New York City

After Cape Cod, I traveled into New York City and stayed across the Hudson River in New Jersey at an RV park right on the water and having a view of the Statue of Liberty. Not bad, considering this was the only RV park even close to the city! The weather, for the most part, was pretty warm - in the 60's, although the day before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving day were pretty cold, overcast and/or rainy.

Getting around was pretty easy. There was a train to the World Trade Center and from there, the subway was in easy reach. Here's a shot of what the WTC site looks like these days:



I guess they are starting to build the replacement "Freedom Tower". There was so much to see, from the Statue of Liberty, to Times Square, to the Empire State building, and so on. I spendt 6 days in New York, had a great time, and wish I could have stayed longer!



View from the Empire State building



St. Patrick's Cathedral - this was incredible!



Nice shot of the Statue of Liberty from a ferryboat



View of lower Manhattan near my "campsite"



One of the floats in the Thanksgiving Day parade



Times Square



Lots of cool churches



This one is called the Cathedral of St. John the Divine



Great architecture throughout the city

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

After Boston, I went to visit Cape Cod, just a short distance away. I got a hotel room for 2 days because the weather was so bad...very rainy and windy. On the third day, I headed out to the cape, even though the weather hadn't cleared entirely. Cape Cod reminded me very much of the Quebec province...it was largely deserted due to it's seasonal draw. I visited a few beaches, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Then I headed to the very tip of the Cape, to a town called Provinetown, which was a very quaint touristy town with lots to see there. I only stayed the day, then drove into Rhode Island to spend the night. Here are the Cape Cod pictures:





Some kind of city building in Provinetown



Clocktower in Provincetown



Pilgrim memorial tower



Pilgrim tower against the sunset

Boston

After visiting Maine, I drove south to visit the city of Boston, Massachusetts. I stayed with an old boyhood friend that I had not seen or corresponded with for 30 or so years. It was a nice visit and he took me on a quick tour of Boston. I shot the following photographs:



Church on Harvard campus















I'm going to have to come back and visit Boston again. It was a really beautiful city.

Maine

After seeing Nova Scotia, I drove through the province of New Brunswick until I got to the US/Canadian border and crossed over into Maine. The weather continued to be nasty and on the cool side (no higher than 50 degrees during the day). I stopped overnight about 50 miles south of the border in a parking lot. When I woke up the next morning, I discovered that my heater had not come on at night, and that Maine was experiencing extreemly cold weather. It was 30 degrees outside when I woke, and only 40 degrees inside my RV! Neither my gas heater nor my electric heat was working. So, I found an RV repair place near the town of Bangor to fix my heat and to replace the motor that controlled my slide-outs, since I'd been travelling for about 5 days without the benefit using the slide-outs. It's pretty cramped inside the RV without them.

Anyway, I was stuck in Bangor for about 5 days, waiting for parts. The weather during this time was quite nasty...very cold, windy, and rain. I managed to keep busy, driving in my Jeep to see Acadia National park, about 30 miles away. I took the following pictures during that trip:













All in all, not a really impressive place to visit. At least not this time of year.

Nova Scotia, Canada

After leaving Prince Edward Island, I traveled further south to visit Nova Scotia, which is another province of Canada. I stayed in a small RV park a few miles away from Halifax. On my first day, I drove along the coast to Halifax, about a 20 mile drive, and came across the very touristy town of Peggy's Cove. A very quaint, old fishing village having an old lighthouse on a rocky jetty. I stayed briefly to take a photo or two - here's the lighthouse:




I continued onto Halifax, visiting for only about a half day, as the weather was very cold and nasty. I visited the very touristy part of town near the waterfront and saw what's called "The Citidel" on the hill overlooking Halifax. Nothing too exciting here.

The next day, I began my journey around the western end of Nova Scotia, beginning on the southern coast near Halifax and proceeding clockwise. The route looked to be 3 to 4 hundred miles along the coastal route, and I figured it would take me about 4 days. My first day began with some nice weather for a change, and I was able to get some nice photos along the coast:



"The Three Churches" at Mahone Bay



Beautiful little fishing village






Pretty nice day! I camped in the parking lot of Kejimkujik National Park, Seaside Adjunct.

The next day, the weather started getting worse, and I continued my drive along the southern coast. I was trying to make it to Yarmouth, but fell short about 30 miles, staying overnight in a parking lot in a tiny town called Pubnico.

When I tried to get going the next day, my slide-outs began giving me trouble. The rear slide out to the bedroom retracted VERY slowly and didn't quite make it in all the way. I went to the main slide-out to see if I could make it retract, but it only came in a few inches before it, too, quit on me. So, I was essentially stuck in Pubnico, because I couldn't get the main slide-out retracted! Of course, this occcured on a Sunday, so I couldn't call anybody to help.

A local guy stopped by to see if I needed any help. He was a local fisherman and very nice. He actually took me for a ride out to see his fishing boat and to show me the area. The highlight being a giant wind-farm with many huge, modern wind-mills taking advantage of the constant gale-force winds on this remote western coastline. After the little sightseeing trip, he called a bunch of his buddies to see if we could push the slide out in. With 6 guys pushing from the outside, it didn't budge! Then we tried to pull it in from inside the RV using a couple of "ratchet-straps", which seemed perfect for the job. We cranked the ratchet-straps sooooo tight, but it did not budge the slide-out. So, I was stuck until at least the morning, when I would call the only 2 RV repair places on Nova Scotia to see if they could send someone out.

The next morning, I found out that neither repair facility could or would help out. Neither would send anybody out to me, since I was 2-3 hours drive away. So, things were looking very bleak!

I was contemplating ordering a pump/motor and having it delivered to me way out there in Pubnico, when I wandered across the street to a marine repair shop. Two really nice guys offered to come over with a fork-lift and try to push the slide-out in. After a few attempts, we finally were able to push the effing thing in!

Man, I was really glad to get out of there! I packed up and continued around the west end of Nova Scotia, stopping at Yarmouth, which was a large town that had a really cool lighthouse:



I went over and checked it out. The winds must have been blowing over 80 mph.

I kept driving along the coast toward the town of Digby, which was a really nice little town situated on the water. Along the way, I saw many old churches such as these:





I stayed in a Walmart parking lot that night, then continued on. I came across a really nice looking old lighthouse near sundown, and took a few pictures. There's more pictures on my photosite at www.tomsphotosonline.com