June 30, 2012

We arrived in DuBois mid-morning on Thursday. Did some grocery shopping and just chilled out. Or we would have chilled out except the temp was in the 90’s and windy.

Friday morning I took Dusty out for his early morning walk (5:30) and saw an eagle flying up the river. We’re camped right beside the Wind River. There are at least 4 families of Canada Geese on the bank. Each family is a different age from very tiny to almost ready to take off. They work their way up and down the bank most of the day. I took Dusty for a walk along the river and he decided to go wading along the shore. A doe was walking on the other side of the river. Later on Rob and I (and Dusty) went to inspect possible fishing sites. A fawn was getting a drink on the other side just about where I had seen the doe. The fawn escaped into the brush before Dusty could see it.

Swallows soaring over the river snatching bugs in the air. Then we spotted a woodpecker pretending to be a flycatcher. A new bird for us…a red-naped sapsucker.

Today we turned the coach around so the right side would be in the shade in the afternoon. Now we look out on the river and can sit in the air conditioning while watching the birds play.

Rob bought his fishing license today. Score:  trees 3/rocks 2/fish 1/Rob 0. Tomorrow is another day.

The crowd comes tomorrow! Six other coaches are joining us tomorrow.

PARTY!!

Scenery around DuBois. A little hazy due to smoke from the Fontenelle fire in the LaBarge area. It's been burning for several days now.

June 27, 2012

Our stay in Thermopolis was kind of lazy since we’d been there before and had seen pretty much all there is to see. Stan went fishing on Tuesday so Rob and Jerre and I went into town. Jerre wanted to get some books at Storyteller, the local bookstore/gathering place. There’s a table with chairs in the back of the store with a large shovel laid across it. The owner said it’s there because it can get pretty deep in there sometimes. I wanted to go to the quilt store which used to be right next door, but has succumbed to the poor economy. All I really needed was some elastic to fix the waistband in some shorts. I thought Pamida might have some so off we went to the other side of town. Jerre had never been in Pamida so was excited for the opportunity. Right away we spotted some bargains. There were sales racks out in front sporting men’s and women’s clothing. Rob found a new shirt for the upcoming DuBois rodeo for $7. How can you pass up a bargain like that. Jerre found one for Stan also. Checking out things inside was even better. I’m not sure what all Jerre ended up with. I didn’t find my elastic however; they were out. The sales clerk sent us to a new store downtown. “Go up to the light and turn right. It’s right there.” There’s only one light in town. This store was referred to as a “crafts store” and it did have some yarn and embroidery thread, but also some of everything you can think of. Another hour of checking out all the “stuff”, and again, I’m not sure what all Jerre found. I did find my elastic. By the way, this store is directly across from the bookstore that we had been to earlier.

The wind picked up while we were out shopping and not long after the entire valley was filled with smoke. We couldn’t get a straight answer as to where the fire was, but we thought it was near. Later we learned there were two; one near Casper and one near Fontenelle. Neither place was very close to us so we weren’t in any danger, but there was a lot of smoke.

Stan returned late afternoon reporting that he had caught one trout. The wind was just too strong for fly fishing.

Dinner at the Mexican restaurant.

Today we decided to check out the new Wyoming Whiskey Distillery in Kirby, about 13 miles up the road. Apparently a couple of attorneys from the Jackson area had more money than they knew what to do with so they decided to start a distillery. They are really making bourbon, not whiskey and have been operating for about four years. They are set to release their first bottling in December. Their Master Distiller if from Kentucky and is in the Bourbon Hall of Fame. He was talked into coming out of retirement to start up this distillery. All of the ingredients are from Wyoming; corn from Thermopolis, wheat from Meeteetse, barley from Riverton and water from artesian wells in Worland. They plan to produce 1000 barrels a year and are in production year round. Eventually, they plan to market across the entire U.S.

More smoke filled our campground this evening. Not sure if this is a rekindling or a new fire. It wasn’t as hot today as yesterday and winds didn’t pick up until late afternoon. We had a visitor in the campground in the early evening....a four point buck. 

We’re out of here tomorrow. We’ll go straight to DuBois. Stan and Jerre are headed to Lander where they will meet with the Courtneys and Helsings before coming to DuBois.

June 25, 2012 Thermopolis, Wy

Today was an early start from Buffalo, about 9:00. Our route took us up over the Big Horn Mountains on the Cloud Peak Skyway in a serpentine path both up and down. Down was sprinkled with steep grades requiring the use of the two-stage Jake brake on the coach. We went slowly and as a consequence of the steep slopes our fuel mileage slipped to just over 3 mpg. Not even the downhill side could make much improvement. We got snagged by some construction which appeared that one side of the mountain was being rerouted to the other side of the road. It should make for a nice wide road when they’re through, but it’s not going to be any time soon. Once over the mountains we made our way through Tensleep, the site of last year’s 4^th of July gathering. The Ten Hoeck RV Park was pretty full. Looks like this year’s 4^th celebration will be as big as ever. I did note that Tensleep’s population has suffered this year. It’s down from 304 last year to 260.

We’ve joined up with Stan and Jerre here in Thermopolis at the Eagle RV Park. This is an older park and is very tight, not just for the bigger coaches. Rob had to back up twice to get around a big Phaeton extending out of the campsite into the roadway. When we finally got parked we were also extending out into the roadway and had no place to park the Yukon. The manager told us to park in an adjacent spot which was barely big enough for the car. Only a very small trailer would fit there.

Stan and Jerre were out so we went to the grocery and got the car washed. By the time we got back they had returned. We spent the next couple of hours catching up. After some BBQ’d Italian Sausage, potato salad and green salad, plus a couple of bottles of wine we called it a night.

Stan is fishing tomorrow with a guide so we’ll be on our own to explore a little. We’ve been to Thermopolis before since our daughter lives just a few miles away in Lander. She’s off to Eric’s family reunion in Nebraska so we’ll catch up with her in a few days.

It's nice to see real mountains again.

June 24, 2012 Deer Park RV Park – Buffalo, Wy

Boy did we get off early this morning! Skipping through two time zones in two days is confusing to us and to Dusty. He’s the one who stuck his nose in my face at 4:30 this morning. I managed to get him to lie down for another 30 minutes, but after that he wouldn’t relent so up I got. When we returned from our walk, Rob was already up and heading to a shower. We were on the road around 7 am, unheard of in our travels so far, but then our bodies think it was closer to 9. Our destination was Buffalo, Wy, at least a 7 hour drive (363 miles). Western North Dakota and eastern Wyoming is FLAT! But, did you know…the geographical center of the U.S. is in SD??? I wonder if Hawaii and Alaska figured in to that computation. We passed by the spot, but it was a ways off the main road. Not sure if you can even get to it. There is a monument to it, however, in Belle Fourche. We didn’t stop. Wikipedia says this is it since 1959, which includes Hawaii and Alaska. Before that it was in Lebanon, Kansas and still is for the contiguous US. That would probably be the most likely answer on Jeopardy.

An otherwise uneventful 7 hours of miles and miles of grassland, interspersed with some fields of yellow, we think might be mustard. Of course, we were birding at 62 mph along the way and observed lots of Lark Buntings, Meadowlarks, and Horned Larks, plus the ubiquitous Redwinged Blackbirds. Rob swears he saw a Yellow Headed Blackbird, but I can’t confirm it. A couple of Northern Harriers and, we think, a Rough Legged Hawk rounded out our birding attempts.

We rounded the bend into Buffalo and what did our wondering eyes behold???? The snowcapped Big Horn Mountains peeking through a haze. We’re in the mountains. Real mountains!! Throughout Michigan, and points west the highest peaks noted were shorter than 2000 feet. Why bother.

One other point of interest… We saw a sign indicating we were crossing the “Continental Divide, elevation 1490 ft.” in North Dakota??? Since when!!   A search of Google provides the answer. For those interested here’s the website or just google “continental divide”. http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/geology/a_continentalDiv.html   

It seems there’s more than one continental divide. The one in ND is the Northern Divide. Some of the rivers and streams of ND drain into the Mississippi river system and thus, the Gulf of Mexico and some drain north into the rivers draining into Hudson Bay.  There is historical significance in this in that it served as the boundary between the US and Great Britain (Canada) when the Louisiana Purchase was added to the US. There are still political implications with water rights being asserted by both the US and Canada. For more info, check the website.     

This shot actually has some slope to it and some trees.

Mustard? I guess it's grown somewhere. Maybe just a rotational crop.

Tomorrow we’re headed to Thermopolis where we’ll join Stan and Jerre.

June 21, 2012 Still at Michigamme

We were treated to a sunshiny day today, laced with a few clouds that turned dark gray at times, but never shed a drop. Quite different from yesterday. We played golf with Curt and Debbie at Wawinowin Golf Course just a few miles from the RV Park. The golf course won, as usual, but we had fun. After golf we hurried back to the RV to take care of Dusty who waits patiently for us and never barks at anyone or anything passing by. Then off to Marquette for an early dinner with the Johnson clan, same as yesterday with the addition of Curt and Debbie’s son, Carl who had flown in the previous night. Eric and Elliott entertained themselves playing “Angry Birds” on their mom and dad’s cell phones.  Following dinner we all went over to the “dome” at Northern Michigan University for the public showing of the elite of the elite Model A’s. This week has been marathon Model A events all over the UP. We have been passing restored Model A’s on the roads for several days. Tonight was the finale of the events with the crowning of the best restoration. The showing was to have opened at 7 pm, but was several minutes late. The security personnel told us the judges had been conferring over all the entries since 7:30 that morning. They still hadn’t made the announcement by 8:30 so we left. We need to get an early start in the morning.

Elliott slurping his "sketti" like worms.

A couple of the restored "A"s

June 20, 2012 Michigamme Shores RV Resort

Yesterday our car was picked up before dinner and today, before breakfast, it was fixed. Whoever heard of a service department of a car dealer being open 24 hours? But they were and they were able to replace the worthless part so we’re back in business. (One in five in the country and we were near one of them…our good luck.)

We spent the afternoon at our friends’ (Curt and Debbie Johnson) cabin on Sundog Lake about ½ hour away. We had initially talked about taking our motorhome to their cabin in the woods on the lake. Not knowing what the drive in looked like in terms of road condition, overhanging branches and other unknown hazards we opted to stay at a regular motorhome park. Thank goodness we did. The drive in is absolutely beautiful, however, many, many trees over the road way would have done damage to the roof equipment. The last little bit of road into the cabin is slightly narrower than our coach is wide. All in all, a good choice to stay where we are.

As soon as we arrived their grandson, Eric, announced that his gramma (Debbie) told him Rob would take him fishing. From then on “Robert” as Eric called him, was engaged in checking fishing gear, digging for worms and instructing both Eric, almost 5, and Elliott, almost 4, in the fine art of fishing. Their grampa Curt helped some, mostly in digging the worms and holding Elliott’s pole. The equipment was lacking sufficient bobbers so a wine cork was called into action. The afternoon was beautiful, albeit slightly hot and humid. Biting flies were voracious, but were handled with a liberal application of bug spray. The boys soon tired of fishing and everyone eventually retired to the cabin to await dinner of baby back ribs, potato salad, corn on the cob, green salad, bread, and freshly baked rhubarb pie (made by daughter-in-law Heather) and blueberry pie, both ala mode. I had precooked the ribs in my Advantium oven in the coach yesterday. We previewed a couple of ribs last night to test the effectiveness of the Advantium. I have to say they turned out exceptionally well. All Rob had to do was reheat them and dispense a liberal application of BBQ sauce.

Dusty was in heaven exploring every square inch of the property, swimming in the lake, chasing the winecork bobber,  playing with boys (although I’m not sure the boys knew he was playing) and eating everything he could find. I’m sure he’ll be upchucking again tonight after finding the watermelon rinds the boys through in the woods yesterday.

Lots of good conversation catching up with our friends whom we haven’t seen since April.

We left before sunset, (this being the longest day of the year sunset would be late) and ran straight into a thunderstorm. We also almost ran into a deer who darted across no more than 5 feet in front of us. The rest of the drive home was uneventful, but the windshield wipers were furiously working to keep us able to see the road. Water is pooling around our coach requiring a short wade through the puddles to enter. Of course, as soon as we’re inside, Dusty needs to go out.

We scheduled for golf tomorrow with Curt and Debbie. Fingers crossed for no rain.

 

Rob and Debbie checking out the fishing equipment with Eric and Elliott waiting patiently.

Little cabin by the lake in the woods.

Grampa helping Elliott fish.

June 19, 2012 Michigamme Shores RV Resort

Sitting here on the shore of Michigamme Lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Our Yukon was just hauled away to Marquette. The transmission won’t engage so we’re going nowhere. This has happened before, but usually after some time it self-corrects. Not this time, so into service it’s going. Fortunately for us, the service department is open 24 hours. We should know a diagnosis this evening.

Before coming here we were on the other side of the Mackinaw Bridge at the Mackinaw City KOA. Very nice KOA, well maintained, in the trees. We had planned to take the ferry to Mackinac Island to see how the rich and famous Michiganders live, but a thunderstorm and torrential rain damped that idea. We had a nice lunch in town then came back to the RV, watched TV and read.

The little town of Mackinaw City is lined with little shops, mostly selling fudge. I think I counted 8 fudge shops in a two block stretch. Pasties are also popular here in the UP. (That’s pronounced pass tees as opposed to something a stripper might wear.) Pasties, for the uninitiated, are basically a meat and vegetable pie. Popular with miners in England as they were easy to carry and were big enough to provide a nourishing breakfast and lunch. I had one in London years ago and liked it, but one I had last year in Butte wasn’t quite the same. I passed on buying one in Mackinaw City, maybe I’ll get one before we leave the UP.

We’re scheduled to meet up with our friends from Ojai at their lake cabin tomorrow. It rained most of the way here from MC. I guess my dancing friend has given up now that she’s on the road. More rain scheduled for tomorrow.

June 16, 2012

Back to the USA!

We got an early start from 50 Point towards the border crossing at Port Huron. We managed to end up with a small amount of dog food, but we kept it in the bag to show it had no lamb in it. We also had 1 ½ extra bottles of wine but would pay the duty on that. The Port Huron crossing is huge, more than 10 lanes and not crowded at all. The border agent asked us where we’d been, how long we’d been in Canada, what fresh food did we have (two apples and half a head of lettuce), what alcohol did we have? Then he said he needed to check out our tow vehicle. After that he waived us through; no duty, no confiscation of anything. What a different experience from crossing last year in Vancouver, WA.

We had reservations at a KOA in Emmett, MI, just about 20 miles after the border. We found it easily and Rob went in the check in. When he called to make a reservation, the day before, he was told there were no full hookups available. Since we were only spending the night we could make do with just electricity and water. We needed to disconnect the Yukon before proceeding to our site. Our routine is that Rob unhooks the tow bar while I put the transmission in gear and disconnect the brake mechanism. This time the transmission would not go into gear (which has happened before with this car, but not on this trip). We could not disconnect if we couldn’t drive the car. The manager of the KOA was extremely cooperative and took Rob to a nearby site where he could pull through, actually taking up two sites. Rob’s had practice several times getting out of tight situations on this trip, but nothing like this one. He had to maneuver between water pipes on one side and electrical posts on the other, with clearance of no more than five or six inches. Oh, and there were also trees he had to clear. He can now claim Master Tight Squeeze Champion. Then he tried to level. No go! Without being able to level we wouldn’t be able to open the slides. He decided we couldn’t stay and would have to find another park to stay in. The mgr refunded every penny. So now, he has to maneuver around a tight curve with a tree in the wrong spot and a trailer parked right on the edge. He sends me out to give guidance. More grimacing! Besides the above mentioned obstacles, the left edge of the drive was bordered with railroad ties and Rob needed to bring the coach up and over them. That wasn’t going to work. The couple with the trailer were anxiously watching and came running over to give assistance. They took it upon themselves to move six ties giving Rob the room he needed and we made it out. We’d still be there if it wasn’t for their help. We don’t even know their name.  So now where to go. Our plan had been to stay at the KOA for two days and drive down to Oregon, Ohio the second day to pick up the stuff we left in storage. It was still early in the day so we headed down to Oregon. Had called Maumee Bay to make a reservation, but being Father’s Day weekend they were full. They did have five “walk-in” sites available, but we’d have to chance them being open when we arrived. Luck was with us.  Oh, and the car…? It went into gear with no problem as soon as we got to Maumee.

June 15, 2012 Hamilton, Ontario on Lake Ontario

Rob neglected to elaborate on what happened when he didn’t make the transition to the route we needed to take. We were traveling along Hwy 40. Our plan was to follow 40 to the 20 which would take us into the Niagara area of Ontario, between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Because he was cut off we ended up on a semi-highway which skirted the perimeter of Montreal. I’m looking at the map and I see where we are and where we need to go when all of a sudden Rob sees a sign to 20 and takes it.  Just a bit premature, although it did work out, but not before taking us through a tunnel which deposited us on the other side of the river.  Now the navigator, me, is slightly confused because I don’t see a tunnel on the map. I figure as long as we’re on 20 we’re okay. Despite the confusing signage in Canada, they at least give several opportunities to get back on the path you wanted to be on. We found our campground near Hamilton, Ontario. It’s in a conservation area appropriately called 50 Point Conservation Area and it’s on Fifty Rd. Beautiful municipal park right on Lake Ontario. Big sites with plenty of space between. It even has a dog beach, which Dusty loved swimming in. Weather has been terrific.

Today we drove to Niagara Falls for a few photos of the falls. Didn’t partake of any of the tours, just gazed at the water flowing over the cliffs. One of the Wallendas was scheduled to walk across this morning and we could see the tightrope stretched across, but did not see the event. Afterwards we took a side trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a stroll up and down the street and  a little lunch. This is a very trendy, touristy area. There are also quite a number of wineries in this area. Since we are leaving Canada tomorrow we had to be mindful of the amount of alcool (that’s French) we are carrying so we couldn’t stop.

On to Michigan tomorrow via Port Huron. We’ll stay there a couple of days and take a day trip down to Ohio to retrieve the property we put in storage. (Stuff we couldn’t take into Canada.)

Dusty actually liked the water.

No description needed.

Thoughts for our Blog from Rob on leaving Quebec

Wednesday, June 13, 2012 6:15 PM

Today is June 13th. That is usually a very luck day of the month for the Browns as I was born on the 13th. We had a long drive to do today and through Montreal, Canada's protest hot bed. It seems that the province, Quebec, promised free education to its citizens several years back and now is reneging on the deal. They want the college kids, regardless of age to pay their fair share. What a concept. Anyway, Montreal is where there have been several violent demonstrations. Just like our Occupy movements with a twist. So, up early and ready to leave Quebec. It rained all night, so we figured Jerre Glasgow got tired and went to bed. She has been doing a "Sun" dance for us whenever we needed it. Once we maneuvered the Trees and Limbs (capitalized because they were big and in the way) in our camp site, we pulled up to Hook up the Yukon and guess what, the lights on the Tow didn't work again. Glad we got more contact cleaner yesterday. After several tries, we are finally good to go. Has Gerri told you anything about the signs here in Canada? They have engineers who decide where to put them based on where someone who has lived here their entire lives would like to see them. You know, like right after you made a turn and wanted to make sure it was correct. The poor foreigner from the United States, has to guess, since there are rarely warning signs before the turn. Well, today one of those protesters in a "Smart" car (I think it is named that to differentiate it from the driver) decided to pass us on the right no matter our right turn signals flashing and that he had another lane to his right. Well, you guessed it we missed our freeway transition. I hope he got to his protest in time to be gassed by the cops. Well, my co-pilot quickly, re-calculates, Lucy our GPS is on vacation, so Gerri to the rescue. Let me tell you how much fun the side streets of Montreal can be. But that wasn't the best of it. I think you know we are 65 feet long and the first 42 feet don't bend and backing up is a big no no. We left Quebec behind and crossed over into English speaking Ontario. I sighed a big one for finally being able to read again even if the signs are too late. Well, they immediately got me. I was only 2 K (1.2 miles for those of you who don't translate French to English) into Ontario and there on the right is a sign that says "Visitor" center. Well, who do you think goes to visitor centers? You are wrong! This one was filled with anything but visitors. It was sort of a rest stop and fuel stop and Fast food stop. You guessed it. It was full of trucks and cars in the RV section. Of course, I figured out where I was supposed to go by reading my "English" signs. The truckers were from Quebec and only read French, or so it seemed. A lot of good that did. Trucks were parked on the left and on the right and in all the parking slots. Then there was this little brown car parked sideways next to a truck with is flashers on (he, the truck, was parked in the driveway). So, what to to??? I only want to get out of here so, I sent my trusty co-pilot out on foot to see what was on the other side of the building. If I could just get around that sedan, maybe I could cut behind the fuel truck and make a left turn by the light post and pass the guy with the flashers. Oh swell, now one of the truckers behind me has had enough and starts honking his air horn. Like that is going to do any good. The manager from the Fast Food Place comes out to take out the trash and sees the mess. She runs back in and soon one of her employees in uniform comes out to move her sideways parked car. She sees Dusty and smiles and waves. You don't want to know what I told Dusty to tell her. He wouldn't repeat it. My trusty co-pilot is back and says that if I am good I can make it. Well, I almost was. You can guess how almost is in a Big Rig. Now I am pinned between the Fuel Tanker and the light post and yes the guy in the back is still blowing his horn. By rights, I should have just shut everything down and left to get into line with the other Fast food junkies. But, no... not Rob. I decide I can make it past the pole, if I can just back up 2 feet which is a real risk to the tow bar and the Yukon. My co-pilot is outside watching with her teeth in full grimace but waiving me on. Well, we made it! Fortunately, it was only a few more miles to the campground which was happy to see us. They had a nice pull through for us. It was beautiful with lots of Maple trees all around. We got into place and took another big sigh.

Then, my trusty co-pilot asks me about the sign on the door to the office. You know the one that says, "Be sure to Boil the Water before Drinking". I kid you not. It was one of about 6 signs and having only semi-recovered from the "Visitors Center" I truthfully didn't read any of them before signing up. Well it turns out that their recent water test came back with too much chloroform in it to be safe for public drinking. This I learned after checking in and having my credit card charged $45.00. The good news is that Gerri asked me about the water sign before I hooked up and we have plenty of our own water in the tank. I think I will just sit out July 13th.

June 12, 2012 Vieux Quebec

Quebec (the province) is very French. Unless you’re close to a border all signs are totally in French. They add pictures to give non-French speaking a fighting chance. It’s not always clear what the pictures represent however. But, as I mentioned we made it to the campground without mishap and opted to take advantage of the free shuttle ride to Vieux Quebec.

The shuttle pickup was to be at 9:15 for a 10 am tour.  The shuttle was early by 20 minutes, but Dusty had been walked and we were ready to go.  The shuttle driver explained to us that the tour started at 11 am and the return shuttle would be at 4. That wasn’t going to be good for Dusty. The driver tried to set an alternative for us but was unable to so we elected to drive ourselves. The shuttle driver had shown us on the map how to get to the Touriste Bureau where the tour would start. Pretty easy…just follow the road the RV park is on into the city and turn right at the train station ( the chateau). Then a couple of easy turns and voila. Of course it wasn’t that easy. Getting to the old city was a piece of cake. Finding a parking place, not so much. The “old city” is just that and very, very French. Founded in 1608, the streets are not what you’d call wide. Many of them are one way only. We passed by several parking options that Rob either didn’t see or didn’t like. In the end we found a parking lot with meters and took it. $.50 for 15 minutes. We fed it enough of my laundry money for 4 hours. We had wound around so much we didn’t know where we were. A short perusal of the map and we headed “downtown”, about 6 blocks away.  We were joined on the tour by a couple from Saskatchewan, a family from Australia, and a few others from various other parts of Canada. We walked for two hours, first in the upper city then in the lower city. Vieux Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain for the French. You might remember him from our visit to St. Andrews where he founded a settlement that failed. He was more successful with Quebec and is known as the father of Quebec. There is a grand statue of him commemorating his accomplishments. However, the statue is not really of de Champlain as no one knew what he looked like. A likely individual was chosen and became the face of Samuel de Champlain. The city was built on a cliff overlooking the St. Lawrence River in a spot where the river narrows. (The name comes from the Indian word meaning “where the river narrows”.)  The site specifically chosen for that attribute for protection since cannon fire would be able to reach any marauders coming by river. The French and the British fought over the site for several years with the British successfully defeating the French. Another monument memorializes the leaders of both the British, Wolfe, and the French, Montcalm, for their heroism. The lower city of Quebec is basically built on fill and seems to be settling a bit each year. The original city was completely walled with walls 10 feet tall and gates as entrances. It is still walled, however, many of the walls have been shortened so the inhabitants have a view of the river. The gates were removed, but have been restored in recent years. Our walk ended in the lower city just below where we started. We needed to return to the start so we could find our way back to the car. Our option was to walk up another stairway from hell or take the funicular. You know what we did. We had spied an Italian restaurant on our way down that we thought we’d try for lunch. We started back to our car and I completely missed the restaurant although Rob says he saw it. As it had been some time since we parked and we were close we went to check on the time left on the car. We still had about an hour, but we added another 30 minutes anyway and went to have lunch. The Italian place was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so we went across the street to the Café de Paris. A small, Parisian style café serving mainly Italian food, not crowded at all and they spoke English. They had a lunch special menu that included soup, entrée, dessert and coffee or tea. Rob selected off the main menu while I had one of the lunch specials. We both had a glass of wine to ease our weary feet. Soup was served, very good.  As the waiter picked up the soup dishes I pointed to some soup that I had spilled on my place mat. Although he spoke English it was heavily accented and we both thought he asked us if we wanted more soup.  We said no, and he proceeded to pick up our place mats and silverware. A few moments later he returned with new placemats and silverware and explained that he had asked if we had more food coming. He wasn’t the waiter that took our order so he didn’t know what we had ordered. We had finished our glass of wine so ordered a ½ liter more to go with lunch. We had been hearing the dessert options offered to other diners and Rob decided he didn’t want any. Our waiter brought the menu back and suggested we have the Sabayon off the menu instead of the offerings from the lunch menu. So okay, we caved. It came laced with Gran  Marnier floating on top and a cookie soaking it up. Potent stuff.  Instead of bringing our coffee and tea, he next brought, unsolicited,  two liqueur glasses of a flaming liquid with coffee beans floating in it, Sambuco, which I’ve never had.  It was delicious.  Good thing we knew exactly where the car was. We hurried uphill as time was running out. In fact, time had run out on the meter, but we were lucky to get there before the meter readers. At least we hope so.

The only French building surviving. Every other building had burned down at some point and was rebuilt.

Typical view of the residential area. Because this is a designated historic area, exteriors are to be maintained as originally built, including wood framed windows which require painting annually because of the weather.

Rob admiring yet another cannon. He has a thing for big guns.

This is actually a trompe l'oeil fresco covering the entire side of this building. There were probably about 100 students sitting along the wall having their lunch. 

One of the reconstructed gates.

Chateau Frontenac

Originally built for Canadian Pacific Railroad. It's been added on to several times and is currently being refurbished. It's now a Fairmont Hotel but is still the iconic picture of Quebec seen on most postcards and posters.

There were buskers all around the central square in front of the Frontenac. This one was getting ready to pretend to be a statue.

The monument to de Champlain. Another busker is setting up in front.

Check out the sky in the background. It rained all afternoon (after we were safely in the coack) and all night.

 

Looking from the upper city to the lower city and across the river at the choke point. Across the river is Levis, Quebec.

June 11, 2012

Made it to Quebec with a stop for one night at St. Leonard, NB, Grande Riviere Campground. A nice campground, but not quite ready for prime time. Grass needed to be mowed. I think the national flower of Canada is the dandelion because it’s everywhere. In fact, they mow it and call it grass. The manager/owner of the campground met us with a bucket of very purple paint which adorned the office and was being touched up.

We had only one slight mishap on the way, if you count roaming around a hospital and not having the slightest idea where you are. The road signs could definitely use improvement. They aren’t always exactly where they need to be. So, despite having our route all mapped out in Delorme that’s where we ended up. I bought the bullet and logged on to my trusty Iphone, despite the exorbitant roaming charges in Canada, and figured out how to get back to the highway.

 Ce matin arrivons au Quebec sans probleme. Ils parlent Francais ici et tout les signes sont en Francais sans Anglais. If you thought I would do the rest in French, you’re out of luck. That was stretching it, although I do know how to ask ou est quelque chose.

 Brake light connection is giving Rob fits and we were out of dog food so as soon as we landed and got hooked up we went looking for an epicerie and auto-parts store. Got the dog food, a bottle of wine and had the car washed and cruised around looking for an auto-parts store. Again we’re cruising a residential neighborhood. Pretty nice homes. Most two story with brick or rock facades. Found Home Depot but no contact cleaner. Luckily one of the clerks spoke pretty good English and was able to direct us to a Canadian Tire store. Huge store! Found what we needed after wandering around the store for 20 minutes before asking a clerk.

 Tomorrow we’re going on a walking tour of Vieux Quebec (the old city) with an English speaking guide. Not sure what where we’ll go after that.

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Wouldn’t you just know our last day in PEI would be blazing sunlight!

 We left yesterday about 10, saying good-bye to Les is not quick as he has lots of stories to tell. I had seen a tiny woodpecker in the early morning, too far away to positively identify. I mentioned it to Les, with whom we had been chatting the day before about some of the birds we had seen. Before we could leave we got a recitation of many other birds on the island and where we could see them. I think Rob turned Les into a birder. Five days was enough to tour most of the island although we didn’t see the far eastern part or the far western part. Marlene was able to find a play we could attend, but no ceilidhs. Still too early. We decided against the play, having been rudely awakened the night before by Dusty who was busy upchucking a handkerchief of mine he had swallowed some days before. Couldn’t get back to sleep after that. So, instead of the play, we opted for a nice dinner nearby and were treated to a balloon ride getting underway right outside the restaurant. Dinner was an all you can eat of mussels, clams, hot rolls, seafood chowder, vegetable beef soup, potato salad, coleslaw, garden  salad, dessert and one helping  only of carrots, potatoes and mashed turnip and a choice of entrée, including lobster. We skipped the mussels, clams, chowder and soup and I still brought home more than half of my dinner for lunch yesterday.

Our drive to Hopewell Cape, NB took just about 3 hours so we arrived mid-day, just in time to head out to the Hopewell Rocks, aka flower pots. Hopewell Cape is right on the Bay of Fundy. Hopewell Rocks is the iconic area most people associate with the influence of the extreme tides. The tide was up when we got there so just pictures of the rocks. Today we’ll be able to actually walk on the beach under the rocks we photographed. Low tide is about 10 this morning. Another wouldn’t you know…. It’s raining this morning! Guess we’ll take an umbrella.

Since I didn’t get the above posted I’ll just add the rest of the day.

As I said, it was raining, but not heavy rain. We left Dusty in the coach, which I’m sure he appreciated since we marched him at a heel with us yesterday. The walk down to the viewing area of the high tide is almost all downhill, so of course, it’s uphill for the return. A steep hill, about like the hill to our house only longer! Down to the rocks, or beach, is even longer and all stairs. The tides at extreme are about 46 feet vertically. The low tide today was less than a meter; the high tide right about 42 feet. We walked about ½ mile down the beach when we met with an “interpreter”. He was checking on a peregrine nest to see if the babies were peeking over the cliff yet. They weren’t, but we did see one of the parents arrive with food, then leave with the food, and return with the food. The babies are still too little to leave the nest, but they were chattering.

After 1 ½ hours on the beach climbing over rocks and into caves we decided to take the shuttle back to the top. It was well worth the $2/@ charge after climbing the hill yesterday. We made a dash down to Alma, an hour away, to check out the boats stuck in the mud. Then we decided to have lunch at the Tides Restaurant right next to the wharf and watch the tide come in. The tide rises 1 foot every 10 minutes most of the time or 1 foot every 7 minutes if the tide is really moving fast. Today was a 10 minute pace. While we were having lunch we could visually see the tide moving in. We were also entertained with antics of Ruby Throated Hummingbirds at the feeders stuck to the windows of the restaurant. After lunch we watched the tide in the harbor for about 10 minutes as it slowly moved up the launch ramp. The interpreter at the rocks explained it this way…. If you stood at the waterline with your toes just touching the water in 6 ½ hours you would be 42 feet under water. Pretty impressive.

The rain has stopped. Tomorrow we are heading to Quebec. I hope it doesn’t rain!

High tide

Low tide

Rob standing in the same arch

Boats stuck in the mud

An hour later

6/6/12

Rainy here in PEI. We’ve been drizzled on for the past two days and today was full on rain, not enough to make us stay home tho’. We’ve managed to tour the museum dedicated to Lucy Maud Montgomery which is in the house she spent most of her childhood in and was married in. It is still owned and run by her heirs and the furniture is as it was and as she wrote about in Anne of Green Gables (that’s for those of you who have no clue who she was, like me). The docent told us that many people still come to get married in the same parlor, using the same piano. We figure the room would hold maybe twenty people,  shoulder to shoulder. The town of Cavendish is fairly devoted to LM Montgomery and has an attraction in Avonlea complete with people in costumes reliving the old days. Unfortunately, it hasn’t opened yet for the season, plus it’s outdoors and the rain would have put the kibash on that. The museum was interesting tho’. I had to buy the book to reread it. I think the last time I saw it I was about eight. We’ve also toured the north shore which is on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Apparently it’s quite the seaside resort during the summer; beautiful white sand beaches and “warm” water. (Not sure what “warm” is here. It’s been really cold the last few days, i.e. 7 or 8 degrees, Celsius of course.)  Had a great lunch of fish and chips at Richard’s and learned he uses Idahoan potato flakes with his batter. Interesting, because the primary crop here on the island is potatoes.  Potato fields everywhere. Just now they are being readied for planting. Potatoes from Canada is one of the things confiscated when you cross the border back into the U.S. The earth is very red here from an abundance of iron in the soil. It’s said that the red earth imparts a special flavor to the potatoes grown here. I bought a five pound bag to see. We’ll be eating potatoes for the next few days before we go back to the U.S. Today we went to the Potato Museum and learned all about the history of the potato and how they are propagated, grown, harvested, etc, etc. Now I know why they didn’t do so well in my garden.  After the Potato Museum we found a wool processing plant where they make yarn and turn it into blankets and things. They also sell yarn. Some of the equipment is ancient and they’re still using it.  Not sure what we’ll do tomorrow. We still have the ice cream factory, toy factory, and the gouda cheese factory to hit. More rain is forecast. The first sunny day is Friday and we’re leaving to go back to New Brunswick to watch the tide come up the Bay of Fundy. Guess I’ll do laundry.

House depicted in Anne of Green Gables.

LM is buried here in the Cavendish cemetary with many others but she gets top billing.

This fox seems to be a live resident of the cemetary. He's apparently being fed from the mini-mart across the street.

The PEI Potato Museum

Much of PEI looks like this with bright green grass against deep rust colored earth.

Got an early start yesterday on our way to PEI. Waved goodbye to Wolf, our German host. Anyone traveling to Cape Breton be sure to stay at Baddeck Cabot Trails Campground. They have cabins for those of you without an RV. Really a nice place and centrally located. We had less than a full tank of fuel so we knew we would be looking. Easy drive down to the TransCanada Highway. Should be lots of truck stops right? Wrong, but just about everybody has diesel. We pulled into one Irving, which usually had a truck island separate from the car islands, but not this one. Plus there were two tour buses and a circle K and Tim Horton’s drive thru packed with cars waiting in the drive thru lane. We couldn’t even get close to the fuel pumps so we continued on, dodging cars to exit the parking lot. Pretty soon we saw a PetroCanada sign with a big truck on it and a warning that there would be no services for the next 50km. We pulled in there, but the diesel pump (singular) was under construction. Not to worry, even though the fuel gauge is now sitting on empty, the highway sign indicated fuel was also available down the opposite direction on this side road we’re now on. Okay, no problem. Well, problem was it didn’t say how far down the road. We kept going, and going down this very rural road and no place to turn around. Finally, a rural market with one pump appeared. Of course, the pump was blocked by a pick-up truck and no one around. The owners of the truck were just in paying for their fuel and a few groceries. Rob was just able to get the coach to the pump and the car off the road…just! The good news was this was the lowest price we have seen for fuel, $1.24.9. Great right! Except that’s per litre.  It was lunchtime so I figured it would be a good time to make a sandwich since we would be at the pump for some time. Not much in the fridge so I checked out the store. I told the cashier to put my purchases on the tab for the gas. She says “are you sure? It’s already up to $410. So I added some more purchases. By the time we were through it was over $500 and her comment was “this will be my biggest sale of the day”. Heck, probably all week. The good thing about this little detour is that we totally missed the toll portion of the highway. We’ll put that $5 towards the fee to get off the island. The bridge to PEI, all 13 km, is free to go over, but you have to pay to get off the island…a basic fee plus for each additional axel. We have 5 so our fee will be $66. Maybe we’ll just stay.

The New Glasgow Highlands Campground is on the north side of PEI and our directions took us on a scenic tour of rolling hills with lots of dairy farms. Our CG hosts were waiting for us and spent a good deal of time showing us various sites we might choose from and telling us about the island. We chose the most remote site we could next to a wide open playground. The only children in the park are some college students camped in a couple of the cabins.

View from the bridge. Island is barely visible.

Marlene and Les' house. Marlene was busy weeding her garden.

Our Campsite

6/2/12

Our last day at Baddeck Cabot Trail RV Park and the sun was shining when we awoke. (Thank you Jerre for your sun dances. If finally worked.) We had to run in to Port Hawkesbury for a nail in the tire repair. Not everyone works around here on Saturday so we had to drive 82 km to find someone. Canada Tire wanted us to wait an hour until they had time, but said we might find someone on the “lower road”. Off we went in search of an alternative, not really knowing if we were on the “lower road” or not. We stopped at one likely looking garage where a young man made a phone call and sent us off to another garage. We found that one with no problem. They repaired the tire and didn’t charge us. Back we went to the other garage for a badly needed car wash. That accomplished we set off on the Ceilidh Trail for lunch. We stopped at a small café in the Cape Breton Celtic Music Interpretive Centre where we were treated to a mini Celidh, Celtic music, by one of the teachers on violin, his wife on piano, and one of his students on violin. Music is a way of life in Cape Breton. During the tourist season many of the restaurants have musicians play during dinner and concerts are frequent. We are slightly early and found many of the restaurants as well as other tourist attractions aren’t open yet. After lunch we stopped in at the only single malt whiskey distillery in North America for a tour and taste. The Ceilidh Trail is on the north or west side of Cape Breton on the Northumberland Shore; very different topography from yesterday. It’s quite a bit flatter, but gently sloping towards the interior. We took a shortcut back to Baddeck through a valley where we found large dairy farms with huge pastures.

Music if very important to Cape Bretons. They keep the traditional music alive.

Cape Bretons are very proud of their Gaelic heritage.

Signs showing town names are written in English and Gaelic. In the rest of Canada signs are written in French and English.

Glenora Inn & Distillery

Port Hood beach on the north/west coast.

Impressions of Cape Breton…. Life is fairly simple, fishing, tourism and services the primary occupations.  Houses are smallish, with tiny windows, and scattered wherever. There are few, if any, “housing developments” except maybe in Sydney or Port Hawkesbury, the only big “cities”. People are extremely friendly. Prices are high, tax on everything, as high as 15%. Overall, we’ve had a great, but fast, five days here, but would come back in a heartbeat.

6/1/12

Some patches of blue greeted us this morning so we decided to hit the trail…The Cabot Trail. It’s really a road that circumnavigates the big part of Cape Breton Island. It was established by John Cabot whose real name is Giovanni Caboto but sounds better Anglicized I guess. The purpose was to establish a connection between rural communities that were previously basically cut off except for rural roads. I mean RURAL. It’s 300 KM and took us nine hours including stops for lunch and dinner. Dusty rode along and slept most of the way. When we came out from dinner we caught him in the back seat with his nose in the cookie bag (his cookies). I guess he was hungry. The Trail winds up steep mountains, and then down again. Some of the grades were 12% or higher. At the top we were in the clouds, so thick visibility was about 10 yards or meters as they say here. We were able to see down to the coast since the clouds were high. Looked for whales and eagles, but saw none. Our host here at the campground, Wolf, tells us we can see one if we walk a few meters down to the lake and sit and watch for a while. The drive was beautiful, but long. Many of the small towns have shops which sell works of the “artisans” of Cape Breton. I guess that’s what they do in the winter. Many of the shops were not open yet. Their season is basically mid-June through August.

Marsh near St. Annes

Green Cove looking north

Green Cove. Waves from the Atlantic can wash over this point. Rob thought he'd risk it anyway.

Aspy Fault looking towards the Atlantic. It's speculated that this fault extends all the way to Scotland. Lots of glacial action in the valley. At this point we are up in the clouds.