This day brought us back to Canada, crossing over a short bridge from Lubec, Maine to Campobello Island, New Brunswick. Here's our route as shown on Strava:
When I got up in the morning at the campground in Sunset Point, the tide was out, and we could still see Rachel's footprints in the mud left the previous day and washed by the tide coming in and out again.
We started with a delicious breakfast of bacon and pancakes cooked in bacon fat.
Steve T took a turn driving in the morning, so he had a little longer to relax at Sunset Point. The rest of us set off on another sunny day.
Our route couldn't avoid a couple of short stretches on highway 1, but we mostly succeeded in following quiter routes. Along Centreville Road, one of the locals stopped us for a chat, and told us all about her husband's medical problems (including most recently a gall bladder removal) and her having received her high school diploma in Columbia Falls from the hand of her now deceased son. Some of us listened more closely than the others, who focussed on picking blueberries from her brother's field across the road.
Riding back towards highway 1, Rachel led me on a long sprint ahead of the group to claim the Jonesboro town sign - only to find that:
- There was no town sign entering Jonesboro along Station Road.
- I was in serious trouble, since I had Lindsay's phone with me, and she'd been left way in the back to be chased by a dog.
The 1 and 1A split again a short distance past Jonesboro, with the 1A being a much quieter and pleasant option. The roads merged again at Machias, where we met up with Steve T for lunch at the Bluebird Ranch Family Restaurant, for a lunch so good that Mike decided to leave his gloves behind as a tip...
Steve had apparently stopped to chat with a walker in Columbia Falls who was on day 5 of a loosely planned walk to Florida, expecting to reach it in November. Our trip seems pretty tame in comparison.
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| Steve claimed this town sign...in the van. |
Steve handed driving duties over to Lindsay and Laura after lunch, and they and the kids carried on in the van. The rest of us took a couple of detours away from the 1, including the 92 and the 191, before picking up route 189 to lead us to Lubec. We stopped for a snack in the village of Cutler, near a naval base with an impressive VLF antenna array.
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| On a wharf in Cutler |
We met up with the van and the riders in Lubec to cross the border together.
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| About to cross the border |
Before we'd crossed the bridge, we'd discussed how long we'd been away (7 days) and how long we'd been in the US (5 days). When we got to the other side, and the passport control agent asked how long we'd been out of Canada, Steve F answered "7 days" in an authoritative tone. The rest of us looked at each other in puzzlement; Mike and I were both wondering if we'd missed both the purchase of some expensive item requiring a 7 day absence to come in duty-free and the agreement to lie about it.
The agent asked us several times how long we'd been away, clearly looking at information on his monitor that contradicted what Steve had said, before someone else clarified that we were only in the US for 5 days, and he was satisfied...
From the NB side of the bridge on Campobello Island, it was a short 4-5km ride to the Herring Cove Provincial Park. The campground was nicely equipped, except for the single toilet stall in the men's washroom seeming a little inadequate. We went out for dinner at the restaurant in the Herring Cove Golf Club, and then for a quick late-night visit to the beach.
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