We experienced some trepidation concerning crossing the border into New Brunswick.  Unlike crossing the border during air travel, we had far more stuff with us, especially food, which is always a concern.  Our border experience started off on a bad note.  The customs guard asked for our license plate number.  Apparently our bike rack obscures our license plate and we were asked for our vehicle’s registration papers. We were questioned concerning our itinerary, how much time we planned to be in Canada, the reason for our visit, the presence of weapons, how much alcohol we were carrying, if we were bringing any gifts or meeting someone and if we had more than $10,000.

The customs guard asked repeatedly about the possession of weapons.  Not only firearms but switch blades and pepper spray. We have bear spray on board for our trip west in late July which is a form of capsaicin spray.  We told him that we had bear spray and he asked if it was labeled bear spray, and since it was labeled, it was fine.

Even with all the questions, we passed through the border crossing in less time than it took us to figure out how to switch our speedometer from miles per hour to kilometers per hour (thanks Mercedes Benz for burying this change so deeply in the software!).  We soon were on our way east to Saint Martins, New Brunswick located on the shore of the Bay of Fundy 

Saint Martins is small. There are roughly 320 full-time occupants. The town has one private grocery store, a convenience/liquor store, and two gas stations.  One can drive through the town in fewer than 5 minutes.

Although small,  Saint Martins’ close location to the western entrance to the scenic Fundy Trail Parkway and the red sandstone sea-caves make it a popular vacation destination site. We stayed at Century Farms RV Park on the bay less than a few kilometers from the Parkway and Sea Caves.

Saint Martins is the smallest town Sue and I have ever stayed in.  There are no chain-stores near-by, only mom-and-pop stores.  The local general merchant (grocery store), Huttges, was on the first floor of a converted house.  The staff were very kind and helpful. 

The Huttges butcher, who does all the meat cutting, was very proud of his store-made sausages. He convinced us to buy his slightly spicy Cumin Assassin sausage, which was very good, especially grilled with red pepper. It’s great fun for us to try local delicacies.

The tides in this region are fascinating.  The area experiences extremely large tide changes, so large that boats moored in the docks sit on the bay bed at low tide.

The sea caves are only accessible at low tide.  During high tide they are flooded.  This was our first exposure to walking the sea floor and New Brunswick- PEI red mud.  We thought that these areas would be sandy at low tide but instead they are extremely muddy from the red soil that is so beautiful and common to this area.

Note that these photos were not taken at the lowest and highest tides. They were taken somewhere inbetween.

We are off to drive and hike the Fundy Trail Parkway.  The parkway is one of the last coastal wilderness areas on the east coast of North America.

Thanks for checking in.