Rural New Brunswick

Our travels took us from Fredericton to Moncton but instead of taking the most direct route, we ended up taking a scenic route through rural New Brunswick. After a stop to grab some Tim's, we head out on our drive and got to see the beauty of the province. The countryside is very scenic lined with lush rolling pastures filled with cows, forested areas, and dotted with tiny quaint villages/towns along the way. Fifty kilometres southeast of Fredericton is the historic riverside Village of Gagetown. We stopped here to explore the village where a Sir Leonard Tilley was born. Who was Sir Leonard Tilley? He was one of the Fathers of Confederation. Gagetown is not a large village and its Main Street is only a few blocks long but here you'll find Queens County Heritage Tilley House Museum. The museum is located in the preserved house of the Tilley family. Our tour guide, David, was extremely informative providing a great account of life in the 1800's and that of the Tilley family who were considered well off for that time period. According to David, Gagetown was in the running for capital of New Brunswick but lost out to Fredericton. How different Gagetown would be today had it been the capital is anyone's guess. Last year the village lost the cable ferry which connected one side of Gagetown with the other situated across the river. This move by the government after apparently spending a lot of money to refurbish the cable ferry months prior has residents infuriated. It's had a huge negative impact on local farmers who own property on both sides of the river because they are no longer able to ferry their trackers over. Sad to hear about challenges with living in rural Canada. 

From Gagetown we drove to Evandale. The only two things of interest in Evandale are the Evandale resort and the Evandale cable ferry which takes passengers across the river and is in essence an extension of highway#124. We had a high recommendation from guide David to try the steak at the Evandale resort restaurant and seeing as we arrived there hungry, we stopped for lunch. And yes, the steak was really worth it; extremely tasty and very well seasoned. Z carried on with his daily seafood. 

The cable ferry just as the name indicates crosses the St. John river pullied by a cable. It's a basic service but a vital one to allow for crossing of the river without having to drive hundreds of kilometres out of the way to get across. On our journey to get to Moncton, we ended up on two cable ferries. The ferries run 24 hours and literally go back and forth. No worries if you just happen to miss it; the crosssings took no more than 5 minutes and then the ferry heads back to the other side. Really no long wait on either end likely ever but we still saw a few cars speeding towards the pick up points trying to catch the next ferry. 

On the other side we continued on our scenic drive through many historic and rural areas. Z discovered the Quilt Barn Tour which we thought would be fun to partake in. The Quilt Barn Tour is 19 "quilts" painted on barns, churches and other buildings scattered around the Kings County and are a tribute to the local heritage of craftsmanship in the area. We ended up seeing 4 of the 19 on our drive to Sussex. 

Sussex is known for their 26 one of a kind mural painted on buildings and forming an outdoor art galleryy. These murals were quite impressive and often depicted life in New Brunswick. Sussex is also known as the Covered Bridge Capital of New Brunswick. Covered bridges are just that, bridges that are covered with a wooden structure; likely to protect the bridge itself from the elements, or at least what we determined to be the most logical explanation. Our journey to Moncton through the rural countryside did take us all day, but it was so worth it as we got to experience things we would have otherwise skipped over.