The Destinators

Fundy National Park

The Bay of Fundy from the high point of the plateau near Rossiter Hill

Established in 1948, Fundy National Park was New Brunswick’s first national park. Fundy is focused on protecting a sample of the Maritime Acadian Highlands region of Canada. It’s well known for its dramatic tides, rugged coastline, deep river valleys within the rolling highlands, being at the transition between the mostly deciduous Acadian forest and strictly coniferous boreal forest. Also, waterfalls. Lots of waterfalls.

People only started to settle the area now comprising the national park in the 1820’s, mostly because it was not a particularly inviting place to live. Growing food was tough with poor soil, short and cool summers, and long harsh winters. However, trees grew well in this environment so logging and lumbering became the predominant industries. The best easily accessible trees most sought for shipbuilding were soon depleted, pollution of the rivers contributed to a decline of fish that spawned there. Fewer wooden boats were being built, and as technology changed the boats used more steel and less wood, further reducing demand for lumber and causing the decline of logging and lumbering in the area in the 1920’s. Fundy National Park has made restoring the ecosystem after a century of damage from logging and dams a priority.

The Edge of Fundy, part 2 – Chignecto Bay

Although we were still on the shore of the Minas Basin, our first interpretive centre/museum stop heading north was all about… dinosaurs? Ok, yes – and the tides that help to uncover their fossils. The Fundy Geological Museum in Parrsboro has close ties to the Joggins Fossil Cliffs of Chinecto Bay (both are UNESCO World Heritage Centres), so let’s just start there.

The Edge of Fundy, part 1 – Minas Basin

We noticed a large clump of e-pushpins surrounding the easternmost portion of the Bay of Fundy. Ha! We noticed two themes… about half of the places are related to the Bay of Fundy’s extraordinary tides, and the other half deal with the significant history of Acadians before and after Le Grand Dérangement/ Deportation of 1755. I think we can visit them all! Shall we? Allons-y!

Nova Scotia’s Atlantic Shore

So about those e-pushpins – they continue to get added even as we’re traveling. I like chatting up locals and often get comments like: you gotta visit XYZ!! And then there’re the e-pushpins that add themselves like: there’s something wrong with the brakes on our 6-ton RV – where’s the nearest brake service!? Each addition often spawns a few more (why waste a visit to an unexpected town?) and so the pushpin count continues to grow.

Kejimkujik National Park

Kejimkujik NP and Lake – it’s all about the paddling…

Kejimkujik was established as a National Park in 1969, preserving old growth forest, a landscape for rare wildlife and waterways traveled by the Mi’kmaw people for thousands of years. In 1995, it was also designated as a National Historic Site celebrating the Mi’kmaw culture. The canoe routes were used to travel between the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Coast (with portages). Traces left behind by the original indigenous people included stone carvings (petroglyphs) on outcroppings along the rivers. These portray the typical Mi’kmaw life including hunting, fishing and wildlife. Being semi-nomadic, the Mi’kmaw spent winters inland, away from the colder coast while stocking up on fish and other food from the sea during the summer.

The North Coast of Western Nova Scotia

I’ve always had a fascination with travel and for the past 20 or 30 years (give or take a few) whenever Doug or I learned of an interesting place to visit we put a pushpin on an electronic map. (It actually started with a little silver bucket with small pieces of paper and a pen on the bookshelf in our living room – our ‘Bucket List’ bucket – evolving from bookshelf to computer to The Cloud, but the concept still holds.) (We also keep track of the source of each so that friends who made the recommendations receive proper attribution.) Anyhow, as we got close to retiring those e-pushpins were nearly out of control. We’ve now spent a good part of the last 12 years reining things in, tracking and checking off the locations, marking some for a possible revisit, thanking the folks who sent us somewhere, and learning effective strategies to navigate our pushpin map.

So, here we are in Nova Scotia.

Rig Updates for 2026

Our motorhome is 18 years old! Last year‘s travels began with new tires all around, new leaf springs, and some heavy-duty rear shocks, then out on the road we got a new engine control module and starting battery, also a new water pump for the living quarters when the original one failed. This post reviews a couple of significant updates and upgrades we made in preparation for this year’s travels.

Saint John, NB

Saint John, NB (not to be confused with Saint John’s, NL), is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, and the 2nd largest city in New Brunswick. Its location where the Saint John River meets the Bay of Fundy made it the perfect spot for heavy industry and shipping. The city now boasts of reinventing itself as it modernizes and expands into more high-tech industry, tourism (it’s now a major stop for cruises on the east coast) and the arts.

Campobello Island

Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada is just across the short Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge from Lubec, ME. Not quite 1/3 of this island is taken up by the Roosevelt Campobello International Park, jointly administered by Canada and the US, preserving Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s summer home and surrounding land.

Lubec, ME and Superlatives

There are several places we could have chosen to cross into Canada from Maine. As superlatives nerds, we chose Lubec, ME because it’s the easternmost town in the continental US. OK, it’s also a cute little coastal city with shops, restaurants and a great hardware store. Also the easternmost campground, Sunset Point RV Park, which happens to be a great place to spend a couple days of R&R after the reunion festivities. Just outside of town is the West Quoddy Lighthouse, the easternmost point in the continental US.