Day 43 September 4, 2026 Dieppe New Brunswick to St John New Brunswick 158.9 miles
The weather today is cloudy with rain showers off and on all day. Sometimes only a mist and other times more. The weather man got it right this time. Everything was wet so it rained during the night.
The hotel had a nice breakfast so we got a good start. They also have a pool which was very popular even early in the day.
The trailer tire was flat as expected. Rob pumped it up after getting everything loaded. Then the car wouldn’t start. Too wet again. Woodie has never liked rain in Canada. When we were here four years ago we had similar problems. Luckily a little wipe down and it started right up.
Our first destination is Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park. This is where the “flower pots” are located. They are what is left of some of the cliff after thousands of years of erosion. On top of some of them are trees. That is what makes them look like flower pots. The tide is low when we got there which we thought was good. You park in a large parking lot and walk to the entrance where you pay about $15 each for seniors. Add on to that $2 each to ride a shuttle down to a view area with access to the bottom.
The rain has backed off to a drizzle but the golf cart ride was sure nice. The gravel path was definitely wet. At the end of the ride a short walk took you to a viewing area where you could see several of the pots. If you wanted to you could take stairs down to the bottom and walk through the mud and the pots. Quite a few people were doing this but neither of us had on shoes made for that. We took some pictures and returned to the Visitors Center.
The Visitors Center explained a lot about how the pots were formed and the animal life both in the sea and on land. We watched the time lapse video of the area going from low tide to high tide and back to low tide. The water doesn’t come up as high as Connie expected. They say it rises about 40 feet.
We ate a light lunch in the parking lot since we were already there. Lots more vehicles have arrived. The place must get really busy on nice summer days. Time to blow up the tire again and then we are off to the Fundy National Park.
The two parks are about 27 miles apart. We came to one stretch of construction where part of the road is slipping down the mountain. Makes us somewhat worried about the part we are driving on. Also glad we aren’t doing the work.
The fee for Fundy National Park is free until September 7. The park has lots of hiking trails with wilderness camping. Most of the camping seems to be tent. Not many places for camp trailers or motor homes. We did take one other road in the park. It went past the golf course and down to a tent campsite. To get to the campsite you must cross a covered bridge. The bridge will be closed starting September 8 for repairs. Nobody said what kind of repairs were needed but it held up for the woodie. Back to the main road through the park. The climb from the Visitor’s Center is long and relatively steep. We did make it up without help. The summit has an elevation of about 1000 feet. All that is visible from this road is trees. The road is too far from the coast. To really see the coast you must hike.
The drive to St John is about 80 mile. Still hills to climb but some farmland. A couple of small towns are on the way. Near Sussex was a very large processing plant for Potash. Didn’t realize that was for fertilizer.
We stopped at a grocery store to stock up on a few things again. It’s been really good to have some food on hand for at least one meal a day. We have often eaten three meals from our food supply.
We got word that the new tires were delivered to a Model A guy in Bangor, Maine. In a few days our tire issues should be resolved for the rest of the trip. Knock on woodie.
Spoffords Travel 