Leaving PEI, for now. We hope to be back, someday.

Along the NB shore, near Cape Spear

We sadly bade farewell to PEI today. We always enjoy our visits here, and this trip seemed extra special. Great weather for the most part, much better than we've come to expect in PEI this time of year. There's always a dark cloud for the silver lining it seems, as PEI farmers could really have used more rain in this latter part of summer as crops mature.

We were away about 8:30, running into some fog soon after we crossed the bridge from Stratford into Charlottetown, and took the Charlottetown bypass road:

The fog cleared away as soon as we were further from the shore though, and we saw no more of it today. 

Likely just a coincidence that the fog started just before the sewage treatment plant, and ended soon after. :)) 

 

Crossing the Confederation Bridge (aka the Link) was nicer than usual, with the reduced flat fare of $20. Traffic was light and moved along quickly through the toll booths: 

It was a bluebird day crossing the bridge:

A view of the bridge from the New Brunswick side

Soon after we crossed the bridge we departed from the main road to route 955 and 960, which follow the shore quite closely. Somewhere around Cape Spear we stopped at a pulloff and browsed the shore a bit. 

Some herons were looking for breakfast in the rocks

Empty shells clustered on a rock about 3 inches across, covering the whole rock

Along the way we were trying to decide where to go and when. We don't want to transit Quebec any day from Friday to Monday inclusive. After going through some options we decided to visit Deanne Fitzpatrick's shop in Amherst Nova Scotia, and go on to see some more of NS from there.

So after a lunch stop that's what we did: 

Picnic lunch at a roadside park in Pugwash 

There is more to Pugwash than we knew before, including the largest salt mine in Atlantic Canada :  

The salt mine here is similar to the one in Goderich Ont

Likely loading salt 

There's a Yacht Club

The Yacht Club docks (all of them)

 

Nearing Amherst we stopped at the Winegarden Winery, nicer inside than it looks from the outside. After some sampling and discussion with the staff and a visitor, Cathie came away with a couple of bottles:

 

 
And we got to Amherst, and Cathie met Deanne again:

After leaving Amherst we headed along #6 towards Tatamagouche, looking for a campsite. After trying a couple of campgrounds that didn't appeal to us and looking for reasonable boondock stops, with no success, we had a relax in Tatamagouche and decided to head back to Amherst, where there is one of the reliable Walmarts. This will position us for carrying on west to Edmundston NB tomorrow. We usually enjoy our Walmart stops, and this one was good too.