Wednesday, June 17 to Friday June 19, 2009 - Ucluelet
We woke up to a very cloudy sky and so we hurried a bit in packing up the trailer so we would not have to do it in the rain. We were on the road by 9:30 am: the earliest so far on our holiday. We did encounter some rain on the road but by the time we got to our campground in Ucluelet it was dry again and the sun even tried to show her face. After we were set up and had some lunch we decided to take advantage of the nice dry weather and go for a walk. The walk is called Wild Pacific Trail and runs along the shoreline starting at the lighthouse located on the point here in Ucluelet. The trail is a total of 8.4 km long and is broken up in 3 parts. We did the first part this afternoon and it took us a good 11/2 hours to walk 2.5 km because of the viewpoints along the way. The scenery is spectacular and there are viewpoints with benches set up in many places. Any one visiting Ucluelet just has do this walk. Afterwards we went back to our trailer and sat outside. Our campsite has a beautiful view of the harbour and we spent some good time looking out over it, and reading our books.
Thursday - Woke up to a cloudy, foggy sky and the weather forecast called for rain or drizzle but it was dry at that moment. After a lazy breakfast and such the sun started to come out so we decided to go to Mussel Beach, a wilderness campground just south of Ucluelet overlooking the Broken Island group. Unfortunately we did not make it there as the road again was a gravel road and much too bumpy and rough to drive on. So back we went to our trailer to get our raincoats and try to walk another part of the Wild Pacific Trail. This time we went from the 5.5 km point to the end of the trail. As we were walking along Leo went to check out a viewpoint that went down to a bay and a chance to get onto the rocks. I stayed on top and just looked out over the rocks and the bay. As I was doing so I noticed a black bear just rummaging around the rocks there as well. You can imagine how I felt with Leo on his way down there. That bear might have been photographed to death! So I quickly yelled at Leo but luckily he was on his way back up already and had not even seen the bear at all until he got up on top. It was a different experience for sure seeing a bear that close and nowhere to hide from him. But luckily he did see us but took no particular notice of us at all and just kept on turning over rocks looking for things to eat. We watched the bear for a while (Leo taking pictures of course) and decided to continue on the trail as the bear was already behind us and slowly moving in the opposite direction. We finished our walk with no further surprises and got back to our car safe and sound.
We then went to the CO-OP to do some grocery shopping for supper and back to our trailer.
It turned out to be another very nice day with some sunshine of and on and no rain.
Friday - Not much happening today as the rain finally did arrive. I guess it is a good day to update our blog and photos.
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Friday, June 19, 2009
Our Fourth Posting
Sunday, June 07 to Thursday, June 11, 2009 - Port McNeill
Sunday - The day started out with a foggy mist but as the morning went on it cleared up. Our schedule for today was to visit Telegraph Cove and Bear Cove. Bear Cove is where Leo really wanted to go as the logging train would unload the logs here to be sorted, dumped into the Cove as log `booms` and towed by tugboat down the island to Nanaimo for sawing into lumber. But there was no action whatsoever here today so we drove on to Telegraph Cove. We had been told to go and really visit this little village on stilts: but it was a great disappointment for us. To start with you had to pay for parking, and the parking meter was not even working so you had to go and pay at the office. Next we got to walk along the ‘boardwalk’ and look at the old houses of which many had been converted into ‘rooms to rent’ type units. There was also a restaurant and office for the whale watching operation and a ‘bones museum’ housing skeletons of various marine and land animals. Leo later found out that the village was privately owned and that they had ‘blasted away’ a rock hill to build condominiums, an RV campground and another parking lot. The whole place has lost its charm to the tourist dollar. A real shame. I tried to buy a coffee and muffin but at a price of $2.50 for a muffin I passed the opportunity. Next I thought of buying a chocolate milk, only a 250ml container, but at $3.20 I passed it on as well. So I went back to the car and had a drink of water instead. I would not recommend Telegraph Cove to anyone unless you really like touristy type places. But we did again have our sighting of black bears for the day.
Monday - Zeballos and Fair Harbour were on the schedule for today. To get to these 2 places, located on an inlet, we had to take a forestry road. We decided to try our luck in the hope that the road would not be too rough for us. It was a well graded road and we had no problems whatsoever. The logging trucks were still not driving as the whole logging operation was still not back to work due to fire hazard. The road to Zeballos was really nice and scenic and so was the village itself. As I was talking to one of the local fisherman it was recommended we should go on to Fair Harbour as it had more fishing boats and such. Note that Zeballos is a true village with a store, motel, library, pub and some side streets as well. Well after leaving Zeballos for Fair Harbour the road changed to a much narrower road and also a bit rougher to drive. We finally did get to the end of the road and that is exactly what Fair Harbour is - the end of the road with a very small harbour with a couple of docks for boats, but only two or so houses hidden in the trees. There were enough cars parked here but we did not see a lot of people so the owners of these cars must have been out on their boats fishing. We did talk to a man cleaning his fish and he proudly showed us his catch. After talking to him for a little while we went back the same bumpy narrow road. We did hear some noise from above though and when we looked we saw a helicopter doing some ‘logging’ up in this area. It was lifting large logs cut down up on a steep section of mountain and ferrying these down to a clearing beside the road where they could later be loaded onto logging trucks. Naturally we had to stop for the photographer to take a couple (lots) of pictures of this. We finally got back to Zeballos, had a bite to eat and went back to our trailer and to bed. Leo had to get up early the next morning to take pictures of the logging train.
Tuesday, June 9 - As I mentioned Leo got up early to go to ‘Camp A’ to take pictures of the train being loaded with logs which then would be pulled to Bear Cove and unloaded there. Well after about an hour Leo called me to say he was still in town as he had a flat tire and had to buy a new one, but he was ready to go now. I guess driving the forestry roads did do some damage to our tires after all. Now of course he was late for the picture taking at Camp A but he did get some shots of the train cars being loaded. When he got home late that afternoon he told me he had to go again the next morning though to take the missed pictures of them being unloaded again at Beaver Cove. He has a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Wednesday - Leo took off early again to take his pictures of the logging train unloading and when he got back for lunch we decided to visit Malcolm Island for the afternoon. It was not as interesting an island as some of the others but still nice to have seen. Then it was back to our trailer to get ready to move on to Campbell River the next day. During our time in Port Hardy and Port McNeill we had at least 1 bear sighting a day with a total bear count of 13. The most bears we have ever seen on a holiday so far.
The pictures for these days have been updated so have a look there as well.
Thursday June 11 to Tuesday June 16, 2009 - Campbell River
On we went again to our next stop - Campbell River. On the way we stopped at Woss where Leo wanted to talk to someone from the logging railroad and get some more information. After an hour stop over or so we went on again. When we got to Campbell River we found a very nice campground just outside Campbell River on the road to Gold River. While we were waiting for the campground owners to come to help us we noticed 2 hummingbird feeders hanging in front of their kitchen windows with lots, and I mean lots, of hummingbirds flying around: a very nice welcome for us of course. There were 2 kinds of hummingbirds, the Rufous and the Ruby-Throated. You will get an idea how many hummingbirds there were by having a look at our pictures. The owners told us they estimate there are a total of some 75 which are at their feeders almost 24 hours a day, and which consume some 30 kilograms of nectar formula each summer.
We got a nice camp spot and after setting up and eating lunch, went to town to do our grocery shopping for the next couple of days.
Friday - We decided to take another ferry ride and visit Quadra and Cortez Island. First we took the ferry from Campbell River to Quadra, a 10 minute sail, and then drove to the next ferry which would take us to Cortez island on a very pleasant 45 minute sail. We just barely made it on the ferry going there as we were the second last car to get on and there was no room for any more cars. When we got off the ferry there was a long line up of cars and we did not think that every one would be able to get on the ferry for that sailing. This concerned us a bit as there were not that many sailings from Cortez to Quadra, the last one being at 5:50 p.m, and we certainly did not want to be left behind for the night so we decided to be back in time for the second last sailing at 3:50 just in case. We did enjoy Cortez island very much though and we had lunch at a very nice beach park (campground as well) , and visited a unique bay which is almost dry when the tide is out. A few people were digging for clams and when they were done they had big buckets full of them to either eat or sell.
When we got back to the ferry terminal we were the 3rd car in line to get on so we were guaranteed a spot on that sailing. Once back on Quadra Island we took our time driving around. First we had a look at Rebecca Spit: a very nice area with lots of gravel ‘beach’. We walked along the beach for a bit before we moved on. Then we went to see the lighthouse and an Indian village where we got to talk to a lady who sold local art work and who herself did some machine embroidery on a Designer I machine like the one I have. We had to compare notes of course as to what kind of thread she used and also embroidery patterns. Leo did purchase a native wood-carving so we did not walk out totally empty-handed. Next we wanted to have a bite of supper but it was too close to the next ferry sailing to sit down and eat something so we ordered pizza and ate that while we waited for our next ferry to take us back to Campbell River. All in all it was a very nice day.
Saturday - When we first got to Campbell River and checked in at the visitors centre we were kind of discouraged about camping at Gold River as the campground purportedly only had a few spots (15) and there were no services what so ever. So we decided just to take a day trip to Gold River instead and also go down further to the Government wharf on Muchalat Inlet which is another 14 km from Gold River. The road to Gold River was really slow driving because of the many bends in it but it was a very nice road for scenery so we did not mind. The wharf was a disappointment as it was all blocked off by fences so we were not able to get really close to the water at all. We did get to see the cute little tugboats they use for moving the logs on the water in action so it was still worth the drive. On the way back we took a significant side road and drove along Buttle lake in Strathcona Provincial Park. This again was a beautiful scenic drive.
Sunday - We first visited the Farmers Market and no, we did not buy any more plants: we actually did not buy anything at all. While we were there we had a look at the fisherman’s pier: a pier build for fisherman to fish from. After lunch we went for a very nice walk to Elk Falls and in the evening Leo went back to the wharf to take some evening pictures of the boats in the harbour there.
Monday - This was our last day in Campbell River and we went for a walk along the shore, back to fisherman’s pier for an ice cream and back to the trailer so Leo could take some pictures of the hummingbirds.
Again you can find pictures from the above-mentioned days on our photoblog.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - Port Alberni
Today we moved on to Port Alberni and planned on staying overnight there to explore this town a bit more as we have always just driven through it to and from Long Beach. We arrived at our campground around 1 pm so we had lots of time to do our exploring on the same day. Leo wanted to visit an old sawmill which is fully steam-powered and now a national historic site, but when we got there it was not in operation. Opening hours for this mill are Thursday through Monday. But we did get a change to just walk through the site on a self-guided tour. Next we drove around Port Alberni for a while and had supper at an ‘original’ type Drive In. You know: the kind where you drive in, turn on your light when you want to order and the food is brought on a tray which hangs on your car window. We just had to eat there for nostalgic reasons. The last such a place we ever ate at was the A & W one just south of Red Deer many years ago. After we had our supper we went back to our campground and decided that we had seen enough of Port Alberni so we would move on again the next day.
Sunday - The day started out with a foggy mist but as the morning went on it cleared up. Our schedule for today was to visit Telegraph Cove and Bear Cove. Bear Cove is where Leo really wanted to go as the logging train would unload the logs here to be sorted, dumped into the Cove as log `booms` and towed by tugboat down the island to Nanaimo for sawing into lumber. But there was no action whatsoever here today so we drove on to Telegraph Cove. We had been told to go and really visit this little village on stilts: but it was a great disappointment for us. To start with you had to pay for parking, and the parking meter was not even working so you had to go and pay at the office. Next we got to walk along the ‘boardwalk’ and look at the old houses of which many had been converted into ‘rooms to rent’ type units. There was also a restaurant and office for the whale watching operation and a ‘bones museum’ housing skeletons of various marine and land animals. Leo later found out that the village was privately owned and that they had ‘blasted away’ a rock hill to build condominiums, an RV campground and another parking lot. The whole place has lost its charm to the tourist dollar. A real shame. I tried to buy a coffee and muffin but at a price of $2.50 for a muffin I passed the opportunity. Next I thought of buying a chocolate milk, only a 250ml container, but at $3.20 I passed it on as well. So I went back to the car and had a drink of water instead. I would not recommend Telegraph Cove to anyone unless you really like touristy type places. But we did again have our sighting of black bears for the day.
Monday - Zeballos and Fair Harbour were on the schedule for today. To get to these 2 places, located on an inlet, we had to take a forestry road. We decided to try our luck in the hope that the road would not be too rough for us. It was a well graded road and we had no problems whatsoever. The logging trucks were still not driving as the whole logging operation was still not back to work due to fire hazard. The road to Zeballos was really nice and scenic and so was the village itself. As I was talking to one of the local fisherman it was recommended we should go on to Fair Harbour as it had more fishing boats and such. Note that Zeballos is a true village with a store, motel, library, pub and some side streets as well. Well after leaving Zeballos for Fair Harbour the road changed to a much narrower road and also a bit rougher to drive. We finally did get to the end of the road and that is exactly what Fair Harbour is - the end of the road with a very small harbour with a couple of docks for boats, but only two or so houses hidden in the trees. There were enough cars parked here but we did not see a lot of people so the owners of these cars must have been out on their boats fishing. We did talk to a man cleaning his fish and he proudly showed us his catch. After talking to him for a little while we went back the same bumpy narrow road. We did hear some noise from above though and when we looked we saw a helicopter doing some ‘logging’ up in this area. It was lifting large logs cut down up on a steep section of mountain and ferrying these down to a clearing beside the road where they could later be loaded onto logging trucks. Naturally we had to stop for the photographer to take a couple (lots) of pictures of this. We finally got back to Zeballos, had a bite to eat and went back to our trailer and to bed. Leo had to get up early the next morning to take pictures of the logging train.
Tuesday, June 9 - As I mentioned Leo got up early to go to ‘Camp A’ to take pictures of the train being loaded with logs which then would be pulled to Bear Cove and unloaded there. Well after about an hour Leo called me to say he was still in town as he had a flat tire and had to buy a new one, but he was ready to go now. I guess driving the forestry roads did do some damage to our tires after all. Now of course he was late for the picture taking at Camp A but he did get some shots of the train cars being loaded. When he got home late that afternoon he told me he had to go again the next morning though to take the missed pictures of them being unloaded again at Beaver Cove. He has a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Wednesday - Leo took off early again to take his pictures of the logging train unloading and when he got back for lunch we decided to visit Malcolm Island for the afternoon. It was not as interesting an island as some of the others but still nice to have seen. Then it was back to our trailer to get ready to move on to Campbell River the next day. During our time in Port Hardy and Port McNeill we had at least 1 bear sighting a day with a total bear count of 13. The most bears we have ever seen on a holiday so far.
The pictures for these days have been updated so have a look there as well.
Thursday June 11 to Tuesday June 16, 2009 - Campbell River
On we went again to our next stop - Campbell River. On the way we stopped at Woss where Leo wanted to talk to someone from the logging railroad and get some more information. After an hour stop over or so we went on again. When we got to Campbell River we found a very nice campground just outside Campbell River on the road to Gold River. While we were waiting for the campground owners to come to help us we noticed 2 hummingbird feeders hanging in front of their kitchen windows with lots, and I mean lots, of hummingbirds flying around: a very nice welcome for us of course. There were 2 kinds of hummingbirds, the Rufous and the Ruby-Throated. You will get an idea how many hummingbirds there were by having a look at our pictures. The owners told us they estimate there are a total of some 75 which are at their feeders almost 24 hours a day, and which consume some 30 kilograms of nectar formula each summer.
We got a nice camp spot and after setting up and eating lunch, went to town to do our grocery shopping for the next couple of days.
Friday - We decided to take another ferry ride and visit Quadra and Cortez Island. First we took the ferry from Campbell River to Quadra, a 10 minute sail, and then drove to the next ferry which would take us to Cortez island on a very pleasant 45 minute sail. We just barely made it on the ferry going there as we were the second last car to get on and there was no room for any more cars. When we got off the ferry there was a long line up of cars and we did not think that every one would be able to get on the ferry for that sailing. This concerned us a bit as there were not that many sailings from Cortez to Quadra, the last one being at 5:50 p.m, and we certainly did not want to be left behind for the night so we decided to be back in time for the second last sailing at 3:50 just in case. We did enjoy Cortez island very much though and we had lunch at a very nice beach park (campground as well) , and visited a unique bay which is almost dry when the tide is out. A few people were digging for clams and when they were done they had big buckets full of them to either eat or sell.
When we got back to the ferry terminal we were the 3rd car in line to get on so we were guaranteed a spot on that sailing. Once back on Quadra Island we took our time driving around. First we had a look at Rebecca Spit: a very nice area with lots of gravel ‘beach’. We walked along the beach for a bit before we moved on. Then we went to see the lighthouse and an Indian village where we got to talk to a lady who sold local art work and who herself did some machine embroidery on a Designer I machine like the one I have. We had to compare notes of course as to what kind of thread she used and also embroidery patterns. Leo did purchase a native wood-carving so we did not walk out totally empty-handed. Next we wanted to have a bite of supper but it was too close to the next ferry sailing to sit down and eat something so we ordered pizza and ate that while we waited for our next ferry to take us back to Campbell River. All in all it was a very nice day.
Saturday - When we first got to Campbell River and checked in at the visitors centre we were kind of discouraged about camping at Gold River as the campground purportedly only had a few spots (15) and there were no services what so ever. So we decided just to take a day trip to Gold River instead and also go down further to the Government wharf on Muchalat Inlet which is another 14 km from Gold River. The road to Gold River was really slow driving because of the many bends in it but it was a very nice road for scenery so we did not mind. The wharf was a disappointment as it was all blocked off by fences so we were not able to get really close to the water at all. We did get to see the cute little tugboats they use for moving the logs on the water in action so it was still worth the drive. On the way back we took a significant side road and drove along Buttle lake in Strathcona Provincial Park. This again was a beautiful scenic drive.
Sunday - We first visited the Farmers Market and no, we did not buy any more plants: we actually did not buy anything at all. While we were there we had a look at the fisherman’s pier: a pier build for fisherman to fish from. After lunch we went for a very nice walk to Elk Falls and in the evening Leo went back to the wharf to take some evening pictures of the boats in the harbour there.
Monday - This was our last day in Campbell River and we went for a walk along the shore, back to fisherman’s pier for an ice cream and back to the trailer so Leo could take some pictures of the hummingbirds.
Again you can find pictures from the above-mentioned days on our photoblog.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - Port Alberni
Today we moved on to Port Alberni and planned on staying overnight there to explore this town a bit more as we have always just driven through it to and from Long Beach. We arrived at our campground around 1 pm so we had lots of time to do our exploring on the same day. Leo wanted to visit an old sawmill which is fully steam-powered and now a national historic site, but when we got there it was not in operation. Opening hours for this mill are Thursday through Monday. But we did get a change to just walk through the site on a self-guided tour. Next we drove around Port Alberni for a while and had supper at an ‘original’ type Drive In. You know: the kind where you drive in, turn on your light when you want to order and the food is brought on a tray which hangs on your car window. We just had to eat there for nostalgic reasons. The last such a place we ever ate at was the A & W one just south of Red Deer many years ago. After we had our supper we went back to our campground and decided that we had seen enough of Port Alberni so we would move on again the next day.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
June 6, 2009 - Alert Bay
Saturday, June 6 - Alert Bay
We got up on time, took a shower, packed up our tent trailer, and moved southeastwardly along the coast to the new town (for us) of Port McNeill. The forecast was for cloudy weather all day but by the time we were set up at the new campground and ready to do things the weather had changed and the sun was shining again. We planned to take the 2:20 pm ferry to the aboriginal community of Alert Bay on Cormorant Island and the 5:50 pm ferry back. Well things did not work out that way at all. When we got off the ferry we asked a local where we could find the Native Cultural Centre (the museum). He directed us to it but also mentioned we should go and visit the “Big House” as there was a youth conference going on there and it would be open because of it. Normally the Big House is not open for public viewing.
The Cultural Centre was very interesting. One of the greatest traditional social events for the Kwaguitl tribes of this area was the “potlatch” in which a family would host a week-long celebration and during that time give away immense wealth to their tribemates, thereby leaving themselves impoverished but having gained tremendous social status in the community. The missionaries despised these events because they kept native beliefs alive as well, and kept many aboriginals from converting to Christianity. The government was subsequently persuaded to make potlatches illegal as a result. The Alert Bay tribe continued the practice regardless and were subsequently charged with breaking the law. All the items distributed at the potlatch were confiscated and sent to the National Museum in Ottawa and some participants were jailed for a time. After many requests by the tribe in later years to have these artefacts returned, the National Museum finally relented and did return them to the Alert Bay community in the 1970s on the condition that a museum be built to allow the public to see them. The Cultural Centre is the result and has a wonderful collection of authentic native dance masks and many other items.
After we visited the cultural centre we looked in on some aboriginal carvers who were in the process of making a cedar casket painted with traditional designs for an aunt who had passed away the day before, and whose funeral would be the next day. One of the carvers was the same person whom we had asked for directions at the ferry and he again told us to go up to see the Big House. We decided to take is advice and walk up there. It was located in the highest part of the village beside the world`s tallest totem pole (which was completed at that moment by a live bald eagle sitting atop it). When we got there we walked in and were immensely impressed by the interior of the building. It is a big square room with a dirt floor in the middle, in the center of which was a fire pit with an active cedar log fire burning. The roof above the fire pit was vented and the sun was shining in through these ‘windows’. The sunlight shone obliquely on one of the `bleachers` to the side of the interior, and illuminated the smoke such that it looked like a beam of light coming down from a First Nations Heaven. The dirt floor was surround by such bleachers on 3 sides and the ‘front side’ was a stage-like area.
We sat down on the bleachers and started to enjoy the hustle and bustle of what was going on. There were people there of all ages. Eventually supper was announced and there was a call for volunteers to serve dinner to the elders, who, following native custom, are the first to be served a meal. Many young people jumped up and started serving the elders before the rest of the crowd got to eat. And yes, Leo and I are now officially Elders as we were served a plate of food as well: smoked salmon, half a crab, potato salad and a ceasar salad. I was served first and Leo is convinced that he was only included because he was accompanying an elder and was not seen as an elder himself, but there are other opinions on that subject. We certainly did not expect to be included in these festivities but we were told by some ‘elders’ that we would be very welcome to take part. We even got a raffle ticket for the door prizes: that is how much we were welcomed as part of their community. We thoroughly enjoyed our Big House visit and I hope you will as well by looking at the pictures Leo took of this event. We finally took the last ferry off the island back to our campground in the town of Port McNeill at 9:00, rather than the planned 5:50 ferry..
We got up on time, took a shower, packed up our tent trailer, and moved southeastwardly along the coast to the new town (for us) of Port McNeill. The forecast was for cloudy weather all day but by the time we were set up at the new campground and ready to do things the weather had changed and the sun was shining again. We planned to take the 2:20 pm ferry to the aboriginal community of Alert Bay on Cormorant Island and the 5:50 pm ferry back. Well things did not work out that way at all. When we got off the ferry we asked a local where we could find the Native Cultural Centre (the museum). He directed us to it but also mentioned we should go and visit the “Big House” as there was a youth conference going on there and it would be open because of it. Normally the Big House is not open for public viewing.
The Cultural Centre was very interesting. One of the greatest traditional social events for the Kwaguitl tribes of this area was the “potlatch” in which a family would host a week-long celebration and during that time give away immense wealth to their tribemates, thereby leaving themselves impoverished but having gained tremendous social status in the community. The missionaries despised these events because they kept native beliefs alive as well, and kept many aboriginals from converting to Christianity. The government was subsequently persuaded to make potlatches illegal as a result. The Alert Bay tribe continued the practice regardless and were subsequently charged with breaking the law. All the items distributed at the potlatch were confiscated and sent to the National Museum in Ottawa and some participants were jailed for a time. After many requests by the tribe in later years to have these artefacts returned, the National Museum finally relented and did return them to the Alert Bay community in the 1970s on the condition that a museum be built to allow the public to see them. The Cultural Centre is the result and has a wonderful collection of authentic native dance masks and many other items.
After we visited the cultural centre we looked in on some aboriginal carvers who were in the process of making a cedar casket painted with traditional designs for an aunt who had passed away the day before, and whose funeral would be the next day. One of the carvers was the same person whom we had asked for directions at the ferry and he again told us to go up to see the Big House. We decided to take is advice and walk up there. It was located in the highest part of the village beside the world`s tallest totem pole (which was completed at that moment by a live bald eagle sitting atop it). When we got there we walked in and were immensely impressed by the interior of the building. It is a big square room with a dirt floor in the middle, in the center of which was a fire pit with an active cedar log fire burning. The roof above the fire pit was vented and the sun was shining in through these ‘windows’. The sunlight shone obliquely on one of the `bleachers` to the side of the interior, and illuminated the smoke such that it looked like a beam of light coming down from a First Nations Heaven. The dirt floor was surround by such bleachers on 3 sides and the ‘front side’ was a stage-like area.
We sat down on the bleachers and started to enjoy the hustle and bustle of what was going on. There were people there of all ages. Eventually supper was announced and there was a call for volunteers to serve dinner to the elders, who, following native custom, are the first to be served a meal. Many young people jumped up and started serving the elders before the rest of the crowd got to eat. And yes, Leo and I are now officially Elders as we were served a plate of food as well: smoked salmon, half a crab, potato salad and a ceasar salad. I was served first and Leo is convinced that he was only included because he was accompanying an elder and was not seen as an elder himself, but there are other opinions on that subject. We certainly did not expect to be included in these festivities but we were told by some ‘elders’ that we would be very welcome to take part. We even got a raffle ticket for the door prizes: that is how much we were welcomed as part of their community. We thoroughly enjoyed our Big House visit and I hope you will as well by looking at the pictures Leo took of this event. We finally took the last ferry off the island back to our campground in the town of Port McNeill at 9:00, rather than the planned 5:50 ferry..
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Second posting of our trip
Sunday May 24, 2009
Today we took a trip to Victoria: first to see how long it would take us to get there from our campsite as we were planning to go on a train trip to Courtenay which left Victoria at 8 am. during a succeeding day. Secondly, we went to visit the Royal British Columbia Museum. Lucille (our TomTom GPS) took us directly to the train station located downtown but it was closed and would not open again until the next morning 7 am. Hence, we were not able to ask questions or book our trip as we had hoped. (But we did book our trip online in the evening to make sure we did get a seat on the train). We then went for our planned trip to the museum, which is very nice but also very expensive in my opinion.
We left the museum around 3:30 pm and now had to kill some time as Leo wanted to wait for the train to return so he could take some pictures of it. Our planned outing on it is a 10 hour round trip and we figured the train would arrive around 6 pm. Not so. On Sunday’s it leaves at 10 in the morning and comes back at 8 in the evening. So we had more time to kill. We decided to have our supper, one of Mexican food (in a restaurant which had not even burned down!). After we finished and walked around a bit we still had to wait for at least an hour before the train arrived. We killed some further time checking out a miniatures store close by which had fantastic doll houses and all the accessories one might possibly wish for one. A picture of this is to be found elsewhere in our blog.
Finally the train arrived: a 2 car passenger set and that was all. Leo got to take his pictures and back we went to our trailer and almost straight to bed.
Monday May 25 to Friday May 29, 2009
Today we packed up and moved to one of our favourite campgrounds on the Island - French Beach Provincial Park. But first we stopped and did some grocery shopping in the town of Sooke. Leo drove around the campground at least 3 times to find the ‘perfect’ spot to camp. And he did, in a very private spot with lots of afternoon sun. French Beach is a campground with very tall trees and most camp spots do not see much sun shine at all so this was a decided bonus. After we set up the trailer we had a nice walk on the beach and I almost fell asleep sitting on a log it was so nice. There was wind but when one was sheltered from it the sun was hot. It was a nice start to our stay at the almost empty campground. Its emptiness now was in stark contrast to its being fully occupied on the preceding Friday when we had first tried to get a spot in it.
Tuesday started out with rain so we stayed at the trailer and did some catching up on our reading. By afternoon the sun came out and again we took a stroll along the beach. I got a free ‘hot rock’ treatment by finding a sheltered spot on the rocks to rest on. It was another perfect day.
Wednesday we visited some old favourite locations like Jordan River and Port Renfrew. Things here have changed from when we were here last 20+ years ago. The only service station past Sooke at Jordan River had closed and so had the snackbar we ate at many times with the kids. The road to Port Renfrew is now totally paved and the town is growing, with lots of new development in evidence. We were going to go to China Beach but had a quick look to see if we could go to Botanical Beach instead. They had improved the trail (and trail markers) tremendously so we decided to try it. It was a very nice walk and Botanical Beach was still as pristine as we left it those 20 some years ago. Unfortunately it was high tide so Leo did not get too many pictures. Next we drove to China Beach campground, which is a brand new campground and also to the start of the Juan de Fuca Marine trail which is a 47 km trail along the coast to Port Renfrew. It is similar to the West Coast trail but you do not have to book your time here as yet.
Then it was back to our trailer we went, where we had a nice fire and went to bed early, as the next day we had to get up early to take our train ride to Courtenay, BC, with the train leaving at 8 am.
Thursday we got up at 5:30 am to go to Victoria to board our train. Again it was a nice sunny day and we sat on the train ALL day. We got off at Courtenay for a 20 minute stop over. The scenery at times was worth the train ride for sure. We got back to Victoria around 6 pm and drove home for supper. The next morning we would be moving on again.
Friday May 29 to Wednesday June 3, 2009
Friday - Today was our day to move on to the Comox area. The first part of the trip was very stressful with all the traffic around Victoria and Nanaimo: certainly not a pleasant drive. After Parksville the traffic started to thin out and slow down. and the trip became much more pleasant. The Victoria area is not one I would want to retire to, for sure. We stopped at the Courtenay information Centre to ask about campgrounds. Past Parksville there are not too many Provincial Park campsites any more, but they directed us to a very nice private campsite. It was very open with only 5 or so spots taken. We had our pick again for the perfect spot. By this time the day temperature had shot up to 27 degrees so it started to get hot here. After we set up our trailer we did some grocery shopping again and had a nice quiet meal at the trailer.
Saturday - The lady at the visitor centre told us we ought to go to the Farmer’s Market in the morning. So we did, and came home with Klaas, a 20 cm tall blue spruce tree grown from seed, with Tiny and Tim, 2 Tiny Tim tomato plants, and with 2 more small plants for in my garden at home. I know! How stupid can we get when we have 4 more weeks of vacation time left? In the afternoon we went for a very nice bike ride around Courtenay and back to Super Store to buy a roasted chicken for supper.
Sunday - We did not do much in the morning. Well actually we did not do much all day, as Leo was reading a book and had to finish it: Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens. This was a first for me to see Leo not being able to put down his book, and besides that it was a first for me to see Leo read a fiction type book. But he did finish it that afternoon and we again went for a bike ride to Goose Spit Regional Park: a park where people go for picnics, campfires and just walks along the beach.
Monday - Today we took the bus to the nearby town of Cumberland and rode our bikes back. I won’t go into much detail, which your imagination is free to fill in as you may like, but I got home before Leo and had to call him on the cell phone to let him know I was home already. I do have to mention the fantastic local transportation system they have here. They have buses going to all small surrounding towns on a regular schedule. All the buses have bike racks up front for 2 bikes so if it gets too hilly you can hop the bus and ride back. I am most impressed with the system! While we were out on our bike trip the campground filled with a group of cyclists for a ‘hub and spoke’ event. This is were daily biking tours are planned for the participants to different locations within the area, but each day’s trip originates at the same spot, namely our campground. This group was for those 55 years and over, with many of them into their 70s and still sleeping in tents.
Tuesday - We had heard from participants from the cycling group that there would be a trip going to Denman and Hornby Islands with at total distance cycled of about 92 km. This would be riding from the campground and back. To do this tour you did have to take 2 ferries so we decided to drive to the first ferry, and cut of 22 km both ways from our trip. Well the ferry ride was fine but for some reason they forgot to flatten the islands before I came so we had to tackle quite a hill coming off the first ferry and also going across the island to the next ferry. I admit I had to walk up some of the hills as they were just too much for me to bike up. But we did do the tour: first Denman Island and then Hornby Island. It was a very nice day but I had a very sore behind by the time we got back to our trailer. Leo did yeoman duty each night after out cycling trips in massaging it, however. Wednesday was going to be a REST day.
Wednesday June 3 to Saturday June 6, 2009
It was time to pack up again and go on close to the tip of Vancouver Island, the town of Port Hardy. Yes the good road stops in Port Hardy. From here on you either travel by boat or swim. Driving to Port Hardy was a total different experience. We took a very scenic route, highway 19A, to Campbell River and from there on there is only one road to Port Hardy. It is a very quiet road with only trees on either side: no houses, no signs, no side roads, no nothing. Some logging roads are be found at times but that is all. We did enjoy the drive very much though and just loved the ruggedness of the area. When we got to Port Hardy we visited the Visitor Centre and were served by a lady raised in High River. It is amazing how many people you meet here who have lived in Alberta and moved here, all of them swearing they will never go back again. We checked out some campsites and ended up at the Quatse River campsite: a very nice campground with the basic rule - no food of any kind out in the open due to the generous presence of black bears in the area. We even had to dump our sink waste water in the sewer dump. The campground is associated with a fish hatchery and when we toured it we were told that in the fall the salmon swim back up the river to spawn and the bears also come and fish for them. This means for us that we will have to come back in the fall sometime and watch the salmon and the bears feasting on them. Apparently the preceding September there were a group of 7 bears which were eating salmon in this fashion right beside our camp spot. After we set up our trailer and had a bite to eat we went to Coal Harbour and saw our first black bear: right along the road eating some horsetail plants. We stopped with the bear right beside my window, but what Leo called ``some local yokels`` drove by, honked their horn, and the bear took off before we had a chance to take any pictures. But it was our first sighting of many to come.
Thursday - We tried to go the Cape Scott Park which is supposed to be just beautiful, and in which there is a wheelchair accessible trail to the beach. To get there you have to take a logging road and before we left we talked to the campground manager who warned us that we have to make sure we have a spare tire and also that ``tire stuff`` you can spray into your tire to fix a flat if needed. We said we would give it a try anyway and that we could always turn back if the road became too rough. The road started off fine but after a while we ended up on pieces of very coarse rock with sharp edges, such that we decided to turn around. We were not even half way there. And they advertise a wheelchair accessible trail at the end? Go figure! Instead we went to town and strolled along the harbour and beach. After supper we went to Storey Beach to watch the sunset and had another nice walk along the beach. Leo had some fun photographing a heron which would fly away every time Leo was ready to take his picture. Then it was back to the trailer after a very nice hot sunny day.
Friday - Friday we visited the Fish hatchery and took a long walk in the forest along the Quatse river and the Estuary. Following this we returned to the trailer for a warm lunch and then drove to Port Alice to watch the sun set again. It was a very nice drive on a paved road, and we had another bear sighting again on this trip of course.
You will find images of many of our visit sites in the photo album of this blog, with the link to this accessible in the left column.
Today we took a trip to Victoria: first to see how long it would take us to get there from our campsite as we were planning to go on a train trip to Courtenay which left Victoria at 8 am. during a succeeding day. Secondly, we went to visit the Royal British Columbia Museum. Lucille (our TomTom GPS) took us directly to the train station located downtown but it was closed and would not open again until the next morning 7 am. Hence, we were not able to ask questions or book our trip as we had hoped. (But we did book our trip online in the evening to make sure we did get a seat on the train). We then went for our planned trip to the museum, which is very nice but also very expensive in my opinion.
We left the museum around 3:30 pm and now had to kill some time as Leo wanted to wait for the train to return so he could take some pictures of it. Our planned outing on it is a 10 hour round trip and we figured the train would arrive around 6 pm. Not so. On Sunday’s it leaves at 10 in the morning and comes back at 8 in the evening. So we had more time to kill. We decided to have our supper, one of Mexican food (in a restaurant which had not even burned down!). After we finished and walked around a bit we still had to wait for at least an hour before the train arrived. We killed some further time checking out a miniatures store close by which had fantastic doll houses and all the accessories one might possibly wish for one. A picture of this is to be found elsewhere in our blog.
Finally the train arrived: a 2 car passenger set and that was all. Leo got to take his pictures and back we went to our trailer and almost straight to bed.
Monday May 25 to Friday May 29, 2009
Today we packed up and moved to one of our favourite campgrounds on the Island - French Beach Provincial Park. But first we stopped and did some grocery shopping in the town of Sooke. Leo drove around the campground at least 3 times to find the ‘perfect’ spot to camp. And he did, in a very private spot with lots of afternoon sun. French Beach is a campground with very tall trees and most camp spots do not see much sun shine at all so this was a decided bonus. After we set up the trailer we had a nice walk on the beach and I almost fell asleep sitting on a log it was so nice. There was wind but when one was sheltered from it the sun was hot. It was a nice start to our stay at the almost empty campground. Its emptiness now was in stark contrast to its being fully occupied on the preceding Friday when we had first tried to get a spot in it.
Tuesday started out with rain so we stayed at the trailer and did some catching up on our reading. By afternoon the sun came out and again we took a stroll along the beach. I got a free ‘hot rock’ treatment by finding a sheltered spot on the rocks to rest on. It was another perfect day.
Wednesday we visited some old favourite locations like Jordan River and Port Renfrew. Things here have changed from when we were here last 20+ years ago. The only service station past Sooke at Jordan River had closed and so had the snackbar we ate at many times with the kids. The road to Port Renfrew is now totally paved and the town is growing, with lots of new development in evidence. We were going to go to China Beach but had a quick look to see if we could go to Botanical Beach instead. They had improved the trail (and trail markers) tremendously so we decided to try it. It was a very nice walk and Botanical Beach was still as pristine as we left it those 20 some years ago. Unfortunately it was high tide so Leo did not get too many pictures. Next we drove to China Beach campground, which is a brand new campground and also to the start of the Juan de Fuca Marine trail which is a 47 km trail along the coast to Port Renfrew. It is similar to the West Coast trail but you do not have to book your time here as yet.
Then it was back to our trailer we went, where we had a nice fire and went to bed early, as the next day we had to get up early to take our train ride to Courtenay, BC, with the train leaving at 8 am.
Thursday we got up at 5:30 am to go to Victoria to board our train. Again it was a nice sunny day and we sat on the train ALL day. We got off at Courtenay for a 20 minute stop over. The scenery at times was worth the train ride for sure. We got back to Victoria around 6 pm and drove home for supper. The next morning we would be moving on again.
Friday May 29 to Wednesday June 3, 2009
Friday - Today was our day to move on to the Comox area. The first part of the trip was very stressful with all the traffic around Victoria and Nanaimo: certainly not a pleasant drive. After Parksville the traffic started to thin out and slow down. and the trip became much more pleasant. The Victoria area is not one I would want to retire to, for sure. We stopped at the Courtenay information Centre to ask about campgrounds. Past Parksville there are not too many Provincial Park campsites any more, but they directed us to a very nice private campsite. It was very open with only 5 or so spots taken. We had our pick again for the perfect spot. By this time the day temperature had shot up to 27 degrees so it started to get hot here. After we set up our trailer we did some grocery shopping again and had a nice quiet meal at the trailer.
Saturday - The lady at the visitor centre told us we ought to go to the Farmer’s Market in the morning. So we did, and came home with Klaas, a 20 cm tall blue spruce tree grown from seed, with Tiny and Tim, 2 Tiny Tim tomato plants, and with 2 more small plants for in my garden at home. I know! How stupid can we get when we have 4 more weeks of vacation time left? In the afternoon we went for a very nice bike ride around Courtenay and back to Super Store to buy a roasted chicken for supper.
Sunday - We did not do much in the morning. Well actually we did not do much all day, as Leo was reading a book and had to finish it: Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens. This was a first for me to see Leo not being able to put down his book, and besides that it was a first for me to see Leo read a fiction type book. But he did finish it that afternoon and we again went for a bike ride to Goose Spit Regional Park: a park where people go for picnics, campfires and just walks along the beach.
Monday - Today we took the bus to the nearby town of Cumberland and rode our bikes back. I won’t go into much detail, which your imagination is free to fill in as you may like, but I got home before Leo and had to call him on the cell phone to let him know I was home already. I do have to mention the fantastic local transportation system they have here. They have buses going to all small surrounding towns on a regular schedule. All the buses have bike racks up front for 2 bikes so if it gets too hilly you can hop the bus and ride back. I am most impressed with the system! While we were out on our bike trip the campground filled with a group of cyclists for a ‘hub and spoke’ event. This is were daily biking tours are planned for the participants to different locations within the area, but each day’s trip originates at the same spot, namely our campground. This group was for those 55 years and over, with many of them into their 70s and still sleeping in tents.
Tuesday - We had heard from participants from the cycling group that there would be a trip going to Denman and Hornby Islands with at total distance cycled of about 92 km. This would be riding from the campground and back. To do this tour you did have to take 2 ferries so we decided to drive to the first ferry, and cut of 22 km both ways from our trip. Well the ferry ride was fine but for some reason they forgot to flatten the islands before I came so we had to tackle quite a hill coming off the first ferry and also going across the island to the next ferry. I admit I had to walk up some of the hills as they were just too much for me to bike up. But we did do the tour: first Denman Island and then Hornby Island. It was a very nice day but I had a very sore behind by the time we got back to our trailer. Leo did yeoman duty each night after out cycling trips in massaging it, however. Wednesday was going to be a REST day.
Wednesday June 3 to Saturday June 6, 2009
It was time to pack up again and go on close to the tip of Vancouver Island, the town of Port Hardy. Yes the good road stops in Port Hardy. From here on you either travel by boat or swim. Driving to Port Hardy was a total different experience. We took a very scenic route, highway 19A, to Campbell River and from there on there is only one road to Port Hardy. It is a very quiet road with only trees on either side: no houses, no signs, no side roads, no nothing. Some logging roads are be found at times but that is all. We did enjoy the drive very much though and just loved the ruggedness of the area. When we got to Port Hardy we visited the Visitor Centre and were served by a lady raised in High River. It is amazing how many people you meet here who have lived in Alberta and moved here, all of them swearing they will never go back again. We checked out some campsites and ended up at the Quatse River campsite: a very nice campground with the basic rule - no food of any kind out in the open due to the generous presence of black bears in the area. We even had to dump our sink waste water in the sewer dump. The campground is associated with a fish hatchery and when we toured it we were told that in the fall the salmon swim back up the river to spawn and the bears also come and fish for them. This means for us that we will have to come back in the fall sometime and watch the salmon and the bears feasting on them. Apparently the preceding September there were a group of 7 bears which were eating salmon in this fashion right beside our camp spot. After we set up our trailer and had a bite to eat we went to Coal Harbour and saw our first black bear: right along the road eating some horsetail plants. We stopped with the bear right beside my window, but what Leo called ``some local yokels`` drove by, honked their horn, and the bear took off before we had a chance to take any pictures. But it was our first sighting of many to come.
Thursday - We tried to go the Cape Scott Park which is supposed to be just beautiful, and in which there is a wheelchair accessible trail to the beach. To get there you have to take a logging road and before we left we talked to the campground manager who warned us that we have to make sure we have a spare tire and also that ``tire stuff`` you can spray into your tire to fix a flat if needed. We said we would give it a try anyway and that we could always turn back if the road became too rough. The road started off fine but after a while we ended up on pieces of very coarse rock with sharp edges, such that we decided to turn around. We were not even half way there. And they advertise a wheelchair accessible trail at the end? Go figure! Instead we went to town and strolled along the harbour and beach. After supper we went to Storey Beach to watch the sunset and had another nice walk along the beach. Leo had some fun photographing a heron which would fly away every time Leo was ready to take his picture. Then it was back to the trailer after a very nice hot sunny day.
Friday - Friday we visited the Fish hatchery and took a long walk in the forest along the Quatse river and the Estuary. Following this we returned to the trailer for a warm lunch and then drove to Port Alice to watch the sun set again. It was a very nice drive on a paved road, and we had another bear sighting again on this trip of course.
You will find images of many of our visit sites in the photo album of this blog, with the link to this accessible in the left column.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Finally our first posting!!!
Sunday May 17, 2009
First day of our vacation. Leo decided to leave Calgary that afternoon as the weather forecast called for snow in Calgary and Banff and he wanted to avoid driving through the slush and snow over the Kicking Horse Pass in the Rocky Mountains. We left Calgary at around 5 pm and got as far as Golden, B.C. that evening. No snow was seen falling from the skies as we drove but the mountains were covered with fresh snow all around us.It was a very nice drive out as there was not a lot of traffic on the roads and no stopping for road construction at all. I guess driving on a Sunday on a long weekend has advantages.We were treated to some wildlife as well like a black bear running along the ditch (behind the fence) and lots of elk and some deer. We left Calgary with some trees coming into leaf to no leaf at all on the trees around Banff, to trees with partial leaf again around Golden. So we went from early spring to winter and to a late spring again on our first day of vacation.
Monday May 18, 2009
We left Golden around 10 in the morning and took our time getting to our next destination - Goldpan campground - Leo’s favourite campground along the Thompson river where there are train tracks on both sides of the river and the campground in between. The North side is the CN tracks and the South side the CP tracks, but the tracks are shared by both companies and one is used for all westbound trains and the other one for all eastbounds. We stayed here for 4 nights and to Leo’s delight we arrived to a ‘rail grinder train’ waiting to do some work the next evening. This meant of course that Leo was gone for the evening and early night taking pictures of this spectacular spark-spewing train in action. Wednesday we spend the day in Ashcroft, shopping and reminiscing of the good times we had there a couple of years ago. This time it rained, hailed and snowed while we were there so it was quite different from the 40 degrees Celsius we had there before. Thursday evening Leo went out again to take some more night pictures of trains and did not get back until late again.
Friday May 22, 2009
Today our plan was to get to the Island and depending on the time we arrived decide how far we would go. After a very hectic drive through traffic around Vancouver we arrived at the ferry terminal around 2:30 pm. We were lucky to get onto the 3 pm sailing. The weather was perfect for the crossing and we were treated to a sighting of 3 seals. We arrived at Schwarz Bay around 4:40 pm and went on our way again to our next destination - French Beach campground. Traffic again was pretty hectic from the ferry to Victoria with all the weekend travellers on the road.Lucille (our TomTom) guided us to the campground without any problems but unfortunately the campground was booked full for the weekend. Back we drove to Sooke in the hope we could find a campground for us to stay the weekend. We found a very nice campground in the centre of town with power, water and hot showers (Joanne!).
Saturday May 23, 2009
Another sunny day, although the nights and mornings are pretty cold (5 to 6 degrees). Once the sun starts shining on our trailer it warms up pretty fast inside. We took our time getting started and decided to take a walking tour of Sooke. Things have changed since we were here last, 20 years ago at least we figure. But the bike shop, which was for sale at that time, is still there and Leo was able to buy a mirror for his bike.The Government wharf is now off-limits for fishing of any kind but they built a beautiful walkway and ‘fishing’ area over the “Lagoon” where you can now fish for crab. It certainly brought back old memories seeing people throw out their nets and pulling them in with the hope of a good crab catch. And so they did, big ones and little ones. We also went to a couple of garage sales and I purchased a small cooking pot for $1. (Leo did not buy a single thing!!!) We visited a quilt show and admired many quilts made by local artists. Afterwards we went to the Sooke Potholes, swimming spots in the Sooke River, and back to our trailer for supper. We built a nice fire and enjoyed our evening sitting around the fire reading a book.
First day of our vacation. Leo decided to leave Calgary that afternoon as the weather forecast called for snow in Calgary and Banff and he wanted to avoid driving through the slush and snow over the Kicking Horse Pass in the Rocky Mountains. We left Calgary at around 5 pm and got as far as Golden, B.C. that evening. No snow was seen falling from the skies as we drove but the mountains were covered with fresh snow all around us.It was a very nice drive out as there was not a lot of traffic on the roads and no stopping for road construction at all. I guess driving on a Sunday on a long weekend has advantages.We were treated to some wildlife as well like a black bear running along the ditch (behind the fence) and lots of elk and some deer. We left Calgary with some trees coming into leaf to no leaf at all on the trees around Banff, to trees with partial leaf again around Golden. So we went from early spring to winter and to a late spring again on our first day of vacation.
Monday May 18, 2009
We left Golden around 10 in the morning and took our time getting to our next destination - Goldpan campground - Leo’s favourite campground along the Thompson river where there are train tracks on both sides of the river and the campground in between. The North side is the CN tracks and the South side the CP tracks, but the tracks are shared by both companies and one is used for all westbound trains and the other one for all eastbounds. We stayed here for 4 nights and to Leo’s delight we arrived to a ‘rail grinder train’ waiting to do some work the next evening. This meant of course that Leo was gone for the evening and early night taking pictures of this spectacular spark-spewing train in action. Wednesday we spend the day in Ashcroft, shopping and reminiscing of the good times we had there a couple of years ago. This time it rained, hailed and snowed while we were there so it was quite different from the 40 degrees Celsius we had there before. Thursday evening Leo went out again to take some more night pictures of trains and did not get back until late again.
Friday May 22, 2009
Today our plan was to get to the Island and depending on the time we arrived decide how far we would go. After a very hectic drive through traffic around Vancouver we arrived at the ferry terminal around 2:30 pm. We were lucky to get onto the 3 pm sailing. The weather was perfect for the crossing and we were treated to a sighting of 3 seals. We arrived at Schwarz Bay around 4:40 pm and went on our way again to our next destination - French Beach campground. Traffic again was pretty hectic from the ferry to Victoria with all the weekend travellers on the road.Lucille (our TomTom) guided us to the campground without any problems but unfortunately the campground was booked full for the weekend. Back we drove to Sooke in the hope we could find a campground for us to stay the weekend. We found a very nice campground in the centre of town with power, water and hot showers (Joanne!).
Saturday May 23, 2009
Another sunny day, although the nights and mornings are pretty cold (5 to 6 degrees). Once the sun starts shining on our trailer it warms up pretty fast inside. We took our time getting started and decided to take a walking tour of Sooke. Things have changed since we were here last, 20 years ago at least we figure. But the bike shop, which was for sale at that time, is still there and Leo was able to buy a mirror for his bike.The Government wharf is now off-limits for fishing of any kind but they built a beautiful walkway and ‘fishing’ area over the “Lagoon” where you can now fish for crab. It certainly brought back old memories seeing people throw out their nets and pulling them in with the hope of a good crab catch. And so they did, big ones and little ones. We also went to a couple of garage sales and I purchased a small cooking pot for $1. (Leo did not buy a single thing!!!) We visited a quilt show and admired many quilts made by local artists. Afterwards we went to the Sooke Potholes, swimming spots in the Sooke River, and back to our trailer for supper. We built a nice fire and enjoyed our evening sitting around the fire reading a book.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Yes we did get home
Yes we did arrive home after a fantastic vacation but we never did post that last blog.
Now almost 8 month later we are going on another trip. We will try to post at regular intervals and share with you what we see and experience on our travels to and on Vancouver Island.
Hope you will join us again on our trip this summer.
See you soon!!!
Now almost 8 month later we are going on another trip. We will try to post at regular intervals and share with you what we see and experience on our travels to and on Vancouver Island.
Hope you will join us again on our trip this summer.
See you soon!!!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Day 86, 87 & 88 - Kenora, Ontario to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
Day 86 – Nipigon to Kenora, Ontario
September 22, 2008
Luckily the rain stopped overnight so we again were spared the nuisance of having to pack up our trailer in the rain. Once more we got up on time as the day would be a long one with about 550 km to drive through Ontario again. This province is just endless. It is the largest province in Canada of course, but travelling through it is made worse by the fact that its longest dimension lies east to west. This is our 4th or 5th day driving through it and we still are have not reached the Manitoba border. I think Leo told me before that just the north end of the Lake Superior is something like 864 km long. All I know is that it is a very long drive from one end to the other end.
We gained another hour shortly after we left Nipigon as we entered the Central Time Zone which gave us lots of time to get to our campsite. We found a really nice RV park on highway 17 just east of Kenora along Long Bow Lake which is in the Lake of the Woods area. We got here early enough that after we set up the trailer Leo went out to take some pictures of the surrounding area and perhaps of some trains in Kenora. I had hoped he would get some pictures taken before it started to rain again as it looked like we were in for another thunderstorm.
Out of all the things he could have photographed, he wound up taking pictures of the mineralizations in the granite of the Canadian Shield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Shield) as shown in the many rock cuts which have been blasted out to make paths for the highways in this province. He really loves this granite rock here, and is always impressed by the fact that it is 3.5 billion years old, being amongst the oldest rocks in the world. In a map of the Lake of the Woods which he saw he claims he can see various arcs in the shorelines hereabouts which represent ancient meteorite strikes from the early millennia after the formation of the Solar System when large meteorites did still frequently strike the earth. As the Canadian Shield has been little altered since that time, he likes to imagine it retaining better evidence of these strikes than most other places on earth. I have no idea whether there is any scientific support for these ideas, but he believes them nevertheless.
But I think he is really getting a bit desperate with these photos of rocks, and you are free to agree with me if you wish. If you do find them interesting, then please don’t say so or it will just encourage him to take more in future. Take a look at these pictures and decide for yourself.
Tomorrow we will go to Winnipeg and visit with our old neighbours before we move on again closer to Calgary.
Pictures for today can be found here.
Day 87 – Kenora, Ontario to Brandon, Manitoba September 23, 2008
We had a late start today as we again were hit by a thunderstorm and rain during the night. It was a pleasure to listen to the thunder rolling through the sky but it did keep us from sleeping for a few hours. The thunder seems different in Eastern Canada than in Alberta. Back home many of the lightning strikes seem to go nicely down from the clouds to the ground. But in the East, at least from what we have experienced, the lighting is more often intracloud rather than directed at the ground. If you count seconds after a flash of nearby lightning you can consequently often hear a peal of thunder rolling along the sky further and further away for a full 25 seconds until the next nearby lightning flash commences. Listening to all of this was a delight in its own right, although it did interfere with our sleep for a while, as did the strong rain which followed.
Once we were on the road the weather slowly cleared up and by the time we got to Winnipeg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg) the sun was shining again and it looked like it would stay dry for a while.
We visited our old neighbours Shirl and Jim Kress in their new home in Winnipeg and had a really nice visit with them. We got caught up on what they had done the last few months and talked about their plans for renovations to their new home. It looked like they were starting to settle down in their new surroundings.
We were back on the road again by 4 p.m. and wanted to get as far as we could towards the Saskatchewan border as Manitoba is mosquito country, and as I still have fresh memories of the plagues of mosquitoes we endured when we came through on our way East originally. We made it as far as Brandon, and yes, there still were a couple of mosquitoes, but they were nothing to worry about. We did not even have to go on a mosquito hunt in the trailer before we went to bed.
It was late by the time we set up our trailer so after uploading another couple of blogs with pictures we went to bed.
Day 88 – Brandon, Manitoba to Moose Jaw, SaskatchewanSeptember 24, 2008
Our plans for today are to get to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_Jaw,_Saskatchewan) for our last stretch home. We also choose Moose Jaw as it has a big train yard with a working turntable, if Google Earth is to be believed, so Leo would be able to take some pictures. The sun was shining and it was a real nice fall day with the smell of the leaves, the ripe grain still left in some of the fields, and the yellow colours of the trees presenting a very enjoyable view.
We got to the Moose Jaw campground around 3 p.m. and Leo was in his glory with all he had seen in trains so far already. After we set up the trailer he took off to ‘explore’ and I got to sit outside and do some reading.
After Leo`s dubious experiment with rock photos I have decided not to publish any of his pictures from today as they were just shots of various locomotives of CP Rail and other companies from which they had leased machines and I feared losing more blog readers if I did include them! No pictures were taken again during our drive itself today, but then we have travelled this road on our way out so we have seen it all before.
September 22, 2008
Luckily the rain stopped overnight so we again were spared the nuisance of having to pack up our trailer in the rain. Once more we got up on time as the day would be a long one with about 550 km to drive through Ontario again. This province is just endless. It is the largest province in Canada of course, but travelling through it is made worse by the fact that its longest dimension lies east to west. This is our 4th or 5th day driving through it and we still are have not reached the Manitoba border. I think Leo told me before that just the north end of the Lake Superior is something like 864 km long. All I know is that it is a very long drive from one end to the other end.
We gained another hour shortly after we left Nipigon as we entered the Central Time Zone which gave us lots of time to get to our campsite. We found a really nice RV park on highway 17 just east of Kenora along Long Bow Lake which is in the Lake of the Woods area. We got here early enough that after we set up the trailer Leo went out to take some pictures of the surrounding area and perhaps of some trains in Kenora. I had hoped he would get some pictures taken before it started to rain again as it looked like we were in for another thunderstorm.
Out of all the things he could have photographed, he wound up taking pictures of the mineralizations in the granite of the Canadian Shield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Shield) as shown in the many rock cuts which have been blasted out to make paths for the highways in this province. He really loves this granite rock here, and is always impressed by the fact that it is 3.5 billion years old, being amongst the oldest rocks in the world. In a map of the Lake of the Woods which he saw he claims he can see various arcs in the shorelines hereabouts which represent ancient meteorite strikes from the early millennia after the formation of the Solar System when large meteorites did still frequently strike the earth. As the Canadian Shield has been little altered since that time, he likes to imagine it retaining better evidence of these strikes than most other places on earth. I have no idea whether there is any scientific support for these ideas, but he believes them nevertheless.
But I think he is really getting a bit desperate with these photos of rocks, and you are free to agree with me if you wish. If you do find them interesting, then please don’t say so or it will just encourage him to take more in future. Take a look at these pictures and decide for yourself.
Tomorrow we will go to Winnipeg and visit with our old neighbours before we move on again closer to Calgary.
Pictures for today can be found here.
Day 87 – Kenora, Ontario to Brandon, Manitoba September 23, 2008
We had a late start today as we again were hit by a thunderstorm and rain during the night. It was a pleasure to listen to the thunder rolling through the sky but it did keep us from sleeping for a few hours. The thunder seems different in Eastern Canada than in Alberta. Back home many of the lightning strikes seem to go nicely down from the clouds to the ground. But in the East, at least from what we have experienced, the lighting is more often intracloud rather than directed at the ground. If you count seconds after a flash of nearby lightning you can consequently often hear a peal of thunder rolling along the sky further and further away for a full 25 seconds until the next nearby lightning flash commences. Listening to all of this was a delight in its own right, although it did interfere with our sleep for a while, as did the strong rain which followed.
Once we were on the road the weather slowly cleared up and by the time we got to Winnipeg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg) the sun was shining again and it looked like it would stay dry for a while.
We visited our old neighbours Shirl and Jim Kress in their new home in Winnipeg and had a really nice visit with them. We got caught up on what they had done the last few months and talked about their plans for renovations to their new home. It looked like they were starting to settle down in their new surroundings.
We were back on the road again by 4 p.m. and wanted to get as far as we could towards the Saskatchewan border as Manitoba is mosquito country, and as I still have fresh memories of the plagues of mosquitoes we endured when we came through on our way East originally. We made it as far as Brandon, and yes, there still were a couple of mosquitoes, but they were nothing to worry about. We did not even have to go on a mosquito hunt in the trailer before we went to bed.
It was late by the time we set up our trailer so after uploading another couple of blogs with pictures we went to bed.
Day 88 – Brandon, Manitoba to Moose Jaw, SaskatchewanSeptember 24, 2008
Our plans for today are to get to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_Jaw,_Saskatchewan) for our last stretch home. We also choose Moose Jaw as it has a big train yard with a working turntable, if Google Earth is to be believed, so Leo would be able to take some pictures. The sun was shining and it was a real nice fall day with the smell of the leaves, the ripe grain still left in some of the fields, and the yellow colours of the trees presenting a very enjoyable view.
We got to the Moose Jaw campground around 3 p.m. and Leo was in his glory with all he had seen in trains so far already. After we set up the trailer he took off to ‘explore’ and I got to sit outside and do some reading.
After Leo`s dubious experiment with rock photos I have decided not to publish any of his pictures from today as they were just shots of various locomotives of CP Rail and other companies from which they had leased machines and I feared losing more blog readers if I did include them! No pictures were taken again during our drive itself today, but then we have travelled this road on our way out so we have seen it all before.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Day 83, 84 & 85 - Sault Ste. Marie to Nipigon, Ontario
Day 83 – Sudbury to Sault Ste. Marie
September 19, 2008
It was another beautiful morning to wake up to. A person could get used to this sunshine. We are now really on our way back home as for the first time we will be travelling again the very same roads we travelled going East. The only difference is that we will not be staying at the same campgrounds we stayed at when we drove through at the beginning of our vacation except the one in Sault Ste. Marie.
We got to Sault Ste. Marie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Ontario) early enough for us to do some sight-seeing around the town itself. We had a look at the old Canadian side lock here, a national historic site. It was built after the Americans, on whose soil the lock of the day had been built, refused to allow a ship of Canadian troops through on their way to suppress the Riel rebellion. The Canadian government then resolved to build a lock on fully Canadian territory so such an incident could not happen again. We also did some walking along the shore of the St. Mary River here. But before we went for our walk we noticed a train station downtown which advertised train tours to the Agawa Canyon on the Algoma Central Railway.
According to Leo this is a very famous train ride in Canadian railfanning which dates back pretty well continuously to the 1920s when well-to-do families would take this train to the Canyon from Sault Ste. Marie to have a picnic there, particularly during the show of wonderful fall colours which the maple trees in this section of Ontario provide. We checked on space for the trip set for the next day, and found that 16 of 600 seats were still available. We then and there booked two seats for the next day. Leo did kind of hesitate as he did not know what the weather would be like and if it was the right enough time of the year for good fall colours and such, so I went ahead and booked the seats on my own initiative. I can tell you already we were not sorry we did.
Then back to our campsite we went to upload some of our blog pictures and write more blogs as we are way behind schedule because of lack of internet access at the last few campgrounds at which we have stayed. As well, we had get to bed early as we had to be at the train station by 7:30 am.
Pictures for today are combined with tomorrow’s pictures.
Day 84 - Sault Ste. Marie
September 20, 2008
We were hit by a thunderstorm during the night and somewhat worried as to what our day on the train would be like. But we only had clouds when we woke up and they cleared up by late morning. We got to the Algoma Train Station by 7:30 am and the train left as advertised at 8 am. (http://www.algomacentralrailway.com/content/gallery/index.html?id=52)
The train ride was spectacular in that the maple trees were just starting to turn or had fully turned depending on the altitude of the location we were at. Leo did not take a lot of pictures during the train ride as the car windows were not clean enough. The train took until 12:30 to make the 114 mile trip to the Agawa Canyon where it was scheduled for a 90 minute stop to allow passengers to detrain, have lunch and hike if they wished to one of four waterfalls in the immediate vicinity or else to a lookout point over the canyon. Leo did walk up to the lookout point and took pictures of the Canyon from there (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agawa_Canyon )
All in all it was a very pleasant train ride and we got back around 6:30 pm so it turned out to be quite a long day. We had some supper on the way back to our campsite, uploaded another 2 days of blogs and pictures and went to bed to rise early next day to bring ourselves ever closer to Calgary again.
Pictures for today can be found here.
Day 85 – Sault Ste. Marie to Nipigon, Ontario
September 21, 2008
It is already the 21st of September, so the first official day of autumn. There are only a few days left of our vacation as a result. Looking back at it all it sure has been a fantastic holiday, and we hope to repeat this trip in the near future to see everything again, and more.
After we had to set the alarm clock yesterday for our train trip we woke up early on our own this morning. The sun decided to cooperate again and show her face for most of the day. Today our end destination was Nipigon, Ontario (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipigon,_Ontario ) or somewhere close to it. We have set a goal of travelling 500 km a day for the way back home. Today was a really nice scenic drive around the top of Lake Superior with wonderful views of the lake shore but also a very pleasant road to drive. The boring part of the road will come tomorrow after Thunder Bay when we climb out of the Lake Superior basin to the Arctic watershed where water no longer flows into the Great Lakes and hence to the Atlantic Ocean but instead ultimately into the Arctic Ocean via Hudson`s Bay.
With our early start we were sure to make it to today’s destination point. We stopped for lunch at White River (yes this is where the other stabbing on the Greyhound bus took place) and got to our campsite around 6 p.m. As we got closer to the campsite clouds started to appear and it really looked like rain. We just got the trailer set up before the rain started and we were then treated to a few thunderstorms throughout the evening as well, but we were nice and dry, and ….. we had internet again so that we could upload another couple of blog days and pictures! Tomorrow we will be moving on to Kenora or somewhere around there.
Leo did take a few pictures today of the fall colours which can be found here.
September 19, 2008
It was another beautiful morning to wake up to. A person could get used to this sunshine. We are now really on our way back home as for the first time we will be travelling again the very same roads we travelled going East. The only difference is that we will not be staying at the same campgrounds we stayed at when we drove through at the beginning of our vacation except the one in Sault Ste. Marie.
We got to Sault Ste. Marie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Ontario) early enough for us to do some sight-seeing around the town itself. We had a look at the old Canadian side lock here, a national historic site. It was built after the Americans, on whose soil the lock of the day had been built, refused to allow a ship of Canadian troops through on their way to suppress the Riel rebellion. The Canadian government then resolved to build a lock on fully Canadian territory so such an incident could not happen again. We also did some walking along the shore of the St. Mary River here. But before we went for our walk we noticed a train station downtown which advertised train tours to the Agawa Canyon on the Algoma Central Railway.
According to Leo this is a very famous train ride in Canadian railfanning which dates back pretty well continuously to the 1920s when well-to-do families would take this train to the Canyon from Sault Ste. Marie to have a picnic there, particularly during the show of wonderful fall colours which the maple trees in this section of Ontario provide. We checked on space for the trip set for the next day, and found that 16 of 600 seats were still available. We then and there booked two seats for the next day. Leo did kind of hesitate as he did not know what the weather would be like and if it was the right enough time of the year for good fall colours and such, so I went ahead and booked the seats on my own initiative. I can tell you already we were not sorry we did.
Then back to our campsite we went to upload some of our blog pictures and write more blogs as we are way behind schedule because of lack of internet access at the last few campgrounds at which we have stayed. As well, we had get to bed early as we had to be at the train station by 7:30 am.
Pictures for today are combined with tomorrow’s pictures.
Day 84 - Sault Ste. Marie
September 20, 2008
We were hit by a thunderstorm during the night and somewhat worried as to what our day on the train would be like. But we only had clouds when we woke up and they cleared up by late morning. We got to the Algoma Train Station by 7:30 am and the train left as advertised at 8 am. (http://www.algomacentralrailway.com/content/gallery/index.html?id=52)
The train ride was spectacular in that the maple trees were just starting to turn or had fully turned depending on the altitude of the location we were at. Leo did not take a lot of pictures during the train ride as the car windows were not clean enough. The train took until 12:30 to make the 114 mile trip to the Agawa Canyon where it was scheduled for a 90 minute stop to allow passengers to detrain, have lunch and hike if they wished to one of four waterfalls in the immediate vicinity or else to a lookout point over the canyon. Leo did walk up to the lookout point and took pictures of the Canyon from there (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agawa_Canyon )
All in all it was a very pleasant train ride and we got back around 6:30 pm so it turned out to be quite a long day. We had some supper on the way back to our campsite, uploaded another 2 days of blogs and pictures and went to bed to rise early next day to bring ourselves ever closer to Calgary again.
Pictures for today can be found here.
Day 85 – Sault Ste. Marie to Nipigon, Ontario
September 21, 2008
It is already the 21st of September, so the first official day of autumn. There are only a few days left of our vacation as a result. Looking back at it all it sure has been a fantastic holiday, and we hope to repeat this trip in the near future to see everything again, and more.
After we had to set the alarm clock yesterday for our train trip we woke up early on our own this morning. The sun decided to cooperate again and show her face for most of the day. Today our end destination was Nipigon, Ontario (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipigon,_Ontario ) or somewhere close to it. We have set a goal of travelling 500 km a day for the way back home. Today was a really nice scenic drive around the top of Lake Superior with wonderful views of the lake shore but also a very pleasant road to drive. The boring part of the road will come tomorrow after Thunder Bay when we climb out of the Lake Superior basin to the Arctic watershed where water no longer flows into the Great Lakes and hence to the Atlantic Ocean but instead ultimately into the Arctic Ocean via Hudson`s Bay.
With our early start we were sure to make it to today’s destination point. We stopped for lunch at White River (yes this is where the other stabbing on the Greyhound bus took place) and got to our campsite around 6 p.m. As we got closer to the campsite clouds started to appear and it really looked like rain. We just got the trailer set up before the rain started and we were then treated to a few thunderstorms throughout the evening as well, but we were nice and dry, and ….. we had internet again so that we could upload another couple of blog days and pictures! Tomorrow we will be moving on to Kenora or somewhere around there.
Leo did take a few pictures today of the fall colours which can be found here.
Day 81 & 82 - Niagara Falls & drive to Sudbury, Ontario
Day 81 - Niagara on the Lake, Niagara Falls and Welland Canal, OntarioSeptember 17, 2008
We woke up to a sunny day again this morning so this is the second day of sunshine and no rain. How lucky can we get.
Today is the day that Leo will be filming locks 4, 5 and 6 of the Welland Canal. There are a total of 8 locks between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie which raise the ships a total of 91 meters. Three of them are located one immediately after the other, and to make it all better, they can be viewed in line from Lift Bridge 5 so that you can see a stair step effect as the ships move through each successive lock. This is Leo`s Welland Canal nirvana, and where he had been drooling about taking pictures and video. I have decided to go with him and just sit in a lawn chair and read my book. But first we went to the Canal Visitor’s Centre (http://www.stcatharineslock3museum.ca/ & http://www.thoroldtourism.ca/) which is located at Lock 3 and where they post the times, lengths and direction of the ships which will be coming through the locks that day. Yesterday was a really good day for ships coming through but unfortunately today is not that good, with just 1 ship being projected to arrive at Lock 3 but not until around 4:30 pm.
So we decided to go to Niagara on the Lake as we had to do some ‘souvenir’ shopping at one particular store and then on to Niagara Falls before we went back again to the locks. But this must be our bad luck day as the store we wanted to shop at in Niagara on the Lake had closed down about 3 years ago. So we walked up and down the main street viewing all the shops to use up our parking time and then went on to Niagara Falls.
The falls are certainly spectacular but not the man-made structures around them. Despite this Leo braved the tourists and the rank commercialism to take some pictures for all of us to enjoy. From the falls we went to the locks and there our luck turned for the better. The Visitor Centre now showed another ship arriving in the opposite direction at around the same time as the earlier scheduled ship. We arrived before the latter was due to appear, but were pleasantly surprised to see another unscheduled one was already about to pass up the canal below the lift bridge 5 to head towards Lock 4. Soon it was in the lock and the scheduled ship appeared behind her headed in the same direction. Then after some time the ship from the other side came into the locks and as she descended an unexpected fourth ship appeared going down the canal as well. At one point there were actually 4 ships in the locks before us, although by this time the first could only be seen by her masts. Well you can imagine the excitement Leo was feeling at all this. Unfortunately it got too dark to film the very end of it all so we left to go back to the campground to get ready to leave again in the morning for Sudbury. But the pictures will allow you to share in this spectacle, and if you ask Leo some time down the road he can show you the time lapse movie he will be making from the video tape he took of all this action.
Today’s pictures can be found here.
Day 82 – Drive from Queenston to Sudbury
September 18, 2008
We are in luck again today as we woke up to sunshine again for our trip north. Summer may finally be arriving for us although it took until September and Ontario to do so. There is only one quick way to get to Sudbury and that is by taking the expressway 401 all the way past Toronto and then highways 427 and 69 up to Sudbury (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Sudbury). We had asked our navigator about a route which would avoid freeways, but this wound up taking 8 hours instead of around 4, so we buttoned down the hatches and hit the traffic around Toronto again. We made pretty good time but it did mean of course there was no chance to stop anywhere to take any pictures. However, the scenery was very nice at times after we left the build up area of Greater Toronto and headed into the countryside to the north.
Sorry but there are thus no pictures for today.
We woke up to a sunny day again this morning so this is the second day of sunshine and no rain. How lucky can we get.
Today is the day that Leo will be filming locks 4, 5 and 6 of the Welland Canal. There are a total of 8 locks between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie which raise the ships a total of 91 meters. Three of them are located one immediately after the other, and to make it all better, they can be viewed in line from Lift Bridge 5 so that you can see a stair step effect as the ships move through each successive lock. This is Leo`s Welland Canal nirvana, and where he had been drooling about taking pictures and video. I have decided to go with him and just sit in a lawn chair and read my book. But first we went to the Canal Visitor’s Centre (http://www.stcatharineslock3museum.ca/ & http://www.thoroldtourism.ca/) which is located at Lock 3 and where they post the times, lengths and direction of the ships which will be coming through the locks that day. Yesterday was a really good day for ships coming through but unfortunately today is not that good, with just 1 ship being projected to arrive at Lock 3 but not until around 4:30 pm.
So we decided to go to Niagara on the Lake as we had to do some ‘souvenir’ shopping at one particular store and then on to Niagara Falls before we went back again to the locks. But this must be our bad luck day as the store we wanted to shop at in Niagara on the Lake had closed down about 3 years ago. So we walked up and down the main street viewing all the shops to use up our parking time and then went on to Niagara Falls.
The falls are certainly spectacular but not the man-made structures around them. Despite this Leo braved the tourists and the rank commercialism to take some pictures for all of us to enjoy. From the falls we went to the locks and there our luck turned for the better. The Visitor Centre now showed another ship arriving in the opposite direction at around the same time as the earlier scheduled ship. We arrived before the latter was due to appear, but were pleasantly surprised to see another unscheduled one was already about to pass up the canal below the lift bridge 5 to head towards Lock 4. Soon it was in the lock and the scheduled ship appeared behind her headed in the same direction. Then after some time the ship from the other side came into the locks and as she descended an unexpected fourth ship appeared going down the canal as well. At one point there were actually 4 ships in the locks before us, although by this time the first could only be seen by her masts. Well you can imagine the excitement Leo was feeling at all this. Unfortunately it got too dark to film the very end of it all so we left to go back to the campground to get ready to leave again in the morning for Sudbury. But the pictures will allow you to share in this spectacle, and if you ask Leo some time down the road he can show you the time lapse movie he will be making from the video tape he took of all this action.
Today’s pictures can be found here.
Day 82 – Drive from Queenston to Sudbury
September 18, 2008
We are in luck again today as we woke up to sunshine again for our trip north. Summer may finally be arriving for us although it took until September and Ontario to do so. There is only one quick way to get to Sudbury and that is by taking the expressway 401 all the way past Toronto and then highways 427 and 69 up to Sudbury (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Sudbury). We had asked our navigator about a route which would avoid freeways, but this wound up taking 8 hours instead of around 4, so we buttoned down the hatches and hit the traffic around Toronto again. We made pretty good time but it did mean of course there was no chance to stop anywhere to take any pictures. However, the scenery was very nice at times after we left the build up area of Greater Toronto and headed into the countryside to the north.
Sorry but there are thus no pictures for today.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Day 79 & 80 - Kingston to Queenston (Niagara Peninsula), Ontario
Day 79 – Shannonville & Kingston, Ontario
September 15, 2008
We woke up to a quiet morning with clouds but no wind or rain. Today we were going to visit a card-making supply store in Shannonville and visit Prince Edward County, Ontario. When we first got to this store we did not expect much as it did not look bigger than a long 3 car garage but once we were inside we were pleasantly surprised by all that was displayed. 2 hours later we finally left the store having maxed out our credit cards and planned to come back the next morning to pick up our order as we did not want to wait for the ladies to get our merchandize tallied up since they had to type in every item number manually.
By this time the weather started to get better and we even got to see the sun off and on. We drove past Belleville to Picton, took a side road to Lake on the Mountain and from there went to Glenora to take another ferry across to mainland Ontario. This ferry was a decent size and we had no problems getting on. It also sailed every 15 minutes and because it is part of the road system here there was no charge for it either. Actually, we wound up taking the same ferry 3 times. Part of the reason for us taking this route was to go to Traverse Point, but we crossed over on the ferry before we realized that this route required us to be back on the other side, so back we went to make that trip and then later to take the ferry across one final time.
From there we drove along Lake Ontario on the Bath Road back to Kingston and back to our campsite. We had supper and Leo worked on his pictures while I got to enjoy sitting outside for a while reading a book. Luckily the temperatures were much cooler this evening and we could go to sleep on time to catch up again on the sleep we seem to be missing a lot of.
Pictures for today can be found here.
Day 80, Drive from Kingston to Queenston (Niagara Peninsula), OntarioSeptember 16, 2008 - Happy Birthday Alex!
Today we planned on taking express Highway 401 through Toronto on our way to the Welland Canal where Leo wants to take some time-lapse film of the big ships going through the locks. But first we had a quick stop at the card-making supply store to pick up yesterday’s purchases.
The drive through greater Toronto and Hamilton areas went really smoothly thanks to Lucille our competent GPS navigator who steered us quite precisely along the 12 lane road which the 401 is, and we arrived at our campground around 2 pm. Unfortunately, they did not have internet and we wanted to stay at a campground with internet this time so that we could upload some of our blogs of the last week. On we went then to Queenston where a second campground was supposed to have Wifi internet access even though it could not be achieved at our campsite but instead required us to go close to the office building to get it. The latter meant sitting outside at a picnic table or in your car. This was not the best but it at least it would give us the chance to upload some blogs again.
Leo went to explore the Welland Canal locks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welland_Canal) for tomorrow and I stayed behind to perform some of our blogging work.
There are not too many pictures for today but they can be found here.
September 15, 2008
We woke up to a quiet morning with clouds but no wind or rain. Today we were going to visit a card-making supply store in Shannonville and visit Prince Edward County, Ontario. When we first got to this store we did not expect much as it did not look bigger than a long 3 car garage but once we were inside we were pleasantly surprised by all that was displayed. 2 hours later we finally left the store having maxed out our credit cards and planned to come back the next morning to pick up our order as we did not want to wait for the ladies to get our merchandize tallied up since they had to type in every item number manually.
By this time the weather started to get better and we even got to see the sun off and on. We drove past Belleville to Picton, took a side road to Lake on the Mountain and from there went to Glenora to take another ferry across to mainland Ontario. This ferry was a decent size and we had no problems getting on. It also sailed every 15 minutes and because it is part of the road system here there was no charge for it either. Actually, we wound up taking the same ferry 3 times. Part of the reason for us taking this route was to go to Traverse Point, but we crossed over on the ferry before we realized that this route required us to be back on the other side, so back we went to make that trip and then later to take the ferry across one final time.
From there we drove along Lake Ontario on the Bath Road back to Kingston and back to our campsite. We had supper and Leo worked on his pictures while I got to enjoy sitting outside for a while reading a book. Luckily the temperatures were much cooler this evening and we could go to sleep on time to catch up again on the sleep we seem to be missing a lot of.
Pictures for today can be found here.
Day 80, Drive from Kingston to Queenston (Niagara Peninsula), OntarioSeptember 16, 2008 - Happy Birthday Alex!
Today we planned on taking express Highway 401 through Toronto on our way to the Welland Canal where Leo wants to take some time-lapse film of the big ships going through the locks. But first we had a quick stop at the card-making supply store to pick up yesterday’s purchases.
The drive through greater Toronto and Hamilton areas went really smoothly thanks to Lucille our competent GPS navigator who steered us quite precisely along the 12 lane road which the 401 is, and we arrived at our campground around 2 pm. Unfortunately, they did not have internet and we wanted to stay at a campground with internet this time so that we could upload some of our blogs of the last week. On we went then to Queenston where a second campground was supposed to have Wifi internet access even though it could not be achieved at our campsite but instead required us to go close to the office building to get it. The latter meant sitting outside at a picnic table or in your car. This was not the best but it at least it would give us the chance to upload some blogs again.
Leo went to explore the Welland Canal locks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welland_Canal) for tomorrow and I stayed behind to perform some of our blogging work.
There are not too many pictures for today but they can be found here.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Day 77 & 78 - Leaving Keeseville, New York, arriving in Kingston, Ontario
Day 77 – Drive from Keeseville to Kingston, Ontario
Saturday, September 13, 200
This is our last day in the U.S. and unfortunately not a very nice morning again. But it is dry and that is worth a lot to us these days.
The route we have planned out is Highway #3 which will take us west through the Adirondack Mountains, and also through Lake Placid where the 1932 and the 1980 Winter Olympic Games were held. This road is marked as a scenic route on the map and scenic it is. It is also an official bike route so we met lots of bike riders going either way. The shoulders on this road were very wide to accommodate those many bike riders using this road.
Lake Placid is a real ‘winter’ town like you see in the movies, much along the flavour of Banff, although Leo thought our Banff is a nicer looking ski town. I am sure that in the winter with snow on the roads this is a very nice place to be. It was not too busy at the time we drove through but busy enough for the businesses to make a living I am sure.
The rest of the drive was very scenic as well and Leo did take some pictures for you to enjoy. As we had set our TomTom GPS navigator to take no major highways we were led through quiet roads to Watertown, New York and then on to Cape Vincent where we took a ferry across a channel of the St. Lawrence River to Wolfe Island where we set foot on Canadian soil again.
Interestingly enough, we had taken our passports along on this trip as we thought we might be asked for them at the border going into the United States. But the customs man there was quite content with the Alberta driver’s licenses which we offered him initially. When we returned to Canada we thought the same identification would suffice and again offered out driver’s licenses. However, the Canadian Customs official was not pleased and indicated she needed some evidence of citizenship as these licenses only showed we were permitted to drive in the province. We then dug out our passports and she was fortunately thereafter mollified by them. We did drive off, however, wondering how they treat the many Canadians who try to return to Canada after a trip “stateside” having not brought any passports as they believed these were not yet required by American customs. But then, one rule in life is that Customs officials are a separate subspecies different from the rest of the human race.
We did not know anything about the ferry we were to take to Wolfe Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfe_Island_(Ontario): not about how long the ride across would take, or how much it would cost, or what type of ship she would use but we always had the option of changing our minds and driving north a bit to take the freeway and a giant bridge instead across the river to Ontario. Our ferry was to leave Cape Vincent at 4 p.m. and once we had cleared Canadian customs we would have to drive 11 km. across Wolfe Island to take another ferry which would in turn take us across to the city of Kingston in Ontario. We were told the 2 ferries were synchronized with each other so we would not have to wait to take the second ferry.
Well, when the first ferry arrived she turned out to be a ‘small’ ferry with room for may be likely only 9 cars depending on the size of those cars. It was also a side-loading ferry so the cars would have to make a 90 degree turn on the ferry deck and either back up or drive forward to find their place on the deck. We were told to go on last as we were too big and would have to sit sideways on the ferry from ramp opening to ramp opening. We drove on in this way, scraping our trailer hitch on the loading ramp, and then were asked to back off again, scraping our trailer hitch, as two new cars had arrived in the meantime and these could just be fit on deck after a truck was asked to trade positions with a car as well. Then we drove back on again, scraping our trailer hitch, easing right up against the erect loading ramp on the opposite side which would be lowered in Wolfe Island to let the cars off. But I did not realize until after I saw the pictures just how long our unit was. The loading ramp behind us could not really be raised and was only lifted part way up as high as it could be. This was because our combined length exceeded the width of the ferry`s deck and the rear end of our trailer was actually hanging overboard as you can see in the photos.
The cost for this ferry was $15 for a car and 2 occupants but when it came to our turn to pay the attendant looked at us and our trailer and said ``Ah, give me $20`` so I guess they do not get units like us very often. Actually I don’t think they can take any units longer than maybe the 10 meters total which our car and trailer represent. But we made it across and, as we were the first ones to get off, scraping our trailer hitch on the loading ramp, we would for sure be able to make the next ferry. However, our TomTom navigator (we are now using a French voice so Lucille is her name) gave us the wrong instructions on the last turn to the ferry terminal which allowed some cars behind us to get ahead and once we got to the second ferry, yes … there was no room for us anymore even though this was a much larger ferry which accommodated 30 cars at least. So here we were stranded for an hour until the next sailing. There was nothing to do but to walk through the village of Wolfetown, eat an ice cream cone, and wait.
We were the first ones on the next ferry so we made it to Kingston, Ontario (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston,_Ontario) around 6 p.m., found our campsite near the Rideau Canal and took the evening off. This campsite was supposed to have internet but we just could not connect so alas there was no internet for the next 3 days as we were planning on staying in Kingston until at least Tuesday morning.
Pictures for this day can be found here.
Day 78 – Kingston, OntarioSeptember 14, 2008
We had a fairly nice evening and the day promised to be good as well. Today we were out to explore Kingston and visit Fort Henry as well.
On our way to Kingston from our campground we saw a sign for the Kingston Mills Locks on the Rideau waterway (http://rideau-info.com/canal/history/locks/h46-49-kingstonmills.html) so we took a quick, 2 km. side tour to these locks. They were a very nice surprise for us as there are actually 4 locks, with three being in stairstep one behind the other, and the fourth very nearby. We spent most of our morning watching a couple of pleasure boats come through them, including one which seemed to be a small antique tugboat which had been beautifully restored and had a full cabin built upon her. We even had the delight of finding that the main tracks of the CN railway pass right over the canal at this point on a long bridge, and the railway obliged by sending a long intermodal train over while the boats were still in the locks. As all of this was happening Leo had to film and photograph these events of course.
After this we went to the Visitors Centre in downtown Kingston and from there we went for breakfast (finally) at Morrison’s Restaurant in Kingston`s centre as was recommended by the girl on duty at the Visitor’s Centre. We spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon walking through Kingston, enjoying the old buildings and the waterfront of this city. It is a very nice city with a wonderfully ample history and I think it would be a very nice place to live. As part of our walkabout we cruised through a section of Queen`s University where our daughter-in-law Joanne studied. It was indeed a wonderful sight-seeing stroll through the city and the only disappointing part was the garbage on the streets around where the university students live. Neither the students nor the landlords in this part of town seem to take much interest in cleaning this up.
We stopped for a coffee at one of three coffee houses which were all in business facing each other on the corners of one single intersection. Here we experienced the Klunge incident. As a prelude to this story we should tell you that we have often listened to CBC radio on our drives and have greatly enjoyed the many programs on CBC 1 in particular. While driving through P.E.I. there was a show about the disadvantages of summer on which two guests made a number of very witty comments about the drawbacks to this season, such as the fact that one needs to lather up on sunscreen and insect repellant before going outside, and then wash it all off at the end of the day. As well they pointed out that way too many people go about in bikinis or other short swimwear who really should be sparing the rest of us the need to look at their bodies. In particular too many people in their skimpy swimwear expose us to the cleavage between their buttocks, which the radio guests indicated should be called their ``Klunge``.
Well, while we were sitting at this coffee shop in the student quarter in Kingston a couple of student-type girls were sitting chatting at a table only 5 feet away from us. Suddenly, one of the girls jumped up, turned around, lowered her pants into a half-moon position pointed fully at her friend and at us in the process, thereby showing a major part of her Klunge. She then pointed to this body part and said to her friend ``What`s this?” Leo, having been educated by CBC, he was just on the point of helpfully saying “I learned on CBC radio that it is officially called a Klunge”, but before he could do so the other girl had examined the indicated anatomical part from up close and said to its owner “It looks like an insect byte: you’ll survive it.” and the klunger pulled up her pants again, turned around and sat down. She showed no embarrassment (pun intended) at performing this act in front of two total strangers, and it left Leo and I feeling that we are from a different time zone. You must also know that Leo had his Nikon D300 at the ready during all this and it must have been an almost irresistible urge to capture this scene in 12 Megabyte glory, but I can tell you that he did resist the urge.
This event seemed an untoppable highlight for the day, but we did go on from here and went to Fort Henry to enjoy again the history of the battles for control of this area. Fort Henry was another major military fortification meant to prevent American forces from exerting control over Canadian territory in Ontario during the 19th century and served this function very well for many years. From here we went back to our trailer to try the internet again and Leo went back to the locks to do a little more picture taking.
On his way back he almost drove over a good-sized turtle which was crossing the road in twilight. He stopped to pick it up and carry it the rest of the way, being careful to hold it far enough back on the shell that it could not bite. And that is exactly what the ungrateful amphibian tried to do. It could lunge out with its neck fully extended and curved in lightning fashion to bite any finger which was not at least halfway from the front of the shell. But Leo was able to foil it and deposit in the ditch on the other side. The thing must have been 40 cm. long all told and was moving so slowly that is was sure to have been reduced to 2 dimensions by some car or other had not its saviour come along.
We did not get to bed that early as the temperature was around 26 degrees in the evening and even seemed to be rising, and it was just too hot to go to bed. After 11 o’clock the wind came up and still the temperature stayed the same. Shortly after this it was fully storming and it started to rain strongly. I guessed we were now being hit with the edge of Hurricane Ike and in the morning the locals indicated I was right. This storm went on for most of the night and by early morning it quieted down and we finally got some sleep. This storm had stronger winds than the remnants of Hanna in Saint John, but much less rain than that event.
Hopefully we captured some of what we have seen today with Leo’s pictures which can be found here.
Saturday, September 13, 200
This is our last day in the U.S. and unfortunately not a very nice morning again. But it is dry and that is worth a lot to us these days.
The route we have planned out is Highway #3 which will take us west through the Adirondack Mountains, and also through Lake Placid where the 1932 and the 1980 Winter Olympic Games were held. This road is marked as a scenic route on the map and scenic it is. It is also an official bike route so we met lots of bike riders going either way. The shoulders on this road were very wide to accommodate those many bike riders using this road.
Lake Placid is a real ‘winter’ town like you see in the movies, much along the flavour of Banff, although Leo thought our Banff is a nicer looking ski town. I am sure that in the winter with snow on the roads this is a very nice place to be. It was not too busy at the time we drove through but busy enough for the businesses to make a living I am sure.
The rest of the drive was very scenic as well and Leo did take some pictures for you to enjoy. As we had set our TomTom GPS navigator to take no major highways we were led through quiet roads to Watertown, New York and then on to Cape Vincent where we took a ferry across a channel of the St. Lawrence River to Wolfe Island where we set foot on Canadian soil again.
Interestingly enough, we had taken our passports along on this trip as we thought we might be asked for them at the border going into the United States. But the customs man there was quite content with the Alberta driver’s licenses which we offered him initially. When we returned to Canada we thought the same identification would suffice and again offered out driver’s licenses. However, the Canadian Customs official was not pleased and indicated she needed some evidence of citizenship as these licenses only showed we were permitted to drive in the province. We then dug out our passports and she was fortunately thereafter mollified by them. We did drive off, however, wondering how they treat the many Canadians who try to return to Canada after a trip “stateside” having not brought any passports as they believed these were not yet required by American customs. But then, one rule in life is that Customs officials are a separate subspecies different from the rest of the human race.
We did not know anything about the ferry we were to take to Wolfe Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfe_Island_(Ontario): not about how long the ride across would take, or how much it would cost, or what type of ship she would use but we always had the option of changing our minds and driving north a bit to take the freeway and a giant bridge instead across the river to Ontario. Our ferry was to leave Cape Vincent at 4 p.m. and once we had cleared Canadian customs we would have to drive 11 km. across Wolfe Island to take another ferry which would in turn take us across to the city of Kingston in Ontario. We were told the 2 ferries were synchronized with each other so we would not have to wait to take the second ferry.
Well, when the first ferry arrived she turned out to be a ‘small’ ferry with room for may be likely only 9 cars depending on the size of those cars. It was also a side-loading ferry so the cars would have to make a 90 degree turn on the ferry deck and either back up or drive forward to find their place on the deck. We were told to go on last as we were too big and would have to sit sideways on the ferry from ramp opening to ramp opening. We drove on in this way, scraping our trailer hitch on the loading ramp, and then were asked to back off again, scraping our trailer hitch, as two new cars had arrived in the meantime and these could just be fit on deck after a truck was asked to trade positions with a car as well. Then we drove back on again, scraping our trailer hitch, easing right up against the erect loading ramp on the opposite side which would be lowered in Wolfe Island to let the cars off. But I did not realize until after I saw the pictures just how long our unit was. The loading ramp behind us could not really be raised and was only lifted part way up as high as it could be. This was because our combined length exceeded the width of the ferry`s deck and the rear end of our trailer was actually hanging overboard as you can see in the photos.
The cost for this ferry was $15 for a car and 2 occupants but when it came to our turn to pay the attendant looked at us and our trailer and said ``Ah, give me $20`` so I guess they do not get units like us very often. Actually I don’t think they can take any units longer than maybe the 10 meters total which our car and trailer represent. But we made it across and, as we were the first ones to get off, scraping our trailer hitch on the loading ramp, we would for sure be able to make the next ferry. However, our TomTom navigator (we are now using a French voice so Lucille is her name) gave us the wrong instructions on the last turn to the ferry terminal which allowed some cars behind us to get ahead and once we got to the second ferry, yes … there was no room for us anymore even though this was a much larger ferry which accommodated 30 cars at least. So here we were stranded for an hour until the next sailing. There was nothing to do but to walk through the village of Wolfetown, eat an ice cream cone, and wait.
We were the first ones on the next ferry so we made it to Kingston, Ontario (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston,_Ontario) around 6 p.m., found our campsite near the Rideau Canal and took the evening off. This campsite was supposed to have internet but we just could not connect so alas there was no internet for the next 3 days as we were planning on staying in Kingston until at least Tuesday morning.
Pictures for this day can be found here.
Day 78 – Kingston, OntarioSeptember 14, 2008
We had a fairly nice evening and the day promised to be good as well. Today we were out to explore Kingston and visit Fort Henry as well.
On our way to Kingston from our campground we saw a sign for the Kingston Mills Locks on the Rideau waterway (http://rideau-info.com/canal/history/locks/h46-49-kingstonmills.html) so we took a quick, 2 km. side tour to these locks. They were a very nice surprise for us as there are actually 4 locks, with three being in stairstep one behind the other, and the fourth very nearby. We spent most of our morning watching a couple of pleasure boats come through them, including one which seemed to be a small antique tugboat which had been beautifully restored and had a full cabin built upon her. We even had the delight of finding that the main tracks of the CN railway pass right over the canal at this point on a long bridge, and the railway obliged by sending a long intermodal train over while the boats were still in the locks. As all of this was happening Leo had to film and photograph these events of course.
After this we went to the Visitors Centre in downtown Kingston and from there we went for breakfast (finally) at Morrison’s Restaurant in Kingston`s centre as was recommended by the girl on duty at the Visitor’s Centre. We spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon walking through Kingston, enjoying the old buildings and the waterfront of this city. It is a very nice city with a wonderfully ample history and I think it would be a very nice place to live. As part of our walkabout we cruised through a section of Queen`s University where our daughter-in-law Joanne studied. It was indeed a wonderful sight-seeing stroll through the city and the only disappointing part was the garbage on the streets around where the university students live. Neither the students nor the landlords in this part of town seem to take much interest in cleaning this up.
We stopped for a coffee at one of three coffee houses which were all in business facing each other on the corners of one single intersection. Here we experienced the Klunge incident. As a prelude to this story we should tell you that we have often listened to CBC radio on our drives and have greatly enjoyed the many programs on CBC 1 in particular. While driving through P.E.I. there was a show about the disadvantages of summer on which two guests made a number of very witty comments about the drawbacks to this season, such as the fact that one needs to lather up on sunscreen and insect repellant before going outside, and then wash it all off at the end of the day. As well they pointed out that way too many people go about in bikinis or other short swimwear who really should be sparing the rest of us the need to look at their bodies. In particular too many people in their skimpy swimwear expose us to the cleavage between their buttocks, which the radio guests indicated should be called their ``Klunge``.
Well, while we were sitting at this coffee shop in the student quarter in Kingston a couple of student-type girls were sitting chatting at a table only 5 feet away from us. Suddenly, one of the girls jumped up, turned around, lowered her pants into a half-moon position pointed fully at her friend and at us in the process, thereby showing a major part of her Klunge. She then pointed to this body part and said to her friend ``What`s this?” Leo, having been educated by CBC, he was just on the point of helpfully saying “I learned on CBC radio that it is officially called a Klunge”, but before he could do so the other girl had examined the indicated anatomical part from up close and said to its owner “It looks like an insect byte: you’ll survive it.” and the klunger pulled up her pants again, turned around and sat down. She showed no embarrassment (pun intended) at performing this act in front of two total strangers, and it left Leo and I feeling that we are from a different time zone. You must also know that Leo had his Nikon D300 at the ready during all this and it must have been an almost irresistible urge to capture this scene in 12 Megabyte glory, but I can tell you that he did resist the urge.
This event seemed an untoppable highlight for the day, but we did go on from here and went to Fort Henry to enjoy again the history of the battles for control of this area. Fort Henry was another major military fortification meant to prevent American forces from exerting control over Canadian territory in Ontario during the 19th century and served this function very well for many years. From here we went back to our trailer to try the internet again and Leo went back to the locks to do a little more picture taking.
On his way back he almost drove over a good-sized turtle which was crossing the road in twilight. He stopped to pick it up and carry it the rest of the way, being careful to hold it far enough back on the shell that it could not bite. And that is exactly what the ungrateful amphibian tried to do. It could lunge out with its neck fully extended and curved in lightning fashion to bite any finger which was not at least halfway from the front of the shell. But Leo was able to foil it and deposit in the ditch on the other side. The thing must have been 40 cm. long all told and was moving so slowly that is was sure to have been reduced to 2 dimensions by some car or other had not its saviour come along.
We did not get to bed that early as the temperature was around 26 degrees in the evening and even seemed to be rising, and it was just too hot to go to bed. After 11 o’clock the wind came up and still the temperature stayed the same. Shortly after this it was fully storming and it started to rain strongly. I guessed we were now being hit with the edge of Hurricane Ike and in the morning the locals indicated I was right. This storm went on for most of the night and by early morning it quieted down and we finally got some sleep. This storm had stronger winds than the remnants of Hanna in Saint John, but much less rain than that event.
Hopefully we captured some of what we have seen today with Leo’s pictures which can be found here.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Day 75 & 76 - Keeseville, New York
Day 75 – Drive fromTwin Mountain, New Hampshire to Keeseville, New York
September 11, 2008
We now have had a night, a day and another night without rain, and the sun welcomed us again when we woke up, but the temperature had dropped to 3 degrees Celsius during the night so it was pretty cold. This is something we were not used to any longer as the advantage to being on the coast is that the night temperatures are not much different from the day temperatures. So out came the long pants and our sweaters to keep us warm. We would have liked to linger a bit at this site but we were going to move on so we would get closer to home (or was it because Leo wanted to take some train pictures at Willsboro in New York State?). Whatever the reason we packed up and left to travel west. We were going through the mountains and guess what . . . we ended up in low clouds and it was like being back in the fog. But these clouds were moving up and down and at times just gave us beautiful views of the mountains and the landscape around it. This was on some superhighways we took where you are not allowed to stop unless it is an emergency, so we did not capture this in the pictures, but later we switched to normal road and then out came the camera to capture some of this for all to enjoy.
Around 2 o’clock we came to Lake Champlain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Champlain) around Burlington, Vermont (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington,_Vermont) and from there we took a ferry across the lake to Willsboro, New York (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willsboro,_New_York) . This lake is a large, very popular recreation area with lots of things to do, like biking, hiking, boating, swimming, fishing, skiing and much more. It also has many historical venues to visit so a person could stay here for a couple of weeks and still not have taken it all in. Unfortunately we are only here for 2 nights so that Leo can take these `fabulous` train pictures and then we will be moving on again, as yes . . . our holiday is coming to an end.
We had a bit of a hard time finding a campground as the visitor centre we stopped at did not have a campground booklet for us and the only campground the lady at the centre knew was just west of the town of Keeseville (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeseville,_New_York) . When we got to this campground we were pleasantly surprised as it is located next to the Ausable Chasm, a 2 mile long chasm of the Ausable River sitting on 1000 acres of natural history. There is a hike along this chasm but it takes about 2 hours to do, so we were too late for it today but hope to do it tomorrow afternoon after Leo comes back from his picture-taking in the morning. That is, if the weather cooperates, as clouds and showers have been forecast again for the next 3 days. I know I can hear you say do the walk first and then the pictures, but Leo needs the morning light for this spot if it sunny and he did drive 18,000km to get here just to take these shots!
After we set up our trailer Leo went to ‘explore’ this fabulous train photographing spot and I stayed behind to play on the computer by myself, finally. Unfortunately there was no Internet at this campground which limited me to what I could do on the PC.
Pictures from today are combined with Day 76 – Keeseville.
Day 76 – Keeseville, New York
September 12, 2008
Yes the weather forecasters here know what they are talking about. It was cloudy this morning and rained somewhat later on in the morning. But still we did have 3 nights and 2 days without rain, something we have not had for a long time.
Leo still left to take his pictures but as I mentioned yesterday, driving 18,000km and not taking these pictures would not go over with his train buddies (Alex, Samantha and Jayla) very well.
This gives me some time to give you a little more information about this area. Here at the Ausable Chasm (http://www.ausablechasm.com/) we are just on the northeastern tip of the Adirondack Mountains, which houses Lake Placid in the middle of it. To the west is Lake Champlain (http://www.lakechamplainregion.com/), a very long water highway which used to connect the Saint Lawrence River to the north with the Hudson River to the south. Indian and French traders traveled these waters. French and British soldiers enlisted Indian allies to join their battles for control of the land, harvest the timber and mine the mountains’ rich deposits of iron. A generation later, rebel Americans fought again to control the resources and their destiny, or so the marketers for the area tell us. Now it is a large recreation destination with lots of history to see and explore.
We will not be here that long but it certainly is worth another visit and longer stay.
As you have figured by now we did not take the walk along the Ausable Chasm but went for a drive around the ‘neighbourhood’ instead. We checked out the towns of Keeseville and Willsboro, had afternoon tea at the ferry terminal at Port Kent and waited for the Amtrak train to come by and hopefully stop at the modern and imposing train station there. We were in luck: after we waited for about an hour the train came finally, stopped, let off 2 passengers and moved on again some 90 minutes late. The passengers walked to the ferry terminal and we went back to our trailer to have supper.
The evening was spent reading for me and photo editing for Leo so that when we have Internet again we can post, amongst others, the wonderful train picture which can be found here.
September 11, 2008
We now have had a night, a day and another night without rain, and the sun welcomed us again when we woke up, but the temperature had dropped to 3 degrees Celsius during the night so it was pretty cold. This is something we were not used to any longer as the advantage to being on the coast is that the night temperatures are not much different from the day temperatures. So out came the long pants and our sweaters to keep us warm. We would have liked to linger a bit at this site but we were going to move on so we would get closer to home (or was it because Leo wanted to take some train pictures at Willsboro in New York State?). Whatever the reason we packed up and left to travel west. We were going through the mountains and guess what . . . we ended up in low clouds and it was like being back in the fog. But these clouds were moving up and down and at times just gave us beautiful views of the mountains and the landscape around it. This was on some superhighways we took where you are not allowed to stop unless it is an emergency, so we did not capture this in the pictures, but later we switched to normal road and then out came the camera to capture some of this for all to enjoy.
Around 2 o’clock we came to Lake Champlain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Champlain) around Burlington, Vermont (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington,_Vermont) and from there we took a ferry across the lake to Willsboro, New York (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willsboro,_New_York) . This lake is a large, very popular recreation area with lots of things to do, like biking, hiking, boating, swimming, fishing, skiing and much more. It also has many historical venues to visit so a person could stay here for a couple of weeks and still not have taken it all in. Unfortunately we are only here for 2 nights so that Leo can take these `fabulous` train pictures and then we will be moving on again, as yes . . . our holiday is coming to an end.
We had a bit of a hard time finding a campground as the visitor centre we stopped at did not have a campground booklet for us and the only campground the lady at the centre knew was just west of the town of Keeseville (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeseville,_New_York) . When we got to this campground we were pleasantly surprised as it is located next to the Ausable Chasm, a 2 mile long chasm of the Ausable River sitting on 1000 acres of natural history. There is a hike along this chasm but it takes about 2 hours to do, so we were too late for it today but hope to do it tomorrow afternoon after Leo comes back from his picture-taking in the morning. That is, if the weather cooperates, as clouds and showers have been forecast again for the next 3 days. I know I can hear you say do the walk first and then the pictures, but Leo needs the morning light for this spot if it sunny and he did drive 18,000km to get here just to take these shots!
After we set up our trailer Leo went to ‘explore’ this fabulous train photographing spot and I stayed behind to play on the computer by myself, finally. Unfortunately there was no Internet at this campground which limited me to what I could do on the PC.
Pictures from today are combined with Day 76 – Keeseville.
Day 76 – Keeseville, New York
September 12, 2008
Yes the weather forecasters here know what they are talking about. It was cloudy this morning and rained somewhat later on in the morning. But still we did have 3 nights and 2 days without rain, something we have not had for a long time.
Leo still left to take his pictures but as I mentioned yesterday, driving 18,000km and not taking these pictures would not go over with his train buddies (Alex, Samantha and Jayla) very well.
This gives me some time to give you a little more information about this area. Here at the Ausable Chasm (http://www.ausablechasm.com/) we are just on the northeastern tip of the Adirondack Mountains, which houses Lake Placid in the middle of it. To the west is Lake Champlain (http://www.lakechamplainregion.com/), a very long water highway which used to connect the Saint Lawrence River to the north with the Hudson River to the south. Indian and French traders traveled these waters. French and British soldiers enlisted Indian allies to join their battles for control of the land, harvest the timber and mine the mountains’ rich deposits of iron. A generation later, rebel Americans fought again to control the resources and their destiny, or so the marketers for the area tell us. Now it is a large recreation destination with lots of history to see and explore.
We will not be here that long but it certainly is worth another visit and longer stay.
As you have figured by now we did not take the walk along the Ausable Chasm but went for a drive around the ‘neighbourhood’ instead. We checked out the towns of Keeseville and Willsboro, had afternoon tea at the ferry terminal at Port Kent and waited for the Amtrak train to come by and hopefully stop at the modern and imposing train station there. We were in luck: after we waited for about an hour the train came finally, stopped, let off 2 passengers and moved on again some 90 minutes late. The passengers walked to the ferry terminal and we went back to our trailer to have supper.
The evening was spent reading for me and photo editing for Leo so that when we have Internet again we can post, amongst others, the wonderful train picture which can be found here.
Day 73 & 74 - Acadia National Park, Maine &Drive from Ellsworth, Maine to Twin Mountain, New Hampshire
Day 73 – Acadia National Park, Maine (http://www.acadia.net/anp/)
September 09, 2008
After we had a rainless night the sun came up shining again as we woke up so we decided to make an early start on the day as the forecast called for clouds and 70% chance of showers for the afternoon. The owners of the campground told us to drive up Cadillac Mountain (http://www.acadiamagic.com/CadillacMountain.html) first before the clouds moved in. This mountain is 1530 feet high and the road is nicely paved without potholes or bumps. On top of the mountain is a fair size parking lot which was 75% full by the time we got there. But the view was beautiful as the pictures will show. However, it was But also very windy and unless you had yourself roped to your car you could have been picked up by the wind and been deposited along the coast below in Bar Harbour, the local Banff of Acadia Park.
We were also told to take the one-way loop around the island as it is a most scenic drive. It took us 3 tries to find ‘the loop’. We are now quite familiar with the road to the visitor centre and to Cadillac Mountain, having passed it that many times. By the time we had found ‘the loop’ it had started to rain but we took it anyway. It was indeed a very nice drive with at times a nice view of the coast and the ocean on the left and the beautiful forests on the right. A very few of the trees had begun to turn colour but overall we are here just to soon to see the fall colours for which New England is famous. At the end we drove to the town of Bar Harbour to have a gawk at the boats and such in the harbour. And boats they are: some of them are pretty pricey and that is true not just for this harbour but also for the other small harbours around here. The vessels today were nothing like we have been seeing in Nova Scotia where the harbours are ‘working’ harbours with primarily fishing boats. Only fancy-dancy recreational boats need apply here.
I do not know much about the coast of Maine but it seems that there is a lot of money here and there are lots and lots of tourists in this resort section of the state. I think that on the Tuesday after the Labour Day weekend all the seniors (62 years is considered a senior here) go on holidays. It was pretty busy in Acadia National Park and the roads leading to them and we were the youngest couple here it felt like. But any way we enjoyed our day, in the rain, at Acadia National Park.
Pictures for today can be found here.
Day 74 – Drive from Ellsworth, Maine to Twin Mountain, New Hampshire
September 10, 2008
We had decided the previous evening to move inland to get away from the rainy coast. I guess the mist, fog and rain was getting to us after 2 months of it. This also means we will not be moving to the coast after all even if there is one of those old, charming big houses for sale within our price range. (As if there was much chance of that!)
But before we went west Leo wanted to go up Cadillac Mountain again (and use our $20 pass one more day, which was only good for this one state park) to take a few more pictures but this time with sunshine instead of clouds. While he did so I worked on catching up on some writing of our blogs. Hence we had a bit of a slow start to our day.
Going west and inland took us through some really nice scenery again and the sun stayed with us all day. Again we were treated to these big, big old houses from the turn of the 19th century or earlier. They look so romantic and I can picture life around them. Some of them are really well kept while others are, unfortunately, left unattended. These are houses you find in the small towns and cities. The big, big houses you find outside the cities and towns are new and do not have the romantic look to them. I mentioned to Leo that in the olden days the rich people lived in town and now the rich live just outside town. Times have changed.
We drove out of Maine and into New Hampshire. By 4 o’clock it was time to look for a campsite and we ended up in the White Mountains Region (http://www.visitwhitemountains.com/) of New Hampshire. We found a really nice campground close to Twin Mountain called Ammonoosuc Campground (www.ucampnh.com/ammonoosuc) and besides 2 other campers and 2 seasonal campers we were the only ones there. We were told to just pick a spot we liked and so we did: close to the wash and laundry room so I could do a wash while we ate supper. I have to say I am feeling ‘at home’ again with this campground as it is laid out like the campgrounds in our parks with a large area to set up your tent or trailer and trees all around you to give some privacy (which we did not really need as we were the only ones in this part of the campground). Another thing that made us feel at home was the bear warning signs posted in the bathroom and at the shelters for the tenting spots. I could have used the bathroom 7 times before I had to use a toilet twice or taken 4 showers and not used the same one twice. And all this luxury was just for the two of us. But we were only to camp here for the one night so there was not much time to really enjoy it all.
Sorry, but there are no pictures for today as the roads were again narrow. The ones from Cadillac Mountain Leo took in the morning were included in yesterday’s pictures.
September 09, 2008
After we had a rainless night the sun came up shining again as we woke up so we decided to make an early start on the day as the forecast called for clouds and 70% chance of showers for the afternoon. The owners of the campground told us to drive up Cadillac Mountain (http://www.acadiamagic.com/CadillacMountain.html) first before the clouds moved in. This mountain is 1530 feet high and the road is nicely paved without potholes or bumps. On top of the mountain is a fair size parking lot which was 75% full by the time we got there. But the view was beautiful as the pictures will show. However, it was But also very windy and unless you had yourself roped to your car you could have been picked up by the wind and been deposited along the coast below in Bar Harbour, the local Banff of Acadia Park.
We were also told to take the one-way loop around the island as it is a most scenic drive. It took us 3 tries to find ‘the loop’. We are now quite familiar with the road to the visitor centre and to Cadillac Mountain, having passed it that many times. By the time we had found ‘the loop’ it had started to rain but we took it anyway. It was indeed a very nice drive with at times a nice view of the coast and the ocean on the left and the beautiful forests on the right. A very few of the trees had begun to turn colour but overall we are here just to soon to see the fall colours for which New England is famous. At the end we drove to the town of Bar Harbour to have a gawk at the boats and such in the harbour. And boats they are: some of them are pretty pricey and that is true not just for this harbour but also for the other small harbours around here. The vessels today were nothing like we have been seeing in Nova Scotia where the harbours are ‘working’ harbours with primarily fishing boats. Only fancy-dancy recreational boats need apply here.
I do not know much about the coast of Maine but it seems that there is a lot of money here and there are lots and lots of tourists in this resort section of the state. I think that on the Tuesday after the Labour Day weekend all the seniors (62 years is considered a senior here) go on holidays. It was pretty busy in Acadia National Park and the roads leading to them and we were the youngest couple here it felt like. But any way we enjoyed our day, in the rain, at Acadia National Park.
Pictures for today can be found here.
Day 74 – Drive from Ellsworth, Maine to Twin Mountain, New Hampshire
September 10, 2008
We had decided the previous evening to move inland to get away from the rainy coast. I guess the mist, fog and rain was getting to us after 2 months of it. This also means we will not be moving to the coast after all even if there is one of those old, charming big houses for sale within our price range. (As if there was much chance of that!)
But before we went west Leo wanted to go up Cadillac Mountain again (and use our $20 pass one more day, which was only good for this one state park) to take a few more pictures but this time with sunshine instead of clouds. While he did so I worked on catching up on some writing of our blogs. Hence we had a bit of a slow start to our day.
Going west and inland took us through some really nice scenery again and the sun stayed with us all day. Again we were treated to these big, big old houses from the turn of the 19th century or earlier. They look so romantic and I can picture life around them. Some of them are really well kept while others are, unfortunately, left unattended. These are houses you find in the small towns and cities. The big, big houses you find outside the cities and towns are new and do not have the romantic look to them. I mentioned to Leo that in the olden days the rich people lived in town and now the rich live just outside town. Times have changed.
We drove out of Maine and into New Hampshire. By 4 o’clock it was time to look for a campsite and we ended up in the White Mountains Region (http://www.visitwhitemountains.com/) of New Hampshire. We found a really nice campground close to Twin Mountain called Ammonoosuc Campground (www.ucampnh.com/ammonoosuc) and besides 2 other campers and 2 seasonal campers we were the only ones there. We were told to just pick a spot we liked and so we did: close to the wash and laundry room so I could do a wash while we ate supper. I have to say I am feeling ‘at home’ again with this campground as it is laid out like the campgrounds in our parks with a large area to set up your tent or trailer and trees all around you to give some privacy (which we did not really need as we were the only ones in this part of the campground). Another thing that made us feel at home was the bear warning signs posted in the bathroom and at the shelters for the tenting spots. I could have used the bathroom 7 times before I had to use a toilet twice or taken 4 showers and not used the same one twice. And all this luxury was just for the two of us. But we were only to camp here for the one night so there was not much time to really enjoy it all.
Sorry, but there are no pictures for today as the roads were again narrow. The ones from Cadillac Mountain Leo took in the morning were included in yesterday’s pictures.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Day 70, 71, 72 - Saint John, New Brunswick & Ellsworth, Maine
Finally some blogs again about where we have been and what we have seen. Sorry but we were staying at campgrounds with no internet for the past week or so.
Day 70 – Drive from Amherst to Saint John, New Brunswick
We again had a night without rain and wind, and sunshine again greeted us when we opened our eyes. After we posted our latest blog we packed up and left for Saint John, New Brunswick.
It was only about 2 1/2 hours driving so we got there around 2 o’clock and we were just in time setting up the trailer in the typical Saint John mist before the rain started again. According to the weather forecast tropical storm Hanna was not supposed to hit this area until Sunday afternoon (tomorrow) so we took the risk and went for a drive north of Saint John. We were going to visit a quilt store (http://www.rivergallery.ca/) which a lady had recommended to us on the ferry back from Newfoundland. This was not your normal kind of store: it was set up in a garage along highway 102 in a rural area kind of out of the way from ‘non local’ traffic. The location is along the beautiful and wide Saint John River which penetrates far into New Brunswick in what seems to be more a set of interconnected lakes. The lady who owns this quilt shop seems nevertheless to have a good business despite the location because she has an online store as well. Besides quilting she also specializes in rug hooking and she is one of the few suppliers for rug hooking materials for this area and for Eastern Canada as a whole. I caught the bug and bought a rug-hooking kit to get myself started in a new hobby (as if I needed a new hobby!).
As we drove away from the coast into the interior the fog cleared into sunshine and we really enjoyed our drive along the Saint John River. So we went further and then stopped in Gagetown, where we had supper outside on the patio of a little restaurant which you would pass by if you were not looking for it. We were the only guests and the food was superb. I would recommend going there if you are in the neighbourhood.
We turned again then for Saint John by further quiet back roads and by the time we got back to our trailer we were back in the fog again and it was time to go to bed, albeit with no pictures for the day apparently.
Day 71 – Saint John, New Brunswick
September 07, 2008
Saint John, New Brunswick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_John,_New_Brunswick)
Tropical storm Hanna decided to come a little earlier than was predicted and she showed us what the after-life of a Hurricane can be: rain, rain and rain, and some wind. All through the night and morning it came down in buckets, I can’t remember ever having seen and heard this much rain. The whole campground was a swimming pool as the water just did not have enough time to soak into the ground partly because it was pretty saturated already with the previous rains of the last few days and also because this new rain just came down so hard. But one thing was nice: it was not cold. During the night the temperature never seemed to have dropped below 18 degrees Centigrade. Some areas in Saint John flooded and some cars became stuck in water up to their hoods as a result of which some roads were blocked off to traffic. I am sure this storm flooded many basements. All in all the storm exceeded expectations. The forecast had been for from 5 to 8 cm of rain to fall in the Saint John area, but in reality the weather office at the Airport recorded no less than 13.9 cm. That is almost 6 inches in the old imperial measure. When you consider that this represents ¼ of the total annual precipitation for the City of Calgary coming down in an 8 hour period you might get an idea of what an event this was for us.
Luckily the winds had largely subsided in Hanna before she hit Canada and we were only forecast to experience gusts in the range of 60 km per hour (although I am sure we had stronger ones than that at times). This low wind strength was much appreciated as our tent trailer can be buffeted in strong winds and our campsite was relatively open, even though we had chosen to strike down between two large RVs which offered some wind protection from the sides. The north offered some trees not far away, and the south faced to the open parking lot. But Hanna was nice and sent her eye to the east of us, which both lessened the strength of the winds (did I get that right Erik?) and also sent them at us from the north side where those trees offered us the best protection. And fortunately, our tent trailer was superb and did not show any water leakage at all during this storm.
But later in the morning it stopped and we ventured out to do some sight-seeing around the city in the afternoon when we even received some sunshine. We drove around the harbours for a while, visited downtown Saint John and ended up at the Carleton Martello Tower. This is a National Historic Site (http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nb/carleton/index_E.asp) as we could tell by the signs around the city pointing to how to find it, but we had no inkling of an idea about what the heck it represented. It turned out this was a fortified observation tower built in 1815 on a height above the town as a way to protect Saint John from potential future overland attacks by Americans. I found it a very interesting building as to how it was constructed and how the soldiers’ quarters were set up.
The main floor was one big round room with a massive central pillar, 2 fireplaces and 12 beds set up around the perimeter of this round room. The beds were folding ones so they were folded up in half during the day to give more ‘living’ space and unfolded when they slept. Below this was a lower floor with gunpowder storage and peep holes through which the defenders could fire guns at approaching enemy. The roof originally supported two cannons which could be pointed in any direction, but these were subsequently removed and a new ‘lookout tower’ structure built during the Second World War to offer a high view of the Bay of Fundy, and thus to help defend Saint John harbour.
We had a most knowledgeable staff member explaining the history and workings of the building. Apparently the British were very fond of this type of fortification and built several hundred of them throughout the empire. A few others are to be found in Canada including two in the old city of Quebec. These towers were very strong with their circular construction of walls up to 8 feet thick, a massively thick roof and that central pillar to support it. They were very proof against artillery fire from the old smooth-bore cannons, but the invention of rifled-bore cannons instantly made them obsolete. Fortunately, the Saint John tower was never attacked and hence is superbly well preserved.
From here we went to look for a road which would lead us to a causeway to an island with a lighthouse on it but we got lost as we were trying to find a road that was not there. Instead we ended up on a very nice rocky beach where the tide was just coming in so we got to enjoy surf breaking on rocks again.
I think Leo’s pictures will tell you a bit more and they can be found here.
Day 72 – Drive from Saint John, New Brunswick to Ellsworth, MaineSeptember 08, 2008
Today we will be leaving New Brunswick behind us, a true sign that we are nearing the end of our holiday, as this will bring us closer to home again. We decided to cut across the northeastern United States to get back to Ontario as it is shorter than going the Quebec way. And that is exactly what we were asked at the border going into the States. Other than that they let us in, surprisingly, without any waits or inspection so were nicely surprised as we had heard the stories of the long waits at the border crossings elsewhere.
We stopped at the visitor’s information centre to pick up a map and campground booklet for the State of Maine and off we went on a new adventures. We had not quite decided as to where we wanted to camp the first night so during a picnic lunch we studied the map and picked Ellsworth as our destination. It had 2 campgrounds so we thought we should be able to find a spot in one of them. But our first concern was to find an ATM machine as we had no US money on us and we could not even buy a coffee or ice cream anywhere. Do you know that is cost $2 to use such a machine and then you also have a bank fee on top of that! Serves us right not to stop at a bank to pick up some US money before we crossed the border.
We had chosen a so-called scenic drive but we must have missed it somehow as we really did not see a lot of nice scenery. We saw lots of road construction though as tropical storm Hanna had done her damage here as well and washed out some of the roads in this area, and in particular many sections of road shoulders. We finally arrived at our campground and got a nice, dry spot to set up our trailer. It was 5:30 p.m. local time already and when we tried to pull out one of the sides of our trailer it jammed. A bolt in one of the rollers had come loose and was stuck in the track which prevented it from moving past the end stop as it normally should do. But after much patient fiddling my mechanic, Leo, got it fixed and working again but for a while we were thinking that we would have to use the bed in the car and pull the trailer to a RV repair shop again to have it fixed. This would have been a problem because it is a long drive back to our favourite shop, Hilltop Trailers, in Cape Breton!
We had a simple supper and decided to catch up on our sleep, again. Tomorrow we hope to do some sight-seeing around Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island: that is, if the weather cooperates. Otherwise we will move on closer to home. Sorry, but the roads again did not allow stopping very much so there are no pictures for today.
Day 70 – Drive from Amherst to Saint John, New Brunswick
We again had a night without rain and wind, and sunshine again greeted us when we opened our eyes. After we posted our latest blog we packed up and left for Saint John, New Brunswick.
It was only about 2 1/2 hours driving so we got there around 2 o’clock and we were just in time setting up the trailer in the typical Saint John mist before the rain started again. According to the weather forecast tropical storm Hanna was not supposed to hit this area until Sunday afternoon (tomorrow) so we took the risk and went for a drive north of Saint John. We were going to visit a quilt store (http://www.rivergallery.ca/) which a lady had recommended to us on the ferry back from Newfoundland. This was not your normal kind of store: it was set up in a garage along highway 102 in a rural area kind of out of the way from ‘non local’ traffic. The location is along the beautiful and wide Saint John River which penetrates far into New Brunswick in what seems to be more a set of interconnected lakes. The lady who owns this quilt shop seems nevertheless to have a good business despite the location because she has an online store as well. Besides quilting she also specializes in rug hooking and she is one of the few suppliers for rug hooking materials for this area and for Eastern Canada as a whole. I caught the bug and bought a rug-hooking kit to get myself started in a new hobby (as if I needed a new hobby!).
As we drove away from the coast into the interior the fog cleared into sunshine and we really enjoyed our drive along the Saint John River. So we went further and then stopped in Gagetown, where we had supper outside on the patio of a little restaurant which you would pass by if you were not looking for it. We were the only guests and the food was superb. I would recommend going there if you are in the neighbourhood.
We turned again then for Saint John by further quiet back roads and by the time we got back to our trailer we were back in the fog again and it was time to go to bed, albeit with no pictures for the day apparently.
Day 71 – Saint John, New Brunswick
September 07, 2008
Saint John, New Brunswick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_John,_New_Brunswick)
Tropical storm Hanna decided to come a little earlier than was predicted and she showed us what the after-life of a Hurricane can be: rain, rain and rain, and some wind. All through the night and morning it came down in buckets, I can’t remember ever having seen and heard this much rain. The whole campground was a swimming pool as the water just did not have enough time to soak into the ground partly because it was pretty saturated already with the previous rains of the last few days and also because this new rain just came down so hard. But one thing was nice: it was not cold. During the night the temperature never seemed to have dropped below 18 degrees Centigrade. Some areas in Saint John flooded and some cars became stuck in water up to their hoods as a result of which some roads were blocked off to traffic. I am sure this storm flooded many basements. All in all the storm exceeded expectations. The forecast had been for from 5 to 8 cm of rain to fall in the Saint John area, but in reality the weather office at the Airport recorded no less than 13.9 cm. That is almost 6 inches in the old imperial measure. When you consider that this represents ¼ of the total annual precipitation for the City of Calgary coming down in an 8 hour period you might get an idea of what an event this was for us.
Luckily the winds had largely subsided in Hanna before she hit Canada and we were only forecast to experience gusts in the range of 60 km per hour (although I am sure we had stronger ones than that at times). This low wind strength was much appreciated as our tent trailer can be buffeted in strong winds and our campsite was relatively open, even though we had chosen to strike down between two large RVs which offered some wind protection from the sides. The north offered some trees not far away, and the south faced to the open parking lot. But Hanna was nice and sent her eye to the east of us, which both lessened the strength of the winds (did I get that right Erik?) and also sent them at us from the north side where those trees offered us the best protection. And fortunately, our tent trailer was superb and did not show any water leakage at all during this storm.
But later in the morning it stopped and we ventured out to do some sight-seeing around the city in the afternoon when we even received some sunshine. We drove around the harbours for a while, visited downtown Saint John and ended up at the Carleton Martello Tower. This is a National Historic Site (http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nb/carleton/index_E.asp) as we could tell by the signs around the city pointing to how to find it, but we had no inkling of an idea about what the heck it represented. It turned out this was a fortified observation tower built in 1815 on a height above the town as a way to protect Saint John from potential future overland attacks by Americans. I found it a very interesting building as to how it was constructed and how the soldiers’ quarters were set up.
The main floor was one big round room with a massive central pillar, 2 fireplaces and 12 beds set up around the perimeter of this round room. The beds were folding ones so they were folded up in half during the day to give more ‘living’ space and unfolded when they slept. Below this was a lower floor with gunpowder storage and peep holes through which the defenders could fire guns at approaching enemy. The roof originally supported two cannons which could be pointed in any direction, but these were subsequently removed and a new ‘lookout tower’ structure built during the Second World War to offer a high view of the Bay of Fundy, and thus to help defend Saint John harbour.
We had a most knowledgeable staff member explaining the history and workings of the building. Apparently the British were very fond of this type of fortification and built several hundred of them throughout the empire. A few others are to be found in Canada including two in the old city of Quebec. These towers were very strong with their circular construction of walls up to 8 feet thick, a massively thick roof and that central pillar to support it. They were very proof against artillery fire from the old smooth-bore cannons, but the invention of rifled-bore cannons instantly made them obsolete. Fortunately, the Saint John tower was never attacked and hence is superbly well preserved.
From here we went to look for a road which would lead us to a causeway to an island with a lighthouse on it but we got lost as we were trying to find a road that was not there. Instead we ended up on a very nice rocky beach where the tide was just coming in so we got to enjoy surf breaking on rocks again.
I think Leo’s pictures will tell you a bit more and they can be found here.
Day 72 – Drive from Saint John, New Brunswick to Ellsworth, MaineSeptember 08, 2008
Today we will be leaving New Brunswick behind us, a true sign that we are nearing the end of our holiday, as this will bring us closer to home again. We decided to cut across the northeastern United States to get back to Ontario as it is shorter than going the Quebec way. And that is exactly what we were asked at the border going into the States. Other than that they let us in, surprisingly, without any waits or inspection so were nicely surprised as we had heard the stories of the long waits at the border crossings elsewhere.
We stopped at the visitor’s information centre to pick up a map and campground booklet for the State of Maine and off we went on a new adventures. We had not quite decided as to where we wanted to camp the first night so during a picnic lunch we studied the map and picked Ellsworth as our destination. It had 2 campgrounds so we thought we should be able to find a spot in one of them. But our first concern was to find an ATM machine as we had no US money on us and we could not even buy a coffee or ice cream anywhere. Do you know that is cost $2 to use such a machine and then you also have a bank fee on top of that! Serves us right not to stop at a bank to pick up some US money before we crossed the border.
We had chosen a so-called scenic drive but we must have missed it somehow as we really did not see a lot of nice scenery. We saw lots of road construction though as tropical storm Hanna had done her damage here as well and washed out some of the roads in this area, and in particular many sections of road shoulders. We finally arrived at our campground and got a nice, dry spot to set up our trailer. It was 5:30 p.m. local time already and when we tried to pull out one of the sides of our trailer it jammed. A bolt in one of the rollers had come loose and was stuck in the track which prevented it from moving past the end stop as it normally should do. But after much patient fiddling my mechanic, Leo, got it fixed and working again but for a while we were thinking that we would have to use the bed in the car and pull the trailer to a RV repair shop again to have it fixed. This would have been a problem because it is a long drive back to our favourite shop, Hilltop Trailers, in Cape Breton!
We had a simple supper and decided to catch up on our sleep, again. Tomorrow we hope to do some sight-seeing around Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island: that is, if the weather cooperates. Otherwise we will move on closer to home. Sorry, but the roads again did not allow stopping very much so there are no pictures for today.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Day 67, 68 and 70 - The last days in Nova Scotia
Day 67 – Drive from Digby to New Minas, Nova Scotia
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
After yesterday, and being in the wind and sun all afternoon, we had a most delightful sleep. It did not rain to wake us up and the wind did not blow overnight either.
We woke up to a dry morning so we first packed up and got ready to go to our next destination – the area around Kentville in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. We took the major highway as when we pulled out of the campground in Digby the rain started to come down in buckets so it was no use taking any scenic routes this time as there would be nothing to see beyond the margins of the highway. For pretty well all the way it poured and poured. Leo had to put the windshield wipers on high and curtail his speed to 80 km/hr for much of the trip as the rain came down so heavily.
We arrived at our new campsite around 1 pm. It then stopped raining briefly so we quickly popped-up the tent-trailer, had some lunch and went off to do some sight-seeing to check out the area. First we went to a tourist information centre in the town of Wolfville. This is the site of Acadian University and has some fantastically large and beautiful homes belonging to the librarians at the University. (Just kidding Joanne! They likely belong to the administrators.)
From Wolfville we went to the National Historic Site of Grand Pre and the Acadian Historic Museum (http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/grandpre/index_e.asp). This is a very interesting museum chronicling how the Acadians arrived here largely from France, developed very fertile agricultural lands by dyking saltwater marshes, only to be forcibly deported by the English military in the mid 18th century. However, they always maintained strong emotional ties to their homeland and many came back to this area years later from the many locations to which they were deported. Most had been sent to the American colonies, but some wound up in what would later become Louisiana, with yet others being sent back to France. More information on their history can be found here (http://www.grand-pre.com/indexportalen.html).
As I mentioned we drove through Wolfville (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfville,_Nova_Scotia or http://www.town.wolfville.ns.ca/) and if there is a house for sale here which we can afford we will buy it and move here. Wolfville is such a beautiful, pleasantly located town with those beautiful old houses and gardens. With the presence of the University lots of young people come to live in the town, something not noticeable in some of the other surrounding towns. I was told that Wolfville is also kept “non-commercial’ as much as possible in order to focus on its academic character so you will not find any of the big shopping malls or chain stores here. These malls and stores are all located at New Minas (http://www.newminas.com/Web/history.asp), just east of Wolfville, where you can find all of the big chains like Walmart, Superstore, Canadian Tire, Home Depot and more. There is quite a difference between these two towns and yet they are so close together.
We then did some driving around the area for Leo to find a spot where he could film the coming and the going of the huge tidewaters in the Bay of Fundy again. We found a good place at the small harbour known as Hall’s Harbour, so-called because it was originally the base of operations of an American pirate named Samuel Hall. Here we had some supper at a small Lobster restaurant contemplating a lobster feast at last, but we decided to just order fish and chips as we could not see ourselves picking out a live lobster and then having to eat the poor creature after it was boiled. So, sorry Joanne and Lynn but there was no lobster meal for us this holiday (although Leo did have a lobster subway sandwich in Charlottetown!). On our way back to our trailer it started to rain again and we got kind of lost as to where we had to go. Luckily Linda our GPS navigator guided us back to where our campsite was, otherwise we would still be driving around in circles trying to figure out where we were and where we had to go.
Pictures for today, not that many, can be found here.
Day 68 – New Minas, Nova Scotia
It rained during the night again and when we woke up it was still raining off and on. Today was Leo’s day to go to Halls Harbour to film the tides coming in and going out. I stayed around the campground to catch up on my wash and clean out the trailer a bit so it would last us the final 3 weeks of our holiday. The time sure has gone by fast but we have seen and experienced a lot. It has been a trip we will not forget for a long time.
The sun came out early in the morning and stayed with us for the rest of the day. It was a break from the rain which we desperately needed. There has simply been too much rain these last few weeks. But with tropical storm Hanna reportedly on her way to Nova Scotia I don’t know if we will keep having this wonderful sunshine for long. But we will take what we can get.
Leo had a successful day photographing and filming the tide change. He began filming at low tide, carried on to high tide, and then completed the cycle by filming until low tide again. After he set up his cameras a German film crew working on a travel film about Nova Scotia walked over and asked if he was indeed going to be making a time lapse movie of the tide change. When he replied that he was, they said they thought that was a great idea and decided they would do the same for the TV production on which they were working. But they could not get their camera to take a new picture every few seconds as they wanted to so they gave up the idea. However, Leo offered to send them a copy of his time lapse video and they indicated they would be very interested in seeing this and might well want to include it in their TV show. He will work on this as soon as he is home and then arrange for them to see a copy of it . We will see if it amounts to anything before I let Leo have his wish of selling the house and starting a new career making time lapse movies for German VOX television in all kinds of exotic locations around the world.
Tomorrow we move on again to Amherst, our last stop in Nova Scotia, and then on to New Brunswick.
Some of the picture’s Leo took as he was filming the tides can be found here. There are some general shots of Hall’s Harbour to begin. Then a series of images are presented which show the progression of the flood and ebb of the Fundy tide in this harbour. They show the same scene at half hour intervals with the image title indicating the hour of the day on which each was taken. The water level changes most rapidly at the midpoint between high and low tide. At this time it will change by 2.5 cm each minute along the coast here. You will notice this in the more dramatic changes which occur in the half hour images taken around this midpoint of the tidal cycle. It is to be noted as well that the most dramatic tides, known as spring tides, occur when the moon is full or new, with the least dramatic tides, known as neep tides, occurring when the moon is in the first or last quarter. These images were taken midway between a spring and neep tide. Had they been taken with a spring tide the contrast between high and low tides, already many meters on this day, would have been even more dramatic.
Day 69 – Drive from New Minas to Amherst, Nova Scotia
September 5, 2008
It was a night with no rain and sunshine awaiting us when we woke up. Something we have not had for a while.
Today we are moving on again closer to home and closer to leaving Nova Scotia behind us. We took a secondary highway today now that the weather was cooperating with us and we could finally see something of our surroundings again instead of rain and mist.
Our route took us along the Bay of Fundy on the Nova Scotia side, around the southern and northern shores of Cobequid Bay and on to almost the New Brunswick border. And our surroundings were just fabulous again: the beautiful old big houses, the gardens the people keep around these houses, the lay of the land, the rolling hills with trees and farm fields intermingled. The winding roads are such a pleasure to drive, they give you a new view around each corner to enjoy. All in all it is a most pleasurable drive to Amherst.
In Amherst we found ourselves a very nice camping just outside the city proper. We set up our trailer, had supper and decided to go to bed early to catch up on some of our lost sleep of the last few days.
The roads today were narrow and allowed little chance to pull off with our trailer in order to take a photograph, but Leo did take a few which can be found here.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
After yesterday, and being in the wind and sun all afternoon, we had a most delightful sleep. It did not rain to wake us up and the wind did not blow overnight either.
We woke up to a dry morning so we first packed up and got ready to go to our next destination – the area around Kentville in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. We took the major highway as when we pulled out of the campground in Digby the rain started to come down in buckets so it was no use taking any scenic routes this time as there would be nothing to see beyond the margins of the highway. For pretty well all the way it poured and poured. Leo had to put the windshield wipers on high and curtail his speed to 80 km/hr for much of the trip as the rain came down so heavily.
We arrived at our new campsite around 1 pm. It then stopped raining briefly so we quickly popped-up the tent-trailer, had some lunch and went off to do some sight-seeing to check out the area. First we went to a tourist information centre in the town of Wolfville. This is the site of Acadian University and has some fantastically large and beautiful homes belonging to the librarians at the University. (Just kidding Joanne! They likely belong to the administrators.)
From Wolfville we went to the National Historic Site of Grand Pre and the Acadian Historic Museum (http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/grandpre/index_e.asp). This is a very interesting museum chronicling how the Acadians arrived here largely from France, developed very fertile agricultural lands by dyking saltwater marshes, only to be forcibly deported by the English military in the mid 18th century. However, they always maintained strong emotional ties to their homeland and many came back to this area years later from the many locations to which they were deported. Most had been sent to the American colonies, but some wound up in what would later become Louisiana, with yet others being sent back to France. More information on their history can be found here (http://www.grand-pre.com/indexportalen.html).
As I mentioned we drove through Wolfville (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfville,_Nova_Scotia or http://www.town.wolfville.ns.ca/) and if there is a house for sale here which we can afford we will buy it and move here. Wolfville is such a beautiful, pleasantly located town with those beautiful old houses and gardens. With the presence of the University lots of young people come to live in the town, something not noticeable in some of the other surrounding towns. I was told that Wolfville is also kept “non-commercial’ as much as possible in order to focus on its academic character so you will not find any of the big shopping malls or chain stores here. These malls and stores are all located at New Minas (http://www.newminas.com/Web/history.asp), just east of Wolfville, where you can find all of the big chains like Walmart, Superstore, Canadian Tire, Home Depot and more. There is quite a difference between these two towns and yet they are so close together.
We then did some driving around the area for Leo to find a spot where he could film the coming and the going of the huge tidewaters in the Bay of Fundy again. We found a good place at the small harbour known as Hall’s Harbour, so-called because it was originally the base of operations of an American pirate named Samuel Hall. Here we had some supper at a small Lobster restaurant contemplating a lobster feast at last, but we decided to just order fish and chips as we could not see ourselves picking out a live lobster and then having to eat the poor creature after it was boiled. So, sorry Joanne and Lynn but there was no lobster meal for us this holiday (although Leo did have a lobster subway sandwich in Charlottetown!). On our way back to our trailer it started to rain again and we got kind of lost as to where we had to go. Luckily Linda our GPS navigator guided us back to where our campsite was, otherwise we would still be driving around in circles trying to figure out where we were and where we had to go.
Pictures for today, not that many, can be found here.
Day 68 – New Minas, Nova Scotia
It rained during the night again and when we woke up it was still raining off and on. Today was Leo’s day to go to Halls Harbour to film the tides coming in and going out. I stayed around the campground to catch up on my wash and clean out the trailer a bit so it would last us the final 3 weeks of our holiday. The time sure has gone by fast but we have seen and experienced a lot. It has been a trip we will not forget for a long time.
The sun came out early in the morning and stayed with us for the rest of the day. It was a break from the rain which we desperately needed. There has simply been too much rain these last few weeks. But with tropical storm Hanna reportedly on her way to Nova Scotia I don’t know if we will keep having this wonderful sunshine for long. But we will take what we can get.
Leo had a successful day photographing and filming the tide change. He began filming at low tide, carried on to high tide, and then completed the cycle by filming until low tide again. After he set up his cameras a German film crew working on a travel film about Nova Scotia walked over and asked if he was indeed going to be making a time lapse movie of the tide change. When he replied that he was, they said they thought that was a great idea and decided they would do the same for the TV production on which they were working. But they could not get their camera to take a new picture every few seconds as they wanted to so they gave up the idea. However, Leo offered to send them a copy of his time lapse video and they indicated they would be very interested in seeing this and might well want to include it in their TV show. He will work on this as soon as he is home and then arrange for them to see a copy of it . We will see if it amounts to anything before I let Leo have his wish of selling the house and starting a new career making time lapse movies for German VOX television in all kinds of exotic locations around the world.
Tomorrow we move on again to Amherst, our last stop in Nova Scotia, and then on to New Brunswick.
Some of the picture’s Leo took as he was filming the tides can be found here. There are some general shots of Hall’s Harbour to begin. Then a series of images are presented which show the progression of the flood and ebb of the Fundy tide in this harbour. They show the same scene at half hour intervals with the image title indicating the hour of the day on which each was taken. The water level changes most rapidly at the midpoint between high and low tide. At this time it will change by 2.5 cm each minute along the coast here. You will notice this in the more dramatic changes which occur in the half hour images taken around this midpoint of the tidal cycle. It is to be noted as well that the most dramatic tides, known as spring tides, occur when the moon is full or new, with the least dramatic tides, known as neep tides, occurring when the moon is in the first or last quarter. These images were taken midway between a spring and neep tide. Had they been taken with a spring tide the contrast between high and low tides, already many meters on this day, would have been even more dramatic.
Day 69 – Drive from New Minas to Amherst, Nova Scotia
September 5, 2008
It was a night with no rain and sunshine awaiting us when we woke up. Something we have not had for a while.
Today we are moving on again closer to home and closer to leaving Nova Scotia behind us. We took a secondary highway today now that the weather was cooperating with us and we could finally see something of our surroundings again instead of rain and mist.
Our route took us along the Bay of Fundy on the Nova Scotia side, around the southern and northern shores of Cobequid Bay and on to almost the New Brunswick border. And our surroundings were just fabulous again: the beautiful old big houses, the gardens the people keep around these houses, the lay of the land, the rolling hills with trees and farm fields intermingled. The winding roads are such a pleasure to drive, they give you a new view around each corner to enjoy. All in all it is a most pleasurable drive to Amherst.
In Amherst we found ourselves a very nice camping just outside the city proper. We set up our trailer, had supper and decided to go to bed early to catch up on some of our lost sleep of the last few days.
The roads today were narrow and allowed little chance to pull off with our trailer in order to take a photograph, but Leo did take a few which can be found here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)