East Coast 2022: Drive to Edmundston and Shediac, N.B.

 

When planning our 2-week trip to the East Coast, Rich and I allocated 3 days to drive to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia where we would drop off our friends Yim and Murray before heading out to explore Cape Breton Island on our own.  We thought if we could push the pace and distance on the first day to reach Edmundston, New Brunswick which is just past the border of Quebec.  That this would leave us more time on the second and third days to make some leisurely tourist stops in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  According to Google Maps, the driving time alone from Toronto to Edmundston would be around 12.5 hours.  Adding another 1.5 hours for bathroom breaks, stretching and eating, the total travel time would be around 14 hours.  This seemed doable with Rich and Murray taking turns at the wheel every 3-4 hours.  If we left around 6:45am, we would arrive in Edmunston between 8:30-9pm.  I found a bar that stayed open until 10pm, so we could grab a quick bite before checking into our motel.  

Mapping out tentative rest points, we would stop at the Big Apple near Colborne, Ontario for a quick breakfast, then again somewhere around Lancaster Ontario, Laurier Station, Quebec and finally Edmundston, New Brunswick.  With four of us packing for a 2-week trip, the trunk of our car was stuffed with not much room to spare.  This would become an issue by the next driving day, but more on that later.  In the meantime, Yim and I had to keep ourselves occupied for the lengthy drive, so she had her knitting project making headbands and a doggie sweater and I had two lacey crochet tops that I was alternately working on.

Our first stop was at the Big Apple where we would grab a quick breakfast and have our first restroom opportunity.  For some reason, the Big Apple has “western-themed” washrooms.  The people depicted on the signs for men vs women each wear a cowboy hat and a neck ‘kerchief.  In the women’s washroom are large signs indicating “Outhouse”, Saloon, “Wash House” and “Laundry Room”.  The wooden stalls have horseshoes hanging on the door. Prior to entering the large retail store and restaurant, you walk by a window that reveals the bakers busily preparing the signature Big Apple fruit pies, with a running counter indicating how many pies and Apple Breads have been sold to date (over 8 million total).  While we were there, Rich and I picked up our usual staples including the famous Apple Bread, “apple pie” flavoured caramel popcorn, a jar of “Apple Pie in a Jar” and my tart cherry sparkling (non-alcoholic) apple cider.  We also selected some jam, an apple cake loaf and some more popcorn to bring as a hostess gifts for Murray’s mom, whose apartment we would be staying a few days at in Dartmouth.

All four of us have been to the Big Apple multiple times, but we never realized before that you could go inside and up to the top of the giant structure.  As we were eating our breakfast out on the patio deck, we saw others enter the Apple and so we followed suit.  At the base of the Big Apple are giant sculptures of papa, mama and baby bear, ready to enjoy a freshly baked pie.  Several flights of stairs lead to an observation deck at the top where there is a nice view of the grounds and surrounding regions. We could see the mini putt, ping pong tables and petting zoo on the property. At the landing of each flight of stairs, the walls are adorned with cartoon depictions of members of the “Apple Family”.  We ended up spending a bit more time at the Big Apple than we originally intended, but it was a fun way to start our long road trip.

Continuing our drive east, the next rest stop was supposed to be a truck stop at Lancaster, Ontario just over 3 hours from the Big Apple.  As we approached, we realized that it was on the other side of the highway, and it wasn’t worth trying to get there.  Instead, we crossed over to Quebec and found a truck stop at Rivère-Beaudette, but ran into more bad luck.  While the restrooms were open, the Saint Hubert restaurant was not so there was no hot lunch available for us.  Instead, we drove a couple of blocks off the highway to an A&W.  This worked out just fine since we were able to have a quick lunch and Rich and Yim each enjoyed a large, frosted mug of root beer.  What made this stop even more interesting was the cool merchandise in the convenience store attached to the fast-food joint.  We were awed by the number of shelves full different brands of beer that would rival any liquor store.  In particular, I was fascinated by the pin-up girls on the cans of beer from Archibald Microbrewery with provocative French names such as “Chipie” (translation bitch or harpie), “Désirée” (Desire) or “Frippouille” (scoundrel).  Even more surprising were the boxes of board games.  There was the French guessing game Culotté (meaning cheeky) where you signify that you want to guess the word depicted in the image on a card by pressing a buzzer shaped like a buttock.  Each answer will contain the sound “cul” (meaning ass) in it and the word to be guessed is gratuitously printed on top of the rear end of either a man or woman wearing underwear or bikini briefs. Even more intriguing were the role-playing sex games including one called “Hunting Widow”.  Let your imagination go wild!

We drove another 3 hours to our third stop which was Laurier-Station, Quebec.  This was just a very fast stop to stretch our legs, refill the gas tank, use the restrooms at the gas station and to change drivers.  I was delighted to find giant sculptures of a bull and a McDonalds-like box of French fries by the gas station.  We had actually spotted other huge sculptures enroute during our drive through Quebec including a giant dog that was half the size of an electrical pole, and a giant roll of Royale toilet paper.  This brought Rich and I fond memories of our “Big Things” road trip tour of north-west Ontario that we took when we first retired back in 2012.

Leaving Laurier Station around 5pm, we had a final drive of just over 3.5 hours to reach Edmundston, New Brunswick where we would spend the night.  We were a bit behind schedule after spending extra time at the Big Apple but were still targeting to arrive by 8:30pm which was a reasonable time to have a quick dinner before heading to our motel.  To our surprise, when Rich programmed in the destination for this last leg into the car, it gave an ETA of past 10pm!  We were perplexed for a minute as to why it would take so long to drive this distance.  And then it hit us!  We had forgotten about the 1-hour time change that happens as you cross the border from Quebec to New Brunswick.  Losing the hour meant that we would not get to Edmundston in time for dinner.  Making a quick adjustment in plans, we decided to stop in Rivière-du-Loup for dinner instead.  This was only 2 hours and 10 minutes away, and still in Quebec, so before the time change.  Rivière-du-Loup has a pretty Main Street with historic buildings, restaurants and shops. Had we more time, it would have been fun to explore further, and we made a note to return if we were in the area again.  The restaurants were fairly full, and we were unable to get a table at the first few that we tried.  We managed to secure a table at Le Loft which was a restaurant and bar but because the joint was so busy, we waited over an hour before our food arrived.  

By the time we were done dinner, it was dark, and we were still about 1.5 hours away from our motel.  When we finally arrived at our destination for the night, we had been travelling for over 15 hours and it was almost midnight with the time change to the Atlantic time zone.  Luckily the Days Inn was still staffed, and we were able to easily check in for a well-deserved good night’s sleep.

The next day, we started out bright and early but had a much more relaxed day planned.  We would only be driving 5.5 hours plus a few stops along the way to get to Shediac, New Brunswick where we would spend our second night.  While it was just happenstance that we came across various large sculptures on the previous day’s drive, we scheduled several stops on this leg specifically to see more “big things” including a potato, an axe and a lobster.

Our first impromptu rest stop serendipitously turned out to be more momentous than we expected.  Arbitrarily pulling in at a gas station in Hartland, New Brunswick, about 1.5 hours south of Edmundston, we realized that we were right across from the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Factory!  Covered Bridge potato chips are made from locally grown dark russet potatoes harvested from the Saint John River Valley.  They are kettle-cooked with the skin left on for extra crunch.  Both Yim and I love potato chips, so we were thrilled to stumble upon a factory that produces them, plus a large store selling bags of many different flavours.  Rich and I were debating how many bags we should buy when Yim pointed out the sign with the offer of “Buy 12, get 1 Free”.  The rest of us quickly dismissed this idea, but Yim was adamant even though the trunk of our car was already fairly packed.  Undeterred by the logistics of fitting 12 bags of potato chips into the car (since of course we would be eating the free 13th bag right there in the parking lot!), she convinced us and we started selecting our flavours.  Somehow, we did manage to stuff most of the bags into cracks and crevices in our already full trunk, in between our luggage, plus a few bags in the back seat.  We ended up snacking on a steady diet of potato chips for the rest of our journey to and back from the East Coast.   All that salt was still in my system over a month later, much to the alarm of my doctor when I had my next physical!  This was a fun and unexpected stop.  Our only regret was that we did not have the time to take the tour of the factory to see how potato chips are made.

As per the name of the potato chip company, New Brunswick is known for its covered bridges, which are timber-truss structures with roofs and siding that are meant to extend their lifespan by offering protection from the hard Canadian winters in the Maritimes.  At last count, New Brunswick has almost 60 covered bridges scattered across the province.  On the property of the chip factory was the self-proclaimed “Shortest Covered Bridge” which spans a mere 24 feet.  This claim is a bit nebulous as while the structure is shaped like a covered bridge, it doesn’t really function as a bridge in the usual sense of the word.  It was more like a shelter with a couple of benches inside and a sign that you could pose for photos in front of.  On the other hand, located just a few minutes away from the chip factory was the Hartland Covered Bridge, which is legitimately known as the World’s Longest Covered Bridge.

This heritage bridge was built in 1921 and spans 1282 feet (391 meters) across the Saint John River.  Concrete piers support a long, enclosed wooden bridge held up by a framework made of iron tension rods known as a “Howe Truss”.  When you take the entry to the bridge that is near the chip shop, you are in the town of Hartland.  But by the time you exit, you are now in the town of Somerville.  We were not sure whether this fairly narrow bridge was intended for one or two-way traffic, especially when a large vehicle taking up more than half the width came barreling towards us from the other direction.

Carrying on with our drive, we arrived at our first planned stop.  Nackawic, New Brunswick sits on the East bank of the Saint John River, 65km west of the province’s capital city of Frederickton.  Meaning “Straight Stream”, Nackawic was once known for its pulp mill before it closed in 2004.  Today, it is known as the home of the “World’s Largest Axe”, standing at 15 metres in height and weighing over 55 tons.  Built in 1991, the giant axe symbolizes the importance of the forest industry to this town.  After taking our photos in front of the axe, we walked around the beautiful Nackawic International Garden Riverwalk, bought some drinks and noshed on another of our 13 bags of potato chips while we admired the view of the river.

We caught the last day of a week-long festival and sadly missed the car show, Ultimate championship wrestling, scavenger hunt, bingo, and crowning of Miss Nackawic on the previous days.  We did get to see the bouncy castles, llama petting, a shooting range and some big crowd in the Nackawic Arena where people gathered to watch musical, dance and magic acts.

The next stop was more of a drive-by so that I could take a photo in front of the giant potato at Harvey’s Big Potato Farm (now known as Silver Valley Farms) roadside fruit and vegetables stand.  The beloved sculpture of the spud with a big smile sporting a top hat was first constructed in 1969 by Winston Bronnum, who also created the giant lobster that we would see when we reached Shediac, N.B.  Unfortunately the potato had suffered wear and tear through the years and was in need of “a hip replacement and new knees”.  A Go Fundme campaign raised $10,000 to restore the potato to its former glory, just in time for us to visit.

Our final stop of the day would be in Shediac, where we would spend the night before the last push to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.