JUNE 27 to AUGUST 24, 2007
The trip was made by Mel, Willa and Tegan (our granddaughter) Kraft. We traveled in a 31 foot, Class A motorhome. We brought 3 bikes with us which were on a carrier on the back of the motorhome and I had bought covers for the bikes which helped keep the dust and rain off of them. We did not tow a car and we found either there was parking or we used a shuttle from the campsites. We stayed in campsites most of the time, mainly because it was reasonably hot and we wanted the hookups to run the air conditioner. However to save money you can stay in Walmarts, Canadian Tire, Costco parking lots. If you are concerned about safety, then the private or provincial campsites are best. However, you won’t be lonely in the other parking lots. We stayed in one Walmart parking lot and there were about 10 of us. In another we shared it with one other camper. We always asked at the store but they seemed more than happy to have you stay.
The following is a summary of some of the cost of our trip. I’ll add to the list as we get the figures in but as of August 25, 2007.
We traveled 15,600 kilometers = 9,693.84 miles.
We used 4443.693 liters of gas or 977.495 gallons.
Gas cost $4,557.31 which averages at about $1.003 per liter.
We averaged about 10.164 miles per gallon.
Our campsites cost us a total of $1417.06 including taxes.
Based on being away 59 nights the average cost of campsites was $24.00 per night. Out of the 59 nights we stayed with friends and family and several other sites with no charge so that has to be taken into consideration.
The average cost of gas per day was about $75.55 per day. Many of the days we stayed stationary if there were things to do in that area.
So camping and gas cost about $99.55 per day.
We bought about $76.00 worth of propane and we brought back about $20.00 worth still in the tank.
Longest day on the road 965 kilometers or 599.65 miles which was too long of a day.
Shortest day on the road 54.7 kilometers or 34 miles which means we did a lot of sight seeing that day and there were a number of other ones with similar mileage.
Our average moving speed was a low of 34 k/h to high of 87 k/h.
Our highest elevation was in the Rogers Pass in BC at 5300 feet; the next highest was about 3200 feet which was Calgary, Alberta. Edmonton, Alberta was 2335 feet. Once we left the prairies the highest we reached I believe was on the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia which was about 1400 feet. The rest of the country was in the 100-300 foot range.
Any other questions just email me. You can use the email fourwinds93@hotmail.com. That email won’t be checked much from here on but you are welcome to use either my work email, mel_kraft@telus.net or Willa’s email at willakraft@telus.net
Monday, September 17, 2007
Day 59, August 24, 2007
Day 59, Friday, August 24, 2007.
We left Keith and Lillian’s at about 9:00 am and headed for home. The traffic was a little heavy but moved very well. We did hit a road construction on the Coquihalla Highway past Kamloops but nothing that held us up for long. We did see two mishaps, one was a newer Dodge truck and the whole front end was burnt to a crisp. In Merritt where the #5 crosses over the #1 there was another mishap and we weren’t sure what the problem was, maybe another fire by the looks of it. Well this is the last leg of our journey across Canada. It was with mixed emotions getting home. Nice to be home but sad that the adventure was over. We arrived at home about 3:00 pm after a stop for corn and then to dump the holding tanks in the motorhome. We had someone looking after our home while we were gone and it was sure nice to come home to a spotless house. Hardly know anyone had lived there for 2 months. Once home we unloaded the motorhome and Willa started her laundry, every thing got stripped and ended up in the laundry. WE WILL DO IT AGAIN! But next time when we are retired and maybe take longer and I even thought of doing the trip over 2 years. Spend 4 months one year and leave the motorhome in storage for the winter back East and pick up where we left off the next year. That would save a lot of driving and give you more time to explore the huge country of ours. There is so much more we want to see in Canada but that is for another time.
I hope you enjoyed following the trip with us as we did physically doing it. We had a lot of fun and it brought to home just how big our country is and how beautiful it is and we haven’t seen all of it yet. I’ve had so many people I’ve met that say how beautiful BC is but I would have to say every province we hit had its own beauty only in a different way from BC. We could have spent weeks or months back in PEI. We regret not seeing more of Nova Scotia. However Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, will be high on the agenda for the next trip.
We left Keith and Lillian’s at about 9:00 am and headed for home. The traffic was a little heavy but moved very well. We did hit a road construction on the Coquihalla Highway past Kamloops but nothing that held us up for long. We did see two mishaps, one was a newer Dodge truck and the whole front end was burnt to a crisp. In Merritt where the #5 crosses over the #1 there was another mishap and we weren’t sure what the problem was, maybe another fire by the looks of it. Well this is the last leg of our journey across Canada. It was with mixed emotions getting home. Nice to be home but sad that the adventure was over. We arrived at home about 3:00 pm after a stop for corn and then to dump the holding tanks in the motorhome. We had someone looking after our home while we were gone and it was sure nice to come home to a spotless house. Hardly know anyone had lived there for 2 months. Once home we unloaded the motorhome and Willa started her laundry, every thing got stripped and ended up in the laundry. WE WILL DO IT AGAIN! But next time when we are retired and maybe take longer and I even thought of doing the trip over 2 years. Spend 4 months one year and leave the motorhome in storage for the winter back East and pick up where we left off the next year. That would save a lot of driving and give you more time to explore the huge country of ours. There is so much more we want to see in Canada but that is for another time.
I hope you enjoyed following the trip with us as we did physically doing it. We had a lot of fun and it brought to home just how big our country is and how beautiful it is and we haven’t seen all of it yet. I’ve had so many people I’ve met that say how beautiful BC is but I would have to say every province we hit had its own beauty only in a different way from BC. We could have spent weeks or months back in PEI. We regret not seeing more of Nova Scotia. However Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, will be high on the agenda for the next trip.
Day 58, August 23, 2007
Day 58, Thursday, August 23, 2007.
We spent the day with Keith and Lillian Bennett in Salmon Arm, BC. Very relaxing day. Keith is a wood turner and has all the equipment for the hobby. He got Tegan, our 16 year old granddaughter, to make herself a bowl. Keith got a piece of wood in the rough shape she would need and after a few instructions she got started. I think Keith could have turned the bowl out in less than an hour but it took Tegan three hours. She sure enjoyed doing it. She and I were amazed at watching the block of wood slowly taking shape under the tool. Each curve a little different cutting tool was used and as the chips flew the bowl started to magically appear. Once the bowl was shaped then she started the sanding process to get a nice smooth finish. Tegan again was amazed how smooth the bowl got as you used the different sandpapers. I think the thing that amazed her most and still does me is when you have everything ready to start to put the oil finish on the wood. Keith uses either mineral oil or extra virgin oil ( what exactly an extra virgin is I am not sure, I do understand what a virgin is, but extra? Maybe it means two, you know just in case!). You should have seen Tegan’s eyes light up as the oil was applied. The wood grain jumps out at you. The bowl was made out of a burl if I remember correctly and when the oil was applied all the twist, turns and birds eye jumped right out at you. Keith has done several bowls and a potpourri bowl for us. What was fascinating about our bowls was the cherry wood came from a tree in our field after it died. The interesting bit of trivia that goes with this is I knew the old gentleman who planted the trees in our field in 1933. Peter Ioriel, from Italy. He lived on the mountain for quiet a few years and I knew him as a kid in the ‘50s when we first moved to Straiton on Sumas Mountain. He had some wonderful stories to tell of the mountain and especially the school marm who lived in the house above from where we live now. Apparently she had an unusual number of gentlemen callers and the stories went on from there. Mr. Ioriel was a neat old gentleman and I talked to him after we bought the property that we currently live on and he gave me the history on the property. Where we live now is across the road from where I was raised, we moved there in 1951 with my parents. Right next door to the house was the one roomed school that I went to from grade one to grade six. Prior to grade one I would go up and knock on the door and the teacher would let me in and sit me on a chair at the back of one of the rows and let me draw or doodle until I got bored. Six grades, six rows of desks and one teacher. The teacher we had the longest was Mrs. Edith Money and she taught for 5-7 years at the Straiton School. When the weather got bad she would spend the night at our house or maybe a week if the roads were real bad. See how your kids would like that, I take that back at the age I was it would have been a treat but not for a teenager. We had an old orchard in the back of the house, and every fall we would pick the apples and store them in the basement of the house. My Dad would put them into about 40 gallon wooden barrels and they would be shipped off to his brothers and sisters who lived in and around North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Where I wanted to go with this was to say that I would pick one these apples, they were King Apples, and I would polish it up and take it to the teacher most days the apples were available. The King Apple has a wax coating on it and when you polished it, it would shine and in a multitude of red hues. Even then I was impressed by the colour and shine the apples could take on. By the way we were on 80 acres of land with an older two story house with a barn, chicken coop and a few other outbuildings and they paid $2000 for it in 1951. Hard to believe but you have to apply that to the hourly wage then. The lumber the house was built from was cut and milled from the timber on the property. We had about 8-10 huge maple trees around the immediate yard. One tree was getting a little too old and sat too close to the house and Dad decided to cut it down. The stump left over was about 4-6 feet across. One hot summer day just after the tree was cut down I decided to count the rings. There were over two hundred rings to the centre of the rotted out area in the center of the tree and the rotted out area was about a foot across. Sorry kind of got off the original entry, but to suffice to say we enjoyed our time at the Bennett’s and would have stayed longer, but weren’t invited to……………not true, they begged and pleaded for us to stay……which was a little closer to the truth but we were wanting to get home to get two kids ready for school and rearrange sleeping areas for the two girls. We took temporary custody of our 10 year old granddaughter just before we left on holidays……..which is another story. Tomorrow we start our last leg of the cross Canada journey which brings us right back to where we started—HOME.
We spent the day with Keith and Lillian Bennett in Salmon Arm, BC. Very relaxing day. Keith is a wood turner and has all the equipment for the hobby. He got Tegan, our 16 year old granddaughter, to make herself a bowl. Keith got a piece of wood in the rough shape she would need and after a few instructions she got started. I think Keith could have turned the bowl out in less than an hour but it took Tegan three hours. She sure enjoyed doing it. She and I were amazed at watching the block of wood slowly taking shape under the tool. Each curve a little different cutting tool was used and as the chips flew the bowl started to magically appear. Once the bowl was shaped then she started the sanding process to get a nice smooth finish. Tegan again was amazed how smooth the bowl got as you used the different sandpapers. I think the thing that amazed her most and still does me is when you have everything ready to start to put the oil finish on the wood. Keith uses either mineral oil or extra virgin oil ( what exactly an extra virgin is I am not sure, I do understand what a virgin is, but extra? Maybe it means two, you know just in case!). You should have seen Tegan’s eyes light up as the oil was applied. The wood grain jumps out at you. The bowl was made out of a burl if I remember correctly and when the oil was applied all the twist, turns and birds eye jumped right out at you. Keith has done several bowls and a potpourri bowl for us. What was fascinating about our bowls was the cherry wood came from a tree in our field after it died. The interesting bit of trivia that goes with this is I knew the old gentleman who planted the trees in our field in 1933. Peter Ioriel, from Italy. He lived on the mountain for quiet a few years and I knew him as a kid in the ‘50s when we first moved to Straiton on Sumas Mountain. He had some wonderful stories to tell of the mountain and especially the school marm who lived in the house above from where we live now. Apparently she had an unusual number of gentlemen callers and the stories went on from there. Mr. Ioriel was a neat old gentleman and I talked to him after we bought the property that we currently live on and he gave me the history on the property. Where we live now is across the road from where I was raised, we moved there in 1951 with my parents. Right next door to the house was the one roomed school that I went to from grade one to grade six. Prior to grade one I would go up and knock on the door and the teacher would let me in and sit me on a chair at the back of one of the rows and let me draw or doodle until I got bored. Six grades, six rows of desks and one teacher. The teacher we had the longest was Mrs. Edith Money and she taught for 5-7 years at the Straiton School. When the weather got bad she would spend the night at our house or maybe a week if the roads were real bad. See how your kids would like that, I take that back at the age I was it would have been a treat but not for a teenager. We had an old orchard in the back of the house, and every fall we would pick the apples and store them in the basement of the house. My Dad would put them into about 40 gallon wooden barrels and they would be shipped off to his brothers and sisters who lived in and around North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Where I wanted to go with this was to say that I would pick one these apples, they were King Apples, and I would polish it up and take it to the teacher most days the apples were available. The King Apple has a wax coating on it and when you polished it, it would shine and in a multitude of red hues. Even then I was impressed by the colour and shine the apples could take on. By the way we were on 80 acres of land with an older two story house with a barn, chicken coop and a few other outbuildings and they paid $2000 for it in 1951. Hard to believe but you have to apply that to the hourly wage then. The lumber the house was built from was cut and milled from the timber on the property. We had about 8-10 huge maple trees around the immediate yard. One tree was getting a little too old and sat too close to the house and Dad decided to cut it down. The stump left over was about 4-6 feet across. One hot summer day just after the tree was cut down I decided to count the rings. There were over two hundred rings to the centre of the rotted out area in the center of the tree and the rotted out area was about a foot across. Sorry kind of got off the original entry, but to suffice to say we enjoyed our time at the Bennett’s and would have stayed longer, but weren’t invited to……………not true, they begged and pleaded for us to stay……which was a little closer to the truth but we were wanting to get home to get two kids ready for school and rearrange sleeping areas for the two girls. We took temporary custody of our 10 year old granddaughter just before we left on holidays……..which is another story. Tomorrow we start our last leg of the cross Canada journey which brings us right back to where we started—HOME.
Day 57, August 22, 2007
Day 57, Wednesday, August 22, 2007.
We left Calgary at 10:00 am and headed for Salmon Arm, BC. Calgary has grown so much it is unbelievable. When we got closer to Calgary the houses followed the hills for miles and the road construction is amazing. So leaving the campsite I had wondered if there was an easier way to get to the # 1 Highway, which is the Trans Canada Highway, than the way we came. I took our trusty GPS and marked where we were and where we wanted to be on the #1 and it drew me a route and we followed it to the #1. The roads the GPS suggested were roads that connected the subdivisions, not main roads per say. These roads were all 4 lane roads with level cloverleaf intersections. There would be big signs pointing out new communities that are being developed and there would be 3-4 on each of these signs. We think we have growth in Abbotsford this. Would be like starting in Hope and having solid housing to Langley or Surrey and from the USA border to way north of Mission. Well 30-40 minutes later we were on the #1 Highway heading West. The mountains sure looked good. You start with flat prairie, then foothills, then mountains and I have to say after a month away they were beyond impressive and closer to overwhelming. I can see how someone living all their life in the prairies or eastern Canada and then coming to BC, the mountains could be very intimidating. Seeing the mountains was like coming home again and we aren’t even home yet. Considerable amount of highway construction through the Rogers Pass. In one area I think just before Field, BC they are building a new section of road and a new bridge and rather than following the old road they are climbing up into the mountain and have built this bridge which I would say is 700-800 feet above the old road and river. I would like to have gotten a picture but there was just no where to stop. It will be interesting to drive this section of the road when the bridge is finished. I think before they are done it will be four lane on the whole Trans Canada Highway. Just before the foothills we saw a bad accident. A single car went off the road and must have flipped, they were working on getting the driver out when we drove past. The second accident was a big semi that flipped over on a corner, It looked to me like the driver would have been ok if he/she were buckled but I think the passenger would have had some serious road rash if not some serious rock bruises if they survived. You know, to come to thing about it those were the only accidents we saw on the whole trip, I have to say that surprises me. The drive was real good from Calgary to Salmon Arm. The traffic was very heavy, especially with the construction and flag people which would back the traffic up maybe 1-1.5 miles and then you had to contend with that bundle of vehicular moving out all at the same time. Everything seemed to flow well. We pulled into the Bennett’s about 4:30 in the afternoon. We gassed up before heading to the Bennett’s so we would be ready to go on Friday when we head on the final leg of our Cross Canada journey. We all agreed its good to be going home but we also really enjoyed the trip. The longer you are away you get more in the mode of traveling and the sitting doesn’t bother you like it did the first week of leaving home. I was just thinking of an interesting piece of trivia. Once we left the mountains the highest point we reached was in Alberta which was about 3000 feet above sea level. In the eastern provinces the highest point was on the Cabot Trail and I believe, if I remember correctly was around 800 feet. Coming back into the mountains along the Rogers Pass we reached an altitude of over 5300 feet. My GPS gives we a steady readout of the elevation as you move, along with, average moving speed, average over all speed, direction, odometer, daily miles traveled and about 10 other statistics. They are also great for finding your way around strange cities because you can put in an address for anywhere in North America and it will show you how to get there on a turn by turn set of instructions. We used ours on our whole trip. The GPS was turned on in the morning and ran till we stopped in the evening and then we used it to mark out our route for the next day if we were not sure of where we were going. The unit I have is a Garmen handheld with a very small screen so I have tied mine into my laptop which sits between the driver and passenger seats and swivels so we can both look at it. This also gives you a very large screen to view the map and the road ahead. They have new ones out now that talk to you and they are good but I like the way mine works with the laptop. Well two more entries for the trip and we are done. I may start putting our weekend trips into the blog. Let me know what you think of the diary of our trip including what was good and what was poor and how it could be improved for another time. Use the email fourwinds93@hotmail.com. That email won’t be checked much from here on but you are welcome to use either my work email, mel_kraft@telus.net or Willa’s email at willakraft@telus.net. Both are checked daily and mine at work is done 3-4 times a day. Make sure you have a clear subject line in the email or we may not look at it if we don’t recognize the sender or the reason for the email. My assistant at the office checks my email and if she doesn’t recognize the sender or the reason for the email she will delete it. We get a lot of spam and unwanted solicitations.
We left Calgary at 10:00 am and headed for Salmon Arm, BC. Calgary has grown so much it is unbelievable. When we got closer to Calgary the houses followed the hills for miles and the road construction is amazing. So leaving the campsite I had wondered if there was an easier way to get to the # 1 Highway, which is the Trans Canada Highway, than the way we came. I took our trusty GPS and marked where we were and where we wanted to be on the #1 and it drew me a route and we followed it to the #1. The roads the GPS suggested were roads that connected the subdivisions, not main roads per say. These roads were all 4 lane roads with level cloverleaf intersections. There would be big signs pointing out new communities that are being developed and there would be 3-4 on each of these signs. We think we have growth in Abbotsford this. Would be like starting in Hope and having solid housing to Langley or Surrey and from the USA border to way north of Mission. Well 30-40 minutes later we were on the #1 Highway heading West. The mountains sure looked good. You start with flat prairie, then foothills, then mountains and I have to say after a month away they were beyond impressive and closer to overwhelming. I can see how someone living all their life in the prairies or eastern Canada and then coming to BC, the mountains could be very intimidating. Seeing the mountains was like coming home again and we aren’t even home yet. Considerable amount of highway construction through the Rogers Pass. In one area I think just before Field, BC they are building a new section of road and a new bridge and rather than following the old road they are climbing up into the mountain and have built this bridge which I would say is 700-800 feet above the old road and river. I would like to have gotten a picture but there was just no where to stop. It will be interesting to drive this section of the road when the bridge is finished. I think before they are done it will be four lane on the whole Trans Canada Highway. Just before the foothills we saw a bad accident. A single car went off the road and must have flipped, they were working on getting the driver out when we drove past. The second accident was a big semi that flipped over on a corner, It looked to me like the driver would have been ok if he/she were buckled but I think the passenger would have had some serious road rash if not some serious rock bruises if they survived. You know, to come to thing about it those were the only accidents we saw on the whole trip, I have to say that surprises me. The drive was real good from Calgary to Salmon Arm. The traffic was very heavy, especially with the construction and flag people which would back the traffic up maybe 1-1.5 miles and then you had to contend with that bundle of vehicular moving out all at the same time. Everything seemed to flow well. We pulled into the Bennett’s about 4:30 in the afternoon. We gassed up before heading to the Bennett’s so we would be ready to go on Friday when we head on the final leg of our Cross Canada journey. We all agreed its good to be going home but we also really enjoyed the trip. The longer you are away you get more in the mode of traveling and the sitting doesn’t bother you like it did the first week of leaving home. I was just thinking of an interesting piece of trivia. Once we left the mountains the highest point we reached was in Alberta which was about 3000 feet above sea level. In the eastern provinces the highest point was on the Cabot Trail and I believe, if I remember correctly was around 800 feet. Coming back into the mountains along the Rogers Pass we reached an altitude of over 5300 feet. My GPS gives we a steady readout of the elevation as you move, along with, average moving speed, average over all speed, direction, odometer, daily miles traveled and about 10 other statistics. They are also great for finding your way around strange cities because you can put in an address for anywhere in North America and it will show you how to get there on a turn by turn set of instructions. We used ours on our whole trip. The GPS was turned on in the morning and ran till we stopped in the evening and then we used it to mark out our route for the next day if we were not sure of where we were going. The unit I have is a Garmen handheld with a very small screen so I have tied mine into my laptop which sits between the driver and passenger seats and swivels so we can both look at it. This also gives you a very large screen to view the map and the road ahead. They have new ones out now that talk to you and they are good but I like the way mine works with the laptop. Well two more entries for the trip and we are done. I may start putting our weekend trips into the blog. Let me know what you think of the diary of our trip including what was good and what was poor and how it could be improved for another time. Use the email fourwinds93@hotmail.com. That email won’t be checked much from here on but you are welcome to use either my work email, mel_kraft@telus.net or Willa’s email at willakraft@telus.net. Both are checked daily and mine at work is done 3-4 times a day. Make sure you have a clear subject line in the email or we may not look at it if we don’t recognize the sender or the reason for the email. My assistant at the office checks my email and if she doesn’t recognize the sender or the reason for the email she will delete it. We get a lot of spam and unwanted solicitations.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Day 56, August 21, 2007
Day 56, Tuesday, August 21, 2007
We got a bit of a late start today but only had a few hours to Calgary so there was no panic to get away. When we left the campsite in Edmonton it was cloudy and windy out of, I thought, the southwest or east. We hit the #2 highway and the wind is out of the northwest which is good because it’s hitting the passenger side rear corner so not too bad but it is a strong wind. This tends to toss us around a little but not too bad and the good news is it does push us also. With a wind at the back, it is a lot quieter up front, less wind noise. As the road bends and twists on the way to Calgary the wind tends to catch us sometimes at the side and sometimes at the rear. From the rear, the vacuum gage goes from about 9-10 inches to 15 plus. If from the front the vacuum has dropped to as low as 3-4 inches. 10 to 12 inches is about normal. The higher the inches of vacuum the better the gas mileage. Now the side wind is good and bad. The good new is that it is not a head wind. The bad news if it is a side wind and throws us around something fierce. Not that you move across the whole road, but you use every bit of your own lane and can give the drivers in the other lanes a bit of a start when suddenly you are right on the line. Also with a side wind you are steering into the wind so when something blocks the wind like a row of trees or a big truck you tend to do the Highway Dance, “The Two Foot.” It’s two feet this way and two feet that way and back to the middle and then two feet back again and two feet to the middle. Well you get the idea. This dance can be done to any tune on the radio or the tune the passenger happens to be screaming when the dance starts. The wind must have been 50-65 k/h and maybe gusting higher. Not for the novice driver and needless to say Tegan was not driving. Closer to Calgary I noticed a 5th wheel on the side of the road dealing with his awning, I think it must have come loose and they were having quite a time putting it back up, if they were even able to. I would think if it had come loose it would have done damage to the arms or the track the awning slides into. He had some help so I didn’t stop and it would have been tricky to try and stop with traffic and the limited space on the shoulder of the road. Speaking of shoulders, a few of the highways have no shoulder at all. I wouldn’t want (knock wood) to have a reason to have to stop on one of those roads. Other than the wind the this segment of the trip was good and we rolled straight to Calgary and found a campsite on the NW corner of Calgary and only $30.00 per night. Met some nice people on either side and across the road. The couple on the passenger side are a younger couple with twin girls 3 years old and they have one of those decorative metal signs hanging in the window that says “Gamblers and loose women may frequent this establishment”. We found it quite humorous. The couple on the other side, he is helping his son in construction for a few months and the couple across the street are from Smithers, BC and they are just finishing their cross Canada trip. They had left in May.
We did get a hold of Jonathan and he came out to the campsite and had supper with us. He was on call but had no calls until later in the evening. Jonathan works for NCR (National Cash Register) Company. He is on loan for a few week hears from the Vancouver office. He has stored his car at our house while he is away. May do some cruising. He bought a 2001 Ford Mustang Cobra, convertible, candy apple red. Very nice car and in real good shape with low mileage. He’s very proud of it and has a right to be. Well it is 7:00 in the morning of the 22nd and we are on the last leg of our Cross Canada Trip. Tonight we stay at Keith and Lillian Bennetts which is in Salmon Arm, BC. We could just see the mountains on the horizon coming into Calgary and after almost 2 months they did look good. Should be well into them by noon if I can get Willa and Tegan moving soon. I just looked over at Tegan sleeping and I find it interesting where people put there arms when sleeping. Tegan has one arm under her head with the hand holding her head and the other in front of her face with the hand holding her forehead. Interesting position. Another time when mom came camping with us to a Kraft reunion about 4 years ago. She was sleeping in the motor home she had her hands under her head in such a way that it reminded me of a little girl sleeping and she was 89 at the time. Bit of Trivia. Ok now to start the day……………………”WILLA, TEGAN GET UP. IT’S TIME TO HIT THE ROAD, WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS ANY HOW, YOU ARE WASTING THE DAY AWAY, COME ON GET UP”…………………………………………”yes dear I’ll be quiet, you want to sleep longer, that’s ok dear, yes I am sorry I yelled, I was just trying to impress some people but it was a bad judgment call on my part, you have a nice sleep. Lillian can wait.” (Willa couldn’t get up because Melvin snored all night!!)
We got a bit of a late start today but only had a few hours to Calgary so there was no panic to get away. When we left the campsite in Edmonton it was cloudy and windy out of, I thought, the southwest or east. We hit the #2 highway and the wind is out of the northwest which is good because it’s hitting the passenger side rear corner so not too bad but it is a strong wind. This tends to toss us around a little but not too bad and the good news is it does push us also. With a wind at the back, it is a lot quieter up front, less wind noise. As the road bends and twists on the way to Calgary the wind tends to catch us sometimes at the side and sometimes at the rear. From the rear, the vacuum gage goes from about 9-10 inches to 15 plus. If from the front the vacuum has dropped to as low as 3-4 inches. 10 to 12 inches is about normal. The higher the inches of vacuum the better the gas mileage. Now the side wind is good and bad. The good new is that it is not a head wind. The bad news if it is a side wind and throws us around something fierce. Not that you move across the whole road, but you use every bit of your own lane and can give the drivers in the other lanes a bit of a start when suddenly you are right on the line. Also with a side wind you are steering into the wind so when something blocks the wind like a row of trees or a big truck you tend to do the Highway Dance, “The Two Foot.” It’s two feet this way and two feet that way and back to the middle and then two feet back again and two feet to the middle. Well you get the idea. This dance can be done to any tune on the radio or the tune the passenger happens to be screaming when the dance starts. The wind must have been 50-65 k/h and maybe gusting higher. Not for the novice driver and needless to say Tegan was not driving. Closer to Calgary I noticed a 5th wheel on the side of the road dealing with his awning, I think it must have come loose and they were having quite a time putting it back up, if they were even able to. I would think if it had come loose it would have done damage to the arms or the track the awning slides into. He had some help so I didn’t stop and it would have been tricky to try and stop with traffic and the limited space on the shoulder of the road. Speaking of shoulders, a few of the highways have no shoulder at all. I wouldn’t want (knock wood) to have a reason to have to stop on one of those roads. Other than the wind the this segment of the trip was good and we rolled straight to Calgary and found a campsite on the NW corner of Calgary and only $30.00 per night. Met some nice people on either side and across the road. The couple on the passenger side are a younger couple with twin girls 3 years old and they have one of those decorative metal signs hanging in the window that says “Gamblers and loose women may frequent this establishment”. We found it quite humorous. The couple on the other side, he is helping his son in construction for a few months and the couple across the street are from Smithers, BC and they are just finishing their cross Canada trip. They had left in May.
We did get a hold of Jonathan and he came out to the campsite and had supper with us. He was on call but had no calls until later in the evening. Jonathan works for NCR (National Cash Register) Company. He is on loan for a few week hears from the Vancouver office. He has stored his car at our house while he is away. May do some cruising. He bought a 2001 Ford Mustang Cobra, convertible, candy apple red. Very nice car and in real good shape with low mileage. He’s very proud of it and has a right to be. Well it is 7:00 in the morning of the 22nd and we are on the last leg of our Cross Canada Trip. Tonight we stay at Keith and Lillian Bennetts which is in Salmon Arm, BC. We could just see the mountains on the horizon coming into Calgary and after almost 2 months they did look good. Should be well into them by noon if I can get Willa and Tegan moving soon. I just looked over at Tegan sleeping and I find it interesting where people put there arms when sleeping. Tegan has one arm under her head with the hand holding her head and the other in front of her face with the hand holding her forehead. Interesting position. Another time when mom came camping with us to a Kraft reunion about 4 years ago. She was sleeping in the motor home she had her hands under her head in such a way that it reminded me of a little girl sleeping and she was 89 at the time. Bit of Trivia. Ok now to start the day……………………”WILLA, TEGAN GET UP. IT’S TIME TO HIT THE ROAD, WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS ANY HOW, YOU ARE WASTING THE DAY AWAY, COME ON GET UP”…………………………………………”yes dear I’ll be quiet, you want to sleep longer, that’s ok dear, yes I am sorry I yelled, I was just trying to impress some people but it was a bad judgment call on my part, you have a nice sleep. Lillian can wait.” (Willa couldn’t get up because Melvin snored all night!!)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Day 55, August 20, 2007
Day 55, Monday, August 20, 2007.
Today was a duplicate of what happened yesterday. The differences were 1) the West Edmonton Mall opened at 10:00 am. 2) We had more time to shop, let me rephrase that, “they had more time to shop”. Tegan did well, got a lot of her school clothes. I walked around the Mall. Now I know what the ugliest hooker in town feels like. I found one shop that has a hand gun shooting range in it. It is almost in a bunker but what an idea. You could choose from several hand guns anything from a 22 upward. Prices weren’t too bad I don’t think, $19.00 to enter and about $29.00 for shells which gave you 50 shots of the high caliber and a 100 shots of the 22’s. Another shop I found very interesting was called “The Store of 100 Gift Stores”. This store is franchised out of Ontario and is made up of 100 plus little displays. If you have items you want to sell you rent space from this company and they set up a display of your products. You pay them a percentage and they look after marketing and selling it for you. For a cottage industry who can’t afford a space in The Edmonton Mall this is the answer. I was very impressed with the shop and the idea. Something for everyone. You need a week at the West Edmonton Mall to do everything and a hotel room in the mall would be perfect. We are off to Calgary in the morning and hope to meet up with Jonathan, our son. He is working in Calgary for a few weeks. Apparently they are short handed and he is going to fill in. I imagine lots to see and do in Calgary. The weather has been cloudy and a little rainy the last couple of days but today started off cloudy but no rain and turned sunny in the afternoon, not that I could see the sun from where I was. Can’t think of any thing else unless you want a step by step litany of my walking around the mall …………………………….”I thought not!
Today was a duplicate of what happened yesterday. The differences were 1) the West Edmonton Mall opened at 10:00 am. 2) We had more time to shop, let me rephrase that, “they had more time to shop”. Tegan did well, got a lot of her school clothes. I walked around the Mall. Now I know what the ugliest hooker in town feels like. I found one shop that has a hand gun shooting range in it. It is almost in a bunker but what an idea. You could choose from several hand guns anything from a 22 upward. Prices weren’t too bad I don’t think, $19.00 to enter and about $29.00 for shells which gave you 50 shots of the high caliber and a 100 shots of the 22’s. Another shop I found very interesting was called “The Store of 100 Gift Stores”. This store is franchised out of Ontario and is made up of 100 plus little displays. If you have items you want to sell you rent space from this company and they set up a display of your products. You pay them a percentage and they look after marketing and selling it for you. For a cottage industry who can’t afford a space in The Edmonton Mall this is the answer. I was very impressed with the shop and the idea. Something for everyone. You need a week at the West Edmonton Mall to do everything and a hotel room in the mall would be perfect. We are off to Calgary in the morning and hope to meet up with Jonathan, our son. He is working in Calgary for a few weeks. Apparently they are short handed and he is going to fill in. I imagine lots to see and do in Calgary. The weather has been cloudy and a little rainy the last couple of days but today started off cloudy but no rain and turned sunny in the afternoon, not that I could see the sun from where I was. Can’t think of any thing else unless you want a step by step litany of my walking around the mall …………………………….”I thought not!
Day 54, August 19, 2007
Day 54, Sunday, August 19, 2007.
We left the campsite about 10:00 am and headed for the West Edmonton Mall. We were a little early but we got inside and did a little walking around to orient ourselves to the Mall. It is unbelievable the size of this Mall and I was told they are looking at more than doubling the size of it. Tegan had the run of the Mall. We have walkie/talkies that we are able to keep in touch with one another, she can call when she runs out of money. The process works quite well especially for Tegan. Actually she had her own money to spend but my story sounds better. Willa and I walked around together and later in the day she joined Tegan and I started walking the perimeter of the Mall. In 2 hours I did not cover 1/2 of 1st floor. Now I did stop at some of the stores and looked around but the size is unreal. We had lunch at the Mall, but breakfast at the campsite restaurant. All and all it was a good day. The girls are heading back tomorrow. I will spend a little time with them but may visit a cousin that lives across the street from the Mall. If all else fails I will go out to the motorhome and either read or watch a movie.
We left the campsite about 10:00 am and headed for the West Edmonton Mall. We were a little early but we got inside and did a little walking around to orient ourselves to the Mall. It is unbelievable the size of this Mall and I was told they are looking at more than doubling the size of it. Tegan had the run of the Mall. We have walkie/talkies that we are able to keep in touch with one another, she can call when she runs out of money. The process works quite well especially for Tegan. Actually she had her own money to spend but my story sounds better. Willa and I walked around together and later in the day she joined Tegan and I started walking the perimeter of the Mall. In 2 hours I did not cover 1/2 of 1st floor. Now I did stop at some of the stores and looked around but the size is unreal. We had lunch at the Mall, but breakfast at the campsite restaurant. All and all it was a good day. The girls are heading back tomorrow. I will spend a little time with them but may visit a cousin that lives across the street from the Mall. If all else fails I will go out to the motorhome and either read or watch a movie.
Day 53, August 18, 2007
Day 53, Saturday, August 18, 2007.
We didn’t get as early of a start this morning but didn’t have as many miles to cover either. The roads between North Battleford, Saskatchewan and Edmonton, Alberta were the best we have been on for this trip. Mostly 4 lanes and very little rough areas. The speed limit is 110 k/h and I set the cruise at 99-102 and that is the way we rolled all day. The GPS gives me an average moving speed and it averaged at 101 k/h before we hit Edmonton. So we made real good time and had a tail wind all the way except when it came at a rear corner because of the bend in the road. Some of that road is absolutely straight for as far as the eye can see and that is a long ways. The traffic was light until we got into Edmonton. On the way, we stopped in Lloydminster. Willa had a visit with her Mom’s cousin Jean Skinner. She had always wanted to meet her, and was glad she did. Nice lady.
We started calling campsites in the afternoon and they were all filled because of the celebrations that were going on in Edmonton. So ended up in the overflow at the Glowing Embers campsite just 6 miles from the West Edmonton Mall. This was all that was available for this evening. So we took it with the hope we can get a site with full hookups for tomorrow night. This is a real nice campsite. It cost about $30.00 per night with full services which includes WI/FI. There is a restaurant, store, nice washrooms and showers and a repair shop right on sight. 238 sights plus the over flow. We set up camp then headed over to the restaurant to have supper. Very reasonable cost and a good meal and didn’t have to drive anywhere. Well the next two days are Tegan’s. She wants to spend them shopping for school clothes. So it is off to bed. We don’t have to be up too early because the Mall does not open until 11:00 am. Nice part it is only 6-7 miles away from the campsite.
We didn’t get as early of a start this morning but didn’t have as many miles to cover either. The roads between North Battleford, Saskatchewan and Edmonton, Alberta were the best we have been on for this trip. Mostly 4 lanes and very little rough areas. The speed limit is 110 k/h and I set the cruise at 99-102 and that is the way we rolled all day. The GPS gives me an average moving speed and it averaged at 101 k/h before we hit Edmonton. So we made real good time and had a tail wind all the way except when it came at a rear corner because of the bend in the road. Some of that road is absolutely straight for as far as the eye can see and that is a long ways. The traffic was light until we got into Edmonton. On the way, we stopped in Lloydminster. Willa had a visit with her Mom’s cousin Jean Skinner. She had always wanted to meet her, and was glad she did. Nice lady.
We started calling campsites in the afternoon and they were all filled because of the celebrations that were going on in Edmonton. So ended up in the overflow at the Glowing Embers campsite just 6 miles from the West Edmonton Mall. This was all that was available for this evening. So we took it with the hope we can get a site with full hookups for tomorrow night. This is a real nice campsite. It cost about $30.00 per night with full services which includes WI/FI. There is a restaurant, store, nice washrooms and showers and a repair shop right on sight. 238 sights plus the over flow. We set up camp then headed over to the restaurant to have supper. Very reasonable cost and a good meal and didn’t have to drive anywhere. Well the next two days are Tegan’s. She wants to spend them shopping for school clothes. So it is off to bed. We don’t have to be up too early because the Mall does not open until 11:00 am. Nice part it is only 6-7 miles away from the campsite.
Day 52, August 17, 2007
Day 52, Friday, August 17, 2007
Well this was the earliest we have started on this trip. We were on the road by 6:30 am. The plan was to stay in Saskatoon, Sask for the night but when we got there all the campsites were booked because of some celebration they were having, in fact it was a baseball tournament. So we decided to drive to the next town. Either they didn’t have a campsite or they weren’t what we wanted so we kept driving and the next thing you know we are in North Battleford, Saskatchewan and have driven just under 1000 k or 600 miles. The longest day we have ever put in on this holiday. We were on the road 12 hours, Willa drove about 1-2 hours and Tegan drove about 1 hour, so it did give me a little break, but still a long day... in fact too long. I was wiped by the time we set up camp. The weather was wet all day and it was the first time on the holiday we drove most of the day in rain. I haven’t heard as of the writing of today’s diary but when we passed through Saskatoon there was a big storm heading there way. We fought the head winds right up till Saskatoon. As we headed west to north west we could see the storms coming. It looked like we were going to go right through the middle of the large storm then the road turned and it looked like we might go through the smaller storm but we ended up through the calm area between the storms and ended up with some rain but the winds had shifted and we had a tail wind most of the way to North Battleford. Good roads all the way with a lot of 4 lanes. Even in Battleford the campsite was booked but we were able to get an unserviced site so we took it. I was in bed and asleep by about 8:00 pm and didn’t move until the morning. I was absolutely wiped, just too long of a day. We are running short of time so decided to carry on to Edmonton in the morning. I have some relatives in the North Battleford area but would be hard to visit just one and not the others so decided to pass through. Also, we are back here next year for a Kraft family Reunion, so will see everyone then. This is also the town I was born in, North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Just a bit of trivia for you. Many, many moons ago!
Well this was the earliest we have started on this trip. We were on the road by 6:30 am. The plan was to stay in Saskatoon, Sask for the night but when we got there all the campsites were booked because of some celebration they were having, in fact it was a baseball tournament. So we decided to drive to the next town. Either they didn’t have a campsite or they weren’t what we wanted so we kept driving and the next thing you know we are in North Battleford, Saskatchewan and have driven just under 1000 k or 600 miles. The longest day we have ever put in on this holiday. We were on the road 12 hours, Willa drove about 1-2 hours and Tegan drove about 1 hour, so it did give me a little break, but still a long day... in fact too long. I was wiped by the time we set up camp. The weather was wet all day and it was the first time on the holiday we drove most of the day in rain. I haven’t heard as of the writing of today’s diary but when we passed through Saskatoon there was a big storm heading there way. We fought the head winds right up till Saskatoon. As we headed west to north west we could see the storms coming. It looked like we were going to go right through the middle of the large storm then the road turned and it looked like we might go through the smaller storm but we ended up through the calm area between the storms and ended up with some rain but the winds had shifted and we had a tail wind most of the way to North Battleford. Good roads all the way with a lot of 4 lanes. Even in Battleford the campsite was booked but we were able to get an unserviced site so we took it. I was in bed and asleep by about 8:00 pm and didn’t move until the morning. I was absolutely wiped, just too long of a day. We are running short of time so decided to carry on to Edmonton in the morning. I have some relatives in the North Battleford area but would be hard to visit just one and not the others so decided to pass through. Also, we are back here next year for a Kraft family Reunion, so will see everyone then. This is also the town I was born in, North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Just a bit of trivia for you. Many, many moons ago!
Day 51, August 16, 2007
Day 51, Thursday August 16, 2007
I got up about 6:00 to go to the bathroom and was it ever cold. I checked the thermometer it said 40.8 f and that was coolest of the trip. We got rolling about 7:00 am and got ready for the Coopers and their daughter Andrea coming to dinner. Had to do a little cleanup in the motorhome and I had a couple of things to do outside. Took some time this afternoon to read my book and just plain relaxed, needed that after the last couple of days of putting mileage on. We had popcorn for lunch and afterwards I fixed one of the blinds in the back of the motorhome. The blinds have little plastic grommets and the cord pulling through them for the last 14 years wears one side out and then the cord starts to pull through the blind. I was replacing the grommets with metal ones and then ran across the idea of turning the plastic grommets around and hope they are good for another 14 years. Its very pleasant outside at 79f but there is a steady breeze. We lazed around the afternoon and about 4:00 pm I started to get everything ready for Tom, Gwynne and Andrea Cooper coming over for dinner this afternoon. Tom and Gwynne will be here about 5:00 and Andrea closer to 7:00 pm. We had a real nice visit with them. As of August 1 Tom has officially retired, I still say I am too young to have friends retiring. It was real great to see them and we decided it was about 5 years ago we last saw them in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. That was the night of the biggest storm I had ever seen. T and G had picked us up at the campsite and when we got back a hurricane past near the campsite and caused some problems. One motorhome had its awning torn off, a tree fell on a Jeep, and there was so much rain the sewer system had backed up. We had branches up to 4 inches in size fall all around the campsite but not one hit the motor home. The rain came down in buckets and flooded the underpasses and there were cars everywhere. No one seemed to get hurt which was surprising. Even in T and G subdivision any low area was filled with water. Thunder and lightning like you wouldn’t believe unless you are familiar with good old prairie thunder storms. When T, G and A left we cleaned up the BBQ and put every thing away getting ready to leave in the morning. Hoped to get an early start. (Again!)
I got up about 6:00 to go to the bathroom and was it ever cold. I checked the thermometer it said 40.8 f and that was coolest of the trip. We got rolling about 7:00 am and got ready for the Coopers and their daughter Andrea coming to dinner. Had to do a little cleanup in the motorhome and I had a couple of things to do outside. Took some time this afternoon to read my book and just plain relaxed, needed that after the last couple of days of putting mileage on. We had popcorn for lunch and afterwards I fixed one of the blinds in the back of the motorhome. The blinds have little plastic grommets and the cord pulling through them for the last 14 years wears one side out and then the cord starts to pull through the blind. I was replacing the grommets with metal ones and then ran across the idea of turning the plastic grommets around and hope they are good for another 14 years. Its very pleasant outside at 79f but there is a steady breeze. We lazed around the afternoon and about 4:00 pm I started to get everything ready for Tom, Gwynne and Andrea Cooper coming over for dinner this afternoon. Tom and Gwynne will be here about 5:00 and Andrea closer to 7:00 pm. We had a real nice visit with them. As of August 1 Tom has officially retired, I still say I am too young to have friends retiring. It was real great to see them and we decided it was about 5 years ago we last saw them in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. That was the night of the biggest storm I had ever seen. T and G had picked us up at the campsite and when we got back a hurricane past near the campsite and caused some problems. One motorhome had its awning torn off, a tree fell on a Jeep, and there was so much rain the sewer system had backed up. We had branches up to 4 inches in size fall all around the campsite but not one hit the motor home. The rain came down in buckets and flooded the underpasses and there were cars everywhere. No one seemed to get hurt which was surprising. Even in T and G subdivision any low area was filled with water. Thunder and lightning like you wouldn’t believe unless you are familiar with good old prairie thunder storms. When T, G and A left we cleaned up the BBQ and put every thing away getting ready to leave in the morning. Hoped to get an early start. (Again!)
Day 50, August15, 2007
Day 50, Wednesday, August 15, 2007.
We got away at 9:30 am Ontario time but I had set the clocks for the time change and so it was 8:30 am, depending on how you look at it. We were at Thunder Bay last night and the time change is just 10-15 miles West of Thunder Bay. So I cheated a little! It was cool in the morning when we left about 54f and stayed that way most of the day until we got into Manitoba and it started to warm up, with it came the head wind to Winnipeg. We had a real good drive the roads were all good and again letting out the extra air in the tires seemed to smooth the road quite a bit. A lot of trucks on the road. We traveled Highway 11 from Thunder Bay which is the Trans Canada Highway. Being a main road is probably why all the trucks and do they ever move along. The speed limit is 90 k/h. I set the cruise at approx 94 k/h and they were piling up behind me. I finally set the cruise at 98-99 and I finally moved along with the traffic. When a truck did come up behind me and a passing lane was available I would wave them by. If I didn’t slow down for them I would beat them up the hill and still have them behind me till the next passing lane. They seemed to appreciate it and would flash either their tail lights or back up lights to thank me (or else saying what a rotten no good for nothing Rv’er). The other thing that I do when the big rigs or motorhomes pass, when it is safe for them to pull back into my lane, I flash my head lights at them to let them know it is safe to pull in. Again they seem to appreciate it and flash back at me. I’ve had a few do this for me and it is helpful. I don’t pass too much because I just don’t have the power or the speed. The units I do pass are the ones that are sporadic with their speed. I had one motorhome today that was generally at about 94 k/h then down to 80-84 then back up agin. So I finally passed him but I always wait for a good looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong opportunity. He tailed me for awhile after I passed and then slowly fell behind and never did see him again. Generally the traffic moves very well and not too many doddlers but a number that must be over 100 k/h including the big trucks. We were just about 20 miles from Ignace, Ontario, we had come through some construction when I noticed an area of about 200-300 feet across of trees that were laying down and broken off about 12-15 feet up. At first I thought it was part of the construction and then realized there must have had a tornado or hurricane go though just that area. When we got to Ingnace they had one go through the day before. One building had its roof rolled up like the lid on a can of sardines. There were broken windows and a large sign had all the plastic blown out. Again in just a little strip so it must have been a twister that touched down. When we got to Winnipeg and the campsite the ladies there were saying a tornado had been through their area, although they didn’t get the wind destruction, they got the hail storm and some of the wind. One trailer had its awning flipped right over the rig. Lots of hail damage, cracked windows and one motorhome had a window blown right out. We were lucky and missed it all. Started to get a little warmer closer to Winnipeg and so did the head wind, got stronger that is. We pulled into the campsite after spending 7 hours on the road without a stop (other than one potty break for me) and covered 690 kilometers or 428 miles. The more driving we do the longer I am able to stay behind the wheel and not get tired. Willa had made reservations on the Satellite Phone while we drove so didn’t have to worry about a campsite. We needed groceries so we picked those up before setting up at the campsite which is the Traveller’s RV Resort. Difficult to move once setup and takes time setting up and down. We used the talking GPS to find a grocery store. Willa had bought me one for my birthday in June. (Oh! Thank you). She asked for a grocery store and it told her where it was, gave the address, then proceeded to give us direction on how to get there. (Turn left in .5 miles, turn left now and so it went.) She, we’ve named her Nagging Nelly, was right on with every turn and brought us right to the Safeway store. Isn’t technology something else. I do not understand how it works but I understand how to work it. We have Gwynne and Tom Cooper coming out for dinner tomorrow night and needed some supplies. Haven’t seen Tom and Gwynne for about, had to think on this but can’t be but must be about 8-9 years ago, when we were out to Saskatchewan for the last Kraft Reunion which was in 2000. Man that is hard to believe, time just flies. We watched a movie in the evening after supper then turned in. Very windy all evening. Got cool when the sun went down.
We got away at 9:30 am Ontario time but I had set the clocks for the time change and so it was 8:30 am, depending on how you look at it. We were at Thunder Bay last night and the time change is just 10-15 miles West of Thunder Bay. So I cheated a little! It was cool in the morning when we left about 54f and stayed that way most of the day until we got into Manitoba and it started to warm up, with it came the head wind to Winnipeg. We had a real good drive the roads were all good and again letting out the extra air in the tires seemed to smooth the road quite a bit. A lot of trucks on the road. We traveled Highway 11 from Thunder Bay which is the Trans Canada Highway. Being a main road is probably why all the trucks and do they ever move along. The speed limit is 90 k/h. I set the cruise at approx 94 k/h and they were piling up behind me. I finally set the cruise at 98-99 and I finally moved along with the traffic. When a truck did come up behind me and a passing lane was available I would wave them by. If I didn’t slow down for them I would beat them up the hill and still have them behind me till the next passing lane. They seemed to appreciate it and would flash either their tail lights or back up lights to thank me (or else saying what a rotten no good for nothing Rv’er). The other thing that I do when the big rigs or motorhomes pass, when it is safe for them to pull back into my lane, I flash my head lights at them to let them know it is safe to pull in. Again they seem to appreciate it and flash back at me. I’ve had a few do this for me and it is helpful. I don’t pass too much because I just don’t have the power or the speed. The units I do pass are the ones that are sporadic with their speed. I had one motorhome today that was generally at about 94 k/h then down to 80-84 then back up agin. So I finally passed him but I always wait for a good looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong opportunity. He tailed me for awhile after I passed and then slowly fell behind and never did see him again. Generally the traffic moves very well and not too many doddlers but a number that must be over 100 k/h including the big trucks. We were just about 20 miles from Ignace, Ontario, we had come through some construction when I noticed an area of about 200-300 feet across of trees that were laying down and broken off about 12-15 feet up. At first I thought it was part of the construction and then realized there must have had a tornado or hurricane go though just that area. When we got to Ingnace they had one go through the day before. One building had its roof rolled up like the lid on a can of sardines. There were broken windows and a large sign had all the plastic blown out. Again in just a little strip so it must have been a twister that touched down. When we got to Winnipeg and the campsite the ladies there were saying a tornado had been through their area, although they didn’t get the wind destruction, they got the hail storm and some of the wind. One trailer had its awning flipped right over the rig. Lots of hail damage, cracked windows and one motorhome had a window blown right out. We were lucky and missed it all. Started to get a little warmer closer to Winnipeg and so did the head wind, got stronger that is. We pulled into the campsite after spending 7 hours on the road without a stop (other than one potty break for me) and covered 690 kilometers or 428 miles. The more driving we do the longer I am able to stay behind the wheel and not get tired. Willa had made reservations on the Satellite Phone while we drove so didn’t have to worry about a campsite. We needed groceries so we picked those up before setting up at the campsite which is the Traveller’s RV Resort. Difficult to move once setup and takes time setting up and down. We used the talking GPS to find a grocery store. Willa had bought me one for my birthday in June. (Oh! Thank you). She asked for a grocery store and it told her where it was, gave the address, then proceeded to give us direction on how to get there. (Turn left in .5 miles, turn left now and so it went.) She, we’ve named her Nagging Nelly, was right on with every turn and brought us right to the Safeway store. Isn’t technology something else. I do not understand how it works but I understand how to work it. We have Gwynne and Tom Cooper coming out for dinner tomorrow night and needed some supplies. Haven’t seen Tom and Gwynne for about, had to think on this but can’t be but must be about 8-9 years ago, when we were out to Saskatchewan for the last Kraft Reunion which was in 2000. Man that is hard to believe, time just flies. We watched a movie in the evening after supper then turned in. Very windy all evening. Got cool when the sun went down.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Day 49, August 14, 2007
Day 49, Tuesday, August 14, 2007.
The day started off with heavy clouds and we had rain in the night, not a lot of rain. The sky was cloudy all day (reminds me of a song something about “give me a land where the buffalo roam) and we did hit a little rain but nothing too serious. The roads were real good except for a few sections. I had let out air in the tires and that has made quite a difference, you don’t get the jolting we were before. We did hit some construction just before Nipigon, Ontario but it wasn’t too bad. We had been warned about it yesterday and mud but when we went through it was ok. We did get a little muddy but only the wheels and undercarriage. We saw a black bear on the side of the road but no area to stop. He sure looked healthy. In Geraldton, Ontario we had lunch, got groceries and topped up the gas tank. This was the highest we had paid for gas at $1.118 per litre. The past two days we were paying closer to $.95 per litre. We had a good drive today. To pass the time away, Willa proofed the blog and by the way we have redone the blog and all corrections Willa could find were made. Page 7 was a duplicate of page 6 and that also was redone. I was so embarassed with all the mistakes Willa had found that I was determined to redo the blog tonight before I went to bed and I did but it was midnight before computer was shut down. Before we leave this morning I hope to publish this page and then we are up to date. Tegan watched a movie or two in the afternoon but didn’t get up until almost 11:00. We do let her sleep at the back as we drive, which I know is not a good idea but it does pass the time for her. Yesterday we were driving through a small town with a traffic light and I didn’t see it until Willa casually said there is a red light. First time I locked up all six wheels. For the size of the motor home it can stop fairly quickly given enough space (ha! Ha!). Tegan didn’t come off the bed but the matress came as far forward as possible. Tegan didn’t even wake up. Must be more alert! We wanted to make Thunder Bay, Ontario today and we did. Found a nice campsite with wifi and so updated blog, checked emails and Tegan did her thing. The afternoon turned out warm but still made a pleasant drive. Just before Thunder Bay we stopped at an Information Centre which was also the memorial to Terry Fox. Very beautiful setting overlooking Lake Superior a fitting spot to a Canadian Hero. Didn’t realize how many awards he received from Canada as well as from USA. This is the spot where he had to end his trek. Well Winnipeg, Manitoba is the goal for tomorrow. See how we do.
The day started off with heavy clouds and we had rain in the night, not a lot of rain. The sky was cloudy all day (reminds me of a song something about “give me a land where the buffalo roam) and we did hit a little rain but nothing too serious. The roads were real good except for a few sections. I had let out air in the tires and that has made quite a difference, you don’t get the jolting we were before. We did hit some construction just before Nipigon, Ontario but it wasn’t too bad. We had been warned about it yesterday and mud but when we went through it was ok. We did get a little muddy but only the wheels and undercarriage. We saw a black bear on the side of the road but no area to stop. He sure looked healthy. In Geraldton, Ontario we had lunch, got groceries and topped up the gas tank. This was the highest we had paid for gas at $1.118 per litre. The past two days we were paying closer to $.95 per litre. We had a good drive today. To pass the time away, Willa proofed the blog and by the way we have redone the blog and all corrections Willa could find were made. Page 7 was a duplicate of page 6 and that also was redone. I was so embarassed with all the mistakes Willa had found that I was determined to redo the blog tonight before I went to bed and I did but it was midnight before computer was shut down. Before we leave this morning I hope to publish this page and then we are up to date. Tegan watched a movie or two in the afternoon but didn’t get up until almost 11:00. We do let her sleep at the back as we drive, which I know is not a good idea but it does pass the time for her. Yesterday we were driving through a small town with a traffic light and I didn’t see it until Willa casually said there is a red light. First time I locked up all six wheels. For the size of the motor home it can stop fairly quickly given enough space (ha! Ha!). Tegan didn’t come off the bed but the matress came as far forward as possible. Tegan didn’t even wake up. Must be more alert! We wanted to make Thunder Bay, Ontario today and we did. Found a nice campsite with wifi and so updated blog, checked emails and Tegan did her thing. The afternoon turned out warm but still made a pleasant drive. Just before Thunder Bay we stopped at an Information Centre which was also the memorial to Terry Fox. Very beautiful setting overlooking Lake Superior a fitting spot to a Canadian Hero. Didn’t realize how many awards he received from Canada as well as from USA. This is the spot where he had to end his trek. Well Winnipeg, Manitoba is the goal for tomorrow. See how we do.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Day 48, August 13, 2007
Day 48, Monday, August 13, 2007.
We got an early start today and were on the road about 7:30 am. We drove out to Calander, Ontario which is where the Dionne Quints were born and had a look at the very large house that was built just for them. From there we stopped at Tim Horton’s for Willa’s coffee and gas for the motorhome and we are off and it is just after 9:00 am. The trip was fairly uneventful. We drove through until noon and stopped and had lunch. One thing that surprised me was just after or near Englehart, Ontario we came over this hill and spread out before us were open grain fields. You would have thought you were on the prairies or what I would have thought of as the Peace River area. Big farms and large fields. The country made me think that we were in high country but the GPS kept reading around 800 feet and the highest we got was 1200 feet. The trees got shorter more like the far north. The thing that really surprised us was when Willa looked at the map and we are below the 49th parallel and closer to the Oregon and Washington borders as far as latitude goes. Later in the day we even passed a road called the 49th Parallel Road. The other thing I thought is that I am sure glad this is summer and not winter. I have a feeling this could be a very cold area. We fought a head wind all day today and worse than yesterday. The wind just threw us around. Both sides of the road are lined with trees and when a break in the trees came it would toss us toward the shoulder of the road. We fought this until about 2:00 in the afternoon. We didn’t make as many miles as we had hoped for but put about 300 miles behind us. Hope to have better miles tomorrow. Roads were very good. A little construction but no slowups and some rough roads but they weren’t too bad either. I keep the pressure at the maximum and decided to let a little out of each of the tires and that seemed to make quite a difference on the rough roads. Not the jolts we were getting before. The motorhome for whatever reason is working real good today even with the headwind. Lots of power for the hills and doesn’t seem to be working as hard as yesterday. Yesterday it was a struggle to get it up some of the hills and they were nothing compared to what we will hit in the Rocky Mountains. Willa does crosswords while we drive and Tegan watched a movie on the portable DVD player, so the time passes. I watch the road, traffic, you get the picture. Lots of big trucks on the highway.
We got an early start today and were on the road about 7:30 am. We drove out to Calander, Ontario which is where the Dionne Quints were born and had a look at the very large house that was built just for them. From there we stopped at Tim Horton’s for Willa’s coffee and gas for the motorhome and we are off and it is just after 9:00 am. The trip was fairly uneventful. We drove through until noon and stopped and had lunch. One thing that surprised me was just after or near Englehart, Ontario we came over this hill and spread out before us were open grain fields. You would have thought you were on the prairies or what I would have thought of as the Peace River area. Big farms and large fields. The country made me think that we were in high country but the GPS kept reading around 800 feet and the highest we got was 1200 feet. The trees got shorter more like the far north. The thing that really surprised us was when Willa looked at the map and we are below the 49th parallel and closer to the Oregon and Washington borders as far as latitude goes. Later in the day we even passed a road called the 49th Parallel Road. The other thing I thought is that I am sure glad this is summer and not winter. I have a feeling this could be a very cold area. We fought a head wind all day today and worse than yesterday. The wind just threw us around. Both sides of the road are lined with trees and when a break in the trees came it would toss us toward the shoulder of the road. We fought this until about 2:00 in the afternoon. We didn’t make as many miles as we had hoped for but put about 300 miles behind us. Hope to have better miles tomorrow. Roads were very good. A little construction but no slowups and some rough roads but they weren’t too bad either. I keep the pressure at the maximum and decided to let a little out of each of the tires and that seemed to make quite a difference on the rough roads. Not the jolts we were getting before. The motorhome for whatever reason is working real good today even with the headwind. Lots of power for the hills and doesn’t seem to be working as hard as yesterday. Yesterday it was a struggle to get it up some of the hills and they were nothing compared to what we will hit in the Rocky Mountains. Willa does crosswords while we drive and Tegan watched a movie on the portable DVD player, so the time passes. I watch the road, traffic, you get the picture. Lots of big trucks on the highway.
Day 47, August 12, 2007
Day 47, Sunday, August 12, 2007.
We were on the road at 8:05 am with coffee in hand and rolling down the road. This will be a short writeup on the day because there isn’t much to tell. We drove for about 464 miles miles today. We arrived in the campsite about 8:30 pm. Now for the in between. The motorhome was acting up for some reason and just didn’t seem to have the power it should have had and we fought a terrible head wind all day. The wind bounced us around but the roads were good. Before we left I laid out the roads we would need to get us though Montreal and Ottawa. It is unbelievable the underpasses, overpasses, side passes that you have to negotiate to get out of the campsite (just seeing if you are alert), out of Montreal. Ottawa is better. We made it through without a hitch, wrong road or wrong direction. Once we were through those two the rest was easy driving, point it down the road and hang on. We pushed pretty hard today and only stopped for lunch and gas. Makes for a long day but the motorhome is very comfortable to drive and you don’t seem to get tired. Our goal was North Bay Ontario and we made it. We found out where the campsite was and then we went out for supper because it was too late to set up camp then have to cook supper and besides I was too tired to drive, set up camp and cook supper too. I thought you might enjoy that, Willa didn’t find it funny proof reading this. Calendar Ontario is where the Dionne Quints were born. The museum for them is in North Bay and we went through it. They are shirt tale relative of mine on my mother’s side. She was a Dionne. The relationship is from a brother of her great or g/g grandfather. We are also related to Madonna, Celine Dion and Rene’ Levecque. There was a picture of a set of Quints that were born in 1990 visiting the museum. They live in Thunder Bay, not too far away. Fairly warm day driving but not unbearable. Well not much else to say and again I am doing this a day or so behind. Another long day tomorrow.
We were on the road at 8:05 am with coffee in hand and rolling down the road. This will be a short writeup on the day because there isn’t much to tell. We drove for about 464 miles miles today. We arrived in the campsite about 8:30 pm. Now for the in between. The motorhome was acting up for some reason and just didn’t seem to have the power it should have had and we fought a terrible head wind all day. The wind bounced us around but the roads were good. Before we left I laid out the roads we would need to get us though Montreal and Ottawa. It is unbelievable the underpasses, overpasses, side passes that you have to negotiate to get out of the campsite (just seeing if you are alert), out of Montreal. Ottawa is better. We made it through without a hitch, wrong road or wrong direction. Once we were through those two the rest was easy driving, point it down the road and hang on. We pushed pretty hard today and only stopped for lunch and gas. Makes for a long day but the motorhome is very comfortable to drive and you don’t seem to get tired. Our goal was North Bay Ontario and we made it. We found out where the campsite was and then we went out for supper because it was too late to set up camp then have to cook supper and besides I was too tired to drive, set up camp and cook supper too. I thought you might enjoy that, Willa didn’t find it funny proof reading this. Calendar Ontario is where the Dionne Quints were born. The museum for them is in North Bay and we went through it. They are shirt tale relative of mine on my mother’s side. She was a Dionne. The relationship is from a brother of her great or g/g grandfather. We are also related to Madonna, Celine Dion and Rene’ Levecque. There was a picture of a set of Quints that were born in 1990 visiting the museum. They live in Thunder Bay, not too far away. Fairly warm day driving but not unbearable. Well not much else to say and again I am doing this a day or so behind. Another long day tomorrow.
Day 46, August 11, 2007
Day 46, Saturday, August 11, 2007
We were up early again today to catch the early shuttle into Quebec City the old town. Today was to be spent shopping. We arrived at the Hotel Frontenac at about 9:30 am. We found a coffee shop then proceeded to hit all the shops Willa and Tegan could find. Up near the Citadel there are all kinds of little shops, then you go down into Old Town and there are several more streets of shops and very little duplication if any at all. There is very little you can’t buy. Some of the merchandise is made locally and most is brought in. Some of the shops carry very expensive items but most are what I thought was reasonably priced. The girls had a good time but even they got shopped out. We could have taken the late shuttle home but they wanted to go home on the early shuttle at 3:30 pm. You walk into these buildings and you are in awe of the age and history that is all around you. The oldest house in the Old Town was built in the 1600’s. and one of the streets was the oldest street in Canada or North America, I can’t remember which. There are street entertainers, people that will paint your portrait for you while you wait or in full colour if you have an extra hour to spare to come back and pick it up. These people are very good at what they do. I bought a cd of two guys playing a guitar and harp with a canned back ground melody, all popular songs but almost haunting to listen to. The guitarist picked the tune as apposed to playing cord to the background music. Every corner had an entertainer of some sort and all licensed by the city. Jugglers, one man bands, fire eaters. They floated around the city and you could see them in different locations at different times of the day. Very impressive. I was going to do something else besides look in stores but ended up following the girls around and did a little people watching and talking to other people. I noticed this one chap doing the same as I was. Although I couldn’t understand what he was saying in French, I caught the jest of it. “What another shop, its just like the last one you were in.” I saw him and motioned him to come over and sit on the window sill where I was. He came over and I gestured he had three girls shopping and I had two, sit and enjoy your wait and we did. Thousands of people the streets were literally wall to wall. Some of the shops are quite small and others are a good size. The last thing before we left town we did a tour of the town in a horse drawn carriage. The girl was good and told us about some of the history of the city. Her and Tegan got to talking about the horse, which was a Canadian. On the way back the shuttle was too full and several of us had to stand. I had a seat but a young lady came in and would have had to stand so I gave up my seat. Now this sounds like the gentleman thing to do but I was looking after my own interests, what if she fell on me in a corner. I could have had some tall explaining to do to Willa. When we got back to the site it was a long walk to the motor home. From the office to our campsite must have been 1000-1500 feet and you are already tired from shopping and walking all day. The family next door we had met the day before and visited a bit and then met them in town also. They invited us back to their campsite to enjoy the campfire with them. We did and we did. The weather was warm and sunny all day but the motorhome cooled down once the air conditioner went on and after the windows open kept a breeze coming through. Again all I can say is the history that Quebec City holds is fascinating. Well it is up early tomorrow and we are off. Want to make Winnipeg in 3 days but we think it will take 4 days with some pretty long days.
We were up early again today to catch the early shuttle into Quebec City the old town. Today was to be spent shopping. We arrived at the Hotel Frontenac at about 9:30 am. We found a coffee shop then proceeded to hit all the shops Willa and Tegan could find. Up near the Citadel there are all kinds of little shops, then you go down into Old Town and there are several more streets of shops and very little duplication if any at all. There is very little you can’t buy. Some of the merchandise is made locally and most is brought in. Some of the shops carry very expensive items but most are what I thought was reasonably priced. The girls had a good time but even they got shopped out. We could have taken the late shuttle home but they wanted to go home on the early shuttle at 3:30 pm. You walk into these buildings and you are in awe of the age and history that is all around you. The oldest house in the Old Town was built in the 1600’s. and one of the streets was the oldest street in Canada or North America, I can’t remember which. There are street entertainers, people that will paint your portrait for you while you wait or in full colour if you have an extra hour to spare to come back and pick it up. These people are very good at what they do. I bought a cd of two guys playing a guitar and harp with a canned back ground melody, all popular songs but almost haunting to listen to. The guitarist picked the tune as apposed to playing cord to the background music. Every corner had an entertainer of some sort and all licensed by the city. Jugglers, one man bands, fire eaters. They floated around the city and you could see them in different locations at different times of the day. Very impressive. I was going to do something else besides look in stores but ended up following the girls around and did a little people watching and talking to other people. I noticed this one chap doing the same as I was. Although I couldn’t understand what he was saying in French, I caught the jest of it. “What another shop, its just like the last one you were in.” I saw him and motioned him to come over and sit on the window sill where I was. He came over and I gestured he had three girls shopping and I had two, sit and enjoy your wait and we did. Thousands of people the streets were literally wall to wall. Some of the shops are quite small and others are a good size. The last thing before we left town we did a tour of the town in a horse drawn carriage. The girl was good and told us about some of the history of the city. Her and Tegan got to talking about the horse, which was a Canadian. On the way back the shuttle was too full and several of us had to stand. I had a seat but a young lady came in and would have had to stand so I gave up my seat. Now this sounds like the gentleman thing to do but I was looking after my own interests, what if she fell on me in a corner. I could have had some tall explaining to do to Willa. When we got back to the site it was a long walk to the motor home. From the office to our campsite must have been 1000-1500 feet and you are already tired from shopping and walking all day. The family next door we had met the day before and visited a bit and then met them in town also. They invited us back to their campsite to enjoy the campfire with them. We did and we did. The weather was warm and sunny all day but the motorhome cooled down once the air conditioner went on and after the windows open kept a breeze coming through. Again all I can say is the history that Quebec City holds is fascinating. Well it is up early tomorrow and we are off. Want to make Winnipeg in 3 days but we think it will take 4 days with some pretty long days.
Day 45, August 10, 2007
Day 45, Friday, August 10, 2007
The alarm went off at 6:00 am and we are up and at ‘em. We have decided to stay for another day so today we are off to The Citadel and the Shuttle service leaves at 8:00 am at the office in the campsite. We can’t be late or we are left behind. Met some nice people on the bus and waiting for the bus. The bus dropped us off right in front of the Hotel Frontenac and from there it is only a 5 minute walk to The Citadel. We did the tour of the Citadel and were disappointed a bit. Understand we did two other Forts on this trip and they were pretty nice. The Citadel is an active military base and as such they don’t allow you to wander around without a guide. So if you are not on the tour the only place for you is the gift shop. We did do a tour of the Governer General of Canada’s Residence when she is in Quebec City. It was a very impressive tour. The one thing that stood out was the menu that is served to all the dignitaries that are entertained at the Residence. On the menu were wines and other items from different parts of Canada, the most interesting item on the menu was the Salmon that is served, it is from the Chilliwack River. I got talking to the tour guide and we did a trade, she will email me a copy of the Menu and I will email her pictures of the Chilliwack River. We had lunch in one of the restaurants on the street just up from the Hotel Frontenac. Very nice restaurant and the prices weren’t too bad. We did a tour of the Basilica Cathedral of Notre Dame. These churches are amazing, the finish the architecture and the statues. This Basilica is so big and limited view, because of the large columns, they have about 10 flat screen TVs on the columns for people to watch during the service. On the TV is the church service not the hockey game. We watched some street entertainment which was very interesting. On our way to Notre Dame there is a narrow little street and the whole street has painting or sketches you can buy. Some originals and other copies. From there we caught the shuttle home, had supper and we are reserved for tomorrow morning to catch the 8:00 am shuttle again. Tomorrow the girls want to shop. I will go with them but not sure I want to spend all day shopping. The weather was warm and sunny and no wind. Hope the no wind holds when we leave here. Well I will keep you posted.
The alarm went off at 6:00 am and we are up and at ‘em. We have decided to stay for another day so today we are off to The Citadel and the Shuttle service leaves at 8:00 am at the office in the campsite. We can’t be late or we are left behind. Met some nice people on the bus and waiting for the bus. The bus dropped us off right in front of the Hotel Frontenac and from there it is only a 5 minute walk to The Citadel. We did the tour of the Citadel and were disappointed a bit. Understand we did two other Forts on this trip and they were pretty nice. The Citadel is an active military base and as such they don’t allow you to wander around without a guide. So if you are not on the tour the only place for you is the gift shop. We did do a tour of the Governer General of Canada’s Residence when she is in Quebec City. It was a very impressive tour. The one thing that stood out was the menu that is served to all the dignitaries that are entertained at the Residence. On the menu were wines and other items from different parts of Canada, the most interesting item on the menu was the Salmon that is served, it is from the Chilliwack River. I got talking to the tour guide and we did a trade, she will email me a copy of the Menu and I will email her pictures of the Chilliwack River. We had lunch in one of the restaurants on the street just up from the Hotel Frontenac. Very nice restaurant and the prices weren’t too bad. We did a tour of the Basilica Cathedral of Notre Dame. These churches are amazing, the finish the architecture and the statues. This Basilica is so big and limited view, because of the large columns, they have about 10 flat screen TVs on the columns for people to watch during the service. On the TV is the church service not the hockey game. We watched some street entertainment which was very interesting. On our way to Notre Dame there is a narrow little street and the whole street has painting or sketches you can buy. Some originals and other copies. From there we caught the shuttle home, had supper and we are reserved for tomorrow morning to catch the 8:00 am shuttle again. Tomorrow the girls want to shop. I will go with them but not sure I want to spend all day shopping. The weather was warm and sunny and no wind. Hope the no wind holds when we leave here. Well I will keep you posted.
Day 44, August 9, 2007
Day 44, Thursday, August 9, 2007
We wanted to cover a little road so we hit the road at 9:00 am and pushed through to about 6:30 pm only stopping for some groceries and a second stop at Mont Carmel where my great grand father Dionne was born. We were hoping to pick up some souveniers but there was not one souvenir shop in town. Not a very big town. I asked someone that was around the church if we could take a look inside. He indicated it would be no problem, no one spoke English, but everyone is friendly, anyway I collected Willa and we did the tour. They were just holding mass in another room and one old gentleman was determined that we would stay for mass, Well the priest saw right through us not being Catholic and directed us to the Church and they carried on with mass. Beautiful old building. We think my great grandfather was baptized in this church. From our little detour we were off again to the KOA Quebec Campsite. Along the way we had this big truck pass us and on a slight incline. I have cruise plugged in and I am watching him pull out to pass. But the incline was enough that he didn’t have the power to pass me, and there are no cars behind him. Next thing I see his turn signal comes on and he is coming into my lane. Luckily enough I was watching and hit the brake and moved over as he came over. The back end of the trailer missed me by only a couple of feet. Well I was going to change undershorts anyway so a little sooner was no problem. I don’t think he did it deliberately hopefully just wasn’t paying attention. We had good weather for the drive today not hot but a real bad head wind and as we turned corners the wind would catch us from different angles and sometimes threw us around quite a bit. We had a good chuckle today. Tegan made the comment that the next trip we make I would probably be researching where all the Auto Parts Shops are located. We had to laugh what with all the different things we had go wrong with the motorhome. We phoned ahead to make a reservation at the KOA Quebec Campsite. It is located just south of Quebec City and has a shuttle bus that runs to The Citadel or within a five minute walk of the Citadel and other little shops. The drive was generally good and the roads were good for the most part.
We wanted to cover a little road so we hit the road at 9:00 am and pushed through to about 6:30 pm only stopping for some groceries and a second stop at Mont Carmel where my great grand father Dionne was born. We were hoping to pick up some souveniers but there was not one souvenir shop in town. Not a very big town. I asked someone that was around the church if we could take a look inside. He indicated it would be no problem, no one spoke English, but everyone is friendly, anyway I collected Willa and we did the tour. They were just holding mass in another room and one old gentleman was determined that we would stay for mass, Well the priest saw right through us not being Catholic and directed us to the Church and they carried on with mass. Beautiful old building. We think my great grandfather was baptized in this church. From our little detour we were off again to the KOA Quebec Campsite. Along the way we had this big truck pass us and on a slight incline. I have cruise plugged in and I am watching him pull out to pass. But the incline was enough that he didn’t have the power to pass me, and there are no cars behind him. Next thing I see his turn signal comes on and he is coming into my lane. Luckily enough I was watching and hit the brake and moved over as he came over. The back end of the trailer missed me by only a couple of feet. Well I was going to change undershorts anyway so a little sooner was no problem. I don’t think he did it deliberately hopefully just wasn’t paying attention. We had good weather for the drive today not hot but a real bad head wind and as we turned corners the wind would catch us from different angles and sometimes threw us around quite a bit. We had a good chuckle today. Tegan made the comment that the next trip we make I would probably be researching where all the Auto Parts Shops are located. We had to laugh what with all the different things we had go wrong with the motorhome. We phoned ahead to make a reservation at the KOA Quebec Campsite. It is located just south of Quebec City and has a shuttle bus that runs to The Citadel or within a five minute walk of the Citadel and other little shops. The drive was generally good and the roads were good for the most part.
Day 43, August 8, 2007
Day 43, Wednesday, August 8, 2007.
At about 8:30 I started making calls to get an appointment to take the motorhome in to have the oxygen sensor fixed. Everyone is so busy but the owner of the campsite, Ponderosa near Hopewell Cape, gave me the name of a chap at J and J, Jeff. Went to see him but couldn’t help me and sent me to CarQuest in Riverview. They took me in and had a devil of a time to fix it. Not only were the threads on the oxygen sensor stripped but also on the threads in the exhaust pipe. But they finally got it done. The young chap that started it just persevered until he had it. We were in the shop for about 4 hours. New sensor and the bill was $132. Which I thought was real reasonable. I left them an extra $20.00 for donuts the next morning for coffee. We are off! We decided to hit the road rather than go back to the Hopewell Rocks. The motorhome seems to be running a lot better. So the oxygen sensor may have been acting up for awhile. Some of the longer hills had me crawling up but now seems to pull right up. There is still a flat spot but I can live with this for the time being. We headed for # 2 Highway and on our way to Fredericton, NB. When we left the garage it was warm and a little muggy but as we progressed to Fredericton it started to rain and rain fairly hard until Gagetown, NB. Took the wrong turn off the first time but managed to get back on after about 10 k of back tracking. We are in Gagetown Campsite a bit of a rustic site but all the services are here and the site is level. We are all set up and tired from the stress of not knowing if or when they were going to be able to fix the motorhome. Must have called 10 different places and all either weren’t equipped or booked up. Pretty hard to take a tourist in when your regular customers are waiting for their cars. But the people at CarQuest bent over back wards to help and in the end the young chap was able to fix the problem. Charlie was in the parts and Brian I think was either the owner or manager and I didn’t get the young fellows name that fixed the motorhome. If you are ever in Riverview or near and need mechanical help they did a good job and reasonable. Well we have a very long day tomorrow. The goal is to be in a campsite in Quebec City by 5-6:00 pm and tour the City the next day. Will hopefully be on the road about 7:00 am if possible. Be talking to you tomorrow……………………. I didn’t know that. I’d better be off to bed too. This is Willa talking as I’m proofing this page!
At about 8:30 I started making calls to get an appointment to take the motorhome in to have the oxygen sensor fixed. Everyone is so busy but the owner of the campsite, Ponderosa near Hopewell Cape, gave me the name of a chap at J and J, Jeff. Went to see him but couldn’t help me and sent me to CarQuest in Riverview. They took me in and had a devil of a time to fix it. Not only were the threads on the oxygen sensor stripped but also on the threads in the exhaust pipe. But they finally got it done. The young chap that started it just persevered until he had it. We were in the shop for about 4 hours. New sensor and the bill was $132. Which I thought was real reasonable. I left them an extra $20.00 for donuts the next morning for coffee. We are off! We decided to hit the road rather than go back to the Hopewell Rocks. The motorhome seems to be running a lot better. So the oxygen sensor may have been acting up for awhile. Some of the longer hills had me crawling up but now seems to pull right up. There is still a flat spot but I can live with this for the time being. We headed for # 2 Highway and on our way to Fredericton, NB. When we left the garage it was warm and a little muggy but as we progressed to Fredericton it started to rain and rain fairly hard until Gagetown, NB. Took the wrong turn off the first time but managed to get back on after about 10 k of back tracking. We are in Gagetown Campsite a bit of a rustic site but all the services are here and the site is level. We are all set up and tired from the stress of not knowing if or when they were going to be able to fix the motorhome. Must have called 10 different places and all either weren’t equipped or booked up. Pretty hard to take a tourist in when your regular customers are waiting for their cars. But the people at CarQuest bent over back wards to help and in the end the young chap was able to fix the problem. Charlie was in the parts and Brian I think was either the owner or manager and I didn’t get the young fellows name that fixed the motorhome. If you are ever in Riverview or near and need mechanical help they did a good job and reasonable. Well we have a very long day tomorrow. The goal is to be in a campsite in Quebec City by 5-6:00 pm and tour the City the next day. Will hopefully be on the road about 7:00 am if possible. Be talking to you tomorrow……………………. I didn’t know that. I’d better be off to bed too. This is Willa talking as I’m proofing this page!
Day 42, August 7, 2007
Day 42, Tuesday, August 7, 2007
We were off fairly early in the morning, I think, doing this day’s diary 2 days from today so not sure, amazing how soon we forget. The goal was to make it to Hopewell rocks today and we did. We went straight into Moncton and the Visitor Information Centre. The VIC backs on to a mud flats and river and if you are there at the right time you can see the Tidal Bore come in. Which is the tide pushing the river water ahead of it as the tide comes in. We were too early, the next high tide was going to be at 4:52 pm. So we thought of going to Hopewell Rocks but that is about an hour away from Moncton. Oh! What to do. Tegan wanted to go to the Zoo which was about 15 minutes away and so we decided to do that. It is now about 12:30 so we will only have till 3:30 or 4:30 and then we have to be back at the TIC for the Tidal Bore. I made a mistake, had to accept it, but I did and I thought the tide was in at 4:52 pm and so I rushed the girls to get them back on time. This Title Bore, I am told is something to watch at 8-18 inches of wave coming up the river. Well we get back and I find out high tide isn’t until 5:52 pm so we had as it turns out a 90 minute wait. So that cost me dinner out. There was a nice restaurant right next door to the TIC and we had dinner there. None of us were too hungry. Willa had the fish and chips, which they batter themselves. Tegan had the creamy seafood chowder. I had the Acadian sea food chowder. The restaurant was a high end restaurant and the prices a little high but it was close by. I debated about the Acadian seafood chowder, because it was something new, but the gal that served us said it was good and never had a complaint. So lets go for it. It was the best chowder I’ve had so far and I know I have said this before. It is done in a spicy thin broth with a lots of sea food, whole lobster claw, large shrimp, scallops, steamed mussels, and I think some other fish. It was absolutely delicious. Tegan’s was good also but only ranked second best on her list. A very thick white chowder with lots of cream and maybe just a little too thick. We waited for and watched the Tidal Bore come in but must say it was interesting but somewhat of a let down. 8 to 18 inches sounds like a lot but not when you spread it over a 200-300 foot mud river and the bore was only about 8 inches or so. But it was interesting. Met a chap there and we got talking about where we are from. He was from eastern Ontario and we got talking about family trees. His last name is MacIntosh and his 6 or so great grandfather back was quietly famous. Do you recognize the name “John MacIntosh”. I thought not, he started the MacIntosh apple. Amazing what you find out when you talk to people. Well from the TIC we headed for the Hopewell Rocks. This area has the highest tidal changes in the world 25-35 feet, I am told. Well we are there for High Tide and the place closes at 8:00 pm and it is now 7:15 pm but the ticket is good for the next day also. So we walk down to the rocks which is about a 15-30 minute walk. Interesting but not much to see unless you see both ends of the tide which is what we will do. We’ll come back tomorrow and see it at low tide so you can walk all around the rocks. Driving into the Hopewell Rocks the motorhome started to make a loud noise like the muffler has a hole in it. So when we pull up and park I crawl under to see what the problem is. The Oxygen Sensor which screws into the exhaust pipe from the manifold, can you believe, fell out. Luckily the wire connecting it to the motorhome held it so I didn’t loose it. I tried as best as I could to put it back but I think the threads are stripped. Sure enough 5 minutes down the road sounds like a big hole in the muffler. We get to the campsite and I crawl under with wrenches to see if I can fix it, but the threads are shot and will need a garage to look at it. This is a problem for tomorrow. The campsite we are in is nice and has wifi but only at the office and guess where Tegan is with my laptop and why this is being written a day late. Willa decided to take advantage of the laundry right behind us and that is where she spent her evening. On that note I will say good night.
We were off fairly early in the morning, I think, doing this day’s diary 2 days from today so not sure, amazing how soon we forget. The goal was to make it to Hopewell rocks today and we did. We went straight into Moncton and the Visitor Information Centre. The VIC backs on to a mud flats and river and if you are there at the right time you can see the Tidal Bore come in. Which is the tide pushing the river water ahead of it as the tide comes in. We were too early, the next high tide was going to be at 4:52 pm. So we thought of going to Hopewell Rocks but that is about an hour away from Moncton. Oh! What to do. Tegan wanted to go to the Zoo which was about 15 minutes away and so we decided to do that. It is now about 12:30 so we will only have till 3:30 or 4:30 and then we have to be back at the TIC for the Tidal Bore. I made a mistake, had to accept it, but I did and I thought the tide was in at 4:52 pm and so I rushed the girls to get them back on time. This Title Bore, I am told is something to watch at 8-18 inches of wave coming up the river. Well we get back and I find out high tide isn’t until 5:52 pm so we had as it turns out a 90 minute wait. So that cost me dinner out. There was a nice restaurant right next door to the TIC and we had dinner there. None of us were too hungry. Willa had the fish and chips, which they batter themselves. Tegan had the creamy seafood chowder. I had the Acadian sea food chowder. The restaurant was a high end restaurant and the prices a little high but it was close by. I debated about the Acadian seafood chowder, because it was something new, but the gal that served us said it was good and never had a complaint. So lets go for it. It was the best chowder I’ve had so far and I know I have said this before. It is done in a spicy thin broth with a lots of sea food, whole lobster claw, large shrimp, scallops, steamed mussels, and I think some other fish. It was absolutely delicious. Tegan’s was good also but only ranked second best on her list. A very thick white chowder with lots of cream and maybe just a little too thick. We waited for and watched the Tidal Bore come in but must say it was interesting but somewhat of a let down. 8 to 18 inches sounds like a lot but not when you spread it over a 200-300 foot mud river and the bore was only about 8 inches or so. But it was interesting. Met a chap there and we got talking about where we are from. He was from eastern Ontario and we got talking about family trees. His last name is MacIntosh and his 6 or so great grandfather back was quietly famous. Do you recognize the name “John MacIntosh”. I thought not, he started the MacIntosh apple. Amazing what you find out when you talk to people. Well from the TIC we headed for the Hopewell Rocks. This area has the highest tidal changes in the world 25-35 feet, I am told. Well we are there for High Tide and the place closes at 8:00 pm and it is now 7:15 pm but the ticket is good for the next day also. So we walk down to the rocks which is about a 15-30 minute walk. Interesting but not much to see unless you see both ends of the tide which is what we will do. We’ll come back tomorrow and see it at low tide so you can walk all around the rocks. Driving into the Hopewell Rocks the motorhome started to make a loud noise like the muffler has a hole in it. So when we pull up and park I crawl under to see what the problem is. The Oxygen Sensor which screws into the exhaust pipe from the manifold, can you believe, fell out. Luckily the wire connecting it to the motorhome held it so I didn’t loose it. I tried as best as I could to put it back but I think the threads are stripped. Sure enough 5 minutes down the road sounds like a big hole in the muffler. We get to the campsite and I crawl under with wrenches to see if I can fix it, but the threads are shot and will need a garage to look at it. This is a problem for tomorrow. The campsite we are in is nice and has wifi but only at the office and guess where Tegan is with my laptop and why this is being written a day late. Willa decided to take advantage of the laundry right behind us and that is where she spent her evening. On that note I will say good night.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Day 41, August 6, 2007
Day 41, Monday, August 6, 2007.
We got away fairly early today. On our way out of town we stopped at the lighthouse across from the Fortress of Louisbourg. This is the site of the second lighthouse built in North America. The one currently standing is the third in this location. The first burned down 2 years after it was built. Hard to believe looking at the harbour that at times there were up to 175 ships at anchor in the harbour. The fog horn was going when we arrived. Although it wasn’t too bad behind it they had a warning sign saying not to go past the sign without ear protection. We left there and drove into Sydney and Tim Horton’s was right on the way, we had seen it coming into town so drove right to it and luckily lots of parking which isn’t always the case. We are off. The road up to getting on #4 and a ways out of Sydney was good but then it got rough, narrow and rocky (as in rocking and rolling), although the sign said 80 k, I couldn’t get past 65-70 most of the time. Not a road I would recommend to anyone other than in a car. I would say the same for the west side of the Cabot Trail. I’ve talked to other people who traveled it years ago and they said it was a better drive then, you could see the water from most of the road but now the trees have grown up and not much to see and some very steep climbs. The East side was better and of course the Fortress of Louisbourg. A few other things I would like to have seen including the Miner’s Museum but we were too early leaving, running out of time and the girls had seen enough of museums. We did have a close call, I was motoring along and either I wasn’t paying attention or the guy’s brake lights weren’t working or he made a quick decision to make a left hand turn, but lucky there was a good shoulder on the road other wise I would have had an extra set of wheels and second smaller motor under us. Knock wood but the close calls have been non existent. We had a bit of a start coming around a corner, big semi coming at us, narrow road, low shoulder, and branches on a low tree on our side of the road. How accidents happen, every thing hit at once, I moved over for the truck caught the low shoulder, branches hit the motorhome and even small they make a heck of a racket, the m/h lurches to the right side and everyone is moaning. Not close, not a problem but sometimes catches you off guard and startles you. We didn’t make it into New Brunswick today but are about 20 miles from the border. We found a nice campsite in Amherst, Nova Scotia called Loch Lomond Park. We settled in for the night. I BBQed zucchini and steak for Willa and Tegan and lamb chops for me. The mosquitoes weren’t too bad. We cleaned up and I thought I would put out the bug zapper that Pat Pelletier at the office was determined I would buy. Not too bad at the start but as the evening progressed I looked at the window beside me and there must have been 10 mosquitoes on the screen then I looked at the bug zapper and there must have been 500 or more buzzing around the zapper, literally a cloud, it was absolutely mind boggling. I still had to go out and clean up the BBQ. Luckily the bugs were more interested in it than me and I was able to sneak out and do some clean up. Thank you Pat. I don’t think this is going to be the worst of them but up to now just hasn’t been a problem. The weather was good all day then started to cool in the late afternoon and we ended up with a little rain in the late evening but by that time we were all snuggled into the motor home, fed, watered and watching a little TV and Tegan was on internet to her friends. Will do the Hopewell Rocks and Fundy Park tomorrow..
We got away fairly early today. On our way out of town we stopped at the lighthouse across from the Fortress of Louisbourg. This is the site of the second lighthouse built in North America. The one currently standing is the third in this location. The first burned down 2 years after it was built. Hard to believe looking at the harbour that at times there were up to 175 ships at anchor in the harbour. The fog horn was going when we arrived. Although it wasn’t too bad behind it they had a warning sign saying not to go past the sign without ear protection. We left there and drove into Sydney and Tim Horton’s was right on the way, we had seen it coming into town so drove right to it and luckily lots of parking which isn’t always the case. We are off. The road up to getting on #4 and a ways out of Sydney was good but then it got rough, narrow and rocky (as in rocking and rolling), although the sign said 80 k, I couldn’t get past 65-70 most of the time. Not a road I would recommend to anyone other than in a car. I would say the same for the west side of the Cabot Trail. I’ve talked to other people who traveled it years ago and they said it was a better drive then, you could see the water from most of the road but now the trees have grown up and not much to see and some very steep climbs. The East side was better and of course the Fortress of Louisbourg. A few other things I would like to have seen including the Miner’s Museum but we were too early leaving, running out of time and the girls had seen enough of museums. We did have a close call, I was motoring along and either I wasn’t paying attention or the guy’s brake lights weren’t working or he made a quick decision to make a left hand turn, but lucky there was a good shoulder on the road other wise I would have had an extra set of wheels and second smaller motor under us. Knock wood but the close calls have been non existent. We had a bit of a start coming around a corner, big semi coming at us, narrow road, low shoulder, and branches on a low tree on our side of the road. How accidents happen, every thing hit at once, I moved over for the truck caught the low shoulder, branches hit the motorhome and even small they make a heck of a racket, the m/h lurches to the right side and everyone is moaning. Not close, not a problem but sometimes catches you off guard and startles you. We didn’t make it into New Brunswick today but are about 20 miles from the border. We found a nice campsite in Amherst, Nova Scotia called Loch Lomond Park. We settled in for the night. I BBQed zucchini and steak for Willa and Tegan and lamb chops for me. The mosquitoes weren’t too bad. We cleaned up and I thought I would put out the bug zapper that Pat Pelletier at the office was determined I would buy. Not too bad at the start but as the evening progressed I looked at the window beside me and there must have been 10 mosquitoes on the screen then I looked at the bug zapper and there must have been 500 or more buzzing around the zapper, literally a cloud, it was absolutely mind boggling. I still had to go out and clean up the BBQ. Luckily the bugs were more interested in it than me and I was able to sneak out and do some clean up. Thank you Pat. I don’t think this is going to be the worst of them but up to now just hasn’t been a problem. The weather was good all day then started to cool in the late afternoon and we ended up with a little rain in the late evening but by that time we were all snuggled into the motor home, fed, watered and watching a little TV and Tegan was on internet to her friends. Will do the Hopewell Rocks and Fundy Park tomorrow..
Day 40, August 5, 2007
Day 40, Sunday, August 5, 2007.
Everyone was up early and showered by 8:00 am. The campsite we are staying in, Point of View Suite and RV Park in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, has a $3.99 breakfast starting at 8:00 am. We were over there by 8:30 had our breakfast and were heading over to catch the bus to Fortress Louisbourg. The bus runs every 15 minutes from the visitor centre to the Fortress, starting at 9:00 am and we wanted to catch the first bus and we did. Just as a point of interest it is Fortress Louisbourg and not Fort Louisbourg. A Fort is strictly military where a Fortress is military and a town or city. The restoration of the Fortress began in the late 1930’s. A lot of the coal mines were being shut down and the miners out of jobs. So $35,000,000 grant was made for the restoration of Fortress Louisbourg. The miners were trained to do the work on the restoration in the skill that would have been used at the time the Fortress was built in the early 1700’s. When the restoration began there was nothing but rubble left. Most of the stone had been taken away to build churches and other buildings as far away as Halifax and I think they mentioned Montreal. We were in the Fortress by 9:30 am and explored until 11:00 am when the tour started. The tour guide we had was very knowledgeable in the life of the Fortress in the 1700’s and the history that went with the building. He knew the owner’s and little thing that went on in there lives at that time. We had lunch in the poor peoples restaurant. They have 3 classes of restaurants, low class where you are given a spoon and a pewter bowl, the second class where you have a fork and spoon and better dishes. Finally the upper class where you receive a spoon, fork, and a knife. We ate soup, bread and I had the fish of the day. But a very simple meal. A comment was asked why no knives and apparently in the 1700’s most of the low and second class people would have carried their own knives. One of the best Fortress displays we have seen. We enjoyed Fort Henry but it was military where with Louisbourg it also had the town life in it. We did a lot of walking during the day and then didn’t see all the buildings. All were well done and everyone was in period dress. This is another Parks Canada asset. We didn’t leave until almost 5:00 pm. The Fortress closes at 5:30. We spent almost 8 hours at the Fortress plus had to walk back to the motor home which was another 1/2 to 1 mile. We were tired. I bought a pair of Croc shoes and wore them all day and no sore feet or legs, I am quite impressed with them. About 12:00 midnight we had a good thunder storm and rain. Not a heavy rain but it went on for 30-60 minutes. Little bit of sprinkle in the morning. We used umbrellas to walk to the bus but didn’t need them the rest of the day. It cost us just over $40.00 dollars for the day plus our meal which was reasonably priced. We had supper at the campsite restaurant which was a Buffet for $19.00 each. They had mussels, halibut, fish chowder, and a light salad bar and desert which I didn’t think was too bad and only 200 feet from the campsite. Well that pretty well sums up the day. A good day but tiring. We will turn toward home tomorrow. We wanted to see more of Nova Scotia but just not enough time, so that will have to be another time plus we would like to see Newfoundland. We have a number of places to visit on the way home too, so it’s not like it is a mad dash but we are going to have to have longer days than when we started off. Well that’s it for today, good night all.
Everyone was up early and showered by 8:00 am. The campsite we are staying in, Point of View Suite and RV Park in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, has a $3.99 breakfast starting at 8:00 am. We were over there by 8:30 had our breakfast and were heading over to catch the bus to Fortress Louisbourg. The bus runs every 15 minutes from the visitor centre to the Fortress, starting at 9:00 am and we wanted to catch the first bus and we did. Just as a point of interest it is Fortress Louisbourg and not Fort Louisbourg. A Fort is strictly military where a Fortress is military and a town or city. The restoration of the Fortress began in the late 1930’s. A lot of the coal mines were being shut down and the miners out of jobs. So $35,000,000 grant was made for the restoration of Fortress Louisbourg. The miners were trained to do the work on the restoration in the skill that would have been used at the time the Fortress was built in the early 1700’s. When the restoration began there was nothing but rubble left. Most of the stone had been taken away to build churches and other buildings as far away as Halifax and I think they mentioned Montreal. We were in the Fortress by 9:30 am and explored until 11:00 am when the tour started. The tour guide we had was very knowledgeable in the life of the Fortress in the 1700’s and the history that went with the building. He knew the owner’s and little thing that went on in there lives at that time. We had lunch in the poor peoples restaurant. They have 3 classes of restaurants, low class where you are given a spoon and a pewter bowl, the second class where you have a fork and spoon and better dishes. Finally the upper class where you receive a spoon, fork, and a knife. We ate soup, bread and I had the fish of the day. But a very simple meal. A comment was asked why no knives and apparently in the 1700’s most of the low and second class people would have carried their own knives. One of the best Fortress displays we have seen. We enjoyed Fort Henry but it was military where with Louisbourg it also had the town life in it. We did a lot of walking during the day and then didn’t see all the buildings. All were well done and everyone was in period dress. This is another Parks Canada asset. We didn’t leave until almost 5:00 pm. The Fortress closes at 5:30. We spent almost 8 hours at the Fortress plus had to walk back to the motor home which was another 1/2 to 1 mile. We were tired. I bought a pair of Croc shoes and wore them all day and no sore feet or legs, I am quite impressed with them. About 12:00 midnight we had a good thunder storm and rain. Not a heavy rain but it went on for 30-60 minutes. Little bit of sprinkle in the morning. We used umbrellas to walk to the bus but didn’t need them the rest of the day. It cost us just over $40.00 dollars for the day plus our meal which was reasonably priced. We had supper at the campsite restaurant which was a Buffet for $19.00 each. They had mussels, halibut, fish chowder, and a light salad bar and desert which I didn’t think was too bad and only 200 feet from the campsite. Well that pretty well sums up the day. A good day but tiring. We will turn toward home tomorrow. We wanted to see more of Nova Scotia but just not enough time, so that will have to be another time plus we would like to see Newfoundland. We have a number of places to visit on the way home too, so it’s not like it is a mad dash but we are going to have to have longer days than when we started off. Well that’s it for today, good night all.
Day 39, August 4, 2007
Day 39, Saturday, August 4, 2007.
We sure had a heavy rain last night, but I guess I told you about it already. When we got up in the morning the sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky. We had our breakfast and we were off. We climbed to about 1480 feet over the drive on the Cabot Trail. Some of the hills are very steep. You don’t climb as high on the Cabot Trail as in the Rocky Mountains but the climbs are steeper in most cases. We puttered along stopping at viewing pull offs and gift stores. Lots of gift stores along the way. One we stopped off at was a leather store. Very interesting, some of the stuff he had there. Very renowned leather smith. He is world famous for his replica water buckets that were used to fight fires before fire engines and departments. They are very well made and expensive also, running in the neighbourhood of $500-600.00 each. Plus he makes the replica powder carriers that were used to carry gun powder from the powder magazine to the cannons. Very well done and also not cheap. For one movie, he was asked to make these water buckets for a scene. I can’t remember the name of the movie but apparently Russell Crowe was in it. Also according to a write up I read PM Mulroney gave a gift to George Bush Senior of one of his replica water buckets. Amazing what you find in these little shops along the road. We picked up speed in the afternoon with the idea of going to Fort Louisbourg which is located close to Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, still on Cape Breton Island. We arrived around 3:00-4:00 pm. We found a campsite right in town and walking distance to the bus that takes you to Fort Louisbourg. We will do the Fort in the morning. Once we were all set up we unloaded the bikes and rode into town. There is a Crab Fest going on and we thought we would partake of some of the crab. However, they were sold out of crab and we weren’t interested in the beer garden or hot dogs or hamburgers. So we looked for a restaurant that served Sea food. We asked a couple of locals and they recommended the Lobster Kettle and so will we from now on. The best sea food chowder I have tasted. I had a Snow Crab dinner and with the salad bar was only $21.00. Willa had the salad bar and some fish and Tegan had a big bowl of sea food chowder. For an appetizer we had fresh steamed mussels and again very good. An appetizer order of steamed mussels is one pound of mussels (and shells) for $5.95. I could make a meal out of a couple of pounds of them with no trouble. Willa and Tegan both help me eat them. Willa says she can’t believe she is eating mussels and enjoying them. We rode our bikes back home (the motor home has now become home and all three of us are using this term). Tegan found an internet connection and spent an hour on the computer. I read my book and relaxed. Willa walked around the campsite and found out you can see Fort Louisbourg from the campsite. All and all we had a real good day and the driving wasn’t bad at all but very slow road very windy, narrow and even some hair pin turns that I haven’t seen for a while. (Now a twist in the English language). We also had a good head wind most of the time so it was very WINDY. Still having a problem with the power on the top end of the motor home. I’ve talked to a couple of mechanics about the high pressure reading on the oil pressure gage but I will call Fred Key at the shop in Abbotsford to see if he can give me some advice. Tried a couple of times, but I think he may be away. I know they close the shop for a few weeks every summer so may have to wait. Until he is back or it breaks down and we have to go to a shop here or some where. Generally the motor home is running well. Some minor things but it is a lot of miles to put on in a short period of time. We have covered very close to 5000 miles so far about 10-12,000 miles by the time we are done unless we cut some of the trip short because we are spending too much time in individual spots. Better to see one spot well than two spots briefly. Well good night again. I’ll let you know how the Fort goes.
We sure had a heavy rain last night, but I guess I told you about it already. When we got up in the morning the sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky. We had our breakfast and we were off. We climbed to about 1480 feet over the drive on the Cabot Trail. Some of the hills are very steep. You don’t climb as high on the Cabot Trail as in the Rocky Mountains but the climbs are steeper in most cases. We puttered along stopping at viewing pull offs and gift stores. Lots of gift stores along the way. One we stopped off at was a leather store. Very interesting, some of the stuff he had there. Very renowned leather smith. He is world famous for his replica water buckets that were used to fight fires before fire engines and departments. They are very well made and expensive also, running in the neighbourhood of $500-600.00 each. Plus he makes the replica powder carriers that were used to carry gun powder from the powder magazine to the cannons. Very well done and also not cheap. For one movie, he was asked to make these water buckets for a scene. I can’t remember the name of the movie but apparently Russell Crowe was in it. Also according to a write up I read PM Mulroney gave a gift to George Bush Senior of one of his replica water buckets. Amazing what you find in these little shops along the road. We picked up speed in the afternoon with the idea of going to Fort Louisbourg which is located close to Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, still on Cape Breton Island. We arrived around 3:00-4:00 pm. We found a campsite right in town and walking distance to the bus that takes you to Fort Louisbourg. We will do the Fort in the morning. Once we were all set up we unloaded the bikes and rode into town. There is a Crab Fest going on and we thought we would partake of some of the crab. However, they were sold out of crab and we weren’t interested in the beer garden or hot dogs or hamburgers. So we looked for a restaurant that served Sea food. We asked a couple of locals and they recommended the Lobster Kettle and so will we from now on. The best sea food chowder I have tasted. I had a Snow Crab dinner and with the salad bar was only $21.00. Willa had the salad bar and some fish and Tegan had a big bowl of sea food chowder. For an appetizer we had fresh steamed mussels and again very good. An appetizer order of steamed mussels is one pound of mussels (and shells) for $5.95. I could make a meal out of a couple of pounds of them with no trouble. Willa and Tegan both help me eat them. Willa says she can’t believe she is eating mussels and enjoying them. We rode our bikes back home (the motor home has now become home and all three of us are using this term). Tegan found an internet connection and spent an hour on the computer. I read my book and relaxed. Willa walked around the campsite and found out you can see Fort Louisbourg from the campsite. All and all we had a real good day and the driving wasn’t bad at all but very slow road very windy, narrow and even some hair pin turns that I haven’t seen for a while. (Now a twist in the English language). We also had a good head wind most of the time so it was very WINDY. Still having a problem with the power on the top end of the motor home. I’ve talked to a couple of mechanics about the high pressure reading on the oil pressure gage but I will call Fred Key at the shop in Abbotsford to see if he can give me some advice. Tried a couple of times, but I think he may be away. I know they close the shop for a few weeks every summer so may have to wait. Until he is back or it breaks down and we have to go to a shop here or some where. Generally the motor home is running well. Some minor things but it is a lot of miles to put on in a short period of time. We have covered very close to 5000 miles so far about 10-12,000 miles by the time we are done unless we cut some of the trip short because we are spending too much time in individual spots. Better to see one spot well than two spots briefly. Well good night again. I’ll let you know how the Fort goes.
Day 38, August 3, 2007
Day 38, Friday, August 3, 2007
I was a bad boy last night, I stayed up and watched a movie. Willa didn’t go to bed early either and Tegan was on the Internet until almost midnight when we all went to bed. So we were all a little tired this morning so didn’t rush to get away. We were on the road by 11:15 am and our destination is the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island. We have about 40 miles to cover before the road starts and we have decided to 1) go clockwise around the trail, 2) start with Ceilidh Trail which is on the west coast. This is where all the fiddlers come from and they have a lot of entertainment up and down this trail. We stopped at the Celtic Music Interpreting Centre in Judique N.S. The Centre has a history of the Celtic Music given by a young gal who also showed us how the different beats of the music was incorporated into the different songs. Then she showed us some of the steps in their dancing. From there a display area gave you more of the history and the Celtic people involved. This is where Natalie MacIsaac comes from and the other famous MacIssac, Ashley. From their we puttered our way up the Island stopping at different pull offs or driving through some of the towns. At about 4:30 we stopped for supper at Cheticamp one of the larger towns at a restaurant called “All A Board”. I had a lobster dinner, Willa and Tegan each had sea food chowder and they shared a lobster and for an appetizer we shared a pound of mussels done in wine sauce, they were so good as was the rest of the meal. We paid our fees in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and proceeded to look for a campsite. The site we found was just a small one with only about 10 camping spaces. We pulled in and got settled for the night. Willa did some work on the computer and Tegan practiced her Clarinet and I read. All of a sudden there was lightning, thunder and the rain started, it just absolutely poured. I went out to check something and even with an umbrella I got soaked. The rain was good, it cooled off the evening. I decided to take the motor home as opposed to renting a car. The roads were steep in a couple of places but nothing we haven’t been on in BC. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
I was a bad boy last night, I stayed up and watched a movie. Willa didn’t go to bed early either and Tegan was on the Internet until almost midnight when we all went to bed. So we were all a little tired this morning so didn’t rush to get away. We were on the road by 11:15 am and our destination is the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island. We have about 40 miles to cover before the road starts and we have decided to 1) go clockwise around the trail, 2) start with Ceilidh Trail which is on the west coast. This is where all the fiddlers come from and they have a lot of entertainment up and down this trail. We stopped at the Celtic Music Interpreting Centre in Judique N.S. The Centre has a history of the Celtic Music given by a young gal who also showed us how the different beats of the music was incorporated into the different songs. Then she showed us some of the steps in their dancing. From there a display area gave you more of the history and the Celtic people involved. This is where Natalie MacIsaac comes from and the other famous MacIssac, Ashley. From their we puttered our way up the Island stopping at different pull offs or driving through some of the towns. At about 4:30 we stopped for supper at Cheticamp one of the larger towns at a restaurant called “All A Board”. I had a lobster dinner, Willa and Tegan each had sea food chowder and they shared a lobster and for an appetizer we shared a pound of mussels done in wine sauce, they were so good as was the rest of the meal. We paid our fees in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and proceeded to look for a campsite. The site we found was just a small one with only about 10 camping spaces. We pulled in and got settled for the night. Willa did some work on the computer and Tegan practiced her Clarinet and I read. All of a sudden there was lightning, thunder and the rain started, it just absolutely poured. I went out to check something and even with an umbrella I got soaked. The rain was good, it cooled off the evening. I decided to take the motor home as opposed to renting a car. The roads were steep in a couple of places but nothing we haven’t been on in BC. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Day 37, August 2, 2007
Day 37, Thursday, August 2, 2007
We entered our 9th Province today, NOVA SCOTIA. We left Red Point Provincial Park, PEI at 9:00 am this morning. We drove along the beach for part of the morning and then took #4 which made a bee line from Montague PEI to the Wood Island Ferry. There we had lunch at a little shack called Crabby’s Seafood located right at the ferry dock. Very friendly chap doing the cooking but it was little more than a shack, but he seemed to be doing quite a business out of it. Very friendly and we took his picture in front of his establishment. Met a family, the son was from Toronto, Ontario and the mother was from Burlington, Ontario, had a nice visit with them. We had Clam chowder soup and shared a pound of steamed mussels. They were the best we have had on this trip, even have Willa and Tegan eating them. I also gathered two little bottles of the red soil to show everyone when we get back. The morning drive was uneventful with the idea of covering a few miles and catching the Wood Island Ferry to the main land and Nova Scotia. We loaded up on to the ferry but dragged the bikes quite badly but didn’t seem to do any damage. On board the ferry they had a father and his daughter playing, she on the fiddle and him on the guitar, both did a very good job. We got as far as Antigonish, Nova Scotia and found a campsite right in the middle of town. Very clean with 2 swimming pools and WiFi internet connection all through the park. So if you are reading this and all has gone well we are up to date on our blog. Well, I should get on with it Willa wants to check emails and Tegan wants to visit with friends. Tomorrow it is the Cabot Trail. Have heard mixed comments about taking the motor home on the Cabot Trail but the neighbour next door settled it when I asked him about it. His comment was “you live in BC and have driven through the Rockies, you will have no problem with the Cabot Trail. They live on Cape Breton Island. So tomorrow it is the Cabot Trail, may spend 2-3 days up there, see what happens.
We entered our 9th Province today, NOVA SCOTIA. We left Red Point Provincial Park, PEI at 9:00 am this morning. We drove along the beach for part of the morning and then took #4 which made a bee line from Montague PEI to the Wood Island Ferry. There we had lunch at a little shack called Crabby’s Seafood located right at the ferry dock. Very friendly chap doing the cooking but it was little more than a shack, but he seemed to be doing quite a business out of it. Very friendly and we took his picture in front of his establishment. Met a family, the son was from Toronto, Ontario and the mother was from Burlington, Ontario, had a nice visit with them. We had Clam chowder soup and shared a pound of steamed mussels. They were the best we have had on this trip, even have Willa and Tegan eating them. I also gathered two little bottles of the red soil to show everyone when we get back. The morning drive was uneventful with the idea of covering a few miles and catching the Wood Island Ferry to the main land and Nova Scotia. We loaded up on to the ferry but dragged the bikes quite badly but didn’t seem to do any damage. On board the ferry they had a father and his daughter playing, she on the fiddle and him on the guitar, both did a very good job. We got as far as Antigonish, Nova Scotia and found a campsite right in the middle of town. Very clean with 2 swimming pools and WiFi internet connection all through the park. So if you are reading this and all has gone well we are up to date on our blog. Well, I should get on with it Willa wants to check emails and Tegan wants to visit with friends. Tomorrow it is the Cabot Trail. Have heard mixed comments about taking the motor home on the Cabot Trail but the neighbour next door settled it when I asked him about it. His comment was “you live in BC and have driven through the Rockies, you will have no problem with the Cabot Trail. They live on Cape Breton Island. So tomorrow it is the Cabot Trail, may spend 2-3 days up there, see what happens.
Day 36, August 1, 2007
Day 36, Wednesday, August 1, 2007.
We had a great sleep and didn’t need the air conditioning and just as well because we didn’t have any power to connect to. The campsite was full and we were in the over flow. We didn’t rush out of bed this morning. I read for a while and Willa and Tegan slept. Got up and went down to check if any opening for today and if not were going to move on. There was an opening if the people in #73 left today so I checked it out and told the gal we would take it. The people left in the later morning and a half hour later we are all set up. We would have had to move because the batteries that operate the lights and pump etc. was too low to stay another night. When the batteries go so does everything else, including the fridge. Even though the fridge is operated on gas it needs 12 volts to run the safety feature or something. Driving charges the batteries. I guess yesterday I was operating too many things and we were stopped too often with not enough long driving times. When I plug into the 120 volts this also charges the batteries so by tomorrow all should be full, batteries, fresh water holding tank and hopefully the other tanks will be empty. Willa did some wash today, I vacuumed the motor home and did a few minor repairs but mainly just lazed around. We did do a little bike riding, Tegan went to the beach and walked both ways so she must have covered close to a mile or two. The sand here is not quite white and it squeaks as you walk or shuffle your feet. We asked someone why and they said it is because there is silicon in the sand. Tegan found a 4 inch crab in the water and was playing with it. We stopped by the motor home from BC to see what part of BC they were from. He said from Abbotsford, I thought he was kidding but for real. I introduced myself and he said you are a realtor. Turns out they are friends of Bob and Bev King from Abbotsford, I was on a downtown committee with Bev 12-15 years ago and Bev worked for me as my assistant for about a year I think. We had a real nice visit with them and apparently Bev and Bob are on their way out here also. Blair and Lil (I hope I remembered it right] are away till October and sounds like Bev and Bob are on a one year venture, so exciting. We had a nice visit with them and as we talked, it turned out their 8 year old grand daughter was in school with our youngest in Coughlin Elementary School in Aldergrove, small world. They are traveling with another couple from Langley. Blair and Lil left the same day we did June 27. Well I guess I’ll get back to my book, or maybe the beach, or maybe lay in the sun, so many decisions to make—life is tough. Later in the evening Willa met the neighbour two trailers over and sat around her fire and visited for an hour or so. They were in the campsite with a bunch of their cousins. Everybody is so friendly and are willing to stop and talk and most of the time you get their life story, which is always interesting. One thing we did notice on PEI is how neat the yards are and how well mowed they are. This lady we met made the comment on how important peoples yards were to them on PEI.
We had a great sleep and didn’t need the air conditioning and just as well because we didn’t have any power to connect to. The campsite was full and we were in the over flow. We didn’t rush out of bed this morning. I read for a while and Willa and Tegan slept. Got up and went down to check if any opening for today and if not were going to move on. There was an opening if the people in #73 left today so I checked it out and told the gal we would take it. The people left in the later morning and a half hour later we are all set up. We would have had to move because the batteries that operate the lights and pump etc. was too low to stay another night. When the batteries go so does everything else, including the fridge. Even though the fridge is operated on gas it needs 12 volts to run the safety feature or something. Driving charges the batteries. I guess yesterday I was operating too many things and we were stopped too often with not enough long driving times. When I plug into the 120 volts this also charges the batteries so by tomorrow all should be full, batteries, fresh water holding tank and hopefully the other tanks will be empty. Willa did some wash today, I vacuumed the motor home and did a few minor repairs but mainly just lazed around. We did do a little bike riding, Tegan went to the beach and walked both ways so she must have covered close to a mile or two. The sand here is not quite white and it squeaks as you walk or shuffle your feet. We asked someone why and they said it is because there is silicon in the sand. Tegan found a 4 inch crab in the water and was playing with it. We stopped by the motor home from BC to see what part of BC they were from. He said from Abbotsford, I thought he was kidding but for real. I introduced myself and he said you are a realtor. Turns out they are friends of Bob and Bev King from Abbotsford, I was on a downtown committee with Bev 12-15 years ago and Bev worked for me as my assistant for about a year I think. We had a real nice visit with them and apparently Bev and Bob are on their way out here also. Blair and Lil (I hope I remembered it right] are away till October and sounds like Bev and Bob are on a one year venture, so exciting. We had a nice visit with them and as we talked, it turned out their 8 year old grand daughter was in school with our youngest in Coughlin Elementary School in Aldergrove, small world. They are traveling with another couple from Langley. Blair and Lil left the same day we did June 27. Well I guess I’ll get back to my book, or maybe the beach, or maybe lay in the sun, so many decisions to make—life is tough. Later in the evening Willa met the neighbour two trailers over and sat around her fire and visited for an hour or so. They were in the campsite with a bunch of their cousins. Everybody is so friendly and are willing to stop and talk and most of the time you get their life story, which is always interesting. One thing we did notice on PEI is how neat the yards are and how well mowed they are. This lady we met made the comment on how important peoples yards were to them on PEI.
Day 35, July 31, 2007
Day 35, Tuesday, July 31, 2007
From St Peters Community Campsite we meandered up the road. We followed Highway #16 along the coast today. It passes through most of the small towns, and we pulled off into anything that looked interesting. If we do this much more it may be October before we get home. All the towns, well not towns but villages, because a lot have only a store and or a restaurant maybe 10-20 houses are geared towards the sea. Fishing, lobster, crabs is all there is. Lots of farms up this way and most cut right out of the bush which although not very tall it is dense. The mainstay seems to be potatoes and I think a fallow crop of oats or barley but I don’t think for market, maybe just to keep the nutrients in the ground. We walked in a fishing village called Narfague, it is situated on a little pond with a quay for access to the water. 100s of lobster traps, you would think they would fish it out but they seem to keep going. Up the road we drove into a little village, but bigger than Narfague called North Lake and North Lake Harbour. Lots of boats and 2 or 3 warehouses where they deal with the daily catch, which at this time is tuna. From North Lake we continued East to East Point which is the most easterly point on PEI. There we visited the light house which was built in 1876 and located just off the Point by a half a mile. This created some problems because boats thought it was on the point and swing around it and land on the reefs. So later in 1880 plus or minus they moved the structure a little too close to the point and had to move it again years later because the banks were eroding. I don’t know how they did it but they did. This is one of the oldest still operating lighthouses on the Island. It was open for tours and Willa and I did a walk through. It is 68 feet tall and 64 steps to the top but what a view when you are up that far. In the four of the corners and there are six sides to the light house (I think or 8) anyway in the four corners there are 24 inch beams that run from the bottom to the top (all one tree). The trees were taken from right around where the light house was built. The light house still functions but now with GPS and other navigational aids they tend to be obsolete. A number now have been taken over by Parks Canada and are being restored. It is interesting the amount of holdings that Parks Canada has. Fort Henry, The Rideau Locks, Lighthouses plus a number of others things I’ve heard they have bought or are buying. Looking today in the same area, I doubt there are any trees that are higher than 15-20 feet and I don’t remember seeing any that were 20 feet. The gift shop had internet and so that is where Tegan spent her time and the gift shop was well stocked and very reasonably priced. We got talking to a couple from Scotland and they had heard a big Tuna was coming into the North Lake Harbour. So we were finished at the light house and we headed back to North Lake Harbour to see the big Tuna. It is only about a 10 minute drive but a 20 minute process to find a parking space for the motor home that is level and not blocking someone’s driveway. Well the first boat came in but someone said it was coming in too fast, so no Tuna, and they were right. A couple of other boats came and finally a slow boat and it was towing a Tuna. They are too big to bring into the boat, let me repeat this, TOO BIG TO BRING INTO THE BOAT. The first one was a big fish and I am guessing at about 400-500 lbs. These fish are caught with a rod and reel! Yes a rod and reel. The next boat that comes in is on our side of the wharf and we can watch them hauling the fish in. The boat owner and his wife on shore and other people are all excited about the size of the Tuna, the biggest they have caught for a while. Before the head comes out of the water they have to tag it, too dangerous to do in the open water. Well they haul this Tuna out and weigh it in at 940 lbs, this is caught with a rod and reel but not as big as you might think. They cut the head off and tail and get it ready for the auction that will take place the next day. The price has been as low as .50 cents a pound but lately the price has been $3.50-12.50. The owner of the boat that landed it said it did give him some trouble getting it to the boat. Well I guess it should have at 940 pounds. By the way the rod is hooked to the boat. That was a real treat for the day. From there we headed to Red Point Campground for the night and maybe stay an extra day to lay back and relax. The site was full so we ended up in the over flow for the night and hopefully a site will come up for tomorrow, although I should be good for 2 days. It was cloudy most of the day and so a little cooler. With no hook ups of course no air conditioning but with the wind and the clouds we really didn’t need it. We arrived a little earlier than normal around 3:30 pm. So had time to set up, relax, read and then start supper. I do the BBQing and we have BBQed just about every night. Keeps from heating up the motor home by cooking inside. We walked down to the water and waded out. Looks like a sandy beach for 1-2 miles and where we are it goes out maybe 400-500 feet and doesn’t get over your waist at low tide. I off loaded the bikes and we have them to putter around the campsite. We noticed another BC license plate but no one home to see what part of BC they are from. Tomorrow will be the first day that we sat and didn’t go anywhere. Should be good.
From St Peters Community Campsite we meandered up the road. We followed Highway #16 along the coast today. It passes through most of the small towns, and we pulled off into anything that looked interesting. If we do this much more it may be October before we get home. All the towns, well not towns but villages, because a lot have only a store and or a restaurant maybe 10-20 houses are geared towards the sea. Fishing, lobster, crabs is all there is. Lots of farms up this way and most cut right out of the bush which although not very tall it is dense. The mainstay seems to be potatoes and I think a fallow crop of oats or barley but I don’t think for market, maybe just to keep the nutrients in the ground. We walked in a fishing village called Narfague, it is situated on a little pond with a quay for access to the water. 100s of lobster traps, you would think they would fish it out but they seem to keep going. Up the road we drove into a little village, but bigger than Narfague called North Lake and North Lake Harbour. Lots of boats and 2 or 3 warehouses where they deal with the daily catch, which at this time is tuna. From North Lake we continued East to East Point which is the most easterly point on PEI. There we visited the light house which was built in 1876 and located just off the Point by a half a mile. This created some problems because boats thought it was on the point and swing around it and land on the reefs. So later in 1880 plus or minus they moved the structure a little too close to the point and had to move it again years later because the banks were eroding. I don’t know how they did it but they did. This is one of the oldest still operating lighthouses on the Island. It was open for tours and Willa and I did a walk through. It is 68 feet tall and 64 steps to the top but what a view when you are up that far. In the four of the corners and there are six sides to the light house (I think or 8) anyway in the four corners there are 24 inch beams that run from the bottom to the top (all one tree). The trees were taken from right around where the light house was built. The light house still functions but now with GPS and other navigational aids they tend to be obsolete. A number now have been taken over by Parks Canada and are being restored. It is interesting the amount of holdings that Parks Canada has. Fort Henry, The Rideau Locks, Lighthouses plus a number of others things I’ve heard they have bought or are buying. Looking today in the same area, I doubt there are any trees that are higher than 15-20 feet and I don’t remember seeing any that were 20 feet. The gift shop had internet and so that is where Tegan spent her time and the gift shop was well stocked and very reasonably priced. We got talking to a couple from Scotland and they had heard a big Tuna was coming into the North Lake Harbour. So we were finished at the light house and we headed back to North Lake Harbour to see the big Tuna. It is only about a 10 minute drive but a 20 minute process to find a parking space for the motor home that is level and not blocking someone’s driveway. Well the first boat came in but someone said it was coming in too fast, so no Tuna, and they were right. A couple of other boats came and finally a slow boat and it was towing a Tuna. They are too big to bring into the boat, let me repeat this, TOO BIG TO BRING INTO THE BOAT. The first one was a big fish and I am guessing at about 400-500 lbs. These fish are caught with a rod and reel! Yes a rod and reel. The next boat that comes in is on our side of the wharf and we can watch them hauling the fish in. The boat owner and his wife on shore and other people are all excited about the size of the Tuna, the biggest they have caught for a while. Before the head comes out of the water they have to tag it, too dangerous to do in the open water. Well they haul this Tuna out and weigh it in at 940 lbs, this is caught with a rod and reel but not as big as you might think. They cut the head off and tail and get it ready for the auction that will take place the next day. The price has been as low as .50 cents a pound but lately the price has been $3.50-12.50. The owner of the boat that landed it said it did give him some trouble getting it to the boat. Well I guess it should have at 940 pounds. By the way the rod is hooked to the boat. That was a real treat for the day. From there we headed to Red Point Campground for the night and maybe stay an extra day to lay back and relax. The site was full so we ended up in the over flow for the night and hopefully a site will come up for tomorrow, although I should be good for 2 days. It was cloudy most of the day and so a little cooler. With no hook ups of course no air conditioning but with the wind and the clouds we really didn’t need it. We arrived a little earlier than normal around 3:30 pm. So had time to set up, relax, read and then start supper. I do the BBQing and we have BBQed just about every night. Keeps from heating up the motor home by cooking inside. We walked down to the water and waded out. Looks like a sandy beach for 1-2 miles and where we are it goes out maybe 400-500 feet and doesn’t get over your waist at low tide. I off loaded the bikes and we have them to putter around the campsite. We noticed another BC license plate but no one home to see what part of BC they are from. Tomorrow will be the first day that we sat and didn’t go anywhere. Should be good.
Day 34, July 30, 2007
Day 34, Monday, July 30, 2007.
By the time we finished on the internet at the Tourist Information Centre yesterday and we had gotten in late we didn’t have time to do much else. So we decided to spend another day in Charlottetown. We started off walking up the street and looking at all the old houses and the architecture. Not far up the street there was an older church or basilica and we were allowed to go in. Not as old as I would have thought or as old as some we have seen. But the finish is utterly amazing. I’ve taken a lot of pictures and that is the best way to see what I mean. From there we went on to Confederation House, not as ornate of a building as the church but also government built and even then you can see it as a little austere. But the history the building holds! It kind of blows me away that a group of men got together, not to form a company or some other kind of endeavor, but to plan a country which of course later became CANADA. They met, they entertained, they partied together and from there came the basis for the country you and I call our home and native land. From there to the more important things of our lives - - - - - - - -lunch. We had our lunch on the side walk, we are running out of money and had Tegan begging for food or money to get back home. Makes for a better story than the truth. We were hungry and with the muggy weather it is the best place to eat. The weather is cloudy, if not it would have been too hot sit out on the sidewalk. We had a nice lunch at a place called “Just Us Girls”, even the napkins were pink. Service was a little slow “but I guess that is what happens without men working in the place.” From there we hit a few more shops. There are hundreds of little shops in this area down by the harbor. Very quaint little shops and some not so small. I even bought myself a pair of “croc” shoes. Seem very comfortable. My feet get very hot driving because the motor is right at my feet and must leak a little hot air from the motor. Hope these will help. The time is getting on to around 3:00 pm and we would like to get up the island and a little farther. A couple of days ago we did the west side of the island and tomorrow we will do the east side. May take a day or two, suppose to be some real nice beaches and we may even stay at one for a day or so. The Campsite we are in tonight is run by the Town of St. Peter’s Bay. Very nice campsite and we even got a senior’s discount. It took some convincing that I was over 60 years old. I had to show birth certificates, driver’s licenses - she kept saying I don’t look a day over 29, but she finally trusted me and gave us the discount. (I wish). A lot of the campsites are all grass as is this one tonight. We have been using private sites and Provincial Parks rather than Walmart or Canadian Tire because the weather has been so warm and muggy we needed the air conditioning. To give you an idea it is 10:00 pm and the temp outside is still 68.8 f and muggy. We hit our first rain today. We were heading for the motor home and puttering along when I looked across the bay and I said to Willa and Tegan, we had better make a run for it because the rain is on its way. We just barely made it and it started to downpour. Felt just like home, it did feel good after all the hot weather we have had. Well we are all snuggled into our campsite in the trees. I started to clean the bugs off the front of the motor home and ended up washing the whole thing and it did need it. Probably only do 100-150 miles and will take the ferry across to the mainland in the next couple of days depending on what we find on the east side of the island. Well I think I will finish my tea and head to bed. Made a phone call to my mother, it is her birthday today and she turned 93 years old. We talk to the kids every 3-4 days just to keep in touch and Kathy at the office a little less often and if she has a question she will call also. Sounds like she has been busy while we’ve been away. Suppose to be some beautiful beaches on the east side of the island, looking forward to visiting them. Night All.
By the time we finished on the internet at the Tourist Information Centre yesterday and we had gotten in late we didn’t have time to do much else. So we decided to spend another day in Charlottetown. We started off walking up the street and looking at all the old houses and the architecture. Not far up the street there was an older church or basilica and we were allowed to go in. Not as old as I would have thought or as old as some we have seen. But the finish is utterly amazing. I’ve taken a lot of pictures and that is the best way to see what I mean. From there we went on to Confederation House, not as ornate of a building as the church but also government built and even then you can see it as a little austere. But the history the building holds! It kind of blows me away that a group of men got together, not to form a company or some other kind of endeavor, but to plan a country which of course later became CANADA. They met, they entertained, they partied together and from there came the basis for the country you and I call our home and native land. From there to the more important things of our lives - - - - - - - -lunch. We had our lunch on the side walk, we are running out of money and had Tegan begging for food or money to get back home. Makes for a better story than the truth. We were hungry and with the muggy weather it is the best place to eat. The weather is cloudy, if not it would have been too hot sit out on the sidewalk. We had a nice lunch at a place called “Just Us Girls”, even the napkins were pink. Service was a little slow “but I guess that is what happens without men working in the place.” From there we hit a few more shops. There are hundreds of little shops in this area down by the harbor. Very quaint little shops and some not so small. I even bought myself a pair of “croc” shoes. Seem very comfortable. My feet get very hot driving because the motor is right at my feet and must leak a little hot air from the motor. Hope these will help. The time is getting on to around 3:00 pm and we would like to get up the island and a little farther. A couple of days ago we did the west side of the island and tomorrow we will do the east side. May take a day or two, suppose to be some real nice beaches and we may even stay at one for a day or so. The Campsite we are in tonight is run by the Town of St. Peter’s Bay. Very nice campsite and we even got a senior’s discount. It took some convincing that I was over 60 years old. I had to show birth certificates, driver’s licenses - she kept saying I don’t look a day over 29, but she finally trusted me and gave us the discount. (I wish). A lot of the campsites are all grass as is this one tonight. We have been using private sites and Provincial Parks rather than Walmart or Canadian Tire because the weather has been so warm and muggy we needed the air conditioning. To give you an idea it is 10:00 pm and the temp outside is still 68.8 f and muggy. We hit our first rain today. We were heading for the motor home and puttering along when I looked across the bay and I said to Willa and Tegan, we had better make a run for it because the rain is on its way. We just barely made it and it started to downpour. Felt just like home, it did feel good after all the hot weather we have had. Well we are all snuggled into our campsite in the trees. I started to clean the bugs off the front of the motor home and ended up washing the whole thing and it did need it. Probably only do 100-150 miles and will take the ferry across to the mainland in the next couple of days depending on what we find on the east side of the island. Well I think I will finish my tea and head to bed. Made a phone call to my mother, it is her birthday today and she turned 93 years old. We talk to the kids every 3-4 days just to keep in touch and Kathy at the office a little less often and if she has a question she will call also. Sounds like she has been busy while we’ve been away. Suppose to be some beautiful beaches on the east side of the island, looking forward to visiting them. Night All.
Day 33, July 29, 2007
Day 33, Sunday, July 29, 2007
Sleeping in day today. Didn’t get away until 11:00 am. Didn’t have far to go about 70k. Good drive into Charlottetown. Found parking right away and ended up in the Tourist Information Center and they had wireless internet connection. Willa and Tegan went on and I got the laptop from the motorhome and was able to connect and as of yesterday you will be able to follow the trip up to yesterday. They have a good interactive display at the TIC. Then we walked around the board walk and had a light dinner about 8:00 pm and then headed to a campsite in Stratford which is just across the bridge from Charlottetown PEI. We set up camp and were into bed by about 11:30 pm It was still 70f at 11:30 at night
Sleeping in day today. Didn’t get away until 11:00 am. Didn’t have far to go about 70k. Good drive into Charlottetown. Found parking right away and ended up in the Tourist Information Center and they had wireless internet connection. Willa and Tegan went on and I got the laptop from the motorhome and was able to connect and as of yesterday you will be able to follow the trip up to yesterday. They have a good interactive display at the TIC. Then we walked around the board walk and had a light dinner about 8:00 pm and then headed to a campsite in Stratford which is just across the bridge from Charlottetown PEI. We set up camp and were into bed by about 11:30 pm It was still 70f at 11:30 at night
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Day 32, July 28, 2007
Day 32, Saturday, July 28, 2007
We were up fairly early but did some cleanup. Willa met a lady camper next door and she is a tour director for PEI and so Willa got the lowdown on where to go and what to see. With her advice we headed up to North Cape at the northerly most point on the West side of PEI. Our first stop was - - - - - - -now you are trying to guess where I am going - - - - - -Willa made coffee at the motor home so we didn’t need Tim Horton’s. Now where was I - - - - - oh yes! Our first stop was a little town called Miminegash, PEI. Now that town was not well known to me but when you consider what it’s main export is you will recognize it right away. This town exports “Irish Moss”. Amazing isn’t it. WHAT! You don’t know either town or product????????? Neither did I but we all use it almost every day. Irish moss is gathered from the ocean as a sea weed, it is then processed and this gives a liquid that is used as a thickening agent in just about everything we use. For instance: ice cream, evaporated milk, chocolate milk (so the chocolate won’t separate from the milk), chewing gum, car tires and a number of other things. Irish Moss is harvested from the ocean after heavy storms and while the waves are still coming in and by horse. I won’t go into the details but if you look it up on the internet you’ll get a better explanation than I could give you. Miminegash is one of the areas that harvests, collects and packages it for processing down in the states and we buy the finished product back. We went through the museum and drove down to the harbor and we had seaweed pie at the museum made from the Irish Moss. We came part way up the #2 highway then cut over to the coast to do the coastal road. You go through all the quaint little villages, most with only a corner store and maybe a garage but lots of boats for harvesting Irish Moss, fishing and catching lobster. Good road for the most part. People are friendly and most wave when you go by. Lots of ATVs on the roads buzzing around. We traveled up the West coast to North Cape, this is where they have a number of wind turbines for generating power. I should have counted them but didn’t but I would say 10-12 at least. The banks in this area are about 4-50 feet high and at the low point you can walk down to the beach. Once on the beach you can look back at the banks and see the different layers for over the eons. From a writeup I read there were mountains here higher than the Alps and over 250-400 million years they have worn down. The red colour of the soil is from the iron in the soil and apparently is very hard on car bodies. Off the cape is the largest rock reef in North America according to something Willa read at the Interpretative Center. We walked along the shore for a bit and a few people walked out on a thin line of rocks to a sandy area but if that tide ever came in you could be stranded out there a long time. Looking back at the banks from the beach you could see swallows nesting in the banks in holes I assume they carved out for their nest, maybe they were Martens. Another traveler was sitting on a bench and she had a Blue and Gold Macaw, very pretty bird and it has a perch at the dash of their convertible that it rides on. There is a restaurant at the Interpretative Centre and we decided to have a late lunch and an early supper. Tegan and Willa only wanted clam chowder soup but I wanted a little more so ordered a seafood platter with the idea that Tegan and Willa would help me eat it. Lucky they ordered light because this came with a bed of steamed mussels, large shrimp, scallops, 2 ousters, large piece of Haddock, 12-14 oz lobster plus a salad, and cup of chowder. The flavors were superb. We all enjoyed the platter. We decided to put on a few miles to shorten up tomorrows drive. We were going to be near the campsite we stayed at two nights before with the music show. It’s out of the way a bit but a free night of entertainment. Who can say no even if you have to drive a little further. They had a young fellow on the fiddle and could he ever play and not just the fiddle but about 2-3 other instruments. One of the people in the audience was one of the fiddlers who played with the Don Messer Band. It was a great show and a couple of people from the audience even came up and sang and they were real good. We bought a cd of the fiddle player and asked him to autograph it and took Tegan’s picture with him. Truly was a great show and even Tegan enjoyed it. Well off to bed again running a bit late again tonight. Morning was a good time for driving not too hot but got a little warm in the afternoon. The motorhome sat for about 4 hours and was 107 f inside when we went back to it. Thank goodness0 for the air conditioning. Starting to cloud over and they are forecasting rain for tomorrow. Will make me feel right at home. Till tomorrow.
We were up fairly early but did some cleanup. Willa met a lady camper next door and she is a tour director for PEI and so Willa got the lowdown on where to go and what to see. With her advice we headed up to North Cape at the northerly most point on the West side of PEI. Our first stop was - - - - - - -now you are trying to guess where I am going - - - - - -Willa made coffee at the motor home so we didn’t need Tim Horton’s. Now where was I - - - - - oh yes! Our first stop was a little town called Miminegash, PEI. Now that town was not well known to me but when you consider what it’s main export is you will recognize it right away. This town exports “Irish Moss”. Amazing isn’t it. WHAT! You don’t know either town or product????????? Neither did I but we all use it almost every day. Irish moss is gathered from the ocean as a sea weed, it is then processed and this gives a liquid that is used as a thickening agent in just about everything we use. For instance: ice cream, evaporated milk, chocolate milk (so the chocolate won’t separate from the milk), chewing gum, car tires and a number of other things. Irish Moss is harvested from the ocean after heavy storms and while the waves are still coming in and by horse. I won’t go into the details but if you look it up on the internet you’ll get a better explanation than I could give you. Miminegash is one of the areas that harvests, collects and packages it for processing down in the states and we buy the finished product back. We went through the museum and drove down to the harbor and we had seaweed pie at the museum made from the Irish Moss. We came part way up the #2 highway then cut over to the coast to do the coastal road. You go through all the quaint little villages, most with only a corner store and maybe a garage but lots of boats for harvesting Irish Moss, fishing and catching lobster. Good road for the most part. People are friendly and most wave when you go by. Lots of ATVs on the roads buzzing around. We traveled up the West coast to North Cape, this is where they have a number of wind turbines for generating power. I should have counted them but didn’t but I would say 10-12 at least. The banks in this area are about 4-50 feet high and at the low point you can walk down to the beach. Once on the beach you can look back at the banks and see the different layers for over the eons. From a writeup I read there were mountains here higher than the Alps and over 250-400 million years they have worn down. The red colour of the soil is from the iron in the soil and apparently is very hard on car bodies. Off the cape is the largest rock reef in North America according to something Willa read at the Interpretative Center. We walked along the shore for a bit and a few people walked out on a thin line of rocks to a sandy area but if that tide ever came in you could be stranded out there a long time. Looking back at the banks from the beach you could see swallows nesting in the banks in holes I assume they carved out for their nest, maybe they were Martens. Another traveler was sitting on a bench and she had a Blue and Gold Macaw, very pretty bird and it has a perch at the dash of their convertible that it rides on. There is a restaurant at the Interpretative Centre and we decided to have a late lunch and an early supper. Tegan and Willa only wanted clam chowder soup but I wanted a little more so ordered a seafood platter with the idea that Tegan and Willa would help me eat it. Lucky they ordered light because this came with a bed of steamed mussels, large shrimp, scallops, 2 ousters, large piece of Haddock, 12-14 oz lobster plus a salad, and cup of chowder. The flavors were superb. We all enjoyed the platter. We decided to put on a few miles to shorten up tomorrows drive. We were going to be near the campsite we stayed at two nights before with the music show. It’s out of the way a bit but a free night of entertainment. Who can say no even if you have to drive a little further. They had a young fellow on the fiddle and could he ever play and not just the fiddle but about 2-3 other instruments. One of the people in the audience was one of the fiddlers who played with the Don Messer Band. It was a great show and a couple of people from the audience even came up and sang and they were real good. We bought a cd of the fiddle player and asked him to autograph it and took Tegan’s picture with him. Truly was a great show and even Tegan enjoyed it. Well off to bed again running a bit late again tonight. Morning was a good time for driving not too hot but got a little warm in the afternoon. The motorhome sat for about 4 hours and was 107 f inside when we went back to it. Thank goodness0 for the air conditioning. Starting to cloud over and they are forecasting rain for tomorrow. Will make me feel right at home. Till tomorrow.
Day 31, July 27, 2007
Day 31, Friday, July 27, 2007
We started off about 8:45 am. From just east of Summerside PEI to 8 k west of Summerside, that was the extent of our driving today. We spent the day in Summerside which is a little port town. We started our day right after - - - - - - - - - - - you guessed it, right after our stop at Tim Horton’s. The Tall Ships 4 of them and 2 Canadian Naval ships where scheduled to be in port about noon. There are a whole bunch of little shops around the docks and that is where Willa and Tegan spent the day other than watching the Tall ships come into port. Quite a show, one was the Bluenose and the other 3 were the more old fashioned style of ship with the square sails, all were two mast. Bluenose was the first to come and it coasted around the harbor until another ship came in and the second as it came into port let off several cannon shots, quite a show. From there we went on to a Café that served seafood for lunch. After lunch we went back to the Tall Ships and by this time they have docked and we did a tour of them. Couldn’t get below decks but the rest was worth the look. From there Tegan found an internet connection and made use of it and Willa did a little more shopping and I went and laid in the shade and had a little snooze. The problem with a little snooze is you feel worse when you get up, just not long enough I guess. Tegan and Willa were shopped out, I was tired so we went to “Cows” and had an ice cream float. New ice cream company I guess, it’s in Vancouver and Whistler also, according to Tegan. She had to have her picture taken on the cow that sits out front of the store. It’s now getting on to 4:00 pm and we have decided to camp as close as we can get to where we are in Summerside. At the Tourist Information Centre, the gal there called the provincial campsite and reserved a site for us. The campsite, Linkletter Provincial Park is right on the water and we got a nice shady site with full hook ups. The plan was to stay in Walmarts, Costco parking lots but the weather has been so hot we need the hookups for the air conditioning and everyone is showering and so I need to dump a little more often then I originally planned. Just means more cost, may need you to send money asap to get us home. The rest of the evening and it is about 6:00 pm we are all going to relax. Willa and Tegan have gone over for a shower and Willa wanted to do one more load of laundry and the rest of the evening is ours. In between relaxing maybe I’ll get the chicken on the BBQ. Nice spot we are in has a view out over the ocean. The temperature was suppose to be over 100 f today, not sure if it made it or not but it was sure hot. Very clear sky with a little haze on the horizon but the haze may just be the fact you are looking so far. Well I am going to start my relaxing now. Just had to tell you what just happened, Tegan just came back from the shower and I asked her how the shower was and in her own words “the shower was great right up until Grandma told me I was in the men’s shower”. I laughed when she said it and so matter of fact. We took a walk around the campsite and looked at the other camping units. We thought ours was big but behind is one that makes ours look small. Further into the campsite there is a right hand drive unit, which is written on the back of the motorhome and the entrance door is on the wrong site of it also. Interesting what you see and how other people enjoy the outdoors their way. When we arrived the tide was out and you could walk maybe
200-300 feet out and another 100 or more didn’t seem above peoples knees. The tide has come in now and the wind with it, not a heavy wind but a steady breeze and enough that it will rock the motor0home. Well it is 9:46 pm and I think I will turn in for the night, may read a bit. Full moon tonight also. Talk to you tomorrow. We are about half our mileage now from what I estimated we would put on this holiday.
We started off about 8:45 am. From just east of Summerside PEI to 8 k west of Summerside, that was the extent of our driving today. We spent the day in Summerside which is a little port town. We started our day right after - - - - - - - - - - - you guessed it, right after our stop at Tim Horton’s. The Tall Ships 4 of them and 2 Canadian Naval ships where scheduled to be in port about noon. There are a whole bunch of little shops around the docks and that is where Willa and Tegan spent the day other than watching the Tall ships come into port. Quite a show, one was the Bluenose and the other 3 were the more old fashioned style of ship with the square sails, all were two mast. Bluenose was the first to come and it coasted around the harbor until another ship came in and the second as it came into port let off several cannon shots, quite a show. From there we went on to a Café that served seafood for lunch. After lunch we went back to the Tall Ships and by this time they have docked and we did a tour of them. Couldn’t get below decks but the rest was worth the look. From there Tegan found an internet connection and made use of it and Willa did a little more shopping and I went and laid in the shade and had a little snooze. The problem with a little snooze is you feel worse when you get up, just not long enough I guess. Tegan and Willa were shopped out, I was tired so we went to “Cows” and had an ice cream float. New ice cream company I guess, it’s in Vancouver and Whistler also, according to Tegan. She had to have her picture taken on the cow that sits out front of the store. It’s now getting on to 4:00 pm and we have decided to camp as close as we can get to where we are in Summerside. At the Tourist Information Centre, the gal there called the provincial campsite and reserved a site for us. The campsite, Linkletter Provincial Park is right on the water and we got a nice shady site with full hook ups. The plan was to stay in Walmarts, Costco parking lots but the weather has been so hot we need the hookups for the air conditioning and everyone is showering and so I need to dump a little more often then I originally planned. Just means more cost, may need you to send money asap to get us home. The rest of the evening and it is about 6:00 pm we are all going to relax. Willa and Tegan have gone over for a shower and Willa wanted to do one more load of laundry and the rest of the evening is ours. In between relaxing maybe I’ll get the chicken on the BBQ. Nice spot we are in has a view out over the ocean. The temperature was suppose to be over 100 f today, not sure if it made it or not but it was sure hot. Very clear sky with a little haze on the horizon but the haze may just be the fact you are looking so far. Well I am going to start my relaxing now. Just had to tell you what just happened, Tegan just came back from the shower and I asked her how the shower was and in her own words “the shower was great right up until Grandma told me I was in the men’s shower”. I laughed when she said it and so matter of fact. We took a walk around the campsite and looked at the other camping units. We thought ours was big but behind is one that makes ours look small. Further into the campsite there is a right hand drive unit, which is written on the back of the motorhome and the entrance door is on the wrong site of it also. Interesting what you see and how other people enjoy the outdoors their way. When we arrived the tide was out and you could walk maybe
200-300 feet out and another 100 or more didn’t seem above peoples knees. The tide has come in now and the wind with it, not a heavy wind but a steady breeze and enough that it will rock the motor0home. Well it is 9:46 pm and I think I will turn in for the night, may read a bit. Full moon tonight also. Talk to you tomorrow. We are about half our mileage now from what I estimated we would put on this holiday.
Day 30, July 26, 2007
Day 30, Thursday, July 26, 2007.
Willa finished up her wash, just a few things she wanted to finish rinsing by hand. I packed up the motorhome and Tegan slept. We were on the road about 8:45 am. Of course you know what is coming next - - - - - - - coffee - - - - - but not Tim Horton’s she made her own coffee before we left, ha, ha, ha got you. Today is a day of driving, the goal is PEI by tonight. The oil gage is running a little high so decided to have the oil changed and see if that made a difference. Do the simple things first, right. We tried a couple of places but either couldn’t handle the size of unit or busy. But the Ford dealer in Miramichi, New Brunswick had a quick lane and fit us in so within an hour we were lubed, oiled and on our way. The oil gage is still running a little high but it is also 92f on the outside thermostat so I am hoping that is part of the reason for the higher pressure. Not much else to do and it is not to;o high and is holding a steady pressure. It’s been a real hot day for driving, running around 92 f most of the afternoon and we were inland a ways on highway # 11. As we got closer to the ocean again it started to cool down. I would rather drive in rain, its easier to warm up than try and cool down. Even with the rooftop air running the motorhome was not cool. The roads today have been good and we traveled through places like Neguac, Miramichi, Richibucto, Shediac, Bouctouche, Because we were trying to put on miles today most of these we just driven past or through but interesting to be in the same area or outskirts of some of the towns that we have heard of or I had seen on a map. My cruise control is acting up which means I have to have my foot on the gas petal, now this in itsself is not an issue but you have to understand that the motor is right at my foot and it is DAM HOT. I carry a little fan may be 10-12 inches across and I put that so it blows on my feet and what a difference. WE DROVE ACROSS THE CONFEDERATION BRIDGE. Wow is it ever long approximately 12.9 k. Right after the bridge on the PEI side there is a little village set up with lots of little boutiques and would you believe an information centre right off the highway. Willa and Tegan want to go back and have a look around tomorrow. There is also a monument to all the people that worked on the bridge during the construction. Around the monument they have placed red bricks with each of the people’s name on a brick and larger plaques for the companies. A friend of ours, Keith Bennett worked on the bridge, flying helicopter back and forth with supplies or men, remember how high the bridge is and ocean going ships pass under it. Well we found his brick, well actually Tegan found it and there are hundreds of bricks and in no particular order. So we were quite thrilled. I am not sure if Keith has even seen it. We asked about a campsite close by and they recommended the Sun-N-Shade Campsite about 5 minutes down the road. Very nice campsite and we met the couple next to our site, they are from Vancouver, Washington, Pat and Carl. Another couple from Ashcroft, BC. Everyone was telling us we have to go to the show they put on in the Rec Building. So after we ate (we got in late 7:00 pm) we headed over. Well what a show. The band has won awards on PEI and they were real good and they also had people with talent (which ruled out me) from the audience come up and sing a song or two with them. About a two hour show and was it ever worth while. This was included in the price of the campsite which was only $30.00 and included full services. After the show we came back to the m/h and I went to shut off the alarm and I don’t know what went wrong but I could not get it to shut off. It would go off every once in a while, very embarrassing. Had to dig out the manual and hit the override button and hope the code they gave me works. All went well. We are off to Summerside tomorrow for maybe a show and they say the Tall Ships are in there for the weekend so hope to see them also. Keep you posted. We will have to stop meeting like this, people are going to start taking. Tell you another saga of our trip tomorrow.
Willa finished up her wash, just a few things she wanted to finish rinsing by hand. I packed up the motorhome and Tegan slept. We were on the road about 8:45 am. Of course you know what is coming next - - - - - - - coffee - - - - - but not Tim Horton’s she made her own coffee before we left, ha, ha, ha got you. Today is a day of driving, the goal is PEI by tonight. The oil gage is running a little high so decided to have the oil changed and see if that made a difference. Do the simple things first, right. We tried a couple of places but either couldn’t handle the size of unit or busy. But the Ford dealer in Miramichi, New Brunswick had a quick lane and fit us in so within an hour we were lubed, oiled and on our way. The oil gage is still running a little high but it is also 92f on the outside thermostat so I am hoping that is part of the reason for the higher pressure. Not much else to do and it is not to;o high and is holding a steady pressure. It’s been a real hot day for driving, running around 92 f most of the afternoon and we were inland a ways on highway # 11. As we got closer to the ocean again it started to cool down. I would rather drive in rain, its easier to warm up than try and cool down. Even with the rooftop air running the motorhome was not cool. The roads today have been good and we traveled through places like Neguac, Miramichi, Richibucto, Shediac, Bouctouche, Because we were trying to put on miles today most of these we just driven past or through but interesting to be in the same area or outskirts of some of the towns that we have heard of or I had seen on a map. My cruise control is acting up which means I have to have my foot on the gas petal, now this in itsself is not an issue but you have to understand that the motor is right at my foot and it is DAM HOT. I carry a little fan may be 10-12 inches across and I put that so it blows on my feet and what a difference. WE DROVE ACROSS THE CONFEDERATION BRIDGE. Wow is it ever long approximately 12.9 k. Right after the bridge on the PEI side there is a little village set up with lots of little boutiques and would you believe an information centre right off the highway. Willa and Tegan want to go back and have a look around tomorrow. There is also a monument to all the people that worked on the bridge during the construction. Around the monument they have placed red bricks with each of the people’s name on a brick and larger plaques for the companies. A friend of ours, Keith Bennett worked on the bridge, flying helicopter back and forth with supplies or men, remember how high the bridge is and ocean going ships pass under it. Well we found his brick, well actually Tegan found it and there are hundreds of bricks and in no particular order. So we were quite thrilled. I am not sure if Keith has even seen it. We asked about a campsite close by and they recommended the Sun-N-Shade Campsite about 5 minutes down the road. Very nice campsite and we met the couple next to our site, they are from Vancouver, Washington, Pat and Carl. Another couple from Ashcroft, BC. Everyone was telling us we have to go to the show they put on in the Rec Building. So after we ate (we got in late 7:00 pm) we headed over. Well what a show. The band has won awards on PEI and they were real good and they also had people with talent (which ruled out me) from the audience come up and sing a song or two with them. About a two hour show and was it ever worth while. This was included in the price of the campsite which was only $30.00 and included full services. After the show we came back to the m/h and I went to shut off the alarm and I don’t know what went wrong but I could not get it to shut off. It would go off every once in a while, very embarrassing. Had to dig out the manual and hit the override button and hope the code they gave me works. All went well. We are off to Summerside tomorrow for maybe a show and they say the Tall Ships are in there for the weekend so hope to see them also. Keep you posted. We will have to stop meeting like this, people are going to start taking. Tell you another saga of our trip tomorrow.
Day 29, July 26, 2007
Day 29, Wednesday, July 26, 2007
We didn’t get a real early start, about 9:45 am. Nothing to do on the motorhome, just getting ready to go and we didn’t have many miles to put on today. We are on the Acadian coast and going to head to Miscou Island which is the farthest east you can go in New Brunswick. Before we start you know what - - - - - - - - Tim Horton’s which is right on our way. There is a wooden lighthouse there which dates back to the 1800’s. I think it is the oldest wooden lighthouse in use in Canada, I’ll have to confirm that. The drive up is about an hour and again the unseen scenery. Lots of little towns to drive through and the houses are quite spread out. The landscape changes from tall trees in the Shippagan area to a ground cover and a few copse of trees as we went up the Acadian Isles. There just are no tall trees, the tallest is maybe 10 feet and they are sparse and in little copse of trees. These copse are about 15-20 feet across and more or less in a circle. You can see in some areas maybe a half mile or a little more and that is all you see. Very strikingly different. The drive out is very windy, but a good road and actually better than some parts of the Trans Canada Highway. The ground again at the lighthouse is very flat and drops about 8 feet to the water. A different smell to the water here as compared to our ocean. More of a pungent smell. Takes a little getting use to. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was not open to go upstairs. There was a little gift store (and I mean little, 8 x 16 feet) operated by a local lady. Her husband does sand sculptures and she sells them there. Very well done and not very expensive. Willa and Tegan were down at the water and I started talking to this lady ???????????????????. She was born on the Miscou Island as she said “in the dead of winter, in the middle of a snowstorm and with no nurse, my dad delivered me, so I was born and raised on the Island”. Nice lady, her husband is a fisherman and was out herring fishing I think. He also lobster fishes. She had moved away for awhile but moved back with her husband and their little guy was born there, but not delivered by her husband. We have met some interesting and friendly people on this trip so far. Coming back from the lighthouse we stopped at an ecological walk and did the tour, but it was new and so no information on fauna etc. This was in the middle of a peat bog which is what most of this area is like. In fact, there were a couple of peat farms you could see from the road. On our way back, we stopped at the provincial run Aquarium in Schippagan. Very nice and well done. Very informative on the fishing history of the Acadians. I was finished ahead of Willa and Tegan so I thought I would come out and start the air conditioner. I met two ladies on big motorbikes and got to talking to them. They are from Moncton and on a little holiday. Well I got to talking to them and then Willa and Tegan came out and I introduced them around and we must have visited with them for 30-40 minutes. Very nice people. Well it is now getting to be close to 4:00 pm and time to start looking for a campsite. The Town of Schippagan has one right on the water and so that is where we headed about 3-4 k out of town. We are all settled in, been lucky in most of the campsites—the parking space is level so have to do very little to level up, maybe one or two wheels. They have a laundry here so Willa wants to catch up on her washing, some things just seem to follow you from home even on holidays. The weather has been overcast today with a temp of about 80-83 f but very muggy. I’ve ran the roof top air (which needs the generator running which is no problem). You get pretty comfortable in the motorhome traveling along with the a/c running. Then you get out and it hits you. the hot muggy weather. Well I’ve transferred my pictures over to the laptop and I am done with my diary and it is still fairly early. Once a week I transfer my pictures over, that way it gives me an idea where they were taken and if I forget I can look at my diary and hopefully figure out where they were taken. Another day of memories and another day coming to look forward to.
We didn’t get a real early start, about 9:45 am. Nothing to do on the motorhome, just getting ready to go and we didn’t have many miles to put on today. We are on the Acadian coast and going to head to Miscou Island which is the farthest east you can go in New Brunswick. Before we start you know what - - - - - - - - Tim Horton’s which is right on our way. There is a wooden lighthouse there which dates back to the 1800’s. I think it is the oldest wooden lighthouse in use in Canada, I’ll have to confirm that. The drive up is about an hour and again the unseen scenery. Lots of little towns to drive through and the houses are quite spread out. The landscape changes from tall trees in the Shippagan area to a ground cover and a few copse of trees as we went up the Acadian Isles. There just are no tall trees, the tallest is maybe 10 feet and they are sparse and in little copse of trees. These copse are about 15-20 feet across and more or less in a circle. You can see in some areas maybe a half mile or a little more and that is all you see. Very strikingly different. The drive out is very windy, but a good road and actually better than some parts of the Trans Canada Highway. The ground again at the lighthouse is very flat and drops about 8 feet to the water. A different smell to the water here as compared to our ocean. More of a pungent smell. Takes a little getting use to. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was not open to go upstairs. There was a little gift store (and I mean little, 8 x 16 feet) operated by a local lady. Her husband does sand sculptures and she sells them there. Very well done and not very expensive. Willa and Tegan were down at the water and I started talking to this lady ???????????????????. She was born on the Miscou Island as she said “in the dead of winter, in the middle of a snowstorm and with no nurse, my dad delivered me, so I was born and raised on the Island”. Nice lady, her husband is a fisherman and was out herring fishing I think. He also lobster fishes. She had moved away for awhile but moved back with her husband and their little guy was born there, but not delivered by her husband. We have met some interesting and friendly people on this trip so far. Coming back from the lighthouse we stopped at an ecological walk and did the tour, but it was new and so no information on fauna etc. This was in the middle of a peat bog which is what most of this area is like. In fact, there were a couple of peat farms you could see from the road. On our way back, we stopped at the provincial run Aquarium in Schippagan. Very nice and well done. Very informative on the fishing history of the Acadians. I was finished ahead of Willa and Tegan so I thought I would come out and start the air conditioner. I met two ladies on big motorbikes and got to talking to them. They are from Moncton and on a little holiday. Well I got to talking to them and then Willa and Tegan came out and I introduced them around and we must have visited with them for 30-40 minutes. Very nice people. Well it is now getting to be close to 4:00 pm and time to start looking for a campsite. The Town of Schippagan has one right on the water and so that is where we headed about 3-4 k out of town. We are all settled in, been lucky in most of the campsites—the parking space is level so have to do very little to level up, maybe one or two wheels. They have a laundry here so Willa wants to catch up on her washing, some things just seem to follow you from home even on holidays. The weather has been overcast today with a temp of about 80-83 f but very muggy. I’ve ran the roof top air (which needs the generator running which is no problem). You get pretty comfortable in the motorhome traveling along with the a/c running. Then you get out and it hits you. the hot muggy weather. Well I’ve transferred my pictures over to the laptop and I am done with my diary and it is still fairly early. Once a week I transfer my pictures over, that way it gives me an idea where they were taken and if I forget I can look at my diary and hopefully figure out where they were taken. Another day of memories and another day coming to look forward to.
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