Monday 6/13/2022 - Day 2 of 31 on our 2022 Canadian Maritime #2 Caravan with Yankee RV Tour

On Monday June 13th, we worked the rows of caravanners ensuring all were ready to depart at 8am and had no issues. We departed 5 minutes early, I said this group was going to be great! We took Route 2 & 100 and got onto I-395 to 1A. We skirted Bangor and went through Holden.

We turned off Route 1A onto Route 46. It was a connector road that took us to Route 9. On Route 9, we followed it all the way to the intersection of Route 1 at our fuel stop.

As we were driving, we kept watching the fog “breath” as it covered, then uncovered the mountain top. Lead Mountain was off to the west, as we headed north toward the Canadian border. It stands about 1,500 feet high. There was a great deal of ups and downs on this route! However, this drive did offer us some scenic vistas!

We made a rest stop at a designed truck pull off. It was a nicely paved large area, ample space for the entire caravan to pull off, take a break and walk all the 4-legged caravaneers!

The little town of Alexander had a Tractor museum and a well drilling business. I missed the complete picture of the Tractor Museum.

In Baileyville, Maine we turned right onto Route 1 and gassed up at the Irving Gas station. The restaurant across the street allowed us to use their parking lot to stage, before we left. Too bad they did not have any lobster ready yet ... we definately would have purchased a few!

We used the St Stephens 3rd Bridge to enter Canada. Our time at the border with our Canadian Customs Agent was extended! We were lucky enough to be “selected” for inspection. We were in good company, our Wagon Masters, a couple from California and Pennsylvania got selected to be inspected too! We had to open all the slides, unlock all the compartments and open our safe. He asked if the RV ever had guns in it. We said yes and he asked where. We told him. He wanted to know if the dog alerted that was a possible reason. The dog went through our car and RV. They spent about 30 – 45 minutes going over just our rig. All of the border agents were professional and courteous.

St Stephen is the first town we came to in Canada. We entered the Trans Canadian Hwy #1. We followed this highway until we came to Route 127. Most of the caravanners went to an Irving station at Exit 9A to wait for us. The border agent suggested that rally point. I think it was a good idea and we need to add it into the road log for next year’s trip. We caught up with everyone as they were getting back on the Trans Canada Hwy #1. We went to Exit 25 and made our way into St Andrews by the Sea. It is a beautiful little harbor town. 

We even had a few locals come out to welcome us!

We are staying at the Kiwanis Oceanfront Campground, it is on the end of a peninsula. The Passamaquoddy Bay is directly in front of us.

We enjoyed a dinner with all the caravaneers at the Harbor Front Restaurant

After dinner, we caravanned to Bar Road, to see the sand bar to Minister’s Island. It is a Provincial and Federal historic site and is managed by the Van Horne Estate, a community based non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the nature and history of the island. The island is safely accessible for 5 hours during low tide.

Keeping up with our daily activity, Gary & I laced up our sneakers and hit the pavement. We traveled up Prince of Wales St, there is a marble Irish cross erected between the street and the bay in a grassy area.

The story behind the cross is sad. Just off shore is Little Hardwood Island, used extensively during the mid-1800s as a quarantine station. The tiny island, comprising less than three acres sits in Passamaquoddy Bay next to its larger sister, Hardwood Island. A small hospital with simple medical facilities opened in 1832 to manage a cholera outbreak. In 1847, the site, renamed Hospital Island, became overwhelmed when medical staff attempted to handle the mass influx of Irish Famine immigrants. The Irish, hoping to find a new life in the New World, died from typhus onboard ship. Many died on the journey here.

Those who died while in quarantine were interred on the tiny island, the exact number of deaths unknown. Some estimated the death toll as high as 400. Similar to conditions at other quarantine stations along the St. Lawrence River, some of those who came to aid the sick became infected themselves and died. If the pitiful situation at Hospital Island wasn’t enough to raise sympathy for the plight of the Irish people, newspaper reporters wrote that in 1869, the Saxby Gale was so vicious a storm, it washed away soil from the Irish cemetery, uncovering coffins, and exposing skeletons. Bones that washed ashore on the mainland were desecrated, with awful stories circulating of children using human skulls to kick around. It would take a decade before what could be collected of the deceased Irish remains were re-interred in a more sheltered area of the island. A Celtic cross memorial to the Irish who died at Hospital Island stands at Indian Point along the shoreline in St Andrews. Erected in May, 1995, the monument features various symbols depicting the Irish story including a shamrock, fiddle, and sailboat, representing their tragic voyage.

Just beyond the cross, there is a unique granite sculpture. The sculpture calls it, “Story of the Stone.” She believes it represents lines and forms reaching out from the stone as roots from a tree or veins. Stone is the earth on which we walk. It is alive, gives us life, and carries our history. The forms emerge from the stone as from the heart as a source where life is born. Karin van Ommeren, completed the sculpture at the 2014 Sculpture Saint John symposium. She is from the Netherlands, but currently works and lives in both the Netherlands and Italy.

Tomorrow is another day in St Andrews!