British Monarchy

 Today’s destination was Prince Edward Island named for the father of Queen Victoria. Out of cell service range for much of the day, we suspected Queen Elizabeth’s passing when we saw the first Canadian flag flying at half-staff. She served her country well.

Back to our trip…. This morning we continued up the St. Lawrence and entered New Brunswick at the top of Maine. Rounding the top of Maine but still in Canada we continued on the TransCanada highway down the very beautiful St. John’s River Valley. Scenery abounded but not much else with many, many km between exits. The Johns, needing their periodic “p” break, took the exit for Florenceville-Bristol. The photo below shows what we happened upon. Leave it to a boy from Idaho to find this in the middle of nowhere.

And not too many km away was Hartland with the world’s longest covered bridge (about 1/4 mile). It was built in 1899-1901 by the locals who got tired of waiting for the government to build it. The government took it over a few years later and added the roof in 1922. It’s really beautiful and we went over it twice, both times intentionally surprising even ourselves.

Continuing on we opted to bypass Nackawic, home of the world’s largest ax. But we did stop to roll the car down/up Magnetic Hill which, according to the guidebook, is the third most visited natural wonder in Canada. Niagara Falls is first and the Rockies second. Anyway it is true about Magnetic Hill. It does feel, when you put the car in neutral and release the brake, that you’re rolling uphill. Almost as much fun was trying to find our way out. Don’t ask. Finally we made it back to the highway, crossed the bridge (all 9 miles of it) onto Prince Edward Island where we’ll spend 2 nights.

froozie - a variation of the frawsy which is a sweet treat. The froozie is “a gingerbread with scruncheons added to the batter”. What, you may ask, are scrunchions? They’re meat scraps. Somehow I don’t see myself seeking out a froozie. Do you?