Pennsylvania to Ohio

Hello everyone?  Or at least to whomever is actually taking the time to read these Blogs of our travels.  Today was a much nicer day to drive.  Less stress is good!  It was sunny with some clouds and thankfully no rain whatsoever.  I hear on the news that south of us, are having torrential rains and flash floods.  We are keeping an eye on the Weather Channel and planning our trip to avoid the rain as much as we can. 

Pennsylvania is a very wide State.  Much wider than north tip of West Virginia, which took us about 45 minutes to cross!  I cannot say enough about how beautiful the north east part of Pennsylvania was with its beautiful Fall colours (yeah by now I sound like a broken record!)  The dark grey highway is like a ribbon winding through the yellows, orange and reds of the trees.  You think that you have seen it all until you go around the next bend in the road!  Every turn is more beautiful than the last.  As we moved west, the colours diminished to the point of very little colour change whatsoever.  The trees appear to be the same type, but I suppose the weather affects the change in the colours.  While "zipping" down the highway today, I took these photos, that still do not do justice to the actual colors, but using your wild imaginations (that I know you have), I am sure that you can "picture" it!

The campsite that we stayed in last night was beautifully quiet, which is what we really wanted after our hectic day.  After setting up our "site" we did our usual "brisk walk" around the campground.  To check things out and to get some exercise.  There were many permanent sites set up for the "season" and some of the owners get quite decorative with their patio ornaments.  We say bears and raccoons hanging from patios or trees.  It is kind of cute, but as it had been raining so heavily, we pretty much had the campground to ourselves, other than the hosts.  The campsites where nestled in the trees, which in the summer would provide shade and protection from the sun.  Unfortunately for this time of year and with all the rain, it was rather damp, but definitely not dreary!  The ground was covered with a layer of leaves that had fallen from the trees.

 

 

Ray and I have specific jobs on this journey.  He does the driving,,,, thank goodness for that!  I originally was going to do some of the driving, but last night I told him that I will not drive.  It is crazy down here!!  My wonderful husband deserves a medal, or at least a cocktail or two at the end of the driving day.

 

My job is that of navigator and concierge.  With the help of our GPS and a good old fashioned map, getting us to where we have planned to go and finding us a place to camp for the night, which is totally different and more difficult than finding a B&B or a hotel room!  Navigation sounds quite simple.  At the start of each day, Ray says what highway he would like to take and to what destination.  I input everything into the GPS.  I travel with the map book, GPS and my camera on my lap.  Sometimes the highway that started out as Hwy 70 turns into Hwy 470 etc,,,, which does not always show on the map, but on the signs on the highway.  This causes me to react sometimes in a somewhat rather "immediate" way.  Today I had put everything into the GPS and I "vaguely knew that we had about 40 miles before the highway made a "veer" to the right.  Soooo I thought that I would have a quick game of solitaire on my iPad.  For some stupid reason I happened to glance up and saw a sign that said what I thought was our turn off, and quickly said we have to turn off here!!! ,,,,,,welllllll,,,,we had been travelling on a toll highway that you pay for when you leave the highway.  Well my ummmm "mix up" caused us to leave the toll highway and pay $8.70 and then we had to get back on the highway.  Sounds like nothing, but what should have cost us $15.75 ended up costing $20.80   So my job is somewhat important as long as I pay attention to the signs and listen to the GPS.  Every time I see a Starbucks, that means a coffee break is in order, no matter where we are!!!  I tell Ray that it is time "he" takes a break.  He does usually agree!

 

I also have a huge book (the size of the old Vancouver phone books for any of you who actually remember those things)  that has campgrounds all across North America, that I am constantly referring to in an attempt to find a camping spot.  I do not even look at this book until around 1:00 when I can foresee how long Ray really wants to drive.  I have decided that we need a new truck, one that has an office in the back seat for me to set up in!

 

Anyway, our trip is really going along great.  I am looking forward to going to the hot air balloon festival in Albuquerque New Mexico which starts next week.  Hopefully I can keep Ray there long enough to see some of it!

 



No matter how our trip goes and no matter what we see or do not see, we are having a blast!  Tonight we are kicking back with our cocktails and me doing my nails!  By the way, we are the only Canadians in this campground tonight!!

Keep following for more adventures, on our not so Bogus Adventure!

Miss everyone!
Lori and Ray

PS:  I burned a banana tonight (don't ask!)

The Beautiful Moose

From the time we entered Ontario, there were periodiodic signs on the road to "watch for Moose on the road".  In New Brunswick, the signage changed somewhat, with huge signs and flashing orange lights.  In New Brunswick we saw fences with gates all along the highways, to an attempt to keep the Moose off the road.  In Newfoundland, they even had these funny contraptions that if a Moose were to pass through it, the lights on the highway would flash.  All the Provinces warn about driving at night because of the Moose and the possibility that the Moose could run towards your headlights.  Well neither would come out the winner if that happened,,,, not the Moose, nor the vehicle it rammed into.

Did you know that this lovely beast is the largest extant species in the deer family.  They are easily identified by their huge size, large heads and on the males, huge antlers.  Moose can often be found in swampy areas feasting on the leaves of the deciduous trees.  They are found in the north rather than in the south.  The most common predators of the Moose are wolves and bears.  But the worst in my books, are the humans.  Hunters.  When we were in Newfoundland, we saw many trucks with small trailers parked on the sides of the roads where there was a trail that the hunters could walk or ride their ATV's in and track their Moose.   Ray said that as it was hunting season, that is likely why we never saw any moose in our travels.  Well, we did see one and I will get to that in a minute.

Moose are generally slow moving solitary animals and apparently do not form herds.  I thought they did have a herd, but apparently not.  Moose can become very aggressive and move extremely fast for their huge size, if startled.  While Fall is hunting season, it is also mating season.  An average adult moose can stand up to 7 feet high and weight up to 1500 pounds.  The smaller female would typically weight up to 800 pounds.  The delicate creature that she is!

I love Moose, in fact every time that we are in the BC Interior, and all through this trip I have been very watchful and hopeful that I might catch a glimpse of a Moose.  In fact, I usually have my camera beside me on the seat, ready and waiting so that I can quickly snap a photo.

So yesterday while driving through Maine and admiring the beautiful Fall colours, we were at times alone on the road as there was little traffic.  When Ray said, "here comes an ATV".  I thought he meant that an ATV was being ridden on the road (which in Newfoundland, we saw a lot of).  A mid sized SUV went past us, towing a trailer.  On the back was an ATV.  I laughed because I was expecting an ATV, not a vehicle.  All of a sudden I said,,, there is a ,,,,,,,,,,!  I was completely speechless for about 5 seconds (felt like about 5 minutes) and then at the same time Ray and I both said "awwww a Moose!"

A beautiful chocolate brown Moose was lying on his side directly behind the ATV.  Antlers and all, that beautiful creature was just lying there for everyone to see!  Why could the guy not cover him up?  What about kids in vehicles driving by?  Their parents would have to explain what that moose was lying down!  We both were upset and could not talk for a few miles.  We gave the poor guy his two minutes of silence.  Poor beast!  I dreamt of Moose running through the forest last night.  It made me both happy and sad. :(

Tonight we are camped in the Pocono Mountains in a place called, Tobyhannah, Pennsylvania.  The campground is quite treed and damp because it rained so much today.  We had the worst drive yet today.  It was windy and rainy, and with so much traffic it was almost unbearable!  Well not really,,, but it was stressful.  Ray did an awesome job driving and avoiding semi trucks who want to crowd into your lane.  I did my fair share of map reading and operating the GPS and telling Ray when to turn etc.

The Fall colours in Pennsylvania are the best we have seen yet.  I did take a couple of photos, but with the rain it just doesn't do the colours justice.  It is supposed to be nicer tomorrow so will try to take some then and post for tomorrow night.

We are having a glass of wine and then hitting the sack.

Lori and Ray

Maine to Massechusetts

We had a delightful trip through New Brunswick, even though it rained!  The leaves were so beautiful as they have started to change color.  Gold, orange and red!  Even in the rain, it was beautiful!  Ray took a secondary road that would put us crossing the boarder into Maine at Saint Croix, but the secondary highway was like a patchwork quilt and drove Ray nuts!  So we worked our way back to Highway 2 and went to Woodstock and crossed into Maine at Houlton. 

Going through US Customs was a bit of a treat.  The guy was friendly enough, but asked a million questions.  How long have you been gone from BC?  How much US money are you bringing into the USA?  Any money orders or travellers cheques?  Have you ever been arrested?  And if so, what for? I almost laughed at this one!  How much alcohol?  What vegetables do you have?  I really didn't want to tell him that I had some broccoli, because I was craving it and did not want him to take it!  But being the honest person I am, I told him I had one onion about 6 potatoes and a huge amount of beautiful green broccoli!  Then he as if we had an goat meat????  What???  We said no goat meat.  Do you have anyone hiding in the trailer?  Ray said "no".  The guard said,,,, "are you sure?"  I said,,, "well the last time we pulled over so that I could go to the bathroom, there was no one inside".  He smirked and told us to have a good day!

We went through 6 different tolls on the highway from Maine to New Hampshire.  The first toll we went through put us at the entrance of a Service Center, which we had wanted to go into as they had some Crafts made in Maine.  When we left the center and got back on to Interstate 95, we went through a 2nd toll booth about 10 minutes down the highway.  Ray asked the guy in the booth whey they would have two toll booths so close together.  The guy said, the other one was for Highway 495 which is the "exit" we took to get to the Service Center.  He explained to the guy that we had gone to the Center and purchased something, and the guy showed us a form that we were supposed to get and fill in, so that we would not have to pay the 2nd toll.  Of course he would not take the receipt that we had for our purchase and we did not have the required form,,,,,so you can imagine Ray's mood after having to pay two tolls!!!  It was a very quiet ride for about 20 miles! 

The portion of the State of New Hampshire on the far east coast is only about 17 miles long and then you are in Massachusetts.  All three of these States share a beautiful Interstate.  Everything is clean and with the fall colours in full swing, absolutely gorgeous!

Loved this one of the church spire peeking over the trees.

 

 

We made it through Boston and are staying the night in a beautiful RV spot called the Normandy Family Campground in Foxborough which is in Norfolk County about 35 miles southwest of Boston.  It is a beautiful little place with a lot of Cape Cod style homes, even though it is actually away from the Cape.  This campground is nestled in the forest and has a small lake.  You can rent cabins, Yurts or campsites.  The sites are 100 feet long, which is huge!!!  You can even get a massage here, but unfortunately we will be leaving the in morning heading down to New York, so no massage for this old bird.

 

My lungs have improved greatly since leaving Nova Scotia.  Not sure really what was going on there but tonight after we got all set up, we took a long brisk walk through the campground.  There are some hills here, and I had no trouble whatsoever. 

 

 

Good night for tonight,

 

Lori and Ray

Beautiful Nova Scotia

I am starting this blog with our visit to Peggy's Cove.  We had arrived from PEI at the Sleigh's residence in Hammonds Plain, (which is about 30 minutes out of Halifax) on September15th.  Due to the ferry schedule to and from Newfoundland, we had to leave the next day but have now returned for a couple of days to tour around the area.

Peggy's Cove is absolutely beautiful!  We were only at the Cove for about two hours, so you can see in these photos how quickly the weather changes from a beautiful sky to a stormy sky.

The above is Pam and I standing on the rocks that have been smoothed by millions of years of the waves pounding on them.

 

Ray took this shot of Tim who was seeing how the lighthouse measures up.  And this shot below, which Tim took, was taken about an hour after we arrived.  We took many pictures and these are just a few.

After we had dinner at the little restaurant/gift shop we left Peggy's Cove and drove into Halifax to see the the "Dingle Tower" which is in Sir Sanford Flemming Park.  The park is 95 acres large and the tower can be seen for miles.  The tower (which was completed in 1912) is a memorial representing the Canadian Nationality and representation to the British Empire.  Tim and Ray climbed the tower while Pam and I wandered the grounds below.  I really had no desire to climb up some musty smelling tower with a winding staircase to look out over the city.  The view ,,,,I missed out on.  But worse things have happened I am sure of that!  Tim sent us this funny photo of Ray sitting astride a statue of a lion,,,,Ray looks like he is riding it like he might ride his Harley!

When we disembarked the 15& 1/2 hour (arg!!!) ferry ride from Newfoundland, it was dreary with rain and fog.  But as North Sydney is in Cape Breton and almost at the entrance to the beautiful Cabot Trail and we did not have time to do the 5 hour drive back to come again on a better day, we made the decision to drive the Trail.  Even in the breaks of the fog and rain we could see that it was an amazing drive!  One minute you are having tiny peeks of the Atlantic and then next you are driving through valleys of sugar maples.  Within the Cabot Trail is the Lone Sheiling Trail.  This is acres and valleys of 350 year old sugar maple trees!  There is also a replica of a Scottish cofters hut.  Ray asked me as we whizzed past,,,,, Do you want to take a picture of the hut?  We stopped at all of the look outs to view the beautiful ancient trees, and one can only begin to imagine what those deciduous trees would look like in about three weeks when they are in full Fall colours! 

On the Cabot Trail is a "skywalk" trail that takes you about 5 kms on a boardwalk out to the edge of the cliff side (I said the EDGE of the cliff side) overlooking the Atlantic and the highway.  It is a breathtaking view, I am told.  We did not walk it due to my lousy lungs.  Here Ray is looking towards the "skywalk" trail where he did see two brave people way up on the top looking down at him!

 

 

 From where Ray is standing, the below photo is looking down towards the highway we are about to travel on.  Imagine seeing this from the platform at the top of the skywalk!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued driving down the west side of Cape Breton through the small Celtic communities, most of which were closed up as it was Sunday.

 

 

 

Looking back towards the Cabot Trail.

 

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While we went to Newfoundland we had left our 5th wheel parked at Tim and Pam's house (thank you so much for that!).  So when we came back to Nova Scotia, we stayed "camped" in their yard.  We would meet at night to discuss our day over a cup of Sleepytime Tea, and to plan out our next day.  With Tim and Pam's suggestions we went to visit the Halifax harbour and to the Citidel.

First we went to the harbour and walked the boardwalk.  We went into gift shops and the Maritime Museum where we learned more about the devastating Halifax explosion which occurred on December 6th 1917.  A French cargo ship, SS Mont-Blanc, which was loaded with explosives collided with the Norwegian SS causing a huge explosion.  As a result of this explosion buildings collapsed and caught on fire.  Approximately 2000 people where killed and 9000 were severely injured.  The city was devastated!  The museum has an excellent display complete with video re-enactments to give you a feeling of what this city went through in 1917.  The city has rebuilt itself and has a combination of old buildings amongst the new buildings. Today it is truly a beautiful city.

After a lunch at the Alexander Keiths Brewery which is now owned by Labatt's, we headed off to the Halifax Citidel which is a National Historic Park of Canada.  When driving past the Citidel, you would think you are driving past a grassy hill.  that is exactly what it looks like.  A grassy hill.  A park in the center of downtown Halifax.  When driving up the winding road (we didn't walk it as my lungs were having a "bad day"), you get a glimpse of the top which looked like "tufts" of grass.  Then you drive down into the parking area and see the huge very old stone walls.  We parked and walked into the doorway that says "entrance". 

Walking up some stone stairs to the doorway that is lit by the sunshine beyond, it is a very odd feeling.  A feeling of "quiet" like nothing I have ever felt before.  I stopped part way up the stairs, to just "listen" to the nothingness.  Okay, well I did hear Ray breathing and walking in front of me.  Kind of broke the mood for me.  So I trudged upwards and came out into an amazing courtyard.  Well not a courtyard with green grass of anything as beautiful,,, but nonetheless,,,, a courtyard.  Very barren and totally surrounded by ancient blocks of stone. It is an odd feeling to be standing in the middle of something with so much "history".  The only time I have had that feeling before was in Havana Cuba,,, standing in Cathedral Square, which at that time was 301 years old.  Amazing!  So much history has passed before my feet have stood on this piece of earth.  Amazing!  These are some shots around the "fort"

 A young "soldier" providing us with the history of the Citidel.

 

 

 

This one is my attempt at creativity,,,, Looking through one of the "battery's" at the city.

 

 

 

Inside the Fort again.  Look at the stone work!

 

 

On Tuesday (Sept 25th) we took a drive up to Lunenberg which is probably most famous for the Bluenose which is the schooner on the Canadian dime.  The Bluenose was a fishing and racing schooner which was built in 1921.  The original Bluenose crashed into some rocks and was replaced in 1963 by the Bluenose II.  The Bluenose II is currently being refurbished and is set to be re-launched this Saturday (October 29th).  The small town of Lunenburg which has a population of about 2500 people are expecting thousands to attend this launch.  I am not sure where all the people will be as the town really is quite small.

We took a horse and carriage ride around this beautiful little town.  In 1995 Lunenberg was designated a United Nations Educational Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site which ensures the unique architecture of the town.  You will not find any vinyl siding in this town!  The houses were built anywhere from the late 1700's to the early 1900's.  There is one house in particular that is huge and painted a pale pink, with its turrets it looks quite scary!  Stephen King apparently filmed one of his movies in the house.

Driving from Halifax to Lunenberg, you pass through a beautiful little town, which happens to be my personal favourtie place in Nova Scotia.  It is called Mahone Bay.  This tiny little town has four quaint little churches nestled along the shore line.  The bay had a scattering of sail boats and some pleasure boats.  The town follows the shore line and has beautiful little shops(a great shoe store!) and even more beautiful tree lined streets with the nicest homes.  Everything was pin neat.

We sadly left Mahone Bay and went back to Tim and Pam's to pack up the trailer to leave in the morning.  We had an excellent time in Nova Scotia and I would suggest if you travel here, you need a couple of weeks (not days) to spend here.  The Province is much larger than I thought.  Thank you Tim and Pam for everything!

We left Nova Scotia on September 26th.  By the time we got into New Brunswick the rains had started and rained until we parked for the night in Houlton Maine.  The leaves are turning in New Brunswick and are beautiful shades of gold and red.

Stay tuned for more adventures,,,,

Lori and Ray

Old friends,,,George Street,,,, Mummering & Ugly Sticks

When we got to St John's I called Jody Shea, who had worked at APD in early 2000.  Jody had come from Newfoundland with her boyfriend and was hired by APD to work in Dispatch.  She was always homesick though and in the end decided to move back to Newfoundland.  I thought she missed her family, but she said what she truly missed was St John's itself.  Jody is from a small town north west of Gander, with a population of about 600 people.  She loves living in the bustling city.  Jody now works for the Newfoundland Supreme Court, and we met her for lunch the day we arrived in St John's.  It was great to see her again!  She gave us some suggestions of what to do and where to go while visiting her favourite city.  She said to be sure and check out George Street and try some of that Screech!.

What shall I say about George Street?  Being mindful that Momma Skip may be reading this and wanting to leave a somewhat good impression for her.  George Street involves a bit of good old Newfoundland Screech!

George Street is a fairly short street that runs between Water Street and Duckworth.  It is filled with bars of all kinds.  Very famous for its night life.  You have your little Irish Pubs and your dancing clubs, that latter of which we did not go into.  Ray and I like the little pubs for their atmosphere and the chance of meeting up with some great people and have some good conversation, along with perhaps a shot of that screech that we have been hearing about.

Yellow Belly's is a pub similar to the Mission Springs, simply because it is also a micro brewery.  It is on Water Street, not on George, but is where we went to on our first night in St John's.  We shared an order of Fish Cakes, which we had while in PEI.  These ones did not hold a candle to the ones that Cathy Corrigan made for us!  We sat on the patio outside and stuck up a conversation with a fellow who we thought was a "local" but found out he was a Texan in the city on one of the conferences that was going on.  We had a great chat with him, and he asked us if we had tried the "screech", which of course we had not.  Well the three of us decided that it was in order to do so, seeing as we were visitors of this city.  So we each got a shot and downed it.  You might ask what all the fuss was about this stuff, as I asked myself the same question.  I sipped it at first, but as Ray and the Texan downed theirs, I followed suit and downed the rest of my shot.  I thought it would leave a burning sensation, but was pleasantly surprised at both the flavour and the warmth that I felt in my chest.  Oh man, was I ever going to have a good sleep tonight, is what I was thinking.    We stuck to that one shot, and finished our fish cakes and all said our good byes.  Ray and I had a nice walk back to our B&B on the hill.  One of the best parts of being down town in the thick of things, we could walk everywhere!

On our last night in St. John's, we did a "pub crawl" on George Street.  We started off at the Duckworth Inn, which is a little Irish Pub with music playing in the background.  People seem to go there after work, have a bite to eat and a couple of brews and then wander off home.  We then went to a pub called Kelly's on George Street and listened to Ray (Blacky) O'Leary singing some easy listening tunes and some very lively Newfoundland tunes.  He was very good and we bought two of his CD's.  We then moved down the street to a bar that I cannot recall the name of.  The reason that I cannot remember (and neither can Ray) is because we met this very nice Newfie couple and over a period of about an hour ended up having two shots of screech with them!  Thank goodness we were walking! 

There were alot of people milling around the streets going from place to place and as Jody had said that people don't really go out until about 11:00 pm, it was not as busy as I am sure it can get!  We were gone long  before 11:00!

Have you ever heard of Mummering?There is a very old custom here that probably started a 100 years ago in one of these small villages.  The people would do house visits or have kitchen parties.  The guests would arrive disguised wearing old clothing.  Men may dress like woman and woman like men.  Covering their faces with scarves, masks or even just pillowcases, they would arrive carrying their own handmade musical instruments to play and sing.  I suspect there was some good old Newfoundland Screech involved in these Kitchen Parties. They have Mummery parades still to this day to celebrate this custom. 

One of the traditional musical instruments that might be brought to a Kitchen party is called an Ugly Stick.  It is typically made out of a mop and will have bottle caps and tin cans attached to the stick.  The player would use a stick (like a drum stick) to beat and bang on the stick and tins cans while shaking the whole thing making "music".  Jody told us that her brother who still lives "back home" in that small village makes these "Ugly Sticks" and they are sold in music stores in St John's.  So we had to search out all two of the music stores to find the right "Shea Ugly Stick" and of course supporting the local economy bought one!

Here is the fine Mr Riggins pretending he is at a Kitchen Party complete with his Mummery and "Shea" Ugly Stick having a good old Newfie time!  And no he has not at this point, had any screech!

 

I survived the 15 & 1/2 hour ferry ride back to beautiful Nova Scotia.  Sad to say goodbye to the most eastern Province of Canada, but happy to be back on the mainland.

 

Until tomorrow, sleep well.

Lori and Ray on our Bogus Adventure!

St John's,,Signal Hill and Cape Spear

After Gander "we" were getting rather tired of driving through terrain you can "see anywhere" (guess who said that,,,, and the first hint is,,,, it wasn't moi),, We had originally considered driving out to Twillingate, which is known as "iceberg alley",,, but when our hostess from the B&B said we would not see any icebergs as it was too late in the season and it was an hour and a half drive in, and the same coming back,,, we decided to head south towards St John's.

Being the navigator and having the map in my hand, I have lots of opportunity to suggest little "towns" that we can go into, because yes, the highway was getting BORING! I read a rather amusing name on the map,,,,"Come By Chance". So we went off the highway a short distance to check out this place with the funny name. Well there was a handful of homes that appeared to be barely standing. Although we saw some trucks parked on the roads and some derelict old fishing boats, we saw no people at all. So back onto the highway we went. About 20 kms down the highway, we saw something that appeared to be smoke stacks. The closer we got we realized there was an oil refinery out in the middle in basically "nowhere".  We had to check it out as it was the first sign of any commercial type employment. The refinery was in a community called Arnold's Cove. The roadway in was beautiful, probably put in by the refinery. But again when we got into the little town, everything appeared to be quite "dead". Probably all the townsfolk were working in the refinery?

We were really thinking by this time that we were alone in Newfoundland.  We had the highway pretty much to ourselves, I mean we didn't even see any wildlife! Where are all the moose that are supposed to be jumping around on the roads????   We really were craving some people and some city life, so back we go to the highway and down to St John's we went.

When we got to Mount Pearl, which is a suburb to St John's, we stopped at good old Tim Hortons for a coffee and some free wifi. Because we travel by the seat of our pants and never book accomadations ahead of time, I needed to find us a place to stay for the next three days. I called every B&B that I could find on Google, but all were full except one. They wanted $140 a night! Ray is shaking his head at me, so I started to call hotels. It seems that there was a conference or two going on and literally everything was booked solid! Did they not know that two very important people were heading into town?   Apparently, not! So I called the $140 a night place back and booked three nights.  We left Mount Pearl and went to the B&B which just happened to be right downtown St John's.  Perfect!

St. John's is the oldest "English founded" city in North America.  John Cabot apparently sailed in to the harbour one Sunday morning on his big ole sailboat, in 1497,,, that makes this city of 200,000 about 605 years old! Yeah that is definitely old! So while I am giving you the little history lesson, I may as well tell you a bit more about some of the history of St John's. After the collapse of the cod fishing in the 90's the city (and Province in general) suffered from high unemployment for a good number of years. In the last decade there has been a boom in the oil business (hence that refinery in the middle of nowhere). There are now Hibernian oil fields about 200 miles off the shores of Newfoundland. So with all this oil going on, the employment rate and commercial development in general has improved for this much needed Province! You are probably thinking right about now,,,"wow, that Lori is brilliant",, so I must confess,,, I knew nothing of this until we visited the Geological Museum at the base of Signal Hill.

Speaking of Signal Hill. This is another huge attraction to locals and visitors to St John's.  Signal Hill is where the first wireless transmission was received. Pretty smart cookie, you say??? Well actually Ray told me that. I did learn while touring the Hill, that the message was received by a guy by the name of Guglielmo Marconi in 1901. Macaroni,,,,I mean Marconi was the inventor of the radio and the founder of the the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company.

Here are a couple of pictures of this very old building with a fantastic view of the Atlantic ocean, harbor in St John's and the city itself.

 

This is the Battery is a tiny community which sits on the entrance to the harbour below Signal Hill. During World War II, a large chain and anti submarine boom were attached to prevent the entry of German Uboats into the St John's harbour.  We did not make it to the Battery, so only can tell you that much of it. 

View of the city.


Before I bore you with all my knowledge, we went to visit Cape Spear. As we drove out to the site that fog was thick but you could see that it was really only a morning fog and not something that would last all day. There are two lighthouses on the Cape. The older smaller of the two was the original lighthouse and home for the lighthouse keeper and his family. It was built in 1836 and is now a National Historic site.  The 2nd lighhouse was built in 1955.  Cape Spear is the most eastern part of North America with the exception of Greenland.  So standing there, we really were in eastern Canada!

Me standing at the Eastern most part of Canada. Cape Spear.

The original lighthouse at Cape Spear

The newest lighthouse built in 1955.

Ray standing on the edge of it all at the Spear.

Shall say goodnight for this blog.  Stay tuned for George Street et al.....

Gander and 9-11

After leaving the beautiful Rattling Brook falls behind, we drove back towards a little town called Kings Point.  This was another little fishing village that appeared to be somewhat abandoned, but there was a small gift shop open, so in we went.  This tiny little shop was packed from head to toe with pottery, stained glass, wood working, soapstone carvings, paintings and pastels all of which were made locally.  It was a beautiful little shop.  The two people running the shop were not really all that friendly but we did purchase some items from them.  We had been dying to meet up with some real "Newfies", but these two people had moved to this little place from Toronto.  So perhaps that explained their unfriendliness?  Maybe they are just used to living in a large place!  Anyway, we did see something very interesting in this shop.  There was a stack of small Terracotta pots uniquely stacked in a pyramid shape.  Some of the pots were hand painted while others were left in their natural state.  I am not sure if you can see the fish in this picture.

There was not much else happening in Kings Point, so back to the highway we went and continued our drive to Gander. 

I have to take a moment to tell you about the landscape/terrain of Newfoundland. In Port Aux Basque, there is rugged rocks and very little trees. As you drive north towards Corner Brook, you start to see more trees and flat mountains, almost like table tops. In fact one of the mountain ranges is called Table Mountain and people come from all over to hike up the mountain. The mountains are covered with boulders and short stubby for and spruce trees. Very few deciduous trees. There is virtually no flat farmland. These mountains go right down to the sea in most places.

Gander is a larger community in central Newfoundland with a population of approximately 11,000 This is relatively large as most of the smaller towns along the way have less than 1000 population.  I am not sure if you are aware of the touching story about the Gander community and 9-11 terrorist attacks on America. On the day of 9-11, when all the airports in the USA were so quickly shut down, the flights bound for the USA from Europe had to be diverted.  39 of these rather large airplanes were diverted to the Gander Airport rather than the larger airports in central Canada.  Gander airport has long runways and is usually used as a refuelling spot for trans Atlantic flights.  The airport building is roughly the size of the Abbotsford Airport.  Imagine this building all of a sudden having to take in 6,122 passengers and 473 crew members.  In a few short hours the population of this town increased by 6,559 people!  In the airport would also have been the usual staff plus all of the volunteers who came with food and clothing for these stranded passengers.  This 1960's themed airport was suddenly bursting at the seams!  The kindness the townsfolk gave to these weary and frightened passengers is well documented in the hundreds of letters sent to the town afterwards.  The letters are kept in the Gander Aviation Museum and will bring a tear to your eye as you read them.  Makes me feel proud to be a Canadian!

 

Here is a photo of the inside of the "international" terminal, it is a bit blurry but you can see the 1960's chrome and vinyl chairs, that really are now a retro look!  It truly is stuck in the 60's era!

 

 

We spent a night at a wonderful B&B called Inn on Bedford.  It was run by a very lovely Newie couple.  The woman, was hilarious with her funny stories of the area.  The guests were entertaining.  One of the guest (Ray his name was) is a retired RCMP member who worked with Andrew Wooding.  His wife (Darlene) is a pediatric nurse at Children's.  In the morning we had a gourmet breakfast fit for kings and the most amazing french toast that I have ever had!  It was soaked in brown sugar and a thin layer of sliced apples and then baked.  On my gosh, it was Amazing!

 

Stay tuned for St John's......

From Port Aux Basque to Rattling Brook Falls

We had had a busy few days of driving and site seeing.  As my last entry says we took that gawd awful ferry ride from North Sydney to Port Aux Basque.  We arrived in Port Aux Basque at about 1:00 am and by 1:30 we were tucked into our hotel snug as a bug.  When we left the ferry in the dark, we could see that the landscape was pretty rugged with lots of barren rocks.  In the morning after breakfast we decided that we would tour the little town of Port Aux Basque.  Well there was not much to see really, narrow winding streets that more or less created a bit of a semi circle and had us back at the hotel.  We did the local school, grocery store, a couple of banks and a small hospital about the size of Mission's hospital.  The landscape was definitely barren with lots of rocks and very few trees.  Kind of reminded me of the road from White Horse to Skagway.

Port Aux Basque is a fishing village and as it is very sheltered it was used by many as a shelter from the elements. It is an ice free port facing the Gulf of St Lawrence, so is a natural shelter for both the fisherman and the ferry from Nova Scotia.

We had a long drive ahead of us as we had planed to get to Corner Brook and possibly head farther up the western side of the Province.  The weather was very overcast with some showers.  Absolutely no sunshine to be seen.  The further north we went we seemed to be losing the rocky terrain, and found ourselves in a heavily forested area of mid sized spruce trees.  Might have been a few cedar trees in the mix but definitely nothing with the pine beetle destruction as we have at home.  The landscape was so similar to northern Ontario or the Interior of BC.  Shorter stubbier trees.

Just north of Port Aux Basque was Table Mountain.  This beautiful range of mountains is sort of like a plateau.  It has great hiking for those inclined to do so.  Ray and I,,,,,,, not so much.  We did meet a couple from Toronto who had taken the time out of their drive to hike the mountain, but at 518 meters, it was not exactly our cup of tea.  It would have been a great motorcycle ride if the weather was cooperating.

We decided to take a jaunt into Stephenville, which is about 25 kms off of Highway 1.  In order to get there we had to take the Stephenville Crossing.  The crossing is the easternmost limit of the St George Bay.  It was very windy and as we had to cross a "low" point in the land we were level with the sea.  It was so beautiful that I had to take a photo of that waves that were crashing on the short.  I thought that I was going to blow away when I took this photo.

 After the crossing we went into Stephenville.  Stephenville was at one time the home to a United States   Armed Forces base.  Among other things this base was used as a refuelling stop for transatlantic military flights during the war.  The airport is now owned and operated by the local Airport Authorities. In 1990 this airport is one of five Canadian airports that is a designated emergency landing site for the USA space shuttle.

After leaving this little town of approximately 8,000 we continued north.  We left the ocean behind and driving through terrain that you can pretty much see anywhere.  Even through you are following the coast line, in order to see the coast you have to leave Highway 1 and on poor secondary roads you would need to travel from 15 kms to 50 kms.  As the day was raining and miserable, and with Ray saying "once you have seen one beach, you have seen them all" (sound familiar?) we declined to take these sojourns.

Our next stop was Corner Brook.  With a population of almost 20,000 Corner Brook is the largest city on the west side of Newfoundland.  As you drive down the hill into the town you can see that the main employer is likely to be the pulp and paper mill.  The fairly large town is located on the Bay of Islands at the mouth of the Humber River.  Even with the rain you could see that this was a beautiful old town.

Reading in our travel guide there was a large gift shop called the Newfoundland Emporium.  We had seen many signs along the highway advertising this as a great shop to gifts from home crafts, knitting by the locals etc...  I plunked the address into the GPS and away we went in search of this gift shop that would allow me to spend tons of money on nothing!  We arrive at this decrepit store which had promised in the write up to have a Newfoundlander dog on site.  True to the write up, there was a big old black Newfie dog at the shop taking up quite a bit of space on the floor.  She could barely lift her heavy head from the store... but I was happy that I got to see one of these magnificent dogs.  There was 3 floors to this emporium.  Level one had some 2nd hand items and the big dog.  We went up to the 2nd floor and mixed in with all the 2nd hand "junk" was some hand knitted socks, hats and mittens.  also some beautiful sweaters and scarves.  The only problem was they really did not smell very good.  We went back down to the 1st floor and were going to continue to the bottom floor, which was the basement,,,,,but there was a horrendous smell of mould.  We steered away from there!  So this was a 2nd hand store, with some "antiques" in the basement that also had some knitted items made by some of the locals.  We did not buy anything and feeling somewhat deflated left town.  We did drive through the town looking for a "mom and pop" type place to eat but could not find anything.

Continuing north and then east on Highway 1, we decided that we would head to Deer Lake as the travel guide had listed a nice B&B in that little town.  Dear Lake is the gateway to the Great Northern Peninsula, which we had originally want to drive. The Peninsula is scattered with small towns and from what we had seen so far, a lot of these places are closed for the season, so the farther north we went, we may not have anywhere to stay.  In the early years, the residents of Deer Lake were loggers and trappers with some farming (although we saw no farming at all in this Province,,,, anywhere).  In 1955 the Regional Deer Lake airport was built and today is the main employer of the town of 5,000.  The airport serves 55,000 annually which considering the small size of this town is a lot of people passing through.

The B&B we stayed in was called the Birds Nest, and thinking that we were thrilled at the thought of staying in the home of some true Newfies and hearing stories of the area.  When I booked the room over the phone, I spoke with a woman who was definitely a Newfoundlander.  Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find the host was the husband of the woman on the phone.  He was from England and a true Englishman!  His wife worked out of the house and we never did get a chance to speak with her.  He ran the B&B and did a beautiful job at it.  The home was warm and welcoming and all four of the rooms were rented.  We briefly met the other guests in the morning at breakfast, with the exception of one couple from Lake Huron who run their own B&E.

The next morning we headed off for the day.  Our goal was to get to Gander and spend the night there at another B&B.  We continued on Hwy 1 which was a great highway.  We did go off the highway to go into a couple of the coastal towns but the roads in where not great.  Most of the towns were a distance off the main highway and as Ray did not like the roads, we didn't go into many.  At the Springdale turn off we stopped at an Information building on the highway.  The lovely lady there directed us to leave the Highway for about 10 mms to Rattling Brook Falls.  She said that it was a must see, and you had to "walk" in for about 1/2 km to get a good view of the falls.

Rattling Brooks falls is 800 feet and is actually two falls.  One flowing about 30 feet above the other.  We did park on the roadside and took a walk through the walked in on a well kept path and then a boardwalk complete with stairs.  The last 109 steeps steps, Ray took while I stayed at the bottom and got chewed alive by black flies.

These two pictures were as close that Ray could get to the falls.

And this,,,,

This was my view of brook that the falls fall into....

I will leave you now,,, stay tuned for Gander and St Johns.....

Lori and Ray

Putting on a brave face for Newfoundland

After spending a day (an afternoon really!), with Tim and Pam at Peggy's Cove, we headed off to catch the ferry to Newfoundland. Catching the ferry in North Sydney and taking it to Port Aux Basque was to be a 6-7 hour ride, depending on weather etc. The Sleigh's live in Hammonds Plains which is about 30 minutes out of Halifax. North Sydney is on the east side of Cape Breton. Being from the West coast you may think it would be a couple of hour drive, but in fact it was a 5 hour drive. We were out of the house by 0800 and heading first north towards Truro (I hear you can purchase a good pair of Stanfields fromTruro!) and then east to Cape Breton.

Cape Breton is an island and is where the famous Cabot Trail is. We will be doing that drive after we get back from Newfoundland.  The drive to North Sydney was beautiful, and was really similar to northern Ontario.

The ferry was not leaving until 5:00 pm but we were told that we had to check in by 3:00.  Sounds very "airline" to me!  We got there by 1:00,,, and no Ray was not speeding and we had lots of fuel, but it was Sunday and there just was no traffic to speak of.  Once we "checked in" and got our boarding passes (see what I mean,,,,,airport), we were allowed to leave the grounds and go for lunch, but would have to pass through security leaving and on returning. We did as we were told and walked into the town of North Sydney.  Not much to see on a Sunday as nothing was open. But we did find a little restaurant on the water where we shared a salad and had a good old beer from Nova Scotia,,,Alexander Keith India Pale Ale.  I already knew that I would have a tough go of it on the ride, so thought that having a beer and a Gravol would knock me out!

Returning back to the ferry line up, we decided that we would have time for a nap in the truck before boarding. Ray promptly fell asleep, while I fidgeted and squirmed until there was no way I would sleep. How does Ray do that? Just fall asleep in seconds? Maybe I was over thinking the ferry ride?  Anyway, by 4:00 they started to load the ferry and as we were in the line up first, we were first on board.

After parking where we were told to park, we gathered our things and went to go up on deck. All of a sudden I saw Carol Powell in her uniform, gesturing to us with instructions as to what we would see on which deck. I really must have been overdosing on Gravol, because it wasn't Carol, but her twin sister! Carol, if you are reading this you have a twin who also wears a uniform,,,a ferry uniform,,,well it is the same color! I wanted to hug her before I realized that it wasn't you!,,

Onward and upward we go. As we got up onto the main deck we quickly realized that this was no BC Ferries! It was gorgeous! Rich carpeting, glistening shellacked floors (almost gave me a migraine with all that shininess!),,, the dinning room had crisp white linen table clothes and the lounge area had beautiful rich coloured  chairs! "Carol" had told us where we could find the "air" chairs, so we made our way up to that deck. We passed through the area where the berths are (we are getting berths for the way home). The berths were nice with bunk beds and a desk and all crisp white bedding! I could have laid my not so pretty little head down on one of those pillows!

Are you wondering what the air chairs are? Well they were huge comfy chairs that lounge back, just enough to tease you.  They actually look wide like a first class airline seat. They also had trays on the backs of the chair in front,,,just like an airline seat!  See what I mean about the airline theme here? Anyway, I did manage to sleep for awhile and Ray was dozing.  About an hour later I woke with a start and was not feeling so good. Made a trip to the lou, but could not seem to settle down. Ray said maybe I would feel better if I had some tea or soup, so we staggered down to the cafeteria . The ferry was rolling and heaving, I thought I was drunk! Seriously it was awful!  I sat down and when I glanced towards the window, the sea was rolling up and down like crazy! I felt like I was in the movie The Perfect Storm! I downed another Gravol.  I felt just terrible! I was fidgety and just could not relax,,, my eyes would hardly stay open from the Gravol! This ferry that we were on is longer than the BC Ferries and I think a bit taller. Not as big as some of the cruise ships that I have seen in Vancouver, but big enough.  I was such a wreck by the end of this ride that I have sworn off cruising for ever! Only one problem,,,,

I still have to get off this island!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles in PEI

As we drove out of Moncton heading to PEI, we went through the beautiful seaside town of Shediac.  Shediac is home of the big red lobster and apparently has some of the best lobster in the Maritimes.  But as it was only 30 minutes from our campsite in Moncton, we really were not looking to eat lobsters at 0900.  We did take some time and poke through the town and the beach.

Today is September the 15th.  We have left beautiful PEI, which by far as been the most beautiful place on this trip thus far.  Not that we have not been in some very beautiful places, but as soon as we crossed the Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick into Prince Edward Island, we were utterly awestruck!  Beautiful lush, rolling hills with so many different shades of green!  Like a jewel in the water.  For many years we have heard from Elayne about the hospitality and beauty of her home Province.  As we were already planning on heading on to the Island as part of our trip, we would have gone anyway regardless of how beautiful Elayne had, over the years been telling us and anyone else who would listen, PEI was.

The Confederation Bridge is 13 kms long and takes about 12 minutes to cross it.  I had envisioned a four lane bridge with 20 foot sides, to keep the sea water off the vehicles travelling to and fro.  The bridge is a two lane bridge and the sides were really no higher than that of the Mission Bridge.  The sides are concrete though with no pedestrian walking path.  The center span is quite a bit higher then that of both ends, to allow the ice bergs and ships to safely pass through.  The concrete beams holding the bridge are triangular in shape.  I am told that the shape of these columns causes the ice bergs to break apart when they hit, so that they can pass through.  Apparently the makers of the bridge (engineers) made a few of these columns long prior to the making of the bridge and had them placed to do tests to make sure the icebergs would successfully break up rather than cause damage to the pillars.

PEI's resources are farming (home of the PEI spud!), tourism and government. Veterans Affairs and Taxation have their head offices in Charlottetown. University of PEI and Holland Univeristy are the two major post secondary schools. The Law Courts are very beautiful as is beautiful St Dunstans Basilica cathedral which is very gothic in appearance. This huge stone structure was originally made out of wood in the 18th century but was destroyed by fire and in 1913 it was reconstructed to the way it is today. With its spires, it is a landmark that can be seen from all over.
Elayne had prearranged for us to contact her sister Cathy to park our 5th wheel at her place.  Once we got on the island, we stopped at group of shops and restaurants called Gateway.  While we chowed down on a bowl of seafood chowder I called Cathy and got directions to her place which was only an hour away. 

Cathy's house (she calls it a cottage) is beautifully set back off the road up a long grassy driveway.  The house sits about 100 feet away from the cliff which looks down on the red beach below.  One thing that we had noticed while driveway to Cathy's was the rich red earth everywhere!  Even the cliffs going down to the ocean are red!  Cathy lives in a bay which flows out to the Gulf of St Lawrence.  You can see the sand spit and ocean just a short distance away.  The waves were crashing onto the sandspit due to Hurricane Leslie that had passed through parts of Nova Scotia and into Newfoundland just the day before. 

Within a couple of hours of being with Cathy, both Ray and I felt like we already new her.  She is like Elayne, only not.  Hard to explain.  They have the same mouths and beautiful Corrigan eyes.  Cathy has lived in BC so we did have lots to talk about.  Elayne was coming out on the 13th for a family wedding, so we had planned to stay and visit with her before heading to Nova Scotia.

Ray and I toured the north central side of the Island.  This included Cavendish, which is the home of L.M Montgomery the author of the Anne of Green Gables books.  We toured the house that she had spent many years and which provided her with the inspiration to write her books.  As I am the only female on the earth who had not read Anne of Green Gables, I bought a collection of the books to read.

We also toured around the beautiful Dalvey by the Sea. It is an amazing old mansion (that I later learned Elayne worked at as a teenager) that has been turned into a hotel/B&B.  Prince William and Kate stayed at this beautiful place when touring Canada last year.  Across the road is one of the most  beautiful beaches anywhere!  You probably would like to see a few photos right about now, but for  some reason the computer is too slow to load and we are short on time.

Anyone who knows Elayne, knows what an organizer that she is.  While she is still out in BC she calls her brother, David and asks him to take us up in his plane for a tour of the island.  So on Wednesday David took us up for an hour of the most beautiful flying ever!  The colors from the sky were unreal!  From the blue water, red dirt cliffs to the many shades of green it was a sight to behold!

I am going to post this blog as it is for you to all read.  I apologize for the lack of photographs, but the service for wifi is encredibly slow (am I repeating myself?)

Stay tuned for more bogus adventures!

Lori and Ray

Tides of the Bay of Fundy

Last night we had a rather large rain storm.  Considering that Hurricane Leslie is heading towards the Maritimes, this much smaller storm did not really surprise us.  We have been hearing rumors that the Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick to PEI may close to truck traffic in the next day or two due to the Hurricane. And trust me, I would rather not be driving on that bridge if a hurricane is in the neighbourhood.  So as we are not that far from the bridge we decided to spend another day poking around Moncton.  Originally we were thinking of seeing the Bay of Fundy from the Nova Scotia side, but after reading that the "Flower Pots" are actually on the New Brunswick side of the bay, that was a huge drawing card to keep us here another day. 

So we drove down to Hopewell which is about 40 minutes from here.  It is a beautiful coastal drive.  Not that you are directly at the ocean, but you can see the water a distance away.  As we were coming into Hopewell, we saw this very unique home based business called "The Bird Garden".  The guy has a work shop underneath his store and he builds every style of bird house that you can imagine!  He even had one that looked like a retro camping trailer.  This picture is exactly what you would see when driving past.

 

Moving on down the road a bit farther we found the entrance to the Fundy Bay Tidal park.  For anyone who does not know about the Fundy tidal levels, the tides can rise up to 46 feet in about 6 & 1/2 hours.  That would be an extreme high tide.  Each day there are literally millions of gallons of water that flow into and then out of the bay.  During one tide cycle, more than the combined flow of the world's freshwater flows into the bay.  That is a lot of water coming into the bay and you can imagine what that force of that has done over millions of years, to the cliffs surrounding the bay in New Brunswick and also Nova Scotia.  Hopewell is famous for the formations of the tides "eating" away the cliffs and forming what they fondly call the "Flower Pots".  The "pots" are only seen at low tide.  At high tide only the tops of the "pots" are seen.  Apparently at high tide, a person can kayak around this area.  But not being kayakers, we walked the beautiful trail down to the top of the cliffs and then the stairs to the ocean floor.  This is a picture of the stairs that are partially covered at high tide.

 

 



Here we are on the ocean flour at the "Flower Pots"

 

It is hard to describe the look of the rocks.  You can see a definite line where the tide mostly is and then the higher mark where the tides will go during a full moon, which is when it will get the highest.  The rock is almost in layers....and me standing in the "hole"

 



 

 

We spent awhile down on the ocean floor and then went up to the top again, where we shared a delicious bowl of seafood chowder and a crab wrap!  The seafood chowder had lobster, scallops, crab and some white fish like halibut.  All I know is that it did not have disgusting slimy clams or oysters!!!

 

After we had lunch we headed down the coast to see if we could find a lighthouse.  We stopped in at a craft shop and a very nice woman gave us directions to the lighthouse and most importantly,,,, a very nice small winery (I will get to that in a minute!).  We drove along the coast and had views of rolling mountains on one side and marshlands on the Bay side.  After turning at a "fork" in that road that had and old abandoned bank on the corner,,,,, it was called "the Old Bank" and that is exactly what it said in a nice sign on the building. 

 

We made our way down to Cape Enrage which has a working lighthouse.  This lighthouse is situated on a towering cliff on Barn Marsh Island and is overlooking the Bay of Fundy. The current lighthouse is over 150 years old and is no longer manned by a lighthouse keeper.   It was automated in the late 1980's.  The last lighthouse keeper was Noel Justason who was the keeper from 1978 until 1988.  That is my history lesson of the day!  Here are a couple of pics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now to the winery,,,,  We saw no grapevines at all so knew when we stopped that this was going to be fruit wines, which are generally sweeter than your regular chardonay type wine.  We tasted and bought a lovely dry blueberry (unoaked) and a slightly sweeter cranberry wine.  So I am signing off to make dinner and have a glass of one of those wines!

 

Happy birthday to Kelly (today the 10th) and in case we don't have wifi tomorrow, Happy Birthday to Marline (the 11th tomorrow).

 

Lori and The Tard!