Day 22: Sunday, August 23, 2009

The ferry got in at 9am local time, so we trundled off in Bobby and started driving west. We'd gotten a few updates from the captain about Hurricane Bill, so we knew that it wasn't supposed to make landfall on the south-east side of Nova Scotia until mid-afternoon, and would track north-east. We had already planned to go straight west to Stellarton, which would keep us away from the storm, so we did that.

Unfortunately the Museum of Industry in Stellarton was closed with no explanation, which disappointed me hugely - they have a special exhibit on of antique and vintage star quilts, and since star quilts are some of my favourites I'd really wanted to see it. In fact, I'd been skipping all quilt opportunities since the disastrous "show" on August 6 in New Brunswick, telling myself that I would see lovely quilts in Stellarton.

Well, it was not to be, so we kept heading west to avoid the storm. There was definitely lots of rain; every time we stopped, like to buy groceries or make lunch, it would catch up with us. Then we'd drive another hour and the rain would abate until the next time we stopped.

Because we didn't have a three-hour stop at the museum, we ended up in New Brunswick mid-afternoon, earlier than expected. We'd planned to camp in Fundy National Park, but it didn't seem too appealing with Hurricane Bill lashing at our heels. So, I found us a Where to Eat in Canada restaurant ("The Bell") in Dorchester, which turned out to have some lovely old houses, and we ate in the oldest stone building in New Brunswick. I had afternoon tea, which was a nice change; Mike had prime rib and Will had spaghetti. There was some tenseness around whether Will would be allowed to have dessert when he hadn't finished his meal; even if the desserts are homemade, a kid still needs to eat his main course, doesn't he? He was full, so no ice cream for him.

We drove on to the outskirts of Fredericton and found a campground quite close to the highway, even though all sources said it should be way down south of it. Although there were only five other vehicles in the campground, the man running it assigned us a spot right between two of them. He appeared not to understand why Mike might want to move us from there, but didn't much mind when we did.