Well, I’m a bit behind in entries of GNAT 09 – the Great North American Tour 2009, so in the essence of time I thought I’d combine the last 3 legs into one post. So, grab a coffee or glass of wine or snack even ‘cause this one is loooonnnngggg (don’t say I didn’t warn you!).
When last we left off some of us were eating pie for breakfast, as evidenced here:
The next 3 legs of GNAT took us through some of the most picturesque countryside I’ve ever seen…and a LOT of crappy weather!
But I’m getting ahead of myself. On our departure from the Hershey Inn & Farm (operative word here is FARM) we took a brief tour through Pennsylvania Dutch Country where we encountered traffic:
Not to mention foggy farmland
And industrious young men working the fields
From Pennsylvania we wound our way through the Pocono Mountains, home to Bushkill Falls, the “Niagara of the Poconos.” I kid you not, this is the marketing slogan some genius has come up with to promote these
I’m not sure if their marketing person has ever been to Niagara Falls, but the last time I was there and this is going back some oh, 30 or more years, Niagara Falls was a LOT bigger than that! I know we’ve got global warming and such to worry about, but if Niagara Falls has evaporated to this size, I’d say the apocalypse can’t be too far behind.
On into New York State we meandered in and out of rain. Long about this time, the Thai salad I had for lunch, combined with my snack of raw almonds and dried cranberries jump started a severe case of IBS (warning: here comes TOO MUCH INFORMATION – IBS stands for irritable bowel syndrom). My poor husband not only had to navigate the highways and byways of New York State, home to some of the most aggressive and reckless drivers this side of Montreal but he also had to make a pit stop at every single NY State Rest Stop along the way. My compliments to the civil servants of New York – you keep a mighty tidy Rest Stop and I should know given the amount of time I spent in them!
Finally! Leg 6 concluded in beautiful Mystic, Connecticut – a seaside port town tucked into the north-eastern tip of the state. And what a state it is. I now understand why all of those New Yorkers have country homes in Connecticut; it’s just so picturesque, quaint, beautiful and any other adjective you can find to describe the fact that Connecticut really does look exactly like it’s portrayed in all those movies…like “Mystic Pizza”.
Okay, we chose to stay in Mystic, CT because our wedding song was “Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison and all the way to our Leg 6 destination we kept saying tonight we’re going into the mystic. I know, we’re total nerds. But romantic nerds if you ask me. Anyway, the other reason for going to Mystic is my love of the movie Mystic Pizza, featuring the breakout star – Julia Roberts. Seriously! This was her big breakout movie before Pretty Woman way back when.
And enjoying a little slice of heaven
But perhaps the highlight of the whole Mystic, CT experience was the fact that this guy was in town making a movie and I got to take his picture!
Okay, I confess, I didn’t actually meet Owen in person…but I feel like I did because he sat on the wall and watched me eat my Mystic Pizza and if that isn’t a personal relationship…well, I don’t know what is.
The next day we embarked on Leg 7 of GNAT which included a brief detour to Newport, RI, home to an Egyptian Camel Farm.
You can afford to be a tad bit eccentric in your landscaping.
Newport, RI is home to the mansions of America’s Guilded Age and boy was that age ever guilded. Mansions belonging to Astors, Vanderbilts and other masters of industry dot the peninsula leading down to the sea. If only we’d had time to spend and actually tour the inside of some of these houses…but you always have to have a reason to go back somewhere and someday I hope to see inside some of those homes.
But, in the meantime, we had tracks to make…up through Massachusetts, back through Boston and on to New Hampshire, where thankfully, there was no re-enactment of The Thing That Happened from New Hampshire to Boston on Leg 1 of GNAT!
By now, we’d been in and out of rain for two days and don’t think that Mother Nature gave us a break. No siree, jimbob.
We mustered on to Maine in the rain. Now, ordinarily, I think plenty of people think Maine is a pretty, enchanting, scenic state. But those people clearly don’t live in Canada, home to the Canadian Shield and northern Ontario cottage country where we have perfected the art of rugged landscapes and coastlines. In Maine the people of those lovely, charming, quaint coastal towns have mastered the art of the money grab as those once quintessentially Maine coastal villages are now merely one tourist trap after another.
So for us, Maine “mainly” looked a lot like this:
We spent a lot of time in Maine, constantly consulting our map to see when, if ever, it would end. Thankfully it did, in the rain and fog right at Calais (which if you’re Canadian you pronounce Cah-LAY like the one in France, but south of the 49th Parallel it’s pronounced Cal-liss go figure).
Leg 7 of GNAT concludes here
A charming bed & breakfast on the outskirts of historic St. Andrew’s by the Sea.
Man were we tired. So, despite our earnest intentions before GNAT09 of staying up past 9 o’clock every night, instead, we were in bed, sound asleep like two 10-year olds.
So, you know that rugged coastline and picturesque scenery we thought we’d encounter in Maine? Yeah, well, actually, we encountered it back home in Canada, here at St. Andrew’s by the Sea. And this is where Leg 8 of GNAT takes us.
After 2 weeks of traveling 7000 kilometers and the equivalent of 72 hours behind the wheel of the Cranberry Cruiser we were not disappointed that it rained almost all day so we had no excuse but to stay in our sweet little room at the inn and snooze and read and watch tv and partake in other mindless pursuits while we caught up on our rest.
Which is exactly what we did after we drove the ocean floor. Did you catch that? We drove on the ocean floor!
You see, St. Andrews by the Sea is on Passamaquody Bay, part of the Bay of Fundy where the largest tides in the world occur twice a day, every day. Cornelius Van Horne of Canadian Pacific fame (he’s the guy that built the railway across Canada and oh, had the brilliant idea to build hotels for the railway passengers to stay in – hence places such as the Banff Springs Hotel and the Royal York came to be, but I digress), built himself a little retreat near St. Andrews on a little spit of land called Minister’s Island. The only way to access Minister’s Island is to wait for low tide and DRIVE across the ocean floor to the island on the other side. So, of course we had to do it!
Here’s the approach to Minister’s Island at 11:47am (low tide)
And here it is a mere 7 hours later
It was a foggy day on Fundy Bay, but it really didn’t detract from the allure of St. Andrew’s by the Sea, as you can see:
And so concludes the Great North American Tour 2009 – we’re home now, safe and sound. Our dogs are still talking to us. The one whom I adore has tamed the hay field that was our front yard and it now actually resembles a lawn again and I, well, I am just happy to have had such a great holiday spending time with people who I care about and who care about me, seeing new places and taking the time to enjoy the journey along the way.
