Back in the good old US of A . . .

August 29, 2009 . . .

Funny how quickly you can pass through the states when you are on a mission. And we had a couple of them. We wanted to stop by in Pennsylvania to visit with the neighbor’s newlywed daughter and new husband (Melissa & Toby), wanted to meet up with Les’ boyhood friend, Mitch, in New York, and wanted to get home in time to get in the pre line up for the Walnut Valley Blue Grass Festival.

Didn’t stay long in Maine this time…. Hit Massachusetts about the time that Teddy Kennedy was being buried, then through Rhode Island, Connecticut, and into New York – all in one day. Now, I know we should have gone slower and seen some of the sights here, but for crying out loud, we were way into sensory overload!

We arrived in Mahopac, NY, and found our way to Mitch’s house – he wasn’t home, but we stuck around on the urging of their landlord. I was able to take some awesome pictures of this wonderful old place. What a surprise for Mitch, to come home after a day of golfing to find an old, old friend on his doorstep. Les and Mitch both got to introduce “new” wives and the four of us hit it off right away. (Les, Mitch and Connie call come from the same hometown, Russell, KS)

Wishing that we had made better plans and more time to stay, we made the best of the time we had, got a lot of visiting in the short time we had and we left the next day – didn’t get a real early start, had to get a little more visiting in, now didn’t we?

Scooting on down the road, we headed to Pennsylvania, lunched in New Jersey, and landed in Huntingdon, PA., where we stopped for the night at the park where Melissa and Toby are Rangers. We spent the afternoon touring the Lincoln Caverns. The afternoon was a beautiful sparkling day so the difference between the cool caverns and the sunlit wooded area around it was a welcome contrast. We met up with the newlyweds, visited with them in their home and then had dinner at one of their favorite hangouts. Melissa and Toby then took us out to see the sunset over the lake. We had a great time!

The next morning . . . we were on the road again. We drove through West Virginia and most of Ohio. Went through the Allegheny Tunnel – what a long hummer! We finally stopped for the night in Englewood, Ohio.

Ah-h-h – September 3rd! It’s an important day to some of us. It took Les until the afternoon, after my sister, Sheila, called me to wish me Happy Birthday that he realized what day it was. We drove through Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, stopping at New Franklin, Missouri for the night. It seems that Boonesville, a little town just down the road from New Franklin, was having a little celebration with a parade and street vendors. I like to think they were having a birthday party for ME! So we went there, had a really nice dinner, walked around and enjoyed the celebration, Les bought me a music festival dress for my birthday) then went back to the campground and got ready for the pull into Wichita the next day.

Yes, we will probably lament the fact that we did not allow enough time to really enjoy all of the states we went through, but at the time - the time spent in the Atlantic Provinces (figuring that we will probably never return) rated higher on our list of priorities than our own states that we will have more of an opportunity to visit again at some later date.

We arrived home in Wichita on September 4th at 1:00 pm – our total miles, since June 17th were 8,647 miles. Les and I were still speaking to each other (just barely) :-) Just kidding! Jeez!

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Les' Readers Digest Version, recently coined the Fortune Cookie one liners:

- Took the ferry from Yarmoth, Nova Scotia to Portland Maine.  Maine to New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York State, Tip of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and home in Kansas.
-  Stoped in Mahopac N.Y. Had a good visit with Mitch and Connie. Mitch lived about a block  away from me growing up in Russell Ks. Hadn't seen each other in about 40 years.  Lots to catch up on.
- Stopped in Huntingdon Pa. Visited with Melissa and Toby. Went to a local Pub, a good time.  She grew up as the neighbor in the next house North of us in Wichita.
- Got home, just in time to head to the Winfield Festival for pre line up.
- Next 2009 Winfield Festival, McPherson Highland Games, Guthrie Bluegrass Festival, and Wintering in Texas.

Nova Scotia 2 . . .

Okay, okay, okay . . . So this is a little embarrassing. Here it is April and you all “think” we are still in Nova Scotia. Yah, right.

I’m going to have to make this very short and sweet. Not as short as Les’ version, to be sure, but then, you all that know me wouldn’t expect anything quite THAT short!

August 14, 2009

 

. . . So, we caught the ferry from Newfoundland and arrived, after a very long night (14 1/2 hour ferry ride), in New Sydney, Nova Scotia. As you know, we met up with young Ben and a couple of people we met in Labrador, who were taking the same ferry. After a VERY long night we landed in Nova Scotia and headed back to our favorite campground at Whycocomagh Provential Park.

 

Now somewhere a long the way I am going to have to cut this long story short, so I’m going to start now, or this trip will never end. We met some more wonderful people at this park, Dave and Blanche, whom we hope to meet up with again some time. We visited Beddeck which is a wonderful little tourist town, where Alexander Graham Bell retired to and lived for many years – they have a great interpretive center there in his honor and a wonderful picturesque harbor. We came back to Beddeck one night just to listen to some Celtic music.

We left the provential park in order to get electricity and internet while we were waiting for some important mail and when it finally came, we took off towards the Bay of Fundy with the hopes of evading Hurricane Bill.

Passsed through some ab-so-lutely gorgeous country, stayed one night by Mosherville, NS, and outwaited "Bill" up in the mountains east of Windsor. After the hurricane passed we went on our way to Digby. Two big reasons we headed for this area of Nova Scotia, (not one of them being that Digby is the scallop capital of the world) the first reason is that Les (and I, both) wanted to see the tide change in the Bay of Fundy, and two, we met a guy named Paul down on Magnolia Beech in Texas that was from Digby who told us to “stop by anytime” – hey, guys, you gotta learn not to do that with us because we are liable to do just that!

We were told by the Info Ladies to go to Halls Harbor to see the tide change. And change it did. In the 3 1/2 hours we were there it must have changed from 6-8 feet. It was amazing! We sat for a while on the deck of a restaurant and watched our jeep “appear” from behind a boat that was towering above it when we parked and was below the parking lot (in the harbor) when we left.

The first part of this picture was taken when we first arrived. My 6 foot husband is standing in front of the "Tide Bound" - his hat is even with the black stripe on the bow of the boat. When we left you can see the boat was far below the dock.

While we were walking around the harbor area to leave, we stopped to look some more and I heard this slurping sound, coming from behind me. Across the road from the harbor was a big pond, walking over to investigate this sound, I found a whirlpool effect that when the tide went out some underground “pipeline” would suck some of the water out of the pond. Well, I thought it was cool!

 After satisfying our curiousity about the Bay of Funday, we moved the Casita to Digby. We called Paul up and he was surprised and happy to hear that we were there and asked us to meet up with him and he would show us around. He took us to his cottage by the lake and fed us some really wonderful Seafood Chowder.

 

Then he took us in to Belliveau Cove to his famiy home, a place he was born in, as well as his father and grandfather! It was a wonderful old home with some truly awesome antiques that his family had had for generations! Regretfully we bid him goodbye – we hope to see him on the Texas beach again some time.

Our final day in Digby was on Les' birthday. We drove the complete length of the Digby Neck, taking two ferries to do so. I found some nice sea glass and some cool stones and Les was surprised to find the birthplace and boyhood home of Joshua Slocum, the man who in the early 1900’s was the first person who single handedly sailed around the world.  The trip took a couple of years, but he lived to tell about it. Here's a picture of Les looking around the area where Joshua Slocum started his journey. It was a fitting birthday bonus for Les.

 The next day we were in Yarmouth, NS, waiting for the “Cat” to take us back to the good old US of A. The “Cat” is a large catamaran ferry that cut our travel time substantially. It was a beautiful ferry that had four areas to sit and watch movies during the trip - it was a 5 1/2 hour trip. We chose to watch the double feature that included the new STAR TREK movie. (Duh!) ( http://www.hickerphoto.com/bay-ferries-cat-yarmouth-nova-scotia-25933-pictures.htm ). We arrived in Portland, Maine, late at night, was one of the first people off the ferry and sailed through customs….

This trip to the Atlantic Provinces was totally spectacular and one of the most memorable trips I've ever taken. August 28, 2009

Les' Readers Digest Version

• Took the ferry from Agentia, Newfoundland to New Sydney, Nova Scotia.
• Went to Beddeck, NS, visited Alexander Graham Bell's Museum.  A. Bell lived in this area in his later years and continued his experimenting and inventing. Also attended an evening of Celtic music provided by the locals.
• Drove down the northwest side of Nova Scotia and weathered Hurrican Bill in the mountains by Windsor, NS. 
• Went to Hall's Harbour on the Bay of Fundy. The largest tide in the world is on the Bay of Fundy. We saw the tide change about 6-8 feet in 3 1/2 hours. High to Low tide can be as much as 30 plus feet there.
• Meet up with Paul in Belliveau Cove, NS. We met him at Magnolia Beach, Texas the previous year and he invited us to visit if we ever got up that way.
• On my birthday we went out to Digby Neck. Took three short ferry rides to out to where Joshua Slocum was raised. He was the first person to single hand a sail boat around the world.
• Went to Yarmouth, NS, and rode the catamaran across to Portland, Maine. "The Cat", hits sppeds between 38-41 knotts in the 5 1/2 hour ferry ride.
• End Note: I've told Joy that if I come up missing and she thinks I'm still alive, come looking for me in Nova Scotia. My favorite of all our travels.

Newfoundland II

Glad to be back to Newfoundland, we began our journey toward the ferry to Nova Scotia. It took us awhile to decide whether to return the way we’d come or take the eastern seaboard journey to Argentia. We opted not to back track all the way and be adventurous, so we took the Central/Eastern Seaboard Route. We did backtrack from St Barbe to Deer Lake, but that was the only way to join up to Canada Highway I, cutting across central Newfoundland and on down to Argentia.

The weather was just beautiful! The sun sparkled diamonds on the water. The emerald green contrasted sharply with the blueness of the sky. Breathtaking to say the least. We were treated by another of nature’s wonders when we slowed down and then stopped with the rest of the traffic to see a mom and two baby Moose make their way across the road, then back, then back again to disappear into the forest around us. It wasn’t really all that far away from where we saw the eagles scarcely a week before.

We stopped by a roadside vegetable stand close to Gambo, where they had some very interesting looking vegetables for sale. Besides the normal stuff, the had this (see the picture) - it was pretty, in a Star Trek sort of way.

On August 12th we stayed in Beothuck Family RV Park, in Grand Falls-Windsor where Les did some automotive work while I went for a walk and met a lady from Portland, Maine, camping by herself. She had a brain tumor and decided to take a trip to do some hiking and thinking - evidently it was not her first tumor and this time she just packed up and left, not telling her adult children of the reoccurrence. She was a nice gal and she told us of this coffee shop that offered live local music on Wednesday night. We made plans to meet up with her there and we were glad that we did. The music was awesome and the deserts to die for!

We stayed at Grand Falls-Windsor for a couple of days. We took a side trip to see the falls at Grand Falls-Windsor, but was unable to see it because it was in the middle of a nature preserve and we were not in the mood to do much hiking. Later that afternoon, we arrived at the Walmart parking lot, where we did some shopping and decided to stay the night. Les struck up a conversation with a couple from Colorado who were having some trouble with their rig. A lucky stop for them, I'd say, as they avoided more costly repairs and possibly an unfortunate accident on the road by some timely advice from Les. (See Readers Digest Version)

More pretty landscape and then we were in Argentia, where we waited for the Ferry. While I was wandering around the Ferry terminal I thought I got a glimpse of a familiar face. The next morning, before the Ferry left port I saw him again. It was Ben, the young man I met on the beach by the Ferry Terminal in Nova Scotia. We talked. It was nice to see him well.

Soon, we were on our very long Ferry ride back to Nova Scotia. Nice ship and all, but the sleeping arrangements were marginal, but in a way it was still cool. They had live music and we met a couple of people we'd seen before - at the restaurant we ate at in Labrador. Then we were back in Nova Scotia.

Les' Readers Digest Version:

-We put the Jeep and Camper on the Ferry at Blanc Seblon and went across Straight of Belle Isle to St Barbe Newfoundland.

-Drove down the west coast of NEWF to Deer Lake then across Hwy 1 to Gander.

-Determined the rear brake pads on the Jeep needed replacing. Bought new ones and replaced them in the Campground. Love my Jeep, replaced both sides in 45 min.

-Later stayed in a WalMart parking lot and met a couple from Colorado. His PU camper was listing to Starboard. Closer inspection showed me his frame on the PU was Fatigue cracked almost all the way thru. Advised him to get it attended to, now. He emailed us later and indicated my advise was sound and he had it welded and gussets installed on both sides of the PU. A big, "You're Welcome".

-Took the Ferry from Argentia NEWF to Sidney Nova Scotia. Somthing like 13 hours on the boat.

-Next Nova Scotia, part 2

Labrador . . .

As, I am sure most of you know, we've been back in Kansas for the last month or so. We've been busy with Jake and Jessica's wedding as well as a couple of Blue Grass festivals and being the procrastinator I am, I've put off doing the blog until it's become an embarrassment. I apologize, my friends, and hope you enjoy our memories and pictures of this awesome trip.

August 10th we took the ferry from St. Barbe, Newfoundland to Sablon, Quebec. The sky was overcast and the crossing was a little rough, but I managed the crossing without losing my breakfast. :-) We were in Quebec about 20 minutes between the time we were unloading and the time we crossed into Labrador.

At this time we were unsure as to how long we were going to stay in Labrador. Les thought it would be really fun to drive way up and around to Labrador City and then through Quebec, down into Maine and on home from there. I wasn't all that excited about going through Quebec, knowing that most of Labrador was connected by gravel roads (all I could think of was our experience on Nova Scotia) and furthermore - they speak FRENCH in Quebec - my high school French, learned a couple of centuries ago, wouldn't hold up and we'd heard all sorts of stories on how they pretended they didn't understand/speak English - I was pretty reluctant to face that, and besides, we wouldn't be able to revisit Nova Scotia if we went that route. So we'd thought we'd play things by ear, so to speak.

We headed on down the very nice, paved road paralleling the shoreline. After hearing about the wonderful sandy beaches at L'Anse Amour, I was eager to check it out. Maybe I'd get lucky and find sea glass. What we did find was a quaint little coastal village boasting of 9 residents. In the picture to the left you can see the houses this side of the bluff - on the right hand side of the road is the city park. We stopped and made lunch by this park and then went for a nice walk on the beach. I found a couple of sea urchins shells and snapped some pictures of beach flowers. We drove down the road through the town and checked out the houses that were there. Then proceeded on to the way to the Point Amour Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse and out buildings were awesomely picturesque and I enjoyed tromping around here snapping numerous pictures of them and the flowers and the reefs. http://www.pointamourlighthouse.ca/home/ According to signage by the lighthouse . . . "L'Anse Amour
Point Amour Patch Reefs - The mound like formations present along this shore are composed of the calcite skeletons of an extinct group of sponge like animals called Archacocyathids (arc-ae-o-sy-a-thids). The Point Amour Archaeocyathid reefs, which were formed about 530 million years ago, provide evidence that this was once in a warm shallow sea near the equator." That's sort of a mind blower!

We left the L'Amour area :-) and headed toward Red Bay, Labrador, where the paved road ran out and the gravel road began. We drove and drove and mostly saw God's Rock Garden. Okay, so that's not REALLY a place in Labrador, it's the name I gave it... just now! There were miles and miles of rocky terrain. After bouncing along for a while, Les and I turned to each other and just said, "We're done" and turned around in the first wide spot in the road and headed back to Red Bay. This picture to the right is the road not taken.

We arrived in Red Bay in time to get a spot to camp and then Les took me out to dinner to a nice restaurant, where were treated to some culinary de-lights: Caribou and a Three Berry Sundae. The berries were, Bakeapples, Partridgeberry, and I can't remember that third type of berry, it very well may have been Raspberry! And they really know how to make the ice cream up there as well! The Caribou was not what I expected at all. I guess I thought it'd be a little stringy and tough, but it was wonderfully tender and tasty!

The next morning we drove back up the coastline. Have to admit, there were some pretty, green, wooded areas along the way. I, however, will always remember Labrador as been awfully rocky and desolate.

We arrived in plenty of time to purchase our tickets for the ride back to Newfoundland. While waiting for the ferry office to open I was plagued by the biting flies we had heard so much about. Not fun. The ferry ride was short and sweet. Then Newfoundland was within site.

Newfoundland II should be forthcoming...

Joy

Les's Readers Digest Version:

- Put the Jeep and Camper on a ferry at St Barbe Newfoundland.

-Went across Strait of Belle Isle to Blanc-Seblon Quebec.

-Drove to Labrador and up to where the pavement ends, a
little north of Red Bay Labrador.

-Came back to Red Bay and stayed the night.

-This is as far north as we made it. We are heading back to Toto land now.

-We were closer to Greenland and Iceland than to Wichita. And about the same distance to England as to Wichita.

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City park in L'Anse Amour Labrador. Population 9 to 11. Seating in the park for at least 20???

Newfoundland I . . .

We arrived in Newfoundland, early on August 6th. Not that we had much sleep, the ship leaving at 1 a.m. and all. The first sight of Newfoundland was a little misty - the sea mist and then we started climbing into the mountains and there were more clouds there.

Found out a lot about geography this trip. I didn't know that Newfoundland and Labrador were even Canadian provinces. (Laugh it up, Tamatha and Vala!) And actually, Newfoundland and Labrador are considered one province. Newfoundland is pronounced Newfin-LAND.

Newfoundland has a rugged beauty about it. But the roads, at least at this point, were good. We drove only about 120 kilometres before we shut down for the night in a little Provincial Park (which means, no electric outlets). We rested a while then went for a drive over to Stevenville and then on to the coast and did the peninsula loop tour. I noticed some birds on big wooden perch, so we stopped and took pictures. I believe they are Osprey. Saw some likely looking places to try to find some sea glass, and thought we'd stop on our way back - but as luck would have it, after the peninsula tour we were both too tired for a walk on the beach, so we went back to camp.

The next day we headed on down the road. More rugged coastline and beautiful mountain scenery. We left the Transcanadian Highway, heading north toward Labrador on 430, which is the "Viking Trail". We soon learned that there was a big Viking influence in the area and they are real proud of the 1960 archaeological find of the Leif Erickson settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows - more about that later.

So, we are driving along the coastline and Les hits the brakes (gently) and starts to slow down. I'm looking around and just as he says, "Eagles" I'm seeing them. I grab my camera and hop out (no thoughts of other cars because up here there just weren't that many people driving at the same time we were. I got some excellent shots of the two eagles that seem to be playing around on the wind. Even got a movie of him - not very good, but still captured the essence of the joy of flight. It was exhilarating just watching these magnificent birds. We must have stayed there 20 minutes before they decided they'd played long enough.

A few miles later we past a place we'd read about in the literature we'd picked up at the Info Center :-) called "The Arches". The sign post read: "The Arches were formed over millions of years by a combination of glacial action, erosion by wind and water and other geological changes. Severe storms continue to slowly change The Arches. Far in the future they will probably be reduced to rock pillars or sea stacks."

While walking the beach here at "The Arches" we found a little cairn of rocks that we thought was your normal pile of rocks, symbolizing something special to someone, but found out, as probably most Canadians know, as they have adopted this symbol as the official logo for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, instead of just a cairn it was a inukshuk, which is a design representing a traditional Inuit directional marker which steers people away from danger and symbolizes hospitality. http://www.inukshukgallery.com/inukshuk.html.

Another curiosity at "The Arches" was what I've been calling the dead forest. It was just off of the parking lot. Don't know what happened to the trees here, but the dead forest is stark and quite intriguing to look at.

We enjoyed our trek through this wild and harsh land. The people that we talked to were good, down to earth, hard working people. We appreciated their values and was impressed while going through one town to see their dedication to their hometown soldiers.

We've noticed while driving along these roads less traveled that it is a little hard on Maggie, (remember her? our GPS, that navigated us down the logging road in Nova Scotia) from time to time, to keep her navigation straight, especially on the coastline. She had a difficult time on Manitoulin Island, and sure enough she had us located a little "in the water" here on Newfoundland as well!

Hearing that there was a tall ship in port at Port au Chois, we had to stop by. It was a beautiful day and no hardship to veer off a little closer to the water and go down in the harbor. It was a beautiful site and I only wished that we could have seen her sail into port.

We drove up to the northern tip of Newfoundland to "The Viking RV Park" - was lucky enough to get Internet there - and used it as our base of operations. We stayed a few days and went to L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada. This was the site we mentioned earlier as the 1960 archaeological find of the Leif Erickson settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/index.aspx It was well worth the extra miles and was really fascinating. There was a museum that held some of the artifacts that had been excavated and then we went on a tour, with a gentleman who had grown up in the area and knew the scientists who found the settlement and lead the excavation. He mixed a fascinating story of the discovery, excavation, and life in this part of Newfoundland.

While walking the grounds we saw a "herd" of Moose. It was pretty cool as it was the first moose we'd seen this trip.

Driving up the coast to this northern tip of the island we passed many, many small fishing villages, which seemed deserted. Although some of the inhabitants were probably at jobs or fishing, it seemed pretty evident that people have moved away from the fishing villages. Our tour guide confirmed this. He said that when he was a child, his father told him that the seas around them were simply teaming with fish. Then he said that when he was a child that there was still a lot of fish, enough to support the local fisherman, but now, through the years the fishing grounds have depleted significantly and most of the young folks have to move away. It's very sad to see this way of life disappearing.

Before we left the area we drove on down to the southern tip of the northeastern most tip of Newfoundland to St. Anthony's and then the next day we headed over to St. Barbe to take the ferry to Labrador.

Wish I had more time to tell you about the Labrador visit, but I've run out of time. So this will have to do.

Take care, all!

Joy and

Les

(Readers Digest Version)

-Took a ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Port aux Basque, Newfoundland.

-Drove up the western side of Newfoundland to the tip.

-Visited a Viking settlement, L'anse Aux Meadows, it predates Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. This site rewrote all of the American history books.

-Next, Labrador!