Chocolate River, Flower Pot Rocks and Magnetic Attraction

It was a fabulous day in Moncton. The sun was shining and the temperature reached a high of 25 celcius.

I was up first having slept in until 7am – keeping in mind that is 3am back home. After a quick shower and shave, I quietly slipped out to sit to boil the kettle, make my Starbucks instant coffee (hey beggars can’t be choosers) and sit in the early morning sun. I finished yesterday’s blog article – trying to post photos on a verrrrrry slow internet connection. Even the cell service is 1 bar in our campsite – first world problems I know.

Mid morning I decided to meet the neighbors. Bernie is from Bathurst, New Brunswick and he too drives a Tundra – same year as ours but a supercab and long box. This is his 5th one and he absolutely loves Toyota (he and his wife also have a Yaris to bomb around town in). Amazingly, he tows a 25 foot Citation 5th wheel with his Tundra. Anyways, we got to chatting…you know the campground chatting…and he tells me they are in Moncton because his wife is going through cancer treatment. She just finished her last chemo treatment and today has an appointment with the specialist to see if she needs radiation – she hopes not. They are both charming and we talked for about 45 minutes. I just love talking to eastern Canada folk.

Bernie and his wife (‘the wife’) are both retired now and have 2 sons. One lives in Ottawa and the other in Bathurst – a miner working in the Arctic Circle – 2 weeks on and 2 off.

The first thing Bernie said to me is ‘you are a ways from home, eh?’. Yes. ‘Where are you headed?’. I told him and he pointed at the trailer and said ‘you aren’t planning to drive that thing around the Cabot Trail are you?’. No. ‘Good, cause the road will scare the bejesus out of you. And by the way, don’t be driving more than 30 when the speed limit says 30 because any faster and you won’t make the corners’. I laughed. He went on to tell me about Prince Edward Island and the Confederation Bridge. ‘You know it’s free to go onto the island but they get you good on the way out!’. ‘It’s a good thing you are driving the Tundra, cause you can see something when you drive across. If you are in the car, all you see is two walls of concrete for miles’. At one point, Bernie asks me what I do for a living. I tell him and he says ‘healthcare eh?’. I respond with ‘I am in administration’. He looked at me and gave a thoughtful nod.

I explained how we drove through the US on our way and that we will return across Canada. He chucked and said ‘not much to see from northern Ontario through to Alberta’. He then offered ‘you know in the states they have all these beautiful four lane highways and our Trans Canada is a bunch of bumpy 2 line highways. Only New Brunswick has a four lane separated highway and we are least able to afford it!’

He asked where we were off to next and I told him Nova Scotia tomorrow – we won’t make it to Bathurst though. ‘Good!’ He says. ‘Nothing up there now anyway. The mine closed. The mill closed. The power plant closed. Now the main economic driver is Tim Hortons’. Don’t you just love this guy already? He asked me if I’m taking some doctors with me to Nova Scotia. He says ‘that Eastern Health needs some’. He went on to say, ‘you know I blame them whose running the healthcare system’. I just smiled thinking, yes people just like me.

I said how much I appreciated the low gas prices here ($1.17 per litre) and told him that where Ethan lives in the lower mainland, he often pays more than $1.70. ‘That’s just not right!’, says Bernie. ‘This is one country and we should pay one price for gas’. Rather than ask how much that should be I let the topic drop. However, I did mention the poor state of the roads in Quèbec. Bernie said, well you know why that is? It’s because the mafia gets all the road building contracts and they don’t use the money to build many roads!. I could chat with Bernie all day but we did need to go, so I wished him and his wife all the best and we headed out for a visit to Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy.

The tide would be out until about 745pm, so we had lots of time. Zach was kind enough to drive, so I got to be a passenger in the back seat and check out the scenery. As we made our way to Fundy Park, we drove over the Chocolate (Petitcodiac) River – it does look a lot like milk chocolate. After a 35 minute drive, we arrived at Hopewell Rocks and sat down by the truck to have a bite of lunch. Admission to the park was $10 for each of us. Zach was not impressed. He said, ‘Provincial Parks should be free to visit but since we paid, we are going to see every bit of this park’.

We made our way down to the shoreline and walked for a kilometre or two, taking lots of photos of these magnificent rocks. While they look like dirt mixed with rocks, I assure you they are rocks and hard at that. I took about 100 photos.

A highlight of the walk was spotting two perigin falcons, one of which was screeching as it flew overhead. I zoomed in with my camera and was able to capture a couple of decent shots of these magnificent creatures.

We also explored the mud flats (by camera as people are not permitted to walk on them). Kilometres of milk chocolate coloured mud. Small shrimp stick in the mud after the tide goes out, making a wonderful feast for the birds. It is this same mud that gives the Petitcodiac River it’s nickname “Chocolate River”.

We were walking down to the beach where the mud flats were and saw this little guy.

After walking each trail to get our monies worth, we stopped in the gift shop to pick up a few souveniers and I spotted this mug. It made me think of my friend Doug – this will be us.

We left Hopewell Rocks and drove to Moncton to watch the phenomenon called the Tidal Bore. As the tide comes in to the Bay of Fundy, the water enters the narrow Petitcodiac River channel and by the time it reaches Moncton (some 40 kilometers), it is moving pretty fast and high. The locals told us these days it reaches between 3 and 5 feet depending on the moon. However, in the 60’s it used to be 10 and 15 feet high – that would be quite a sight.

We arrived in Moncton at 330pm and decided to stop by a local watering hole for a beverage to pass the time until about 430pm when the Tidal Bore was expected. At 435pm, along it came. I recorded it on video (sorry but I can’t post it to this site) and it truly was an amazing phenomenon.

I stopped to chat with a street musician who was playing folks songs with his guitar and harmonica. He was pleasant fellow, short a few teeth and likely some other things.

We then left downtown Moncton and headed toward Magnetic Hill another unique feature of New Brunswick. Bernie told me that he and his buddies nearly ended up in the penitentiary after getting out of their car at Magnetic Hill to relieve themselves. Shortly thereafter a police man arrived…I gather they were feeling no pain…but he must have showed mercy to them because Bernie was here talking with me.

Zach drove the Tundra to the gate. That will be $6 sir (nothing is free these days). When all the other cars cleared, Zach drove the Tundra down to the famous white post and stopped. He put the Tundra in neutral and released the break and sure enough, the Tundra rolled all the way back up the hill. Fascinating! We could have gone a second time but we decided we’d had enough of lines and headed back to the campsite.

Bernie and his wife rolled up shortly after and asked how our day was. I said it was fantastic. He then said to me. ‘You know. No matter how many times I explain to people how that Magnetic Hill works, they just don’t get it’. I smiled and thought – yes and I would be included in “those people”.

Time to get ready for our next adventure in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Originally, we had planned to meet with one of Zach’s professors (and professional musician) Mike Murley tomorrow but unfortunately, he is in Toronto this week.

PS Bernie Just popped by to say gas is $1.06 per litre at Costco.