AAPRCO Trip 2014 - Day 8: Friday, September 26

Today we started out early from Grand Falls, New Brunswick, leaving at 7am, eating breakfast at Tim Horton's where they were taking orders in French.  Lucky for us they spoke English very well.  

We made our way down a scenic highway in the fog alongside the Saint John River.  Here are some pictures from Perth - Andover -- the library and a bridge over the Saint John River in the fog.

Note -- this little backwards question mark sign we think indicated scenic highway.

Bonuses along the way were the Bristol Shogomoc Railway:

 Florenceville Covered Bridge, and the Hartland Covered Bridge, the longest covered bridge in the world at 1282 feet:

(From this point on I'm missing some photos!)

We drove trough lots of woods that were probably hiding moose as they had moose gates for the escaped moose to reenter the woods; 

down to a plains where we could see the Bay of Fundy, and the city of Saint John which has a deep and active port, where we saw a couple huge 8 story plus crusie ships.  

We saw the Reversing Rapids from the roof of the Falls Restaurant.  The rapids are created by the tide coming into the St. John River and rapids are created were the waters meet.  We got there at Slack Tide about 11:33 am when the waters were calm.  

We ate lunch down in Market Square, a rennovated waterfront area near the cruise ships at Grannon's Pub and Rick finally got his picture by a moose.  Rick thought it would be fun to ride the ferries so we found the small ferry landing at Letete (not on any maps but in Rick's Garmin).  Waiting in line at the ferry was a truck from Acadian Seaplants, Pennsfield, NB.  They have the rights to seaweed around the area and harvest it.  The driver told me they just got the rights to the seaweed within a 20 mile radiius of Ireland.  We took the ferry with about 8 vehicles to Deer Island at no charge.  

We drove around Deer Island to the ferry dock which went to either Eastport, Maine or Campobello Island, NB.  The fee was $29 total.  This ferry was like a landing craft, came right up onto the beach and we drove on.  Right off of Deer Island is the Old Sow Tidal Whirlpool which is the is the largest in the Western Hemisphere.  

Once on Campobello, Island, we drove directly to the Roosevelt International Park and went to the visitor's center and found out there are 20 tickets to the Tea With Eleanor in the morning.  If we come back at 9:00 am and get in line when they open at 10:00 we might be lucky to get them.  We visited the "cottage" that the Roosevelts summered in.  This was the 2nd cottage that was purchased from the neighbors when FDR and Elenor's family was growing.  They added onto it in 1915.  The "cottage" that James and Sara Roosevelt owned (FDR's parents) had been torn down before the park was started.  

We drove out to the East Quoddy Head Light House before night fall.  There was a $5 fee to walk over to it and $10 to climb it.  The tide was out so we could have crossed over but we didn't - we just took our pictures with it in the distant background.  The lady manning the ticket shack said that she had just seen a whale surface and blow so we were whale watching for awhile before we headed into Lubec, Maine, over the FDR Bridge.  Elenaor came for he dedication in about 1962 - and then died later that fall.  

We found our Peacock Bed and Breakfast.  What a neat place.  Sue and Dennis are the owners. She showed us where we could lounge in the piano room with fireplace, in the study, and in the bar area off the dining room.  The house and rooms were spotless.  Sue was also very knowledgeable about the area and recommended a local put for supper. We walked a few blocks to it past some nice old homes.

AAPRCO Trip 2014 - Day 7: Thursday, September 25

Today we left Portland to visit the two decommissioned Air Force bases Rick never got the pleasure of visiting during his career: Presque Isle and Lowing.  We headed north toward Bangor and beyond, then headed east into New Brunswick to Grand Falls where everyone spoke French. 

Here are pictures of on our way up.

Baked Bean factory:

Mountains and trees. 

Church

  

I was on a quest to find the perfect "ell" which are the connecting rooms between a house and a barn. My friend, architect Scott Benson, worked with his professor, Thomas C Hubka,  who wrote  a book about them entitled " Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England" published in 1984.   The Ells could be a summer kitchen, upstairs could be bedroom for hired help. We passed a few perfect ones that I didn't get a shot of but here are a few that might qualify found mostly in Maine but a few in New Brunsick:

 

On our way to Presque Isle Air Force Base we ran into the logging industry:

 

Piles of stacked trees delimbed next to a mill:

We passed trees changing colors and fields of taters dug and undug and only one with center pivot irrigation and followed a farmer taking his equipment down the road, saw partially underground potato storage buildings. Incidentally, the next day we went past McCain headquarters, the largest potato processor. 

Tater equipment dealership in Presque Isle:

At Presque Isle base one of the hangers was taken over by Aroostook Trusses, otherwise, mostly abandoned buildings. 

 We went into Presque Isle to eat dinner at Governor's - a local chain, took these pictures in town:

 A cruise missel in tribute to the base that left designed in the 60s Rick said it was an amazing piece of technology because of its navigation system. 

Next stop was Loring which had been turned into a pretty inactive commercial park, although Sitel had taken over the fairly new commissary building. Train tracks ran through the base.  

 

KC 135 hanger:

10 engine, 400 spark plug B36 Hanger that could only hold one plane on each side. Changing spark plugs was an all day job for two guys:

Closer view:

Side view with Rick:

Rick and Mark were delighted to find a Russell train track snow plow still there:

A lot of the base has been converted into the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge so we took some time to explore it, walked down a trail. No moose were seen. 

Next, on our way to New Brunswick we passed what we think were  broccoli because we saw a truck hauling it:

Finally, went through the border crossing into New Brunswick, Canada and arrived in French speaking Grand Sault. Signs were in English and French.

 Checked into the Hilltop Motel which had a water advisory:

The Hill Top Hotel with red roof - overlooked the falls -which didn't have a lot of water and a lot of exposed rock. We took a walk before dark to look and at the Zip line attraction over the falls and finished the night drinking wine and eating snacks. 

This is a panorama. 

The Zip Zag zip lines went across the water. Where was all the water, anyway? Seemed like the Grand Falls would be more grand with more water. 

We ended the night snacking and wining in our room before calling it a night and planning our departure for 7 am in order to get to Saint John by 11:30 during slack tide at the reversing rapids.