The Great George
Wow! What a day! It started out normal enough with a delicious breakfast at our B&B. We wanted to leave by 8:30 to get to the Hopewell Rocks in time to 'walk on the ocean floor' during low tide as mentioned in yesterdays blog.
Before I start, those of you who have read Carla's blog know that her GPS is named Amelia after Amelia Earhart who never did find her way home. Ours is named Dudley after Dudley Doright, the Royal Canadian Mountie who always got his man.
So, when we drove out of the driveway of the B&B, Dudley told us to go left when we knew the way to go was right, but we thought we would be 'adventurous' and see if going left was a shortcut as he promised. Soon afterwards, we found ourselves on a nice easy wide dirt road. No problem. We were fine as we thought this would be a shortcut and wouldn't be very long. Along the way, time for a beauty shot (notice, the road looks ok for dirt at this point).
Not long afterwards, the road got bumpy, and then more bumpy, more rocky. After about 10 miles of dirt and rocks, Dudley told us to go right and the road got really narrow and really, really rocky. We were concerned but there was no turning back. In fact, the road was now just wide enough for the car. At one point, Bill had to get out and check out the rocks, branches, and water depth we would have to drive through to determine if we could do it. So we went for it (wish we would have taken a picture but we were too busy watching the road and nervous).
Something else that factored into our situation was that there was no one else out there - no houses, no sign of life, nothing! We were definitely concerned that we would breakdown and our phones wouldn't work. There was no going back. We continued bumping along for about 20 miles - this reminded us of our Jeep ride in the Colorado Mountains with Ric, except we were driving a Toyota Corolla - not a Jeep. When we finally came to a paved road, Dudley told us to turn right, but within 20-yds, that road turned to dirt, so Bill said no way Dudley my man, we're not going on another dirt road, so we turned around, went back and turned the other way on a paved road.
Bill decided to look at Dudley's programming and realized that Dudley was somehow taking us to some unknown GPS coordinates, not Hopewell Rocks. Oh Brother!!!! Did he change the destination on his own or what? Once we gave him a stearn talk and reprimand, we re-programmed him. Although he was punished, this time he took us directly to Hopewell Rocks arriving about 45 minutes later than it should have. Nice shotcut Dudley - not!
We very much enjoyed 'walking on the ocean floor' at Hopewell Rocks. Here is a photo we took yesterday at high tide.
Here is our photo taken at the same place today at low tide. Look closely and you'll see Karen (think where's Waldo) waving - 39 feet below sea level.
We walked all around the ocean floor trying to avoid the mud until the Rangers started ushering people back up the stairs because the tide was coming in and it moves fairly quickly (approx. 1-ft every 5-min). Shortly, the Rangers started clearing visitors as the tide was coming in.
Once back at the interpretive center, we decided to have lunch and relax before getting back on the road - a paved road! Nice view for lunch on a very sunny day.
Our next stop - Prince Edward Island. Off we went following Dudleys directions, cruising down a beautiful 2 lane (paved) road through farmlands when we started hearing a noise, road noise? Bill decided to stop and take another look at the tires because we had a tire pressure light on ever since the dirt road (2-hrs earlier). There it was! A flat tire!
Fortunately we stopped at a good place with a lot of flat space to change the tire. The change went fairly easily and we even got the attention of the farmer who came out of his house across the street to see if he could help just as Bill was finishing up.
Now we had another detour - to the Avis Rental Car agency location in Moncton, which we knew right where it was because it was across the street from where we were yesterday to see the tidal bore. They were super nice and gave us a new car - an upgrade! We were relieved because who knows what else will go wrong with that car after what we put it through.
We had an uneventful drive to Prince Edward Island and arrived at out beautiful hotel, The Great George, circa 1846. Another very nice room and beautiful B&B.
After getting settled in our room, having a glass of wine, we walked to The Merchantman for a nice dinner.
We plan to have a nice relaxing day tomorrow enjoying Prince Edward Island.
Before I start, those of you who have read Carla's blog know that her GPS is named Amelia after Amelia Earhart who never did find her way home. Ours is named Dudley after Dudley Doright, the Royal Canadian Mountie who always got his man.
So, when we drove out of the driveway of the B&B, Dudley told us to go left when we knew the way to go was right, but we thought we would be 'adventurous' and see if going left was a shortcut as he promised. Soon afterwards, we found ourselves on a nice easy wide dirt road. No problem. We were fine as we thought this would be a shortcut and wouldn't be very long. Along the way, time for a beauty shot (notice, the road looks ok for dirt at this point).
Not long afterwards, the road got bumpy, and then more bumpy, more rocky. After about 10 miles of dirt and rocks, Dudley told us to go right and the road got really narrow and really, really rocky. We were concerned but there was no turning back. In fact, the road was now just wide enough for the car. At one point, Bill had to get out and check out the rocks, branches, and water depth we would have to drive through to determine if we could do it. So we went for it (wish we would have taken a picture but we were too busy watching the road and nervous).
Something else that factored into our situation was that there was no one else out there - no houses, no sign of life, nothing! We were definitely concerned that we would breakdown and our phones wouldn't work. There was no going back. We continued bumping along for about 20 miles - this reminded us of our Jeep ride in the Colorado Mountains with Ric, except we were driving a Toyota Corolla - not a Jeep. When we finally came to a paved road, Dudley told us to turn right, but within 20-yds, that road turned to dirt, so Bill said no way Dudley my man, we're not going on another dirt road, so we turned around, went back and turned the other way on a paved road.
Bill decided to look at Dudley's programming and realized that Dudley was somehow taking us to some unknown GPS coordinates, not Hopewell Rocks. Oh Brother!!!! Did he change the destination on his own or what? Once we gave him a stearn talk and reprimand, we re-programmed him. Although he was punished, this time he took us directly to Hopewell Rocks arriving about 45 minutes later than it should have. Nice shotcut Dudley - not!
We very much enjoyed 'walking on the ocean floor' at Hopewell Rocks. Here is a photo we took yesterday at high tide.
Here is our photo taken at the same place today at low tide. Look closely and you'll see Karen (think where's Waldo) waving - 39 feet below sea level.
We walked all around the ocean floor trying to avoid the mud until the Rangers started ushering people back up the stairs because the tide was coming in and it moves fairly quickly (approx. 1-ft every 5-min). Shortly, the Rangers started clearing visitors as the tide was coming in.
Once back at the interpretive center, we decided to have lunch and relax before getting back on the road - a paved road! Nice view for lunch on a very sunny day.
Our next stop - Prince Edward Island. Off we went following Dudleys directions, cruising down a beautiful 2 lane (paved) road through farmlands when we started hearing a noise, road noise? Bill decided to stop and take another look at the tires because we had a tire pressure light on ever since the dirt road (2-hrs earlier). There it was! A flat tire!
Fortunately we stopped at a good place with a lot of flat space to change the tire. The change went fairly easily and we even got the attention of the farmer who came out of his house across the street to see if he could help just as Bill was finishing up.
Now we had another detour - to the Avis Rental Car agency location in Moncton, which we knew right where it was because it was across the street from where we were yesterday to see the tidal bore. They were super nice and gave us a new car - an upgrade! We were relieved because who knows what else will go wrong with that car after what we put it through.
We had an uneventful drive to Prince Edward Island and arrived at out beautiful hotel, The Great George, circa 1846. Another very nice room and beautiful B&B.
After getting settled in our room, having a glass of wine, we walked to The Merchantman for a nice dinner.
We plan to have a nice relaxing day tomorrow enjoying Prince Edward Island.
Oh man...been there, done that with the crazy GPS...not amusing at all, Dudley! Glad you got back on track; enjoy PEI and if you happen to spot a Cows Creamery (Cavendish and Charlottetown locations), stop in and get a scoop of Wowie Cowie.
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