Having just come back from a shower I would comment that the most significant thing a campground of any kind could do for its campers is supply a full tub bath. After a year of full-timing I'd pay good money for an opportunity for a luxurious soak.
The secret, I've discovered to making a bed in an RV with it's odd shaped mattress configurations that defy fitted sheets or otherwise is to start by placing at least 1 foot of bedding under the far end of the mattress, then reaching under to make sure it is stretched flat underneath. Once this is accomplished the rest of the bedding can be put in place and tucked under. The weight of your body on the mattress will serve to keep the bedding in place.
Looking at a map of Chignecto North Campground at Fundy National Park makes me think that parks staff creating a new campground should hire a native artist to create the pattern that would project a native work of art when completed.
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Saturday, October 3, 2009
The sun is streaming in my windows and outside the sky is a cloudless azure. Seems a transgression to waste such a day when they are so rare this time of year but I just don't feel ambitious to wash dishes right now and perform all the other tasks involved in driving this vehicle to another point in this park and its hills preclude getting anywhere by bike. This park is Fundy National Park and outside the trees seem to have turned to full fall colours almost overnight, certainly since I arrived Thursday. Alas, the rains are predicted to return Sunday. Perhaps after my first coffee of the day things will seem different. Certainly life won't be as peaceful when I drive into Saint John tomorrow.
After three days of rain I finally made it down to Hopewell Rocks on Wednesday this week, the first day of sun I'd seen in some time. The park, operated by the province of New Brunswick is tastefully understated and I will admit that I wasn't expecting a great deal. From the few viewing platforms at the top of the 100 ft cliff one can see a few flowerpot structures:
But it is at low tide upon walking the 100 steps down to the ocean floor that the true extent of this wonder unfolds:
The formations continue along nearly a mile of coastline with new pillars rising from the bottom every time one walks around the last. Just imagine if this were Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls. But here on the coast of the Minas Basin the place was virtually unknown until a few years ago. Mind you it is refreshing to see a phenomena that could qualify as a wonder of the world that is not engulfed in commercial hucksterism. After my hike drove over to the Broadleaf Ranch for a deep-fried clam and fries dinner.
Next day it rained for my drive down to Fundy National Park and it continued the next day. The Bay of Fundy Shoreline viewed at high tide under a sullen sky loses much of its appeal. It was just as well I didn't hang around as the skies opened shortly after I got back in camp. I did learn a new concept from all this in reading the interpretive panels acidic fog can be ten times more concentrated than acid rain. Of course, I should have been out driving today when there isn't a cloud in the sky. I went to the evening campfire to find two young female interpreters attempting unsuccessfully to make a roaring fire with wet wood. If you're going to a sing a round with a large group you should at least beat time to keep the group together and if you're going to attempt it without a guitar you should at least have a pitch pipe. For this late in the season one would have thought these young people would have had their program better rehearsed, making hot chocolate with tepid water did not impress the young boy scouts group camping nearby.
Fundy Park, in providing campsites with electrical and water hook-ups added the service to pre-existing sites hence they are commodious and well separated from neighbouring sites by forested areas. Only the full service sites have the crowded suburban look of commercial campgrounds. Each section of the campground is serviced by a central comfort station, the one nearest me even has a single front-loading washer and dryer. Each has a playground, picnic shelters, and a separate kitchen shelter with stoves, sinks, and cooking areas for campers to eat inside on rainy days. I'm impressed with the facilities, even the group camping areas had washroom facilities combined with enclosed cooking shelters at either end. Even the internal walkways to the comfort stations are lit at night by unobtrusive glow-lites on posts.
Sunday Morning, October 4th dawned overcast and rainy, the cloud cover swept in the night before. I wasted no time breaking camp and headed to Saint John an hour and a half distant. There I found Hope Lutheran Church where my former classmate, Tom Graham is still pastor nearly 40 years on. Somehow there's comfort in such consistency. Rockwood Park Campground in Saint John serves up a strip of crushed rock with electrical and water hook-ups and sites marked by painted strips along with decent but not ultra-high-speed Wi-Fi. Once one closes one's curtains on the pouring rain all sites look pretty much the same.
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Just heard on As It Happens of the demise of Gourmet Magazine. Given that there is an excess of magazines on the market at a time when more and more reading is done online it's still a shock to hear of the ending of such an iconic magazine.
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