We Continue Heading North

 Goodbye Vermont On To Boothbay and Canada (Cont'd)

Although our last blog was titled Dorset to Boothbay it should have been titled Dorset and Bennington, Vermont but we messed it up so I will try to correct it with this post.

In our last blog we omitted that while in Dorset we also got to have a nice visit with Ray's Aunt Peggy who lives in Vermont.  Unfortunately, we only get to see Aunt Peggy on our yearly visits to New England but it's always a fun enjoyable time and we look forward to seeing her again down the road.

From Dorset we drove to Bennington which was in our last blog and then to Phillipston, Massachusetts.  While in Phillipston we drove to Lowell, MA to visit with Lalia's sister Susan who made a wonderful charcuterie board and then steak tip dinner for us.  It was good to see her.  The next two days were spent visiting with Lalia's cousin Robyn, her husband David, and their daughters Emily and Sarah.  Just like last year, we had a great time and enjoyed our visit a lot.

We already look forward to spending time at the Payson patio - one
of the prettiest and most relaxing spots

From Phillipston we drove to Boothbay, Maine where we will stay for a week before heading to Canada.  One of our first stops in Boothbay was to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens which were amazing. Besides the beautiful gardens there is also a display of giant wooden trolls made by Thomas Dambo of Denmark.  These wooden sculptures are made totally of recycled wood and old pallets.  

When we were in Kentucky a couple of years ago we visited the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest where we first met some of Dambo's Trolls and were amazed by these wooden sculptures.  In the Maine Botanical Gardens we met 5 more of Dambo's wooden classics.  Mr. Dambo has wooden sculptures all over the world including numerous sites in America. If you are interested in reading more about these trolls here is a link to read - https://trollmap.com/.  If you would like to know more about Mr. Dambo here is a link to his website - https://thomasdambo.com/.

This young man supports himself with a huge evergreen

During our stay in Boothbay we were joined by Linda and Dave Fernald who are more of our Florida friends. It was great to see them and we enjoyed a wonderful weekend with lots of laughs and good memories.  Due to some Canadian customs requirements we decided to leave all our alcohol, except beer and wine, with Linda and Dave and we're looking forward to seeing them in September on our way south from Canada and to recovering whatever will be left of our alcohol.😂

Also while we were in Boothbay we were able to meet with Maggie and Dave Caron.  Dave is an old friend from Ray's previous life as an air traffic controller and it was good to see them again in Damariscotta.

From Boothbay we drove to St. George New Brunswick, Canada.  Crossing the border was not an issue and we arrived at our Harvest Host site early enough to visit the store at the blueberry farm and purchase some strawberries and muffins.  Our site was very nice and quiet.

Our next stop was St. Martins, New Brunswick for a week.  This is our third time at this RV park.  A few years ago we stopped here with friends Colleen and Charles on our way to Nova Scotia.  This is a nice park right on the Bay of Fundy and we had some very nice days with beautiful views of the Bay.  We did have trouble with the wifi but other than that it was a nice stay.  It was nice to sit around and do nothing but relax.  We did manage to get into Saint John a few times for some shopping at Walmart and Costco and to have some brake work done on the car along with an oil change.  One afternoon we visited "downtown" St Martins and we drove along the coast for a while but other than that we just relaxed.

The view from our RV

Our next stop was in Amherst, Nova Scotia where we found a really nice RV park on a lake with some nice views.  Again, there was not a lot to do in Amherst, especially since we've been to Nova Scotia two previous trips, so we relaxed and completed some cleaning and minor repairs to the RV.  Our next stop will be Prince Edward Island where we'll stay near Charlottetown for a month or so.

Blair Lake in Amherst, NS Canada