Fall Trip Day 3

My All -American car has no km/h listed on the speedometer. I jotted down a rough table of conversions in the front of my guide book (1mile = .62 kilometer). I used that all day long. It reminded me of daddy in Mexico. Saint Johns accepted my 50 US cents to cross their tall, swooping toll bridge. It looked cool at night. I liked New Brunswick. I drove on a free way through it. Very wooded with a mixture of evergreens and red and yellow leaves. Further east, farms began to appear. It is a slower pace.


I crossed over the bridge into Prince Edward Island. PEI is divided into three counties: Prince, Queen and King. The Prince is to the northwest, Kings is in the southeast and Prince is in the middle. The bridge takes you to the middle section.

I drove northeast, first. It is mostly farm land and small farm communities. Churches with graveyards next to them are everywhere. I wonder how full they (the churches, not the graveyards) get on Sundays.

I saw a minor lighthouse (Cape Egmont Lighthouse) and a very popular one, (West Point). There were windmill farms on the western side. I drove through the middle on route 2 to Charlottetown. The moon was full and very large on the horizon. With help from a gas station attendant, I found my hotel (Holiday Inn Express). It is very nice. Amy and I stayed in the same kind in Portland. I worked out tonight, then swam. They left a bottle of wine with two glasses on the coffee table in my room for me. How thoughtful.

I am frustrated by the difficulty in getting the pictures I'd like. What I've taken will have to do. They don't really do justice to painting the real picture of the place. It is hard to navigate and drive and find good places to stop. My passenger seat is covered in snacks, maps and camera equipment. I accidentally started chewing on the desiccant pack from my package of beef jerky.

The further east you go, french becomes more prevalent. The signs are mostly in french here.

Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island (8 miles)
During the off season for tourists, the summer side chamber of commerce came up with a game plan: Make fake tourists stuffed with straw.

A church by Union Corner

West Point Lighthouse (now a hotel)

Wind Farm by West Cape

Moon on country road

"Do they let you sleep in the bed?"

Fall Trip Day 2

Today I realized I need better maps, or atleast to read them better. I Drove around the Island trying to find Acadia National Park and its famous 24 mile loop road to realize that it was interior to and concetric with the loop I was driving. I finally made it in the park and drove up Cadillac mountain with my rented Cadillac, ironically. It is an amazing juxtoposition of ocean, forest and retired folks. The colors are amazing, but hard to capture or do justice to. It is amazing to see full-sized cruise ships in the Bay among the rocky, forested islands.

The highways are all similar-tree lined and frequent small towns requiring reduced speed limit. The going is slow. I at lunch at a sea food restaurant. I had the sea food chowder, which includes potatoes, chowder and a wide variety of sea creatures.

On the way I stopped to take pictures in a field. I discovered that the red plant that carpets any open space is the blueberry! They were ripe. (This helped me to understand the dome technology-like structure on the side of the road that was painted blue, and called "The Blueberry Palace" that I had passed by. It was surrounded by painted, concrete blueberries). Cranberries are grown here, too.

New England Churches are truly fabulous. They are everywhere. Some more dramatic than others, and all are white.

A large front brought rain clouds, but they stayed north the whole day. I made it to W. Quoddy Head Lighthouse at Passamaquoddy Bay (I would be highly suprised if Pete's Dragon was actually filmed there). I crossed into Canada at Calais, Maine. She asked 12 questions, then let me through. Mrs Garmin informed me that she doesn't know anything about Canada, but would help if she did. I realized that Saint John is huge, and I probably needed a map to find the hotel (re-occuring theme?). I drove to a gas station and asked for directions. A customer there knew the street, and was driving to that side of the city anyway. She said I could follow her. She led me through winding streets and stopped right in front. Canadians are nice.

At my hotel (Country Inn & Suites) they have a red box-type machine that dispenses free movie rentals for hotel guests. I rented "We are Marshall". I got connected to the hotel's wifi, but couldn't make the computer know that it was connected. I asked for a little help, and felt like I should get in Google Earth because it interfaces with the internet differently than explorer does. Google Earth detected the problem, then asked if I would allow it to fix it. That was pretty cool. So here I am, and here are the pictures:

Frenchman's Bay at Bar Harbor

Frenchman's Bay at Bar Harbor

Cadillac Mountain

Blueberry Patch
W. Quoddy Head Lighthouse

Oh, Canada.

Post Script: I changed time zones at the border. I am now 3 hours ahead.

Fall Trip Day 1

I made it to the Bar Harbor Village Inn this evening. There were 8 missionaries going to the Ghana MTC on the flight to JFK. I could see the fall foliage from the airplane window. Awesome red forests that go on forever. I rented my car while waiting for my luggage to come (small airport). Mrs. Garmin and I had a misunderstanding wherein I wanted to drive south, and she wanted to take me back to the airport. We resolved the issue. The drive south was dark, but I could see cool New England architecture on the sides of the road. Some people take it a bit far, though. I have seen quite a few businesses, such as gas stations, who have added a lighthouse-shaped forms to a corner of their building. I walked the main street tonight and saw a cool old ship with masts lit up in the harbor. There wasn't enough light to photograph it, though. I heard the ferry horn, which can be heard from anywhere in town.

The internet here is too slow to post pictures. I will try again tommorow night.

Clouds cast shadows on one of the great lakes.

The boat I saw in Frenchman's Bay lit up at night.

Apples to Apples

I found these video clips that daddy took the weekend of the Reisner Reunion July 2005.

Happy Birthday, Scott

Happy Birthday, Scott!

We are glad to have you in the family.

Autumn Has Arrived

Dr. Phillips scrubbing up for the C-Section

The fake Phillips baby the nurse held up for us

The "real" baby Phillips

Foot printing plus an apology from the nurse who held up the wrong baby.

Hot Dog Roast

We drove up American Fork Canyon. We panned for gold and had a hot dog roast.

Jackson works on his own hot dog bun....

Then, helps Colin with his.
We drove the loop over to Sundance. The Aspens were lovely.