RoadNotes: All Roads Lead to Moncton

Moncton, NB - August 11, 2012 Our Current Location

At least it seems that way. When we went to Shediac, we had to go through Moncton. When we left Shediac to go to Fundy, we had to go through Moncton. Leaving Fundy NP on our way to Nova Scotia, we have to go through Moncton. And it's not a straight path either.

This morning as the final vestiges of sleep were wearing off, the patter of light rain could be heard on the roof. This is the first time in what seems like months that we've been in rain. The outside temperature is 61 degrees and it's 63 inside. Good sleeping weather. But we gotta get in gear as they kick us out of the park at 11am.

EJ whips us up a great breakfast and gets the inside ready to travel and I pack away all the stuff that slowly drifted outdoors over the last 5 days. We push the deadline a little but we're out of the site by 11:10. Not too shabby for us.

Since you all know our dislike for traveling the same road twice, we leave the park by the northern exit on hiway 114. Coming into the park from the southern exit 114 was rough as a cob. Leaving in the new direction the road was smooth and we were delighted, that is until we got outside the park boundary. Then the road went to heck in a hand basket and we slowed down to 15 to 20 mph. That formed a big line of traffic behind us in no time. But there was nothing we could do. No place to pull over and let the cars pass, so we just toughed it out until we were able to get on Canada AutoRoute 1 which is equivalent to our interstate HIway. There the speed limit is 110 and we cruised along at about 100. That's in kilometers per hour in case you hadn't already guessed.

EJ plotted a route for us to get back to the Walmart we stayed at last weekend. When we arrived there were already 10 other RVs here and it was just after 1pm. They're stacking up early today and it could be because of the nasty weather.

After we got set up, off we went in search of a post office. I don't know why, but gps units (at least the ones we've owned) are notorious for not being able to pinpoint post offices. Our Garmin told us where one was and off we went merrily following its directions. And it led us right to a hardware store. Hmmm.

Frank thought he remembered seeing one last time we were here and so we tore off to find it. Oops! Remember that motorcycle rally we told you about? Where Frank thought the PO was, the police had blocked the road for all the motorcycle vendors. Hmmm again!

Finally we went to the Visitor Center and asked them where one was and they directed us to a filling station. Sure enough, there was a post office in the filling station. Mission accomplished , we had some lunch and went to work on the blog since it was a rainy day.

This trip to Moncton coincided with the bore tide in the Petitcodiac River. So at 5:45pm we arrived at the viewing point to see the 6:05pm bore tide. And we waited, and we waited, and nothing happened. The crowd of people along with us began grumbling and some even gave up and went on their way. Frank went into the Visitor Center to ask where the tide was and they said "Oh, it was early today." We're beginning to wonder if there even is a bore tide in Moncton.