From the 7th -9th July we drove Julie's Mum and Dad around Northern New Brunswick. I hired a seven seater (or should I say, rented a ...) and we drove up to Parlee Beach apparently the warmest waters north of Virginia. Hot and sunny so a day at the beach was a great way to spend our time.

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Doreen and Ernie were impressed with how clean the beach and it's facilities.

We stayed overnight in a motel and the next day drove up to Tracadie Sheila a pretty town on the Acadian Penisula.

This part of NB is mostly french speaking but the majority of people are bi-lingual and it is very strange to sit in a restuarant and listen to a family talking over dinner and switching between English and French effortlessly. I wish we had the same level of skill with the French language, but alas my schoolboy/tourist french enables me to order food, ask directions and be polite. We stayed overnight at another Motel. Better quality than the one in Parlee Beach and cheaper too.

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The next day was marathon driving day (a case of the Brits not realising what the distances are on 1/200,000 maps). We drove further up the penisula to Shippagan and visited the Marine centre. After a couple hours jumped back in the van and headed down to Bathurst and across to Mount Carleton Provincial park!

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That is when you realise that taking roads that are less well used means lots of potholes and driving speed drops from 90 - 60kph. My well thought out travel times went out of the window and it took us all day to get to the park. On arrival the roads were rough (no tarmac) and I shredded a rear tyre. So while everyone went for a dip in the inviting lake a couple of hundred yards away, I changed the wheel and when I finished very hot, sticky, and mosquito-bitten I dived into the freezing cold mountain lake  oh but it felt so good.

That night we spent in Plaster Rock, a lumber mill with a town. The people were friendly enough but the local restaurant closed at 7:30pm so we had to buy a some burgers and fries from a local snack hut. Plaster Rock's claim to fame is it's annual World Pond Hockey  Championships.

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We left late in the morning Ernie wanted to visit Grand Falls, I am now driving on one of those temporary spare wheels so my speed still very reduced. So off to Grand Falls it was. In the brochure this looks much better than in the flesh. However it is a pretty town astride a gorge overlooking some waterfalls that are probably more impressive in spring than in the middle of a hot summer and the water level is much reduced. It was to hot for us to really enjoy the town and its river gorge. So we remounted and drove back to Fredericton by way of Hartland and the worlds longest covered bridge .

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Decision - WAY TOO MUCH DRIVING