August 29, 2013: Day 48

August 29, 2013, Day 48

St. John, NB, Rockwood Campground

We started our day at 5:00 am (yes it was still dark outside) to decorate Roger and Sandy’s RV. This was their anniversary and we wanted to decorate before they woke up. And we did, the only one up was Al going for his daily walk.

At 9:30 our tour bus rolled into the RV Park and we all got onto it for the tour of St. John. Our first stop was the “Reversing Falls”. This is an area when the tide comes in and out two times a day, and you can see the water flow in two different directions. Seeing how the tide works was really fascinating. This is a picture taken about 9:50 am. – the water is really calm.

This is a picture of the same area taken 3 hours later. Here are some statistics about this area:

This is where the Bay of Fundy’s highest tides in the world rush into and up the St. John River, The river actually reverses in the face of the unstoppable natural power. The tides could go as high as 30 feet, rising about 1 foot every 10 minutes. It will be completely calm for 20 to 30 minutes before it changes direction. It flows about 30 miles an hour. The water is 150 feet deep on the river side, and 300 feet deep on the bay side.

Here is another picture of the rushing water. Three hours ago is was very calm. This is just amazing.

Next we did a bus tour around St. John. This is really a beautiful and modern city. There are several high rise buildings.

There are also several beautiful churches. This one is St. John Baptiste. It was one of the first churches in St. John. It was all wood until the Great Fire of 1877 destroyed it; the town then made a law that all buildings must be made of stone.

We also got to see the US Embassy. See Below:

One of our stops was the City Market. The roof is built like the inverted hull of a ship to reflect the city’s ship-building past! All I can say about that is “WOW, what a great shopping adventure”.

From there we went to the Carleton Martello Tower.

Built for the war of 1812, this tough little fort is a classic example of a Martello tower. The tower features a restored gunpowder magazine and soldiers’ barracks.

As we passed by the ‘Kings Square”, and the downtown areas, we saw several well-manicured areas with beautiful flowers.

We arrived back in the RV Park just in time to fix lunch and start preparing for the evening events.

At the 4:00 social we had a replay of pictures on our outside TV for the entire trip and spent time visiting with each other.

Then at 5:00 we all meet at the “Lily’s Café” for our Farewell dinner. This is a wonderful dinner. Jim had grilled salmon and I had the beef brisket.

After dinner a few of us sat outside reminiscing about the trip.

We would like to thank everyone for making this a ‘GREAT’ trip for us and we wish each a blessed and safe trip home.

Jim & Betty (Rig #2 Tail Gunners)

Advertisement