Icebergs, Gremlins, and The Big Rock

Map of Newfoundland (from postcard).  Note: Labrador is not to scale.

We have really enjoyed our travels the past 6 weeks (especially here in Newfoundland) and are now on our way to St. John’s on the east coast.  We have been here once before (back in 2006 when we drove across Labrador and then down the west coast of Newfoundland – but we did not see much since it was at the end of the season in early October and everything was closing up).  This year’s trip had been our last planned one here and we had set aside 7 weeks to see it – but this is such a special place that we are already planning to come back here in a couple of years.

Since Newfoundland is mostly unknown in the states, here are a few facts:

• It is part of the Canadian province called Newfoundland and Labrador (NL).  Labrador is part of the mainland of Canada and Newfoundland is a very big island off the coast of Labrador – it is almost as big as the state of Ohio and the driving distance from the farthest little community in the northwest (Quirpon – pronounced kar-poon) to Cape Race in the southeast is 1,138 kilometers (711 miles).
• To get to the island you sail from Nova Scotia on some of the largest ice-breaking ferries in the world (1,200 passengers and 350 cars) - either to Channel-Port aux Basques in the southwest (~110 miles (5 ½ hours)) or to Argentia in the southeast (~325 miles (14 hours)).  The cost one way to take our 50 foot long RV (truck + 5th wheel) is about $375 on the short route and $850 on the long route.
• Nova Scotia is on Atlantic Time (1 hour ahead of Eastern Time) and Newfoundland is on their own time zone – a half hour ahead of Atlantic Time.
• It is very rocky here (and is often referred to as The Big Rock).  It is also hilly in many places with mountains on the west coast that are the northernmost part of the Appalachian Mountains.  The Long Range Mountains in Gros Morne National Park are the oldest in the world.
• There are about 500,000 people living here on the island and about half live in the Avalon area which surrounds St. John’s (the capital).
• Life in Newfoundland has been (and still is) based upon fishing.  All around the island are countless little fishing communities nestled around protected harbours.
•  A moratorium on cod fishing was issued in 1992 and many of the fishing communities are having a really tough time economically.   To give you an idea of the economic conditions  (not only in small communities, but even in larger ones), one of the rental car agents (about 25 years old) said that 85 out of his high school graduating class of 180 are now working in Alberta in the oil industry.
• There are about 10,000 moose here and we have seen about 10-15 of them so far.  While driving one must always be looking out for them, since hitting one (over 1,000 pounds) can be devastating.
• There are very few roads in the interior – the main one from Channel Port aux Basques to St. John’s is Hwy 1 – Trans Canada Highway – referred to as TCH.  This is a very good highway with most of it being limited access and two-lane with many intermittent passing zones.  Once you get on some of the side roads, however,  it is a different story – many potholes and multiple patches and dips (heaves) in places – so driving can be fun (looking for moose, potholes, and the beautiful scenery all at the same time).
• In all of our travels in Canada, the people here in the Atlantic Maritimes (especially in Newfoundland) are the most friendly that we have met.  A lot of people found out how great the people are during the 9/11 disaster when people in the small community of Gander (population of about 10,000) and the surrounding communities volunteered their time, food, homes, etc. out of the kindness of their hearts to help the 6,595 stranded passengers and crews of the 38 planes that were diverted here for a few days.

Before heading for Newfoundland, we spent a week in the Boston area parked in the driveway of fellow New Horizons 5th wheel owners in Lexington.   While there, we took photos of numerous lighthouses; visited with one of Jan’s schoolmates from childhood in Richmond, Indiana; went to some of the numerous historic sites; visited the John F. Kennedy birthplace and Presidential Library and Museum; and also enjoyed seeing some wildlife in a couple of National Wildlife Refuges.  There is so much to see and do here that we plan to spend a few more days on our way back in September.

After spending 2 days at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine we headed for Canada.  This time the customs agents asked us to open all of our truck and trailer compartments and then they searched thru things for about 15 minutes, but of course, did not find anything.  After clearing customs and about 40 miles before reaching the large city of Moncton, the gremlins that had left us alone for well over a year decided to visit us again.  One of the trailer tires blew out caused by the wheel bearings disintegrating and the resultant wobbling tire rubbing against the bracket holding the brake calipers.  There was no way to have someone tow us in (we would have been loaded onto a low bed truck and would have been too tall to go under the overpasses in front and behind us).  So, we took off the bad tire and drove the last 40 miles very carefully on 3 trailer tires into a campground in Moncton.  The next day, Jan removed the bad bearings, had new ones pressed into the wheel hub, got a new tire, and we were back on our way.  Fortunately, we had spare bearings with us.

 After a quick drive thru Nova Scotia and a very good ferry ride (short route), we arrived in Newfoundland and toured the southwest part of the island (mainly taking photos of lighthouses).   We even rented a car and drove to Burgeo on the south coast and took a small ferry to the small remote island of Ramea to see the lighthouse there and also spend the night at a B&B.  The return ferry to the mainland in the morning had electrical problems, but fortunately was fixed in time for the afternoon trip (otherwise we would have had to spend 2 extra nights on the island).

Then it was on to the far northwest part of Newfoundland to the Iceberg Festival in St. Anthony.  While there, we saw some icebergs, enjoyed the concert given by Ennis (a Newfoundland sister music group), attended a couple of ‘kitchen parties’ (an evening of music including visitations by mummers [veiled people in outrageous costumes]), and got to meet 2 big Newfoundland dogs.   In addition, we visited L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site – the only authenticated Viking landing location in North America.  And then we finally fulfilled one of our bucket list items and spent our first night in a lightkeepers house at the lighthouse on the farthest north point in Newfoundland (the Cape Bauld lighthouse Inn on Quirpon Island).   What a delightful evening we had visiting with the other guests and the staff at this isolated lighthouse!

Then going back down the west coast we visited the beautiful Gros Morne National Park and hiked in over 1 1/2 miles on a fabulous sunny day to take a boat ride thru the very scenic Western Brook Pond fjord with its high cliff sides.  This was a salt water fjord, but glaciers 10,000 years ago blocked the entrance and now it is a fresh water pond.  Side notes: a lot of the lakes up here are called ‘ponds’; bodies of water smaller than bays (but larger than coves) are called ‘bights’; and narrow bodies of water between 2 islands or an island and the mainland are called ‘tickles’ (probably named that because crossing one of these when the tides are rushing in or out can be a ticklish proposition).

One of the long side trips we made in a rental car was driving down frpm Grand Falls-Windsor to the central south coast to Harbour Breton to photo some lighthouses.  We enjoyed the beautiful scenery (including some great fjords), but did not like some of the roads (especially one gravel road that we should not have gone on (but made it back OK)).  After this trip we drove up to Twillingate on the north shore and spent a few days there.  While there we enjoyed a very funny dinner theatre production and 2 nights of really great music; took photos of lighthouses; and rode a ferry over to Fogo Island for a day to visit the communities of Fogo, Seldom, & Tilting.  Twillingate is definitely one of destinations on our return trip in a couple of years.

We are already starting to feel like we don’t want to leave the Big Rock even though we still have 3 more weeks to go before heading to Nova Scotia.  To extend the time here and see more places, we have decided to drive the 500 miles from the St. John’s area back to Channel Port aux Basques and take the short ferry ride (instead of the long ride) back to Nova Scotia.

So far, the weather has been great (lots of sunny days) and cool - in St. Anthony it would drop to 4 (upper 30’s F) at night and some days would not rise above 10 (50 F).  The hottest it has been so far has been around 27 (80 F).   However, our great weather may be changing now to a lot of cloudy, rainy days, with lots of fog as we near the eastern shores (St. John’s is noted for fog).  We really wish that we could send of the cool weather from up here down to all of you that are trying to withstand such high temps.

Hope this update finds you all doing well.

Cape Bauld lighthouse - on Quirpon Island

Iceberg along west coast of Newfoundland

Large iceberg (it was estimated that about 130 feet of it is below the water line).  This is one that we went around on a boat ride.

Moose near St. Anthony

Eastern Point lighthouse - near Gloucester - near Boston

Boston Harbor lighthouse - Oldest lighthouse in the US, however, it was later reconstructed.  The Sandy Hook lighthouse in New Jersey is the oldest one that is still standing as originally constructed.

Scituate lighthouse (south of Boston) - the 5th oldest lighthouse in New England

The beginning of the Western Brook Pond fjord in Gros Morne National Park

Blue Denim Falls on the cliff walls of Western Brook Pond fjord

Sebastian - A Newfoundland dog - weighs about 130 pounds and requires a lot of grooming.  Great water rescue dog and helped fishermen with their nets etc.

Harbour Breton lighthouse (central south coast of Newfoundland)

View of coastline at Long Point (near Twillingate)

Gardens along the roads.  Since it is so rocky near the coastline, there is not much topsoil - so people have their gardens inland along the roads (the fences are to keep the moose out).  There are also countless stacks of firewood along the roadside where it is stored (since they don't have the room in the tighly packed coastal communities).

Typical stream bed strewn with rocks

Rose Blanche lighthouse along southern coastline

Start of Our Travels on Way to Newfoundland

Stratford Point Lighthouse - In Stratford, Connecticut on the western side of the mouth of the Housatonic River which flows into Long Island Sound

We spent the winter months in the Texas area mostly in the Houston/Galveston area – with a trip (in a rental car) to the Denver area over Christmas to be with our son and his wife, and Jan’s brothers.  Our trip to Denver was “a little exciting” when we drove north of Amarillo thru Oklahoma and southeastern Colorado where a blizzard had just come thru the day before.  We were on one of the few open main roads and were stuck for hours in traffic stacked up miles behind an accident.  Night came upon us and the melted snow on the road turned to ice.   Finally we slowly drove on and finally made it to our motel after 10 PM (fortunately we had reservations).

In late February, we traveled to McKinney, TX (north of Dallas) to spend some time with our daughter and family.  On March 28, we packed up and set out on our 2012 exploring trip heading to Kansas, then meandered to New Hampshire where we are now camped.

In Kansas we went to the New Horizons factory where we had our custom 5th wheel trailer made in 2002.  We have been traveling fulltime in our 32 ft 5th wheel for almost 9 years now and it is still in great condition.  Over the years we have talked about getting a new 5th wheel but decided that what we have is just fine.  It is our home and we have become ‘attached’ to it.  We did look at all of the new options that are now available and decided to get the Big Foot automatic leveling system installed this year.  Instead of driving up on multiple boards to try to level the trailer each time we stop for the night, all we do now is unhook from the truck and press a button.  The system automatically lowers the 4 hydraulic legs (feet) and levels the trailer.  What an improvement!

After Kansas we visited relatives in Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio.  While in Indiana, we had our suspension system checked and aligned to make sure that the two MorRyde Independent Suspension axles that Jan had replaced during our travels last year were still doing well.

In our travels so far this year we have visited 15 more National Park Service sites - from Lincoln’s Boyhood Home in Indiana, and the newly dedicated Flight 93 Memorial Plaza in Pennsylvania, to the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion in Vermont.  One of the most unusual sites was the Allegheny Portage Railroad Historic Site.  In the early 1800's the state of Pennsylvania built a canal system from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, but could not go over what is known as the Allegheny Mountain Ridge.  The solution decided upon was to build a series of inclines on both sides of the ridge, then load specially built canal boats onto rail cars and pull these cars up the inclines via multiple stationary steam engines using a rope (which broke a few times with disastrous results) and later a steel cable.  This method was used for about 20 years until being replaced by the Pennsylvania Railroad built thru the mountains including the historic 220 degree Horseshoe Curve and Gallitzin tunnel.  Both the Curve and the tunnel are still heavily in use today and we watched the trains go by (a pastime for rail buffs known as railfanning).  One interesting note is that in the 90’s, they had to lower the railbed in the Gallitzin tunnel to accommodate double high stacked semi truck trailers.

In addition, we have photographed 11 additional lighthouses on the Detroit River in Michigan, Toledo Harbor in Ohio, on Lake Oneida in New York (used as part of the New York Canal System), and in Connecticut on Long Island Sound.  We are rapidly approaching the 925 lighthouse mark.  Fortunately, there are lots of lighthouses in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia where we are headed and so reaching more than 1,000 this year is within easy reach.

Also in our travels, we have visited and added 17 more stamps to our National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Passport Book (for a total of over 85 now).  One of the most unusual refuges we visited was the Ohio River Islands NWR in northern West Virginia.  This refuge encompasses 22 islands in the Ohio River and 3 land tracts from Pittsburg down the Ohio River for 362 miles (needless to say we did not see/visit all of these islands).   One of the primary efforts of the refuge is to protect 40 species of freshwater mussels, including at least two endangered species. These fascinating mollusks, some among the most imperiled wildlife in the country today, require fish hosts in their life cycles.  It is estimated that at one time there were over 80 species of freshwater mussels in the Ohio River, but due to pollution this number was greatly reduced.  Progress is being made and the number remaining has stabilized.

One other theme we have added to our places to see is visiting Presidential Libraries, Museums, and Homes.  We have visited some before (such as the Clinton Museum in Little Rock and the Carter Museum in Atlanta).  So, this year while we passed thru the Midwest and northeast we visited the Dwight Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, KS; the Grouseland Home of William Henry Harrison in Vincennes, IN; the Rutherford B. Hayes Museum in Fremont, OH; the McKinley Museum in Canton, OH; and the Calvin Coolidge Museum in Northampton, MA.  The one in Northampton is next to Smith College and almost downtown.  We decided to stop by with our trailer in tow before knowing what we getting into.  If we had turned one way, there was a railroad bridge that was too low for us to go under.  Fortunately, our GPS system had us turn the other way and we found multiple parking meters in a row in which to park.  It felt funny putting quarters into multiple meters in a row.

Of course while being in New England, we are in covered bridge country and we cannot go thru any of them with our trailer (and not even with our truck in most cases).  This means that we have to stick to the main roads unless we know what is out there.  Our trucker GPS system even would take us thru some of them if we followed it.  Fortunately, the directions we received from the campground where we are now were very specific on what route to take to get there since there are at least 2 bridges in the way.  Note: We have not gotten carried away trying to see all of the covered bridges up here, but have managed to drive thru (with a rental car, of course) ten of them.

In our previous travels we had not gained an appreciation for the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania, the Berkshire Mountains in western Massachusetts, and the Green Mountains in Vermont.  These may be smaller mountains than the Rockies, but there are many long up and down grades.  The side roads are loaded with curves and it is hard to find a straight road.  They have done a superb job with the Interstate Roads (especially in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts) where they are lined with very green beautiful trees even in heavily populated areas.  To make it also feel like driving thru forests, there are trees in the median for miles and it looks like you are driving on a single road.  There may be a lot of hype about the fall colors, but the spring green colors this year are spectacular.

Tomorrow we are moving on to the Boston area for week where there are numerous historical places to visit, lighthouses to see, and even a couple of wildlife refuges to visit.  Fortunately, we have friends that have offered their driveway to park in during this time (their home is 15 miles closer to downtown Boston than the nearest campground).  After visiting Boston, it is time to head north to Canada and take the ferry from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. If all goes well, we plan to spend almost 2 months in Newfoundland and then a month in Nova Scotia (and maybe even a week back in Prince Edward Island) before heading back to the States. 

Hope this update finds you all doing well

Red Winged Blackbird in Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ohio near Lake Erie

Turtle sunning itself in Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge near the Mississippi River near St. Louis

Grouseland - William Henry Harrison's Home as the first governor of the Indiana Territory - in Vincennes, Indiana

Colorful sign at the River Raisin National Battlefield Park in Monroe, Michigan

Locomotive carving by Ernest "Moonie" Warther in the Warther Museum in Dover, Ohio.  This is one of many carvings that he did.  This one is carved out of ebony and ivory and the parts are movable.  Even the lettering underneath the locomotive is carved 1 letter at a time (first in the wood, then out of ivory and then the letter is placed into the wood).  Truly an outstanding place to visit.

Rutherford B Hayes home in Spiegel Grove - Fremont, Ohio

Verona Beach Lighthouse on the eastern shore of Lake Oneida in New York

Norman Rockwell studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  Visiting the musuem and his studio here brought back some great memories (especially of the Saturday Evening Post magazine covers).

Ashuelot Covered Bridge - Winchester, New Hampshire - Built in 1864

Bissell Covered Bridge - Charlemont, Massachusetts - Build in 1951 - Restored in 2009

Conway (Burkeville) Covered Bridge - Conway, MA - Built in 1870 - Restored in 2005

Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge - Over the Connecticut River between Vermont and New Hampshire - This 449 ft. long bridge was built in 1866 and rebuilt in 1988 and you can still drive thru it.  It is the 2nd longest covered bridge in the U.S and the 4th longest in the world.  It was the longest in the U.S. until the new Smolen-Gulf bridge was built in Ohio in 2008.

Weir Farm National Historic Site - Wilton, Connecticut.  In 1882, painter J. Alden Weir came here and found a refuge away from Manhattan that is only 50 miles away.  This remains to today as a refuge for artists.

Fayerweather Island (Black Rock Harbor) Lighthouse in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  The Bridgeport ferry to Long Island is passing by.

From Canada to Florida To Texas

Our 5th wheel in front of the Pensacola, Florida lighthouse

And so the curtain falls on our 8th year of living and traveling in our 5th wheel.  What a great year of travels this has been for us (our best year so far!).  As we settle in for a couple of months in an RV park in Dickinson, Texas (between Houston & Galveston), we give thanks for all of the great places, friends, and relatives that we were able to visit, for safe travels (no breakdowns on the road – not even a flat tire), and for no health challenges. 

We didn’t realize how time flies, but it has been 3 months since our last update when we were leaving Prince Edward Island (PEI).  Here are some of the highlights of our travels during these 3 months on our way back to Texas:

·       After leaving PEI, we spent a few days in New Brunswick mostly tracking down lighthouses.  There are many rivers around St. John, NB and we got to cross many of them on small ferry boats (most of which are free).  In addition, we rode ferries to Grand Manan Island, Deer Island, & Campobello Island.  Grand Manan is a great island to vacation if you want to live in the slow lane for a while.

·       We next crossed the border into Maine and headed for Acadia National Park.  This is one of the best National Parks in the East (except that it is so popular that it is crowded).  Not only did we drive thru the park and up to the top of Cadillac Mountain for great views, but we also took a boat trip out to see 4 lighthouses.

·       After Acadia, we meandered down the coast taking photos of the lighthouses that we could see.  Most of the lighthouses in Maine are on islands (some close to shore, but many are miles off the coast).  Out of the more than 60 lighthouses in the state, we managed to photo only 40 of them.  In order to see the others, we will either have to get a boat of our own or spend a lot for special lighthouse ‘cruises’ or charter boats [none of these options look real attractive to us].

·       After leaving Maine on our way to West Virginia, we traveled and camped in 3 states that we had never been in before (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut).  It was in West Virginia that we reached one of long term goals – that of staying overnight in an RV in all of the 49 states that you can drive to.  We haven’t found pontoons big enough for our 5th wheel to sail to Hawaii yet.  Maybe we can fly there someday & rent an RV.

·       While spending time in West Virginia, we made an overnight trip into northern Virginia to visit National Park Service (NPS) sites, visit Arlington National Cemetery and Mount Vernon.  Most of the time we get 1 or 2 passport stamps at each of the NPS sites – but at one of the places (the headquarters for many of the DC area parks), we hit the jackpot and got 35 passport stamps.  We could see the Washington Monument from Arlington, but did not travel into the city (we are saving that for next year).  We even got a bonus when we found 2 lighthouses on the Potomac just outside of Washington, DC.  One thing we found out is that traffic in northeastern Virginia is really congested (to say the least).

·       After leaving West Virginia, we drove along the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and about 3/4ths of the Blue Ridge Parkway with our RV.  It was great to be able to drive the relaxing roads away from all the traffic.  The speed limit was 35 to 50 mph and there were lots of curves and ups and downs, but it was worth it.  We did not try to drive the part from Ashville, NC to Smokey Mountain National Park due to low tunnels and extreme climbs and descents totaling 9,000 ft. in this section.  After not seeing any real fall foliage colors in the northeast earlier and thinking that we had missed it all, we were rewarded with fantastic colors while traveling on these highways.

·       While traveling on the Blue Ridge Parkway we got off at Lexington, VA and took a side trip to the New River Gorge National River area in southern West Virginia (a place we had never heard of).  What a beautiful area with multiple overlooks and the drive on Interstate 64 was also quite beautiful decked out in fall colors.

·       We then headed to Florida to attend a rally in Bushnell where people with trailers made by the same manufacturer that made our 5th wheel (New Horizon) gathered for a few days of fun, to learn about maintenance items, new products, etc.  This is the 7th one that we have attended since picking up our 5th wheel at the factory in Junction City, KS in September 2002.  One of the highlights of the rally was open house where we could visit each other’s trailer and see all of the different configurations these custom built trailers have.

·       On the way to the rally, we stopped at the great Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge to see the alligators, swampland vegetation, etc.  We have just started our visits to refuges for passport stamps and have already collected over 60 of them out of the over 550 refuges possible.

·       After the rally, we spent a week in Flagler County, FL working on a Habitat for Humanity build with 2 other couples from the rally.  We had an enjoyable time, accomplished a lot, and felt a few muscles that we had not used lately.

·       On our way back to Texas, we visited Florida State Parks and saw some Manatees and then camped on some of the barrier islands off of the Florida Panhandle (St. George Island and Santa Rosa Island where Ft. Pickens is).  What beautiful sand there is here and we even got to see the Blue Angels out of Pensacola practicing over Santa Rosa Island.

·       Then, we made it into New Orleans.  After living so close for so many years in Texas, this was our first time to visit here.  We spent one day in the city, seeing the New Orleans Jazz NPS sites (including, by chance being there for the Grand Opening of the performance hall in the Old Mint – with a band & dancers in Mardi Gras costumes – great music and fun).  We then spent a couple of days outside the city visiting 4 sites that are part of the Jean Lafitte NPS site (this includes the Battle of New Orleans site, multiple Acadian Culture centers, and the Barataria Preserve with hiking trails etc.).  We even managed to see 3 lighthouses bringing our total for the year to over 300 and our lifetime total of over 900 – It now looks like 1,000 is in reach.

·       After leaving New Orleans, we meandered our way up to Hope Arkansas to visit the Clinton Birthplace Historic Site.  With this, we reached another milestone of ours.  This was our 85th NPS site visited this year and overall our 301st site (out of a total of 397 possible).  We have now visited all of the sites in the continental US that are west of Indiana and south of Tennessee.  This leaves only the northeast to complete (maybe even next year).  We really don’t think that we will ever get them all, since some require extensive cost and travel (examples: American Samoa, Guam, and some very remote places in western Alaska).

·       In review of our travels, we boarded boats 51 times during the year (some vehicle ferries, some passenger only ferries, and some tour boats) and we did not get seasick.  We also rented a car 30 times to minimize fuel expense and have a more comfortable to ride in and easier to park vehicle.  With a car, we could more easily travel to get to lighthouses etc.

Plans:

·       2012 - After ‘visiting’ with our doctors, dentist, etc and with family in Northern Texas and in the Denver area, we plan to head back next year to the far northeast for up to 3 months during the summer in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.  We have visited these islands before, but only visited a small part of them – plus we hope to see some icebergs.  We will then meander back thru the northeast of the US and try to ‘complete’ visiting the NPS sites there.

·       2013 - We are planning to slow down for awhile and try volunteering.  At this time, we are leaning toward helping out in a National Wildlife Refuge somewhere.  If we do, then we will have to learn a lot more about birds.  During the year, we might even fit in a trip to finally see Hawaii (of course to see the lighthouses, NPS sites, & National Wildlife Refuges).

Hope you all have a great holiday time.

Country road in New River Gorge National RIver area West Virginia

Greens Point (Letite Passage) lighthouse - New Brunswick on way to Deer Island

Curtis Island Lighthouse - Camden, Maine

Inquisitive deer along Blue Ridge Parkway - Virginia

Marshall Point lighthouse - Maine

Along the trail in Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge - Maine

Portland Head lighthouse - Portland, Maine - Plus in the distance (under the clouds to the right) is the Ram Island Ledge lighthouse

Spring Point Ledge lighthouse - Portland, Maine

Mabry Mill along the Blue Ridge Parkway

Cape Neddick (Nubble) lighthouse - Maine

Great Falls - Potomac River - just ouside of Washington, DC

Autumn stream scene - In Blue Ridge Mountains

Alligator (with its reflection) in Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge pond

Southwest Reef lighthouse - Moved to park in Berwig, Louisiana

Cypress trees (and knees) in Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge - Louisianna

Grandview panorama - New River Gorge National River

Traveling along the Gaspe Peninusla, New Brunswick, & PEI Coastlines

Landing gear down and wings deployed for a landing in the Northern Gannet colony on Bonaventure Island along the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec, Canada

What a whirlwind of activity it has been during the last 6 weeks.  We have traveled around the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec, the northern coastline of New Brunswick and around the coastline of Prince Edward Island in search of and finding more than 110 lighthouses and enjoying many other activities.  Here is a summary of our travels:

• The Gaspe Peninsula (part of Quebec Province) follows the eastern shore of the St. Lawrence River and wraps around where the river expands and becomes the Gulf of St. Lawrence).  The road around the peninsula follows the beautiful coastline and we saw some really great lighthouses.  The road gets more hilly as you round the top of the peninsula and becomes pretty steep in places (many hills were 12 to 14 % grade and one long hill was 17% grade).  The Appalachian Mountains continue into Canada and end at the northeastern corner of the Gaspe Peninsula at Cap Gaspe.  The International Appalachian Trail starts/ends here (and there also just happens to be a lighthouse there).   Cap Gaspe is also in Forillion (pronounced ‘for-ee-yaw’) National Park – one of the most beautiful Canadian parks.
• After staying in a beautiful campground in  Forillion,  we traveled a short distance down the eastern part of the peninsula to Perce.  Just offshore is a famous rock formation (Perce Rock) and Bonaventure Island.  We took a boat ride out to the island and then hiked to the far side where we experienced the highlight of our last few weeks.  It was here that we were able to watch Northern Gannets up close in the largest Gannet colony in the world (estimated to be 150,000 birds) – what a great ‘racket’ they made.  When we visited New Zealand in 2008, we were enthralled watching the Australasian Gannets there and we had just as an enjoyable time watching the Northern Gannets take off, fly, land, and sleep.  These very large birds (only the Albatross is larger) lay one egg and one parent always stays with the egg (or hatched chick), while the other one goes out fishing for food.  It is quite some site to watch the mutual fencing ritual that the pair does when the parent that was out fishing returns. 
• After completing our loop around the peninsula, we followed the northern coastline of New Brunswick in search of lighthouses and we were well rewarded in finding all of them – some required going down some rough roads and some hikes to reach them.  We also camped and hiked in Kouchibouguac  National Park (pronounced ‘KOOSH-e-boo-gwack’).  While traveling in this province we saw lobster boxes, mailboxes, telephone poles, and some houses painted in blue (with yellow stars), white, & red – the colors of the Acadian flag.  It was here in New Brunswick in one dark period in history that the French Acadian people were forced from their lands and deported to France with some eventually ending up in Louisiana - The Cajuns. 
• We ended up our stay in New Brunswick camping at Cape Tormentine near the start of the Confederation Bridge.  This 8 mile long bridge was completed in 1997 and replaced the ferry that docked in Cape Tormentine.  Today, you can reach the west part of the PEI by the Confederation Bridge or the east part of the PEI by ferry out of Nova Scotia.  You pay only when you leave the Island (either by ferry or by bridge).

Our most distant destination this year was PEI and it seems that we saved the best till last.   This is truly a special island and we have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here.   The Island is small enough that you can ‘get your hands around it’ and feel at home.  Here are some highlights of our PEI visit.

• With our reaching PEI we have now reached one of our long term goals of visiting all 10 provinces in Canada in an RV (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland/Labrador, and PEI.  In addition we have visited 2 of the 3 northern territories (Yukon & Northwest Territories).  The only remaining territory is the new one that was created in 1999 – Nunavut – which was split off from the Northwest Territories.  Since this remote territory can only be reached by boat or by plane, we have absolutely no plans to take our RV there.  Technically, we have been in Nunavut when we waded in Hudson Bay in Manitoba, since the Nunavut boundary runs right along the coastline there.  Maybe in the far future we might fly to Iqaluit (the capital) just to see what it is like.
• You really get that small community feeling wherever you go.  Even the ‘big’ town of Charlottetown only has a population of 33,000 and the Charlottetown ‘metropolitan area’ population is only 60,000.  You can drive the 163 miles from the farthest NW point (North Cape) to the farthest east point (East Point) in about 3 1/2 hours. 
• The Island has 61 remaining lighthouses and we managed to photograph 59 of them (of the two we missed - one is on an island and cannot be seen from shore & the other is on private property that you can’t get to). 
• The dirt on the island is red (caused by the high iron content) and the soft cliffs (which erode easily) along the coastline are red.  Unpaved roads are red and we went down numerous ‘red dirt roads’ in search of lighthouses.
• This is Celtic country and there are nightly ceilidhs (pronounced kay-lees) that you can attend (most for a nominal cost of $10) where you can enjoy fiddle, guitar, accordion, & piano playing, plus singing, step dancing, and storytelling.  The tradition is to enjoy ice cream & strawberries at intermission time.  We enjoyed these so much that we attended many of them.
• One of the really big attractions here is Anne of Green Gables.  L. M. Montgomery grew up in the Cavendish, PEI area and wrote a series of books – the first one being Anne of Green Gables published in 1908 (which is a story about a young orphan red-headed girl with a great imagination that grew up on a farm named Green Gables in PEI).  Here on PEI you find historic sites, museums, restaurants, a musical with the Anne theme and of course countless souvenirs (especially Anne dolls that seem to be everywhere).  Many Japanese tourists come here to visit PEI  since Anne of Green Gables was included in their school curriculum after the 2nd WW.
• Farming is the main business on the island.  The big farm crop is potatoes and they even have a Potato Museum which shows all of the varieties grown here.  It seems that some of the best French fries in the world come from PEI potatoes.  Of course, they rotate their crops and can only grow potatoes once every 3 years on the same land.
• Fishing is also big business and one of the ‘must do’ things here is to go to one of the Lobster Suppers where appetizers, mussels, and desserts are included.  We went to 2 of these, but only Cathy had the lobster and mussels.
• Another twist to the unusual weather this year.  All the local people here complain about how wet and cold it has been here this summer.  Usually, they have sunny and warm days with a day or 2 mixed in with showers.  This year, it has been many days with showers with a nice day here or there.  Fortunately, we arrived at the right time and have seen more nice days than wet ones and the temperatures have been great for us (with highs mostly in the 60’s and low 70’s).
• One of the ‘must do’ things here is to take the Cows Creamery Factory tour and of course have some of their really super ice cream.  In addition, their whimsical T-shirts (which are printed here in the Creamery) are a big hit.  Some of the T-shirt slogans are/have been: ‘Dancing with the Steers’, ‘Cowy Potter’, ‘Dr. Moolittle’, ‘The Amoozing Race’, and ‘The Little Moomaid’.  They bring out 12 new T-shirt designs each year.
• PEI has 1 National Park along the north central coastline and with the very original name of PEI National Park.  We camped here one night, walked along the beach, & took photos of some of the birds.
• Charlottetown is known as the birthplace of Canada.  It was here that the first gathering was held in 1864 which led to the Canadian Confederation in 1867 and which has evolved into Canada as we know it today.  Charlottetown is also the capital of PEI.   In our continuing quest to visit all of the provincial & territorial capitals in Canada, we visited Province House where the legislature meets.

Well, our time here on PEI is coming to a close.  We had planned to leave today, but are waiting 2 extra days until the remnant of hurricane Irene passes by (it is forecast that we should only get about an inch of rain and winds about 40-50 MPH).   Our plans have us crossing the Confederation Bridge and then finding lighthouses along the eastern and southern coastline of New Brunswick (including taking a ferry out to Grand Manan Island) before wandering inland down to Florida for a New Horizon RV rally at the end of October.  Then we will head back to the Texas area for the winter months.

Hope this finds you all well.

La Martre Lighthouse on Gaspe Peninsula

Haut Fond Prince Lighthouse in the St. Lawrence River

Ile Verte Lighthouse near Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec

Point-au-Pere Lighthouse on the Gaspe Peninsula

Pot a'L'Eau-de-vie (Brandy Pot) Lighthouse near Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec

Pointe a la Renommee Lightstation on Gaspe Peninsula - Marconi installed the first maritime radio station in North America here in 1904.

A small White Satin Moth (Leucoma Salisis) with neat black and white legs in the grass at the base of the Cap Des Rosiers Lighthouse

Coastline at Bon Ami Viewpoint in Forillion National Park

A Red Fox near Cap Gaspe in Forillion National Park

View from our campsite of the Perce Rock at sunrise

I know I can fly - Just let me try (Northern Gannet)

Nesting gannets as far as you see

A Northern Gannet parent and chick taking a nap amidst all the chatter in the colony

Point Escuminac Lighthouse on northern shore of New Brunswick

Port Borden Range Rear Lighthouse with the Confederation Bridge in the backgound

Sometimes small is beautiful - This is Howard's Cove Lighthouse on a hill overlooking the harbour on PEI

New London Lighthouse on PEI