Falling with Style and Falls

We are in Eden which is near the city of Twin Falls. The Snake River flows through here. It is a deep gorge caused when Bonniville Lake burst it's banks 30,000 years ago.

In Twin Falls there is a bridge over the river where they allow base jumping. Base jumping is parachuting from high places without a plane. We went down to look at the bridge and got lucky with several base jumpers leaping from the bridge and trying to land on a target that was below us.

Here are a few pictures.

The last jumper (the first picture) jumped from the railing.

Here is his 'chute opening.

And here is the 'chute open.

After the show at the bridge we went down to Shoshone Falls which is just upstream from where the bridge is. We were not far from where Evil Knienviel tried to jump the Snake River on a rocket powered motorcycle.

After dinner I went to the entrance of the campsite to get some pictures of the sunset.

We are moving again, once again north and west.

Wyoming, Utah, Idaho

The last night we were in Greeley Colorado it was a full moon. The skies were clear so here is what the moon looks like from here.

We left Greeley and started our drive across the Rockies. The first rest stop in Wyoming had 8 inches of snow last weekend and you can see the remnants below.

We stopped at another rest stop for lunch and this was the notice posted on the fence.

We decided to keep the dogs close.

The campsite in Rock Springs, Wyoming was a gravel parking lot with hook-ups. It is also really flat around there.

There was a heavy frost on the ground this morning.

The drive today was easy, no wind, generally down hill (we dropped about 2000 feed over the day) and the speed limit is 75 mph or 122 kph. With the speed limit that high I drive to my exhaust gas temperature gauge so I don't melt my pistons. This meant we were doing about 110k so my milage really suffered but I kept up with the semi's (which is safer than having them pass you all the time).

I watched two different semi's suffer tire failures so I don't follow too closely. Dodging tire carcasses in the middle of the lane at over 100 kph can be tricky.

We drove in 3 different states today. Last year we did the same 3 states in a day but in a different order.

When we got here, Eden Idaho, it was 24 degrees with more of the same forecast for tomorrow.

Windy Wyoming

Well, today was supposed to be a pretty boring drive - up 85 to 80 then across Wyoming to Rock Springs.  Hmmm, best laid plans.

The road started climbing - although it is high plains as opposed to mountains, we still got quite high.  High enough that at 8,640 feet when we stopped to pour more coffee I could put my foot in the snow.  Some other things we saw:

• At 8,000 ft we saw a town with a population of one.  
• We crossed two signs for the continental divide.
• The antelope were playing (but we saw no deer).  
• We saw a covered wagon being pulled by four horses.  

We also saw variable speed signs all along this stretch.  Kinda like in Hazzard County - except they're supposed to change depending on the weather.  And the weather apparently means high winds.

The first highway advisory we saw said wind gusts over 40 MPH (64 kph).  Then we saw an advisory that said wind gusts over 50 MPH (80 kph) - no lite trailers permitted.  So, I got the iPad out and looked up what they considered a lite trailer.  WYDOT, being a typical government agency, does not define a lite trailer but says one that is empty or might be affected by the wind.  Well, we travel with full tanks and we purposely bought a heavy trailer, so we figured we'd keep going.  Paul did some white knuckle driving but we came through just fine.

We thought about stopping in Rawlins, but the WYDOT road conditions said the high winds advisory ended for the rest of the trip, so we kept driving to our planned destination tonight which is here in Rock Springs.  We have a 2010 Trailer Life and had selected an RV park, but when I went to look up the website, it was no longer there.  Luckily it has just changed to a KOA, not our favourite campgrounds to stay in but it will do for the night.

Farewell Denver

We are leaving Denver this morning. Yesterday we took James in town to the Games Workshop for a couple of hours. Because our campsite was in Greeley, it was an hour and a half to get in to town center. Then the same again and longer coming bsck because of rush hour traffic. Once you are in the city, Denver is like every other large city.

We would have stayed at a closer RV place but the other one open was 55+ and no pets. Paul would have been lonely. The largest problem with our RV site is that in the morning the whole place smelled like fertilizer (the horse kind). Other than that it was a nice place.

Lizzie/Lucy wanted to tske us up Hwy 25 this morning but we decided on 85 instead.

Let's go shopping at Camping World

We went shopping today at the supermarket of RV stores, Camping World. It was not an accident that we stopped in Denver, it has 3 Camping Worlds and Kathie had our shopping list ready to go.

The first thing on the list was a new set of tires. The other day when I was putting in the wheel chocks I noticed that one of the tires was concave for about 1/3 of the tire. Speculation is that the steel belts had broken inside the tire. Camping World has a full service operation including tires and anything else to do with trailers, motorhomes or tow vehicles. So the trailer as a new set of tires including a new spare. The same tires here here are about $100/tire less than at home. The beer is cheaper as well.

We had about 2 1/2 hours to spend in the store so we were able to make several rounds and find most of the things on our list. Shopping at Camping World is great because of the selection and in some cases you find things that you could not at home.

There is also a better selection at the supermarket. There are a number of items we have bought to bring home with us because they are not available in Canada. Unfortunately we don't have room for the BBQ briquettes I want to bring home. They have 5 different kinds of Kingsford briquettes.

It was a boring day for James but tomorrow we are taking him to the Games Workshop in Denver.

The dogs are doing fine.

Mile High City

Last night we were in the high plains of Kansas.  Today we drove to Denver.  I had always thought that Denver would be surrounded by mountains.  But mostly today we drove on the plains.  The rise is so gradual, you don't really think about getting higher and higher.  In fact, we didn't see peaks of mountains until half-way through the travel day.  And still the peaked mountains look like they are off in the distance.  Yet we are a mile high.

Kansas Back to the Prairies

This will be short - it was a long day. We are now in the High Plains area of Kansas.

We are on the prairies again and the driving is relatively flat (long gradual uphill) with a ferocious cross wind.

The drive took us right through Kansas City, Missouri where we drove by the Kansas City Royals stadium (for my brother Al) and later just outside of Kansas City, Kansas there was a NASCAR race (for my brother Malcolm) with thousands of people watching. The parking lot was huge. Nobody was at the baseball stadium because the Royals season is over.

The weather when we left Missouri was warm. The weather here is cool. 4 degrees tonight but that is unusual - it is normally -1. The campsite has a warning - "Awnings and the High Planes simply don't mix. Please leave awnings rolled up. we can experience very sudden wind changes.". Once again there are instructions as to what to do incase of severe weather.

No Vacancy and Hunting for Barns

The campsite we are in is full tonight. The weather is warm and the you can hear the drone of air conditioners through the campground. The most noise is coming from the bus two sites over because he has 2-3 air conditioners on his rig and they are all working away.

This morning I drove around looking for barns. I found a few including the ones below. At least I didn't get chased by any dogs today.

Tomorrow we are moving again, getting closer to the mountains.

Interstate Driving

My new favourite barn is in Kentucky.

We have been driving on Interstates for a couple of weeks. This weeks Interstate is I64. We were going to follow I64 to I70 to Denver. At rest area we were at for lunch the other day Kathie saw a sign that said a bridge on I64 at Louisville was closed and alternate routes should be taken. This was the only indication that we had that there was an issue with the route.

We had already planned to be in Frankfort which is only 50 miles from Louisville so we continued on our way. Last night we spent over an hour trying to plan our way around Louisville. The recommended routes were to go north to Cincinnati or south to Nashville. While looking at the map we noticed the BlueGrass Parkway which cut diagonally across Kentucky.

Parkways and Turnpikes are usually toll roads but they had taken the tolls off the road. It was an easy drive as there were few hills the traffic was light until we turned north onto I24 which merged with I 57 after a few miles.

In the past we have avoided the Interstates because of the heavy truck traffic and you don't get to see much of the countryside. They are faster as the speed limit is usually 65 or 70 mph. We also have to pull over for fuel more often.

The problem with state roads and smaller highways these days is they can be very rough. Fifteen years ago they were well maintained and now they do not seem to be. In addition, some of them are very narrow and the speed limit is 55 mph. The one we were driving down the other day the shoulder white line was part of the lane and there was no shoulder. Fortunately we only had the truck (and not the trailer as well) as the truck took up almost all of the lane. The BlueGrass Parkway was an exception to this as it was smooth and wide.

We are starting to see more police cars again. We haven't seen this many since we left Ontario. Here though, the vehicles we see pulled over most often are the semi's.

Now that we have moved south there are actually other campers staying in the campsite. In Frankfort they were not sure they would have room for us. Tonight there is a motorhome rally in the campsite (so once again we (at 50 feet long) are one of the smaller rigs in the campground). That was quite a change from Cooperstown where there were only 1 or 2 other campers and Roanoke West Virginia where we were the only campers there.

Relaxing in the Sun

We spent a large part of the day just relaxing in the sunshine.  Although it was 10 degrees when we woke up, it warmed up to a balmy 24 in the afternoon.  The campsite is quiet and shady with enough sunny areas that it was nice to just sit (although Paul did get out for a couple of pictures of course).

This area is bourbon country.  Bourbon manufacturing plants and large horse ranches pretty much make up the landscape. 

Warmth and sunshine

We moved from West Virginia to Kentucky today and as we were getting close Kentucky we could see blue sky for the first time is days. When we got here is was warm (about 24 degrees). This is the warmest day we have had in a while.

The place we are staying at has the following notice in their campground information -

"In case of Severe weather, turn your TV to Channel 3. This weather report will come from Louisville which is about 50 miles away. You are in Frankfort in Franklin County. When you hear the report for Shelby County you will have about 15 minutes to get to the underground parking area at the Capital Plaza Hotel."

Since we don't have a TV I am not sure this applies to us - or I am going to have to make friends with the guys watching the ballgame on the TV mounted in the outside cupboard of their bus style motorhome. Not only that I am not sure my truck will fit in the underground parking.

We are staying here a couple of days and will be planning our next week of travels.

Fog and Rain

We moved from Harrisburg into West Virginia today and spent the day driving through the mountains (up to about 3,000 feet) in rain and fog. It was 6 degrees when we got up and it did not warm up very much. We were moving along pretty quickly as the speed limit here is 70 mph or 112 Kph. Because there are lots of hills and big semis we generally move along at about 105 except for the bigger hills where we slow down and we have been up to 115 -120 for short sections. My guess is that my mpg is going to go down. The roads have been really good for the last few days.

When we stopped for lunch we abandoned our usual BBQ'ed hot dogs for a deli lunch in the trailer with the heat on. That is the first time this trip that we have done that.

Below is a picture of one of our lunch stops from a few days ago when it was sunny. You can see the BBQ at the back of the trailer. There was no picnic area at this rest area so we just set up shop at the trailer.

The campsite we chose for tonight said "Open all year". We are the only people here. The owner said to Kathie "you don't want to use the washrooms do you!?". The campsite is also down a long 5 mile country road that is only 1 1/2 lanes wide. I don't know what I will do if I meet someone going the other way when we leave tomorrow. I may have heard banjos playing because one of the "resorts" around here is the Hillbilly Cabins.

Gettysburg

We spent a large part of today in Gettysburg looking for copies of Lincoln's address and "avoiding the FBI".  The treasure hunt put on by Lincoln's Lost Treasure was great fun.  Yesterday we received a call to ensure we knew the meeting place and to be sure that we understood that we needed to "tell no one, and be sure no one is following".  We started the day meeting with a british woman, ran into a russian spy and eventually . . . well, I can't tell you, if I did I would have to kill you.

It was a great way to spend a couple of hours exploring the downtown area of Gettysburg and we met interesting people in our group as well.  When Natasha, the russian spy, informed James that he should be married already at 18, we informed her that we were waiting for Lindsay (11 years old, from Texas) to be two years older.   She agreed that this was reasonable.


We have to move on from Pennsylvania tomorrow, but it has been an interesting experience.  We are heading a little more south in the hopes that it will get warmer as we move west.

Barns and things

Today we will talk about barns and the regional differences I have noticed while working on my project.

The first picture is a barn in the area that we are in now. You will notice that one side is cantilevered. This seems to be the design favoured for barns in this area. You will also notice that it has windows.

This next barn is from the area north of here in New England. The barns up there are not cantilevered but they do have windows. This one has a variegated roof which was quite different.

Below is a northern barn. It has no windows.

Now I guess I am going to have to find out why the different designs of barns are favoured in each of the areas.

Onto a couple of other pictures. Here is one of Kathie in Baseball Hall of Fame at the plaques of her two favourite players, Paul Molitor and Denis Eckersley. Just above her head is the plaque for "The Wizard" Ozzie Smith one of favourite players.

Below is a picture of our campsite. The guy beside us has been working here and is about to head to Florida because it is getting too cold. It was 12- 15 degrees here today and I saw a lot of people in their winter jackets. It has been raining here (of course).

His truck is really cool. It is registered as a motorhome because it has a bed, fridge, microwave and some other stuff. He then tows a 35 foot 5th wheel with it. The truck has a 5000 watt diesel generator so they can park anywhere. He gets 9 US miles to the gallon when he tows and 12 mpg when he isn't towing. It is a 2004 model and he paid less than I did for my truck. They are fulltimers and they also have a Jeep for driving around.

Say good-bye to Cooperstown

We leave Cooperstown tomorrow for points south. We had a blast at the Baseball Hall of Fame. We spent a good deal of time in the gift shop and in the ShoeLess Joe's shop across the street. They are trying to get ShoeLess Joe Jackson re-instated into the Hall. He and Pete Rose should be there.

Now that baseball's regular season has come to an end the battle will be on with Kathie routing for Tony LaRussa's team (St Louis Cardinals) and me routing for Roy Halladay's team (Philadelphia Phillies) and both of us routing against the Yankees.

We have had some really heavy rain while we have been here. Our site just starts to dry up and then more rain comes. In the middle of the night there was a huge flash of lightning. My eyes were closed and it lit up the inside of my eyelids - it was of course followed by heavy rain. It was also raining when we came out of the Hall. I went to get the truck and on my way there was a huge flash over my head and an immediate snap and boom. I wasn't too worried because I was walking under a row of trees.

Here are some more pictures.

This one is a house in Maine not far from where we were staying.

These next two I got in Rhode Island.

Fall is nearly here - the leaves are just starting to turn colours.

John Milner rides again.

Fall is here

Paul went out to take pictures today and James and I spent the day relaxing in the trailer.  Watching out the window at the leaves falling, it is definitely fall here.  It is very pretty, but I'm not sure I'm finished with summer.

I spent a good portion of the day entering information that I received from Uncle Truman into the genealogy program Whew!  That was a lot of work (he gave me over 20 pages of info).  However, Paul is happy to know that Neil Young is his wife's second cousin once removed.

Tomorrow, we are going to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Hurricanes and a change of plans

We left Littleton this morning with a short day planned - we headed to a campsitejust outside of Albany NY. When we got there we were approached by a worker who said that the campsite was closed because of the damage from the hurricane.

We moved on and after some discussion and a late lunch we decided on Cooperstown. When we got here they said they got 18 inches (450 mm) of rain during the hurricane and things are muddy and soggy. The road that goes directly to the Baseball Hall of Fame from here is closed because the lake is still flooding it.

Speaking of Hurricanes - congratulations to Tim and the rest of the Hurricane First Lego Team who met the Governor General when he was in Victoria. The team won the BC First Lego division and did very well at the worlds.

Right now we are having weather that would make our friends and family on the wet coast feel right at home. It is raining, very hard at times and we had a lightning storm roll through earlier. The difference is - it's a warm rain - it is about 20 degrees at 10:30 pm.

I have been out taking pictures for my SwayBack Barns and Broken Homes project. I drove around four states yesterday, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. While working on the project I have taken 100's of pictures of old houses and barns. None of them have been occupied as I try to make sure that I am not encroaching on someone's property.

Yesterday as I was driving along I would see a house that would be a good subject and slow down and ..... there was a car in the driveway or someone sitting on the porch or a light on inside the house. The guy on the porch was really wondering what I was doing. The house was sinking and the roofline was bent but I guess it was home. In New Hampshire I found a house and barn that fit my requirements. I parked the truck and got some good pictures the the barn and the house and as I was leaving I noticed the laundry hung up in the back yard oooops. I hope you can't see it in the pictures.

We are finding the prices here very similar to those in Canada. Some items are cheaper ($8 for a big bag of briquettes ($18 on the wet coast and $13 on the east coast)). Fuel here is $4.30 / gal so it is a little cheaper. Basically the prices are comparable but we get universal healthcare.

We did end up driving on the Turnpike today, that ended up costing us an extra $15 but the road was very smooth and we averaged a little over 100K/hour with the trailer, which isn't bad.

Pictures - catching up

I have been busy driving and taking pictures so I have not had time to post until now. The pictures here are from a few days ago. I will get caught over the next few days.

I took some pictures at the Bay of Fundy. The first one is a covered bridge. There were a few in Quebec and a couple over this river.

We walked on the sea floor when the tide went out. The picture below is James in one of the sea caves. You have to look carefully to see James - the caves are quite large.

After we walked on the sea floor we drove around the area and found this house for sale. It still has power to it but the front is starting to sink.

On the way through St John we stopped and I took some pictures of the reversing falls. The river flows out during low tide and on the high tide the sea pushes the water back up the river. The bridge is "up river" and the Bay of Fundy is to the right.

Massachusetts

We have stopped in Littleton, MA for a couple of nights.  Boy is it muggy.  A couple of days ago we had the heater on, now we have the A/C running.

Today we saw Ft. Knox.  Okay, it's not the one with the gold, but it is still called Ft. Knox.  What a great view too.  We were crossing the bridge and you can see this fortified old fort across the water - and, today, there was fog all across the water up to the windows of the fort.  Unfortunately, there was no place to pull over to take a picture.

We travelled on some turnpikes today (toll highways) driving from Maine to New Hampshire to Massachusetts.  We hit four toll booths, but paid less than $15 total, and the roads are in great shape.

Crossed the border

We arrived in Ellsworth, Maine and it is muggy.  We woke up to rain and fog in NB this morning and we have cloudy and showers in Maine tonight.  We got set up with our US internet for travel and are ready to head out further tomorrow.

Lizzie (the GPS) took us down some pretty narrow roads today.  I think I should maybe rename her Lucy (as in Looo-see, you got some 'splain' to do).  We did do  some travel planning last night.  Only one problem, the place we planned to stay tomorrow was hit by a Tornado in June and is closed for rebuilding.  So, we sat down tonight to do some more planning.

Driving through Maine the colours are starting to change.  Many people have told us how beautiful it is in the east in fall and we are starting to see glimpses of it now.

Bay of Fundy

We woke up to fog this morning, and the kind of mist that is really rain . . . the kind you can't get away from because it isn't really falling from the sky, it just surrounds you.  It partially lifted during the day and it is not wet anymore.

Walked out on the ocean floor at "The Caves".  The rocks there are fascinating.  But there are a lot of rocks.  Walking out you are walking on loose rocks until you reach 'the floor'.  There is not packed sand like most beaches.   We were going to drive the Fundy trail, but with the amount of fog still out there, there was no point as we would not be able to even see the coastline.

Moving On

So last evening we sat in our chairs while dinner cooked on the BBQ and the sun went down just as dinner was ready. After dinner I went back out and got a couple of pictures. There is a Great Blue Heron in the foreground and 4 windmills in the background.

We found everything in PEI really close. The provincial map is the same size as BC's but the distance covered is much less. The map is almost a street map. From East Point to North Cape is 273 kilometres.

We will remember the red dirt, churches, farm land and sunsets (and a place Kathie would move to).

We moved from Summerside (Lower New Annan) PEI, to St. Martins today. We drove across the Confederation Bridge and paid the toll of $47 to get off the island. Getting onto the island is free. So the cost was 1/10th what it is to get on and off Vancouver Island. The ferry ride to PEI is about 75 minutes.

This is a shot of the Bay of Fundy and the sea caves (in the fog) that we can see from our campsite. We will be going there tomorrow to walk on the sea floor.

Sitting in the sun

We would have posted earlier today but we spent the day running errands and taking pictures.

When we got back to the trailer it was warm and sunny with just enough wind to keep the bugs at bay. We set the chairs up in front of the trailer and watched the waves gently wash onto the beach and the birds glide by.

We stayed out until the wind died, the bugs came out and by then dinner was ready. Right after dinner there was a great sunset.

After dinner we visited with our neighbours who are from Nanaimo and their friends from Prince George.

It is getting late here so I don't have time to process any pictures tonight, that will have to wait until tomorrow

Old gods, old fashions and good old lady luck

Hale fellow practicioners of the Internet, it has been long since I came to here with tales vast and tales true, and for that I am sorry but it is hard to write about every site we stay at when we travel daily. Today's site is grassy and open, by choice, there is some forested sites but they don't have a view like our site does, and we have full hookups of course, after Kathrines everything we want empty was full and everything we want full was empty so we kind of need them.

This next part is an update on the accessories in my wardrobe, eesh you guys will think I'm a girl, luckily there are only two. #1 something I forgot to mention in my last post is that at the store I bought a necklace. Something that I have noticed among people is that each person tends to prefer one type of jewelry, with my mom it is earrings, my friend Kattie likes rings (you'd better pay attention to that Bryan), while I like necklaces. This necklace is called a Wolf's Cross and was worn by both christian and pagan Vikings in the eleventh century. Reading the pamphlet on the different necklaces they sell at the Viking place (where I got the info above, to the pagans it was suposedly an indirect representation of Fennire, one of Loki's children, a wolf if you couldn't guess, holding Thor's hammer Mjolnir). From that pamphlet I decided that if I ever go back that I would get Urnes Snakes instead because it represents the god Loki and his shape changing powers and his trickery, two of my favorite things. #2 as many of you know I have been looking for a pocket watch, preferably without design on the front but I was finding that impossible so as we were looking through the Celtic gift-shop today my parents pointed them out to me, they had designs on them but at least they were Celtic designs. So I'm looking through preferring the $80 dollar ones to the $55 not for the fact that they were see through but for the fact that they had roman numerals, and I'm looking at them and I notice that the front design that was my second my second favorite, in the roman numeral version was only $55 so I asked the store lady why it was so much cheaper, thinking that it was because the design on the front was less complicated, and she says "oh that is because someone put it back in the wrong box, so you're going to get a really good deal on that one, so I got an $80 watch for 55, as my parents say "I got horseshoes, man"

Scotsburn to PEI - and a trailer update

We moved from Catherine's to Sumerside PEI today. Here are a few pictures I took at Catherine's. She has 4 acres of grassy fields for the dogs to play in so the dogs weren't leashed the whole time we were there.

Here is Abby laying in the sun.

Here is Kody sniffing out the deer that used to hang around and eat the apples. For some reason they did not show up while we were there.

Catherine's place is up on the hill and this is the view from the deck.

So we took another ferry (our 5th one this trip) to PEI and entered the world of red. The "soil" is red across the whole island. We are in Summerside and this picture was taken from in front of the trailer tonight.

The campsite we are in closes in a week.

When we are towing and stop for lunch or breaks during the day I walk around the truck and trailer to check out the tires. Today it paid off as one of the tires had worn down to the steel belts. It was the one that was wearing earlier in the trip and I got the axels aligned in Edmonton. Well I guess the damage was done and there was not enough tread left to save the tire. I had the spare mounted on the good rim and the worn out tire mounted as a spare. I guess I will have to start thinking about buying new tires for the trailer.

On to PEI

We are on another ferry on our way to PEI.

We had a wonderful visit and some shut down time and now it is time to move. We are about to hit our 10th province this trip. We are due back in BC in a month so we will be heading south and then west.

Pictou NS

We have been spending a couple of days sitting in the sunshine and visiting with our friend Catherine.  We have parked the trailer at her place and are just chillin' for a bit.  It is a nice break from all the driving around NL that we were doing.  The view is awesome!  In the morning drinking coffee we are sitting on the deck (or where the deck may eventually be) looking out over the ocean and seeing the windmills far in the distance - they are actually just white spots on the horizon unless we look through the camera lens.

Nova Scotia Here We Come

Well they can't see us because it is so foggy but we are headed to North Sydney, Nova Scotia on the ferry. The visibility has been down to about 100 feet (30 metres). The trip is scheduled for 4-6 hours but going over it was 7 hours and the weather was perfect. This trip may take longer because of the fog and other issues (see below).

We have been watching the weather because Kathie and James were going to fly from Deer Lake if the crossing was going to be too rough. Things were looking good so they came with me to Codroy (Deer Lake is several hours north of Codroy). Today there was a gale warning posted this morning and a tropical storm watch. They knew the storm was coming but did they let us know. Kathie was not thrilled. The whitecaps on the small ponds on the way to the ferry were our first indicator.

We were up early 6:00 so we could pack the trailer and get to the ferry. The ferry "schedule" is all over the map so you have to either pick a day that works for you and then find the right time or look for a time that suits you and pick that day. Our friends from Texas were on the ferry two days ago and it left at midnight. We chose to leave during the day so we chose today at 11:30 (am). You have to be here 2 hours ahead of the ferry leaving time (duh 9:30).

They loaded the ferry at 9:30 and then we waited until 11:30 for the boat to leave. We cannot tend to the dogs so they will be in the back of the truck for 9+hours.

We got a stateroom so we had a place to put our stuff. Kathie and James are sleeping right now (which is good because the ship is starting to roll a little) and I am working on a course.

I just went up on the top deck and it is so windy that it was difficult to walk - I hope Kathie sleeps for a couple of more hours.

Leaving Newfoundland

It is time for us to leave Newfoundland. Our ferry leaves at 11:30 am tomorrow. We have been here for 2 weeks and driven 3500 K. We could easily spend another couple of weeks or more here because there is so much to see and do.

James will remember the Vikings.

We will remember the wind. All the RVer's we talk to talk about the wind. Watching the semi in front of me with an unloaded flatdeck being blown around in the wind is something I will never forget.

There is also the ponds (lakes), rivers, inlets, rock and short trees. I think there is more water here than land. Some of the land is looks like the moon because it is so barren. The trees, especially on the west coast, are windswept and short.

If we come back we will come earlier in the year. We passed two campsites that are closed already and the last two were closing behind us.

We will remember to bring more food. On the west side there are lots of small connivence stores but trying to find our normal supplies is impossible. When I went to the liquor store the other day - the liquor was in the front, the video store was a couple of rows and 1.5 walls and the electrical supply (stove elements, switches, wire etc.) was the rest of the floor space.

I will remember the singing and the music and the other most heard sound - the clinking of beer bottles as the empties are put in the box and the sound of a full bottle being taken out.

I finally saw my moose. In fact I have seen 5 in the last 4 days.

I will also remember my boat trip on the Atlantic to see the puffins and the fin backed whale.

We will remember going to the most eastern part of Canada.

We will also remember that moose hunting season starts September 10.

Kathie will remember that Newfoundland is 4 and a half hours ahead of Victoria time. I will remember that as well as I have to get the baseball scores in the morning. Watching a baseball game that starts at 11:40 PM means I am up very late.

So here are a few parting pictures.

Another church -

Another lighthouse -

And another bird - this one a falcon (Perigrine I think - supposed to be very rare here so I will have to have a closer look) -

Vikings and an afternoon drive south

We toured the Viking village at L'Anse aux Meadows which was interesting. Our tour guide grew up and played at the site as a child. He also worked on the site as a teenager helping with the excavations. He still lives in his family group of houses and the houses are visible from the visitor centre just beyond the Viking displays.

During the tour we were told "please touch and try things on" so here is a picture of "James the Blonde" smiling because he is ready to create havoc.

Today we went through a "Viking Village." Norsted is set up as if the Vikings had actually settled in the area. They have a boat repair shed, a house for living in, a church, gardens, animals and a blacksmith shop.

The other day Kathie wrote about a couple of things we haven't seen anywhere else. Below are pictures of a telephone pole with a box of rocks around it and one of the many log piles along the road.

After touring Norsted we drove from St Anthony to Rocky Harbour. It has been very windy for the last couple of days and was not getting any better so we moved south. Fall has come on very quickly here. We had a nice day or two in St John's and then the wind hit and the temperature dropped 10 degrees and it has been cool ever since.

At St Anthony and the rest of the western peninsula the wind was steady at 50 k gusting to 70+ with rain on and off. At one point the wind was lifting my windshield wipers off the windshield.

We stopped at "The Arches" no not McDonald's but a provincial park with sea worn arches in the rocks.

As we are leaving campsites here they are closing up. The place we were at last night is scheduled to close after the weekend and tonight's will close in about a week and others are already closed. Since we can go camping on Vancouver Island until Thanksgiving (or later) we were not ready for this. It also causes some problems - the dryers and regular wireless internet are not working here and they will not be fixed until the new season.

Sagas of ancestry

So as many of you know I am of Norse descent and quite proud of it. So today to my delight we went to L'Anse aux Meadows, the Viking landing site. There we got to meet some actors playing the roles of Viking settlers. One woman was weaving as her husband, an old skáld (bard), told us tales of Thor the thunderer (son of odin king of the gods, also the god of warriors and the common man, we get Thursday from his names, really good day for a storm huh) and Loki lord of chaos and trickery (and is the Norse god of magic, if he can be called a god at all for he is of giant descent), of Odin king of the gods (and the god of kings, war and many other things, his eyes and ears on the world were two ravens, one named Huginn thought the other Muninn memory, we get Wednesday from a German version of his name Wodin) and Freya the most beautiful goddess if ever there was one (also goddess of farming, the harvest beauty and fertility, we get Friday from her name) and finally of Thrim king of the frost giants (and what a cold people they be). Once the tales were over and were through I asked the old skáld and his partner, who came in as the story was being told, about the instruments they were playing, a whistle that both looked and sounded like a panflute, a flute with a single hole played by changing the distance of the finger from the end, a flat board with six strings stretched over it that was similar to a guitar except without the ability to change the notes and another wood plank this one with three strings stretched over it played with a bow like a fiddle would be. They pretty much said they knew how to play them and where they came from but that was it, i was hoping for there names so I could look them up online but hey ya play the hand you are dealt. After that dad got a picture of me with an old Viking sword and shield (interesting fact that most seem to neglect is that the shield is not just for blocking blows it is a weapon in it's own right, in a real fight on a real battle field you're just as likely to bash someone in the head or chop someone in the side with you shield as you are to block with it).

(Everything on this page that is in brackets is my own knowledge.  Where it discussing gods, the speakers did not mention these things; where it is about the shield, that is just me).

West then North

So we said good-bye to St John's Friday morning and 1,100 k's later (700k yesterday) and we are in St Anthony. The roads are good for the most part and it is windy but that's OK because it is mostly cross winds (sarcasm for Sheldon's sake (Big Bang Theory) ) and the trailer is like having a 30' X 8' sail tied to the back of the truck. I have been trying to make sure all the tanks are full to give the trailer more weight and better balance when I am towing.

The drive today was nice because it wound along the western shore. Below is a picture of James. He looks like a giant beside the stunted trees. The trees we have seen in Newfoundland are not much bigger than this. Maybe it is the wind.

This is the beach where we stopped for lunch today. We parked in a church parking lot - it was a good thing it wasn't Sunday.

In the distance you can see Labrador (at least you can on the original).

St. Anthony NL

Today we travelled up the western side of Newfoundland. There is a ferry to Labradour, but as most of the roads are unpaved, it would only be a side trip - one we'll skip for now. 

There are interesting things we've seen as we've travelled the highways of this province:

- Telephone and power poles that have a fence and large rocks to hold them steady instead of guy wires
- Garden plots in the middle of nowhere, it appears that if there is a patch of ground that can grow something, people will plant vegetables
- Cut and stacked wood, cords and cords of what appears to be community wood stacks 
- Lobster traps by the hundreds, all stacked as neatly as the wood piles (waiting for next season I guess)
- Octagonal wood boxes at (nearly) every house for garbage cans. I'm assuming it protects the garbage from both wind and animals

Arrived in Rocky Harbour

Our travels are a little bit sadder today. My Uncle Joe passed away. My cousin used the term "larger than life" to describe him and that is how I've always thought of him.  I am a blogger not a writer and I find it hard to express all the feeling going on inside me today. I wish I could be there for my family.  Know that I will be thinking of you. 

As we travel back along the Trans Canada Highway heading for the west coast of Newfoundland, the trees are all bent in one direction with few leaves on one side as they have been blown so often in the wind. My Uncle Joe didn't bend like those trees but always stood tall and strong like an oak. 

So long Uncle Joe, we will miss you. 

Pictures and an Ocean Ride

We went to Cape Spear and took some pictures. The wind was howling so hard that it would have blown over the tripod. The wind blew at 70 k for most of the day. The gift shops here at at Signal Hill were both closed.

Here is the three of us at the most easterly point in North America.

The wave were really angry.

I went on a puffin and whale tour on Obrian's today. The boat was really being tossed around in the waves caused by the rollers leading up to Katia.

Here are a couple of pictures. The first one is a puffin and the second one is a fin back whale.

BCers in Newfoundland

We have seen more BC license plates in Newfoundland than anywhere else.  Even in the campsite before the ferry (in NS) half of the plates were from BC.

We have met people from Langford, Cranbrook, Abbotsford, and Ucluelet, among other places.

Today, Paul met people with another Duck Toller - although their is much younger than Abby.  Will and Christine are also keeping a blog (http://www.kvarnoguesthouse.ca/roadtrip.htm).

Speaking of Abby, our duck toller, she is doing okay - she has good days and bad days and is definitely showing her age.  Kody, our Bernese Mountain Dog is "helping" by finishing off her food whenever she doesn't want it.  We walk them separately now because Abby's pace is much slower.

As east as we can go

Today we went as far east as you can go on the North American Continent.  We were at Cape Spear.  It was very windy but the waves were absolutely gorgeous.  We took a picture of the three of us on the east coast!

Downtown St. John's reminds me of San Francisco - lots of very steep hills and colourful row houses side-by-side all over the place.  Water Street is similar to Government Street in Victoria with lots of little specialty shops and lots of cruise ship tourists doing the shopping.

We also went to Signal Hill - the place where Marconi got the message.  We wanted to go into the gift shop but it was "closed due to weather".  The gift shop out at Cape Spear was closed with a sign that said it would open again yesterday . . . must be Newfoundland time.

Tomorrow, Paul is going on a boat trip to get pictures of Puffins.

Nerd, nerds and history

Hi everyone, sorry it took so long for me to post again. So I guess I'll start with the last few sites we stayed at for the past few nights. When we arrived on Newfoundland we stayed at grand codroy which had nice sites and great wifi. The next place, gates of the north, was also nice and even if the wifi wasn't good, which it was, there was another 7 to choose from. The final place we stayed at, country inn rv park, was horrible it had some nice site but none of them available so we ended up in a parking (<- auto-corrected 3 times without getting the right word) lot and the showers had fungus in them and only the nice sites got non super flaky wifi. Now we are staying at pipi park in st. Johns which is nice, with beautiful sites that seem like provincial park sites except for the price and although they say the wifi is free it costs $10, let me explain the sites that the wifi is in cost $5 more than other sites and they don't have trees in the, in my opinion $10 is a low estimate when choosing between trees and a gravel road with a lawn.

Yesterday in st. Johns we found a nerd store called Sword and Steele which was great, they had magic the gathering, warhammer, D&D, comics (but unfortunately no manga) and dice. The reason I mention the dice is because I am obsessed with dice and these people had some from a metal smith somewhere in the states, they bought out a month of his work making dice, and these dice are awesome with strange patterns for numbers and decretive indents and bulges throughout. The warhammer tournament I came for never happened but I got a great conversation with the store girl since for most of it no one was there plus I bought a D&D book which always makes me rather happy.

Other than that we went up to signal hill, which was a cool historical place with so much wind it reminded me of home. It was kinda like fort rod hill but smaller. Did you know they only used one gun to defend the harbor in st. Johns in WWI. Signal hill is a good name for it because you could see flag signals for miles around.

Until next post.

St John's

We drove from Gander to St John's today. It was very windy and the trailer was a handful. We also had some fog but the temperature is still warm.

We were going to go shopping but forgot that it was Labour Day so it becomes a job for tomorrow.

The roads here are are the best we have seen across Canada. The drivers are the most patient and courteous that we have seen as well - unlike Ontario drivers who are a menace even here.

When you drive the highways in BC you are usually driving in the valleys and there are mountains on both sides (and sometimes a cliff and a river right beside you). Driving across the prairies you can see for miles because it is so flat. It sometimes feels like you could drive off the edge of the earth. Once you get to Ontario and points east it feels like you are driving on top of the world (compared to BC) because there are no mountains. You are driving near the highest elevation around. It is completely different visually when you get to the top a hill and you can see for miles instead of the side of a mountain.

Gander - 9/11 ten years later

We arrived in Gander for the evening.  We are lucky to find a spot for tonight - if it was next weekend we will not likely be so lucky.  Gander is celebrating 9/11 ten years later.

Gander airport was built in 1938 in preparation for the war and, at the time, had the world's largest runway.  That runway was used to land 38 flights when the US airspace was closed during the 9/11 crisis.  Next weekend as they celebrate the 10 year anniversary they will be receiving a piece of steel beam from the former World Trade Center.

Driving today there was a little more traffic, but still not too much.  The roads are good - though at the bridges there is usually bumps.  We stopped at one information centre today and it was closed for the long weekend (huh!).

Pictures and more

We have been busy moving from place to place and I have been taking a few pictures but have not had time to post any so there are a few here:

We could see this church from the campsite we stayed at in North Sydney ( Little Bras d'Or ).

From the ferry to Newfoundland this is a Cape Breton Lighthouse.

This was the view off the stern of the ferry. The trip was 7 hours and there were a number of photographers on the top deck hoping to get pictures of birds and other sea creatures along the way. I had been up since 3:00 am and went downstairs and slept for long awhile. Apparently I did not miss much.

After we got the trailer parked because I has slept on the ferry I was awake enough to drive down to Rose Blanche which has an historical granite lighthouse. On the trail out to the lighthouse there was an information plaque for a community that you could see in the distance. The community of Petites is only accessible by boat.

And here is the Rose Blanche Granite Lighthouse. I have a large number of images that I am happy with like the one below. I processed a number of HDR images that worked out really well.

One of the differences we have noticed with the campsites since we left "western Canada" (that is Ontario and west) is the campsites have something extra. One had soccer fields, volleyball courts, shuffleboard and a pitch and putt golf course (and more including 2 swimming pools). Everything was free to use including the clubs and balls.

In New Brunswick the campsite had a waterpark with a good size pool and waterslide.

In Nova Scotia and here in Newfoundland we can hear music well into the night. In Nova Scotia it was a jam session in the campsite hall with a number of people from the campground. Last night they had a sing-a-long one of the buildings. Tonight over the wind we can hear singing and someone playing the spoons and earlier it was the accordion.

Deer Lake, NL

We had a short travel day today, only going as far as Deer Lake, just a couple of hours away.  This was probably good as we spent some time this morning chatting with Ken and Nancy Beazley (http://thebeazleyclan.com/) - another photography and accountant mix - go figure.  We just relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine this afternoon; and did some checking on the cost of a traveling satellite internet service.  The cost per month is reasonable but the setup is too expensive - at almost $7,000 for the internet disk (much more expensive than sat TV dishes), we decided that we'll stick with cell coverage.

We are planning another couple of short days before we get to St. Johns.

Newfoundland and Labradour

We have arrived on "the rock".  The first thing you see after you get off the ferry and drive down the Trans Canada Highway out of Port Aux Basques is the Table Mountains.  While not high by BC standards they are impressive.  Most of the greenery is shrub height.  Even the pines seem to be small with many of them being no taller than a man.  The ocean is a beautiful blue and you can see out to the edge of the earth.  Newfoundland definitely has a beauty all of its own.

Sydney and area

North Sydney, where we are staying is to Sydney, NS what Sydney, BC is to Victoria. It's a smaller community just outside the larger one where the ferry runs from. The city of Sydney NS appears to have a much better highway system than Victoria. However, both coasts are beautiful.

 Nova Scotia has some bilingual signs also - except they are English and Gaelic. There are three universities here that teach Gaelic and there are even radio stations in Gaelic.

 Did some puttering (laundry and groceries) but mostly just enjoyed the day and the scenery.