Sunday, Aug. 23 Bay of Fundy

Lots of thunder and lightning last night, but never did rain.

First goal of the day was church at Sussex, 1  1/4 hours away. Left extra time because we'd been cautioned about construction in Fundy National Park, which we needed to drive through. Indeed the road was torn up but most of the delay was staying behind a couple of motorcycles which had a harder time of it. Anyway, we reached Sussex and found the church (look for steeple) plenty early. Just before Mass S was surprised by the woman sitting behind us saying "I know you." She thought to herself, "I doubt it," but turns out the woman winters at St. Pete Beach and recognized us from St. John's Church there. Amazing. If you are thinking of entering the Witness Protection Program, don't be too confident: someone will probably know you wherever you go. The church service included an infant baptism, which was enjoyable to watch.

After church we had a good brunch and then headed down the coast. Correction: "Down" is taken to mean toward the northeast, so I guess we were heading up, even though we were getting farther south. As we drove we could see the black wall of a storm ahead, and sure enough we ran into a torrential thunderstorm, nearly whiteout conditions. Many cars were pulled over to the side of the road, but I didn't want to get whacked by a driver who couldn't see where he was going, so I slowed way down and put on my flashers, as did everyone else still moving. Within 15 minutes, the storm was past and the road was dry.  I can't remember ever seeing it rain that hard anywhere except Florida. Another couple of hours took us to New River Beach, a provincial park with a campground in the woods and a big, popular beach. We set up camp and then went down to the beach. Tide was just past low, so the beach was several hundred yards wide. We set up in the shade of a cliff and I took a swim in the cold water. Think it is the farthest north I've ever been swimming. No, Sweden was farther north. I had left my towel and hat 40' up the beach, but by the time I took a quick dip and came back, the shore was within 6' of them. I stood at the shore and watched the tide come in; every little wave pushed higher on the beach. The tide range here is not as extreme as at the head of the bay, but still moves impressively. The sun on the brown sand beach made it uncomfortably hot so we headed back to camp. We went back down to the beach three hours later and it had risen at least 10-15', erasing most of the beach and drowning the spot we'd occupied by the cliff. Not a place you'd want to nap on the beach.

Tomorrow may be our last day in Canada, for this trip at least.