On August 26th, we arrived at the ferry at Caribou, NS in time to take the 12:30 ferry to Prince Edward Island. Unfortunately it was full before we could board. Bicycles and cars get first priority over motor homes and large commercial trucks. The lady at the gate told us that we may be able to board the 2:30 ferry but she could not guarantee since the 2:30 ferry was a smaller car ferry. If we had not made the 2:30 ferry then the next one would not leave until 4:30. While waiting for the ferry we ate lunch, washed dishes and worked on finishing home school assignments for the day. We boarded the ferry around 2:30 where we were squeezed on the bottom deck with less than two feet between the motor home and the 18 wheel truck next to us. All passengers had to leave their vehicles so we left the motor home and went upstairs to visit the cafeteria, gift shop and play area. We walked out on all the decks for a view of the water and to take some pictures and then returned to the dining area to listen to live music. Carson was able to play with some kids at the indoor play area. Zachary took advantage of the free time to play his DS, his game time is very limited now that school as started.
The ferry arrived at Wood Island, PE after about a 75 minute ferry ride.. After leaving the ferry we noticed that this was going to be the change of scenery that we needed. Prince Edward Island also referred to as PEI, has gentle rolling hills with green pastures and golden wheat fields. The drive on the small road was enjoyable since it was flat and free of curves. This was good for Polly, since there was no need for more motion sickness medicine since the dose for the ferry ride. In Canada the only non drowsy motion sickness medicine is called Gravol and it is made from ginger, not as effective as Dramamine. Another new site on the island were road side stands selling potatoes but there was no one there to take your money, it was the “honor system” which you dropped your money into a box or jar and took your bag of potatoes. There were many of the honor system stands through PEI selling various things such as firewood, fruits, and vegetables. This is something that I have not seen in many years in the United States.
Our first campground stop was St. Peters Park on August 26th. This campground was one of the first where it was nothing like the pictures on the website and the RV park reviews did not help in the selection. The trees on both sides of the driveway into the park had almost grown together creating a canopy over the drive which is not good if you are driving a 40’ motor home that is 12’ 6″ high. We tried to dodge the lowest hanging branches but that was nearly impossible. We had been told that the internet worked at the sites but when we checked in we were then told that you had to sit at the office and unfortunately there were no electrical outlets to plug in our laptops, so no internet for another night. I think the biggest issue was the lady at the front office gave us the site information and how to get to the site the wrong way and we had to parallel park the motor home, the water hose barely reached, the sewer hose would not reach and our neighbor chopped wood until 2:30 am. We decided very quickly that we would be only spending one night at this location and heading to Cavendish the next day.
We woke up early the next morning, packed up and left heading for the Greenwich National Park. The park featured migrating dunes which are the only ones in North American and the park is also home to the endangered piping plover that nest around the peninsula. The walk was 4.5 km which featured a walk through the woods, walking over a pond with a floating dock and then onto the beach to get a closer look at the sand dunes. One unique characteristic of these dunes was the vegetation growing on them making them look like sand piles with green fuzzy hair. The pond almost completely dries up during the summer so there is no wildfire living in the pond. The wind was blowing very hard the morning that we took our walk so the walk on the beach was very quick. After finishing the trails we finished home school and started calling campgrounds in the Cavendish, PE area since we had not made prior arrangements.
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