The Moon over Mystic
Old Mystic, Conneticut has been our home for the last two days. We are at a very nice RV Park, but not many people are here. The weather has been just perfect with low 70 F during the afternoon - a bit cool overnight - and sunny. Yesterday, we successfully navigated through three states plus a bit of Maine. We were in an out of New Hampshire before we even figured out we were in it. The drive through Massachusets went without a hitch as we planned a route far to the west of Boston. We ended our day with a lovely scenic drive through the small communities of southeaster Conneticut. The area was settled in the mid 1600's. They have rock walls dividing up the properties which appear to have been here for a long, long time.
We went into Mystic Seaport today. There is a large museum with the original village recreated, but it takes two days to go through, so we just looked and took a couple pictures. We're busy resting up for Seseame Place this weekend.

York Beach on the south Maine shoreline was a lovely treat for us today. There was fantastic surf and a nice, long, sandy beach. To get there, we drove a meandering seashore route through beautiful neighbourhoods of old and new homes. Many beautiful homes. We had stopped at a farmer's stand and bought a bunch of fruits and veggies, so we had a picnic of fresh fruit right on the beach. We ran and dug and played in the water for a few hours. There were Monarch butterflies flying around and Leslie managed to get a good close-up as above.
We head off for Mystic, Conneticut in the morning and will spend another two days on the seashore.

McAdam, New Brunswick Train Station

In the late nineteenth century, the Canadian Pacific Railway needed a shorter route to the ice free port of St. John, New Brunswick. Undaunted by geography and international borders, the CPR built a rail line across the middle of Maine, known as the "International of Maine". This line, opened to through traffic in June 1889, operated in some of the remotest portions of Maine. Before the St. Lawrence Seaway made almost year round water shipping to Montreal possible in the late 1950's, the CPR did a great volume of winter traffic on the line.

We found this train station in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere and just a few miles before the US border into Maine. It was so beautiful, we had to pull over and take a picture. It's the most magnificent train station we've seen in the East. Unfortunately, it's a foggy, drizzly day, so the photo's not the best. Interesting piece of history, though.

We travelled from Halifax to Moncton yesterday and from Moncton to Hermon, Maine today. We are just a few miles west of Bangor, Maine. It's a few degrees warmer going south, but it's busy raining away. Makes us feel right at home. We have a few more days of heavy travelling to get to Philadelphea for the weekend. At this time of year, our destination: Seseame Place, is only open on weekends. Yvonne's getting excited about being able to give Big Bird a hug.

Peggy's Cove was a pleasant surprize for us today. A fellow we recently spoke to told us it was just another pile of rocks with a lighthouse on it. Maybe so, but it's a darn pretty pile of rocks. The waves just crash in there which is just entrancing to watch. The sea is such a gorgeous blue-green colour. We really enjoyed our visit there. Yvonne is becoming a good rock climber. She hopped all over the place.

Halifax and our last Atlantic Lobster dinner. Stan this pic is for you. Sorry no sreeeeech. We went into Halifax this morning as it was a misty day and we had indoor activities planned. Once again, we used our Science World membership to use the affiliated Discovery Centre here in Halifax. It was a fun, hands-on science museum that we all enjoyed. We then drove down to the harbour and found the Blue Nose II for a picture. Then, we went up to the Citadel for a little history. We really recommend getting a National Parks and Historic Sites pass if you ever go across Canada. Yvonne and I (Leslie) went to a movie which was the "Tides of History". We went through 4 movie theatres that took us through the history of Halifax, and thus, of Canada. It was a great wrap up to all the places we have been and really tied together Canadian history for me. The movie mentioned Lunenburg, Louisbourg, and the Plains of Abraham and how they were tied to Halifax. It was cool to remember being to each one of them throughout our trip.
Our RV park is so nicely located. It took us less than a half hour to get into downtown Halifax and it will take less than that tomorrow to go to Peggy's Cove. They have a restaurant next door that has been serving lobster dinners and putting on Saturday night dances for 60 years. It is still the same family operating it. We had a nice, simple Nova Scotia lobster supper with unlimited steamed mussels, salad bar and a whole lobster each. We are FULL.

Lunenburg. This is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It was the home of the Bluenose and some great arcitecture. Lunenburg was established in 1753 and the British actually advertised for people to move here. They would give you land to farm. The only catch was you had to be a protestant. At the time the English were removing french catholics from Nova Scotia (Acadians) so they wanted to start a protestant community. Land was given to mainly German people and some french who were Lutherens. It didn't take long to figure out you couldn't grow a weed here so they turned to ship building and fishing. Thus the Bluenose was built here and the fishing industry blossomed. The biggest lobster ever grown caught here was 44lbs. Nova Scotia still holds the word record for the biggest Tuna fish ever caught. 1476 lbs. The authour, Zane Grey actually held the world record for several years with his catch of 785lbs. Tuna, and cod along with many other types of fish were the mainstays of the fishing industry. Like most fishing grounds, it was soon fished out, tuna was gone in the thirty's, cod has had a moratorium since 1995. Lobster during that time was looked upon as something only the poor fished for and ate. Now lobster is a huge industry in the Maritimes. Who knew???

The Bluenose won every sailing race for years. It was built in 1921 and sank in 1946. A stamp was made with the Bluenose on it, and the Bluenose dime was first minted in 1937. Bluenose11 is in Halifax and we might get to see her tomorrow. Some of the building here are pretty impressive. The old houses are amazing and there are still a lot of houses and building from the 1700's here. The old town of Lunenburg has been made a Unesco Heritage site and a lot of it has been restored. Tourism here is huge and we took an horse and buggy tour of the city, and are amazed at the amount of tourists still coming here. Jim

Hubbard's beach, NS. This is the best camping spot we have found yet. No bugs. Warm. On the white sand beach and close to everything. It is 9pm and we have the fire on and still sitting outside indulging and enjoying the stars. We got here about 1:30, set up and played on the beach the rest of the day. We are off to Lunenburg early tomorrow and home early to lie on the beach. Again. It is supposed to rain on Thursday so we will save the museum in Halifax for that day. Peggy's Cove on Wednesday. It is supposed to be sunny again on Friday and thru the weekend, so we may be hard pressed to get out of here any time soon. Tough life, ehh?

I am going to start posting pictures of the trip on days we do not have anything to report. We have hundreds of them, so we thought we would share them with everyone. Jim

It was another warm fall day in Pictou. We went to the beach in the morning as it was about 72 degrees, got to a high of 77. We walked along the beach chasing the hermit crabs, picking up the periwinkle shells and just generally being lazy. Feet and hands got buried in the sand, shorts and shirts got wet and full of sand and there just happened to be some sitting on the beach and soaking up the sun. It was was needed as we have covered some ground over the last 19 days. Over 3500 kms. No wonder we just want to sit on a beach.

After lunch we went into town, and tookin a little of the local colour in Pictou. The Hector, a sailing vessel, carried 200 people from Scotland to New Scotland (Pictou), in 1773. When you see the size of the ship and the conditions they lived with, it is amazing that so many survived the trip. Only 18 people succumbed to smallpox, mostly children. It was after the battle of Culloden and the people tired of living as serfs and following the Scottish lords trying to reseat Bonnie Prince Charlie upon the throne of England, were tired and beaten. Lured by the promise of a rich and varied land with promises of their own farm and a year's provisions, made the 11 week journey, to a harsh cold land. Some returned to Scotland, but most stayed and made a life for themselves. Another bit of history that defines Canada.

Tomorrow it is off to the Halifax area for several days and then we shall make our way into the USA.

Travel was supposed to be the theme today but we got sidetracked at the Nat. Historic Museum in Baddeck. Top Pic. Alexander Graham Bell made his home here for the better part of his life. They were supposed to build a small cottage up in Baddeck but they got carried away and it became a mini castle. He truly was a remarkable man. X-Ray machines, telephone,and co-inventer of the hydrofoil are only some of the achievments Mr. Bell attained. Equally remarkable was his wife, Mabel Hubbard Bell, deaf after a bout with scarlett fever, they became a formidable duo. He the inventer and she on the business end.

It turned out that the town of Baddeck was celebrating Harvest home and they had hot dogs , music, Bubbles the clown, face painting and games for the kids. Yvonne ,Bubbles and Daphne are in the middle picture. Yvonne and Daphne spent the afternoon together and as you can see were on the winning team in the tug of war. Fall has set in In Nova Scotia. The red of the maples and the oranges of the bullrushes have started and it won't be long before the east is in the splendor of colour. What was supposed to be a short hour break tuned out to be a 3hr stop that was well worth the time.

We got into our campsite in Pictou a little later than usual so we had a late dinner while Yvonne played with the multitude of kids in this park for the weekend. We are right on the water and lots of kids and a pool. Yvonne ran so much today she passed out fairly quickly tonight. We sure have had some neat unplanned days and hope they continue until the duration of our trip. Another adventure around the next corner. Jim

The Fortress at Louisbourg has changed a bit since I was here in the late 60's. There were only a couple of buildings, some cannon's and some of the rock walls when I was here then. They have done a great job in the restoration. It is nice to see our tax dollars going somewhere other than the politicians' pockets. It was a nice warm day here and 2 days without rain now, whoppee. The bottom picture was a re-enactment of a public humiliation which was common in 1744. This fellow stole a bottle of wine. A good bottle I hope. Yvonne made friends with one of the musicians. She likes dancers and musicians. One of the actors gave her a brass button that had fallen off his coat. All the uniforms and clothing are authentic for 1744.

Tommorrow we are off to Pictou for a couple of days. Beach time. We need a couple of lazy days with nothing to see except the beach.

Fort Louisbourg, Nova Scotia. This was the last French fortress in Canada. It fell in 1745 to the English and all occupants were deported to France. In the 1960's, they started a major archaeological dig and reconstruction of the Fort town. It took over 20 years to complete and is now a national historic site of incomparable quality. They have actors throughout the town recreating what life was like at the time, including military drills. We didn't realize they actually fire muskets and a cannon, so we got a good jump out of our skins. The top photo shows the shoreline view of the Fort. From there, the buildings keep going up the hill. It's so large and fully developed, it's impossible to photograph. We had a great day wandering around and look forward to a short visit again tomorrow to catch what we missed today.

Farewell, Newfoundland

We spent yesterday at Cape Ray just around the corner from Port Aux Basques where the ferry leaves from. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but quite windy. We took turns going on the hike that provides the view in the picture. Once upon the hill, it felt like you might blow away. Our campsite was nice and sheltered, so you couldn't even tell it was windy there. We have found that most of the campsites have closed down on Newfoundland, so the pickings are slim. We ended up at a Provincial campsite that was nice, but no power, water or sewer. YAY for the solar panel. At least we are functional with battery power that is quickly regenerated. We just didn't have phone or computer service. Made for a nice quiet and relaxing afternoon.
We are now almost two hours into our ferry trip back to Nova Scotia. 4 more hours to go. It's quite smooth so far. We are SO thankful that we had planned to leave today as we found out this morning there is a tropical storm watch for where we were. All of the southern areas of Newfoundland are going to be hit by the tail end of Hurricane Florence late tonight. We may still get some of the effects in Nova Scotia, but as of now, there are no Environment Canada warnings.

I cannot think of when I have had a better BD. 46 can you believe it. Again. I spent the day with my 2 travelling buddies. I woke up to coffee and breakfast, homemade sausages and wild blueberry( from Sudbury, Ont) pancakes. It doesn't get any better than that. We packed up and left Grand Falls-Winsor and travelled 3 hrs to Corner Brook. We took Yvonne to McD's for her Happy Meal and toy. We then took a drive around to pick up the BD ice cream cake for my 46th. Stopped at the grocery store and Leslie picked up some ribs and other ingredients, for my BD dinner. Ribs with cranberry glaze and yam-polenta side dish that was to die for. To think I thought about going out to a restaurant for dinner. What a waste of money that would have been. I sure am benefitting from the gluten free recipes Leslie has to make to stay clean. We topped it of with the ice cream cake and some really good BC wine.

The top picture is a sample of iceburgs that you can see if you get to NFLD a month or so before we did. If we ever come this way again we will get here sooner. Terra Nova Nat. Park is probably the best Nat. Park I have ever been in. The summer programs and the park itself are amazing. You could spend a week here just looking around and taking in the things to do. Oh well you can't see it all. It was a good day to travel: cold and wet, brrrrr, but a great day nonetheless. We are off to Port aux Basque tomorrow and then onto the ferry on Tuesday.

We camped at Newman Sound, Terra Nova National Park for 2 days. We were out of cell phone / internet range, so we had an enjoyable couple days in the quiet. The campground was really nice and much nicer a couple weeks ago. They have tons of nature programs during the summer but all was shut down on the Labour Day weekend. There were only a handfull of people there with over 400 sites available. Yvonne managed to find a little girl to play with and they had a blast. We had a site right next to the playground.
On the first day, we drove up to the Marine Interpretation Centre where they had a touch tank where you could touch crabs, sea anemones, and starfish (top picture).
The weather was so nice, we decided to stay for a second day. Yesterday, we played with Yvonne's friend in the morning, then we went for a bike ride and a hike along Newman Sound (bottom picture). It is one of very few estuaries on Newfoundland and is protected internationally for study of the variety of species that call it home.
We have now driven up to Grand Falls - Windsor which is in the centre of Newfoundland and leaves us with two easy legs of driving to get to the ferry on Tuesday. We plan on 4 days in the Louisbourg area of Northeastern Nova Scotia.

Witless Bay Ecological Reserve is home to the larges Puffin colony in North America. They mate and nest on an Island in the Atlantic Ocean. We set out today on a driving trip to Witless Bay hoping that the information centre may have a good Puffin display. After we drove back and forth over the area that the signs indicated should be the information centre, we realized it was not going to be a big elaborate centre. We ended up stopping at the municipal hall and asking about the area. Turns out you HAVE to go on a boat tour to see anything in the area. So, we broke down and spent our $100 to go on a boat tour. We departed Bay Bulls which is one community north of Witless Bay and went on an hour and a half tour of the Ecological Reserve. The puffins have chosen this island to reproduce because there are no land predators. We were lucky to see the puffins as most have left the area to resume their lives on the sea. Other than breeding, they live entirely on the sea, following the schools of fish that comprise their diet.
I always thought of puffins like penguins and expected that they were about a foot high and sitting on the shore looking at us. WRONG. They are 9 to 12 inches long, but most we saw must have been smaller. They fly around getting fish for their young and bringing them back to the chicks that stay in burrows until they are old enough to fly away on their own. The adult puffins are more like swallows, flying quickly back and forth feeding their young. We were lucky to have a few fly close overhead so we could see their colourfull feathers.

Unfortunately, our camera decided to die the other day and we can no longer zoom into anything, so we couldn't get any puffin pictures. We will be shopping once we cross the border.

Also, unfortunately, we didn't see any whales, but we can advise those of you interested in Newfoundland. GO IN JULY. By September, the action is virtually over. In July there are icebergs, puffins by the thousands and whales all over.

Canadiana: The first oil well in North America was drilled at community 35 km south of Sarnia, Ontario in 1858. The town was Oil Springs.

Retailers in Canada are not required to accept pennies in payment for any item costing more than $.50.

Yvonne and a St. John's Mermaid. It seems that St. John's has done what Vancouver did with the artistically altered dolphins. There are beautiful mermaids all over the city. Yvonne and Leslie went to the Newfoundland Science Centre today. It was small, but fun. Yvonne got to hold a millipede and built walls with some other kids with styrofoam bricks. We ended up the day with a city-wide search for Jim's upcoming birthday present. I now know how to get around the city!!!

Signal Hill
Cape Spear Lighthouse
Cape SpearCity of St. John's

Today was such a scenic day, we had to post 4 pictures. It was such a nice sunny day and people told us it was the nicest day of the summer. Good timing - right before the kids go back to school. It has been a cool and rainy summer for the maritimes. We're hoping for a nice warm fall.

We started the day with a drive to Cape Spear National Historic Site which is the easternmost point in all of North America. The lighthouse is the oldest remaining in Newfoundland and Labrador and was built in the mid-1800's. The ocean is very rough there and the shoreline is treacherous. Every year a few people are washed off the rocks. We also managed to spot and watch some wales spouting and frolicking in the sea.

We then went to the Signal Hill National Historic Site where Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic wireless signal. Both sites were used for defence in WWII and still have some of the fortifications remaining. Signal Hill provides the magnificent view of the city of St. John's as pictured above. St. John's is the oldest city in all of North America. Although it is the oldest, all the old buildings have been demolished by numerous fires the city has experienced.

Jim's Notes. Coast to Coast. It was a long haul. It all started on the Trans Canada Hwy in Victoria, BC and and finished in St. John's, Newfoundland. For those of you that have been following along you know that the Trans Canada is the longest National Hwy. in the world all 7821km of it. I can attest to that. I have a ache in my neck and a fuel bill that could choke a horse. I can count my blessings though. Diesel is $1.20 a litre. Last year it was $1.48. The trip has been worth every litre. The 2 coasts of this country are the prettiest scenery Canada has to offer.

Canadiana: The Newfoundland dog has webbed feet. ( What did you expect from a dog living on an island.)

The waters off Newfoundland are home to over 5000 humpback whales.

Yvonne with Commander Gander at the customer appreciation night last night. We are at Country Inn and RV Park in Gander still and departing this morning for St. John's. We seem to have found ourselves in the Point Roberts of Gander. Everyone here is here every weekend all summer. Last night they had a barbeque for customers. We sat down at a table and chatted with the locals. We're not sure what they said, but they were friendly. Hee hee. It's true, you can only understand a couple words here and there and have to listen very intently to get through the Newfie accent. I'm sure we'll get used to it just before it's time to leave. It was a lovely time and the sun blessed us with a bit of warmth.

Later this day. 8:30pm. Finally a fire and marshmallows. It was 72d today and it carried into the evening. Warmth without the wind. We left Gander and got to ST. John's about 2;30. The scenery changed a few times. It is quite glacial here and is like N. Ontario, a lake ever half mile. They call them Ponds here. Some of these ponds are fair large. We are staying in an RV Park just above the city. It ties for the best park we have been in . Pippy Park big private sites and after all the kids go home tomorrow it will also be quiet. Yvonne made some friends and stayed out playing till after 8. We actually had a BBQ and it did not get blown out once . We are off to Cape Spear and Signal hill tomorrow . Yvonne is just about asleep so I am going to make Leslie and I some adult beverages and go sit out by the fire a while longer. Jim

Yvonne's new earrings!!!

Gander, Newfoundland is home to the North Atlantic Aviation Museum, where we visited today. It was a yucky, rainy day, so it was a good indoor activity. During WWII, the British Air Force used Gander to ferry aircraft manufactured in the USA to Europe. Although it is a quiet town now, it has been a very important military spot. The highlight of the day is the 9/11 display with thank you notes and a video about how all of the maritimes' people helped the people diverted out of USA air space on that aweful day. In Gander alone, they had 39 wide-body aircraft stranded and 6,500 people to feed and house. The thank you notes brought tears to my eyes. They have two big binders full of them. They say that as soon as the public found out about the people being stranded and where they were being housed, donations of everything from food to clothes to bedding just came pouring in. No requests for donations ever where made, people just knew what to do. People volunteered at shelters and also took passengers into their homes. It was a huge example of how wonderful human beings can be. After the museum, we stopped off at the Gander Airport for a snack so I could reminisce about my flying days. Spent many an hour at the cafeteria waiting for the weather to clear!!!!!

The exciting thing of our day is Yvonne got her ears pierced!!! I made a flippant remark that she could get them pierced if she quit sucking her thumb. I thought it would never happen, but a few weeks after I said it, she stuck out her thumbs and asked for the "gucky stuff" on them so she'd quit. Unbelievably, she's gone two weeks with no hitch, so we had to follow up on our side of the promise. They had two girls pierce an ear each, so they were both done at the same time. She didn't even say "ouch". No tears and no screams. She was very brave.

Jim's Notes: Sometimes biggest is not always the best. This little museum and airport in Gander has been the home 0f some of the best and worst of aviation history. It is the home of the first trans-atlantic flight of military aircraft on Nov.10th 1940. It paved the way for 15,000 military aircraft from Canada and the United States to be ferried across the Atlantic. Without those planes the Battle of Britian and the outcome of the Second World War might have been quite different. Sir Fredrick Banting co-founder of insulin was working with the RCAF on high altitude eguipment and was flying out of Gander to England. They had aircraft trouble and 30 minutes out of Gander they crashed. Mr. Banting died later from his injuries. On Dec. 12th, 1985, the worst disaster in Canadian aviation history occured. An Arrow Air DC 8 was carrying members of the 101 st Airborne Division back to Fort Campbell, USA. It veered off the runway and crashed into a mountainside where it exploded into a fiery ball. All 248 military personell and the 8 crew members perished. As Leslie mentioned the 9/11 display was very impressive. What surpised me the most are the friendships that developed and the many Americans who were on those flights who have returned to see their friends in Newfoundland. One American traveller remarked. " I left France to fly to New York, and landed in heaven".

Aviation Humour (actual mechanical complaints and the response from maintenance crews):

Problem: "Test flight OK, except autoland very rough"

Response: "Autoland not installed in this aircraft"

Problem: "Dead bugs on windshield"

Response: "Live bugs on order"