As we drove across the beautiful and brilliantly engineered 8-mile-long Confederation Bridge between PEI and the mainland, we were entering PEI with a few time constraints – tickets to a show on 8/8, meetup with friends on 8/14 and don’t visit PEI National Park with its legendary crowds on a weekend – and a list of things we wanted to visit. Oh, and we had forgotten about the Canadian long weekend and so arrived just in time for that. Working up a schedule with all these constraints required a bit of creativity. (Check out PEI on our travel page in you’re interested in just how much creativity…)
There was was only 1 item on our list in the south central part of PEI. However, given our driving routes to work around the constraints we got to explore this area and found a few gems.
As we had anticipated, no campsites were to be had in or near the 3 sections of PEI National Park (true not only on the crowded weekends, but during our entire visit). Again, our friends Sandy and Peter came to the rescue having tipped us to the Confederation Trailside Tourist Grounds, a campground and RV park right on PEI’s famous Confederation rail trail, in the middle of the province. Brilliant! It was a full-service, funky, totally laid back place to camp (even by PEI standards) where owners Jack and Debbie used a large field with a few scattered shade trees for non-serviced (primitive) camping. Drive (or ride) in and park or set up your tent anywhere you like! It was a 20 minute drive to 2 sections of the national park (Thursday and Monday), 40 minutes from the 3rd (Friday), and a great place for two days of hanging out, planning, and playing music on the weekend. CTTG was also 20 minutes from Charlottetown, the largest city in PEI, and we were able to swing through there for provisioning en route to our next stop.
We’d heard via the PEI tourism bureau as well as anecdotally from other RVers about narrow streets in downtown Charlottetown being challenging for larger vehicles, so we parked in a big-box area away from the city centre and marina, ran a few errands there and then walked about 2 km/1 mi into town. Our list of errands read like a scavenger hunt, so we got to see much of the city – bike saddle, specialty food items, electrical parts, and a windshield chip repair.
While walking around Charlottetown, we passed the Confederation Theatre, a famous performing arts center where Anne of Green Gables -The Musical (a new musical based on the books) and Come From Away (a musical about 9/11 in Gander, NL) both were playing. We admired pleasure boats of all sizes at the marina from a pair of colorful and comfortable Adirondack chairs, and looked across the harbor to sites we’d visited on the other side. We found the city remarkable to look at – 200-year-old buildings were well preserved and maintained among new buildings clearly built to complement the era styles and vibe. We accidentally stumbled upon Victoria Row, a pedestrian-only street with end-to-end restaurants of every flavor and variety with patrons enjoying outdoor dining. We walked back to our suburban parking through a residential neighborhood seeing just a bit more of the city.
So, when’s the last time you went to a drive-in theatre? Ya, we couldn’t remember, either. The Brackley Drive-In had a great deal – pay for your movie tickets, park in the back row, and you can park your RV overnight in the drive-in grounds. We planned a route to take advantage of this opportunity! We got to see the new Minions movie (meh…) and The Odyssey (wow!!). I am proud to say that we stayed awake until 2am and watched the entirety of both films (though had the order been reversed we would probably have a different tale to tell).
Skmaqn – Port-la-Joye – Fort Amherst National Historic Site, although small, had much to offer, including yet another perspective on Acadian history. Inside a protected cove, it was the site of the first permanent European settlement on PEI in 1720. The Mi’kmak, Acadians, French and British coexisted there until 1758 when the British took over Louisbourg. With the Fortress firmly in British hands, the military was ordered to Port La Joye and instructed to deport all Acadians. In 1764, when Acadians were allowed to return, the 4 cultures once again eventually collaborated and became the kernel for what is now PEI. The introductory film at the site is aptly named: Woven Stories. I asked the staff, do all 4 cultures really get along today? Yes. Is any one group considered a minority? No. That’s very cool! So, what’s with the longest name of all historical sites? It intentionally specifies and serves as a reminder of the history of primary possession or occupation of the site over time by the Mi’kmak, Acadian/French and British who all contributed to the eventual settling and influenced the character of this area.
The highlight of our visit here was meeting up with our friends from back home, Pat (le fondateur de notre group français à Waitsfield) and Shevonne. They had set out to bike the famous Confederation Rail Trail across the entirety of PEI. It took them 5 days! We met twice for dinner, with time to get caught up and trade travel stories, and in the mornings we pulled our bikes down from the motorhome and rode along with our friends for an hour or so, then we turned around to head back to the RV as Pat and Shevonne continued on their way. The first night, we celebrated our travels in PEI with a new sticker on the RV Adventure Map, and (of course) ice cream. On the second day, the last leg of Pat and Shevonne’s PEI trip, we provided a celebratory escort about half of the way from Saint Peters to the trail’s end at the Elmira Train Station, exchanged hugs, and went our separate ways. À bientôt, nos amis !
And with that, we crossed the Confederation Bridge back to the mainland and on to New Brunswick.
For anyone interested, more Confederation Bridge, Confederation Trailside Tourist Grounds, Charlottetown, Brackley Drive-In, Skmaqn–Port-la-Joye–Fort Amherst National Historic Site, riding with Pat & Shevonne pix…
