June 14, 2019 – June 16, 2019
We headed for a quick two day visit to Prince Edward Island (PEI). There are two options for getting to PEI from the mainland…you can take a ferry, or you can take the bridge. We were close to the bridge and so opted for that option. Both are free to get to the island, but to get off of the island you have to pay.
The Confederation Bridge officially opened in May of 1997 and is 12.9 kilometres long, making it the longest bridge over ice-covered water (per Wikipedia). It is part of the Trans-Canada highway system, and is a pretty impressive structure.
We had planned on a quick visit to Charlottetown, the capital of PEI, hoping to maybe walk along its waterfront for a few hours before we headed to New Brunswick, but the camper had different plans. I had been telling Derek for a few days that I could smell propane in the camper, and that morning when I went to make coffee, we discovered that our propane tank was empty, several days (weeks?) earlier than we would have expected. We refilled the tank and began some investigations and found the leak. We have been struggling with the fridge in the camper ever since we bought the camper, and have several times had to removed the screws that hold the fridge in place, tip it forward and tighten where the thermal couple attaches to the interrupter. This pulling in and out and tilting of the fridge so many times had caused a leak in the copper tube that delivers propane to the fridge.
We went to Home Depot in Charlottetown, and Derek bought some replacement tubing and related tools, and there, in the Home Depot parking lot, Derek replaced the copper tube. The new tube was very light weight, and the first piece he tried to bend to the proper angle crimped in on itself. The second piece he got to bend as needed, but we realized that this new copper tube was not nearly as robust as the original. It would have to do for now.
We did take a quick drive through downtown Charlottetown, with the idea of maybe stopping somewhere for lunch, but it was hot and the shady parking spot we would need t keep Piper comfortable was not presenting itself, so we decided to start making our way to New Brunswick, stopping along the way for our first Subway sandwich in well over a year.
Two days is really not enough time to truly experience PEI, but we did get a bit of a feel for what the province has to offer. Had the weather been more agreeable I could see hanging out at one of the many beautiful beaches along the coast, eating lobster, spending a bit more time in Charlottetown….but we were excited to be on our way to New Brunswick and to spend some time with some familiar faces.