H. W. Bush when he was president and it was used as the Summer White House. President 41 spent much of his childhood on Walkers Point and the property belonged to his matinal grandfather, George H. Walker. When his Grandfather died the property was purchased from the estate by George H. Walker, Jr, Bush's Uncle. When his Uncle died in 1977 George H. W. Bush purchased the property and it has remained in the Bush family ever since. Several of the Bush children have also built homes on the point and the family continues to vacation there.

Walkers Point

Closeup of the house out on the point

Other homes on Walkers Point - notice the two Secret Service vehicles near the gate.

Kennebunkport on Monday

On Monday we made a run to Walmart and took Buddy so he would feel like he got to go somewhere. Walmart is in the opposite direction from Kennebunkport so we stopped back by the motorhome, put up the groceries, and left Buddy behind. By the time we got to town it was close to 1 PM and we were hungry. We are not seafood fans but thought we should at least try some lobster while we are in Maine. Walking down the street we saw a long line waiting to order at The Clam Shack. We thought the food must be good with all those folks standing in line so decided to give it a go.

Standing in line at The Clam Shack

We finally made it to the window and saw the prices. Ouch! So we decided to chalk this up to a bucket list thing and fork over the cash. Long story short $77.06 later we have a clam strip box, a lobster roll box, a small drink, and a bottle of water. The lobster was cold, chewed like rubber, and reminded me of fish bait. The clam strips were warm, but as Pam said, give us chicken any day over this stuff. The best part of the meal was the tiny cup of slaw.

Just past The Clam Shack was a nice view of the harbor from the bridge. There were tons of shops and I waited outside while Pam browsed. Although in one shop she did more than browse and purchased a shirt. We want mention the price but it reminded me of The Clam Shack.

Kennebunkport Harbor

Just down the street from the harbor is a house that is 224 years old referred to as the Aaron Hovey House. There is a plaque below the door with the date 1797.

Plaque below door

Aaron Hovey House

Further down the street and side by side are the Nott House and the Village Baptist Church. In 2020 the Village Baptist Church celebrated it's 200 year anniversary. What is even more impressive is that is the original building. The Nott House was built in 1853 by a local merchant and donated to the Kennebunkport Historical Society when the last relative died. The house contains most of the original furnishings down to the carpet. Pam loves old houses so we took a tour.

Village Baptist Church

Nott house - notice Baptist church next door

Master bedroom. Notice the old worn carpet.

The fireplace in this room is made from Tennessee marble

View from the master bedroom. When the house was built the owners could see the harbor from the bedroom.