Country Roads and Small Towns

3womenwhowander
Nov 20, 2020
6 min read

Women Who Wander

Adventure 10

Part one

Country roads are the best roads as far as The Women Who Wander are concerned. Never were John Denver’s lyrics more meaningful than on this, our 10th Adventure!

Country Roads did, indeed, take two of the Wandering Women home and while we didn’t quite make it to West Virginia (closed border and all), we did make it to some memory invoking locales.

We started our day picking up Route 105 in Douglas, New Brunswick which is just a skip and a jump North of Fredericton.

Like the dinosaurs who once roamed the earth, LT and BST both roamed Route 105 in their younger years. Fortunately, this did not lead to their extinction but after listening to their tales of growing up YT wondered how they survived relatively unscathed! If luck stays with me and I can get over the shock of the details of their youth, you can read all about their adventures in YT’s forthcoming biography, "Girls Gone Wild on the 105”.

Back to the task at hand and to Adventure 10 which we started in Douglas, NB at the home of YT.

Once again, the Women Who Wander made it a mere five minutes down the road-of-the-day before bringing The Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) to a halt when we caught sight of the Douglas Country Market.

Located at 1338 Route 105 in Douglas, NB, this shop is a gold mine of locally handcrafted treasures. Fabric crafts, jewellery, soaps, re-purposed antique items, paper goods and more! The décor is delightfully creative and interesting to browse.

We might have spent more than we intended in this sweet shop – both in terms of time and dollars - but so well worth the investment of both!

Douglas Country Market was also where we met Kailie Arbeau who was our sales person extraordinaire on the day of our visit! You can meet Kailie too if you head over to the "Friends We Meet" tab on the Women Who Wander NB website: https://3womenwhowander.wixsite.com/mysite-1/friends-we-meet

A Must-Do-Christmas-Shopping Women Who Wander Three Cheers Award for the Douglas Country Market! You won't regret a stop there if you are looking for something hand made and special for yourself or someone you love!

Back on the 105, with our treasures stowed safely in the trunk of The Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) and off we set, intent on making our destination within the hour!

SCCCREEEEECHHH! Was that a bakery sign off in the distance? We do so love a good bakery! A sharp right turn into the Keswick Landing Mall (executed skillfully by BST and The Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) and, in all of three minutes after leaving the Douglas Country Market, we were at the Keswick Kitchen Bakery, located at 9 Yerxa Lane, Keswick, NB!

We were perfectly willing to put our schedule on hold and take this short detour as our second stop of the day - and why wouldn't we! It's a bakery after all!

Trust us when we say, you will have no regrets if you visit the Keswick Kitchen Bakery for yourself. Try out their cinnamon buns.

Said buns are the size of a small pie and are as ooey-gooey good as a cinnamon bun should be.

You will have no regrets.

Also on offer are homemade breads and rolls, cookies and pies that smell divine and remind us that bakeries are always there for those of us who aren’t best friends with their oven.

There’s a good chance that you may come out of Keswick Kitchen Bakery with more than just that pie size cinnamon bun in your soon-to-be- sticky little paws! A delicious Women Who Wander Three Cheers Award to the Keswick Kitchen Bakery and all the cookies, pies and muffins just waiting there for you!

Now, we aren't embarrassed to say that it had taken us about an hour and a half to make it eight minutes down the road, which may well be a record for The Women Who Wander but we have no time keeper so we're not really late. That's our story and we're sticking to it!

Realizing that we were getting nowhere fast, BST shifted The Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) into overdrive and pointed us in the direction of Nackawic!

This portion of the 105 meanders through the lush countryside following the Saint John River. Not surprisingly, it offers at least five stellar campgrounds including Mactaquac Provincial Park, Heritage Country Camping, Great Bear Camping, Everett’s Campground and Mariner’s Point RV Park.

Although The Women Who Wander are averse to both sleeping on the ground and to sleeping in tents, we do think that one of those shiny new RVs or Fifth Wheels might be tolerable (ok, down right enjoyable) and the views from these campgrounds in one of those rigs might go a long way toward convincing us to try out “glamping”. If you've had a glamping experience, be sure to let us know all about it in the comments section below! Maybe you can convince us to give it a go!

Arriving in Nackawic, we quickly headed downtown with BST waxing eloquent about her former home and her childhood time spent here. She filled us in on days gone by before the many changes wrought by the construction of the Mactaquac Dam and creation of the Mactaquac Headpond.

We also paused to admire the Nackawic world- famous Big Axe Sculpture - we're not kidding - they really do have the world's biggest axe on display in their Waterfront Park!

We made our way to the almost equally famous (or infamous) Big Axe Brewery, Saloon and The Big Axe Bed and Breakfast both located at 537 Otis Drive, Nackawic, NB. It was a bit early in the day to imbibe spirits but we hung out long enough for LT to get back in the saddle again - notice the saddle bar stool at the very end of the bar!!

Determined not to leave empty handed, YT purchased some soap made using Big Axe beer! We’ve heard of suds on your beer but beer on your suds??? A sudsy Women Who Wander Three Cheers Award for the proudly New Brunswick Big Axe Brewery!

Readying to leave Nackawic, YT was able to convince the directionally challenged BST and LT that the 105 of their youth had not ended and that we could continue to follow it to Woodstock and beyond. Once LT learned that it would eventually lead to her hometown of Hartland, she was off of her saddle and into the front seat of The Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) ready to boot-scootin' boogie on down the road!

This portion of the 105 running from Nackawic to Grafton, NB was particularly lovely on this sunny day in October. The turning leaves and their reds, yellows and golds combined with the blue of the St. John River made for some stunning views and some great photo ops!

Passing through Northampton, we made note of the location of the Jolly Farmer Greenhouses which is a 13 acre greenhouse operation selling their wholesale products in Canada and exporting them to the US as well!

While they weren't open on the day we were there, Jolly Farmer does occasionally open to the public with special sales.

Now that we know where they are, we will be ready for their next open house!

Upon arrival in Grafton, we spied the O’Toole Gallery! Owned and operated by Kerry O’Toole.

The O'Toole Gallery is located at 37 Clark Street, Grafton, NB and showcases Mr. O'Toole's creative and artistic woodwork and the work of other local artists as well.

Alas, luck was not with The Women Who Wander as Kerry was not in when we arrived! We admit that we peeked in the windows and snooped on his porch and we may or may not have left a bit of drool on his windows. Our apologies to Mr. O'Toole.

We will definitely be back but we will definitely call ahead to make sure we are able to get a better look at the amazing works of the art inside. Judging by the incredible things we saw on the gallery porch, we highly recommend checking out The O’Toole Gallery the next time you find yourself in Grafton!

Resisting the urge to cross the bridge over to Woodstock, we continued on Highway 105 all the way to Hartland. Famous for once being the hometown of LT, Oh, and also famous for having the longest covered bridge in the world!

At 1282 feet in length, the Hartland Covered Bridge crosses the St. John River to Somerville, NB. According to Wikipedia, the bridge framework consists of seven small Howe Truss bridges joined together on six piers. We aren’t sure what that means but what we do know is that it’s a really long bridge and a really neat thing to experience!

YT made many a journey across that bridge in her day and had many a story to tell!

At this point, YT had a hankering to visit the Parish of Simonds, NB which necessitated leaving our beloved Route 105 for a while. We picked up Route 103 and off we were on our way to the second part of Adventure 10!

We hope you'll come back to read Part 2 of the story as our journey is to be continued……

Just adventure!

Women Who Wander NB

Lynne, Barb & Gail