We awoke this morning to a blue sky with no clouds and lots of sunshine. A good omen. We began our travels on I-95--the super road way of the east coast. We took this all the way to Bangor, Maine and then headed east on route 9 through the dense forests of Maine. We got to Calais and crossed over to Canada. The border crossing equals in size the crossing at Niagara Falls, but there were none of the crowds. In fact, we were the only ones there and the computer singled us out to be inspected! So we had to go into the Canadian border station and be greeted by guards wearing bullet proof vests who inspected our car full of potato chips and pespi!
Calais is the city on the US side of the border and St.Stephen is the Canadian counterpart. Both are about the size of Penn Yan, The two cities have been friends for a long time. During the War of 1812, St. Stephen lent a supply of gunpowder to Calais so that both communities could enjoy Independence Day celebrations rather than engage in war. Now that's my kind of thinking!!! According to local lore, the chocolate bar is reputed to have been created in this town at the Ganong Bros. candy factory. In 1906, this factory created the first heart-shaped Valentines Day candy box. In fact, this weekend they were having a big chocolate festival. But it was last afternoon when we passed through the area and we didn't have time to stop.
Our final destination for the night was St. John, New Brunswick and we arrived here about 6:30 after loosing an hour to a new time zone. We checked into our room at the University of New Brunswick. More about that tomorrow as it is getting late. We headed to the waterfront for some Moosehead beer and seafood for dinner and are now headed to bed after a day of driving 391 miles.
Diane
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