AUGUST 15, 2005
MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK in the
Campground of a 1000 Rules

Our stay in Beresford and Bathurst, NB was hardly memorable. Conveniently located away from interstate noise, we were in the Malybel campground, which also functions as Canada's largest pediatric colony. Hundreds of vacationing adolescents, lured by the playground, bike paths, heated pool, and water slide park.....well, sometimes the drone of interstate trucks is a welcome side effect. One might conclude that birth control in this maritime province is an untried concept. Sooo, shortly after dawn on day III, we dropped our dumplings at the dump station, said goodbye to Fisher-Price, Playskool, M&M's, Hasbro, Ritalin, and headed for adult entertainment in....



Our special mail lady in Moncton,
the irrepressible Vada Dodge,
going postal.






SHEDIAC, (pronounced shhi-tee-ack by the locals) home of the world's largest lobster. Thirty five feet long, sixteen feet high, and weighing ninety tonnes, I'll allow you to do the math; 180,000 lbs. at $12/lb. It would take a hundred hungry airstreamers at least a week to consume this monster, belch twice, and they would still line up for an ice cream treat after dinner.


"I'm hungry, let's have seafood for lunch"















Fran and Dave Perucci at the base of the seafood anomaly ,
dispelling any notion that Dave's Italian schnozz is larger
than a lobster's tail.





The next campground in Moncton was only a muffled roar from the Trans-Canada Highway. We were confined by an electronic entry/exit gate, a $60 fine if you were caught washing your windshield, no campfires allowed, and an entire page of rules that could easily be read with an electron microscope. Their final admonition, shallow and gratuitous, "enjoy your stay at our resort". Sure, but Attica and Guantanamo are further from the highway. Here for only a two night stay (as opposed to life without parole) we were able to walk on the ocean floor at nearby....

HOPEWELL ROCKS (a.k.a. the Flower Pots), a formation of gruesome figures that have withstood the eons of tides, twice every day. This all happens so slowly that most people leave or take a nap. Great fun however if you enjoy watching water rise at eight inches an hour. You see, the water from the Bay of Fundy gargles backward up the Petitcodiac River, under the influence of the sun, the moon, and perhaps, moon pies. This forms a suspension that closely resembles a non-carbonated beverage that we drank as youngsters. Kayo.




'Katie' and Chas. in front of the camera.




So important are these rocks as a tourist destination in New Brunswick, I was stopped and surveyed by a provincial version of Katie Couric. I agreed that the rocks were stunning, worthy of the visit, but explained that if they were moved to Disney's Epcot Center, they would rival the Afghanistan Pavilion in popularity. Americans want something to 'happen' every sixty seconds, while riding on a motorized tram, not every six hours after a mile hike and four hundred steps. She didn't write that down.



Tyrannosaurus Rox

Tonight we have reached the halfway point of our odyssey and I felt much the same as I had first crossing the equator. Eager to see the other half.