The Rypple's

Salem & Boston, Massachusetts

2008-11-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

Arriving in Massachusetts, we picked a point that would be convenient to the airport, (so we could pick up Martha, George’s sister, when she arrived), as well as Salem and Boston. We chose the Cape Ann campground in West Gloucester which fortunately was one of the few campgrounds which had not yet closed for the year. Cape Ann is quiet, reserved and steeped in New England charm. With a rich seafaring tradition, the culture shines through in every shop, restaurant, and historic site. We arrived a couple of days before Martha so we could scout everything out. One of our first excursions was a driving trip around the 25 mile circle of Cape Ann, with stops in Pigeon Cove, Folly Cove, and Rockport. This was a spectacular drive with beautiful vistas of the ocean and some very extravagant looking homes.

Since Martha was visiting us over Halloween, we decided there was no better place to celebrate than Salem, where the city was sponsoring its yearly “Haunted Happenings”. After picking Martha up, we drove to Salem and got the lay of the land, figuring that since tomorrow was Halloween, the city would be crazy and we wanted to locate parking places and places we wanted to visit. It was very cold and windy and we walked around, looking at the shops and then decided to visit “the House of Seven Gables”. We all agreed, after the guided tour, that we were disappointed in our guide. She rushed thru everything and sometimes even forgot what she was saying. So, if this is on your list of “thing to do”, you might want to figure out if there is a better way to spend your $12.00 per person for the 15 minute tour. The House of Seven Gables inspired author Nathaniel Hawthorne to write his legendary novel of the same name. The house is also known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion and belonged to Hawthorne’s cousin. Though he visited the house, he never lived here, but the home where Hawthorne was born, was moved to the site of the Seven Gables house and shares the property with it. Included in the tour of the Seven Gables House is the Nathaniel Hawthorne House.

The House of Seven Gables was built in 1668 and is the oldest surviving 17th century wooded mansion in New England. The tour includes a climb up the mysterious secret staircase, which is extremely steep and very claustrophobic. We’ve climbed many lighthouses and the Statute of Liberty but this was one of the hardest climbs we have ever done.

As it was time for dinner, we headed over to Essex to have lobster at Woodman’s, a Yankee tradition since 1914. The next morning we headed to Salem bright and early to have breakfast at Red’s Sandwich Shop which was voted best breakfast for the past 21 years. It was a small place located in a historic building which was once the London Coffee House, the meeting place of the Patriots before the American Revolution. They definitely lived up to their reputation and by the time we finished, there was a line out the door and down the block. The visitors and inhabitants of Salem were definitely getting into the Halloween theme, even the mailman joined in with a costume. George was especially intrigued with the house located at “Bra-thel Terrace”.

There are several museums in Salem which deal with the web of lies of the Salem Witch Hunts of 1692. We decided to visit the Salem Witch Museum and were pleasantly pleased. We witnessed an historically accurate dramatization of the Salem Witch Hysteria of 1692, brought on by several young girls who became bored and decided to strike terror into the hearts of the Salem townspeople by accusing them of witchcraft. Stage sets with life-size figures, lighting and a narration, gives visitors of the museum a dramatic history lesson. By summer, 180 people had been accused and imprisoned – defenseless against accusations of witchcraft in a society driven by superstition and fear. The court, formed to try the victims, acted quickly. Bridget Bishop was tried on June 2, 1692 and hanged on June 10, thereby setting the precedent for a summer of executions. The witch hysteria not only enveloped Salem, but all 34 towns and villages of Essex County. Nineteen were hanged and one old man was crushed to death! Though I am sure that I had read about the Salem Witch Hunts in school, I had forgotten about the black period of our history when bored little girls managed to instill such fear in adults.

We roamed around town for the rest of the day and decided to leave before the nighttime events started. The campground had recommended a restaurant by the name of Captain Joe’s and we had some wonderful seafood once again. The restaurant was having a Halloween party and people were arriving for dinner in costume. We had Marilyn Monroe wait on us and noticed a Sara Palin look-alike in the adjoining booth. As we were leaving, George noticed a couple of “unlikely looking friends” and just had to stop by their table to say Hi.

We decided to take the commuter rail from Gloucester into Boston and then tour the city via the Old Town Trolley. We caught an early train and had a nice ride of about an hour into the city, ending at North Station. From there we walked over to catch the trolley and began our two hour tour of the city.

One of our main stops was “Cheers”. There are actually two “Cheers” bars – the original on Beacon Hill was previously knows as the Bull and Finch Pub. It was founded in 1969 and became the original inspiration for the setting of the TV Show ‘Cheers”. In 2001, another “Cheers” was created at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. It recreates the bar as it appeared on the set of “Cheers” and was the place we chose to have a drink and lunch.

After lunch, we browsed the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, located in the center of downtown Boston and was the city’s first meeting house. In the early 18th century, a number of Boston merchant families amassed great wealth through shipping and trade. One of the wealthiest was Peter Faneuil. He proposed to mark his success by building a central food market in his hometown. The building was constructed in 1742 and included not only an open market but also a meeting space for the town government, hosting debates about the sugar Tax of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765.

The Paul Revere House is the colonial home of American patriot Paul Revere during the time of the American Revolution. The original three story house was built around 1680. Paul Revere owned this house from 1770-1800. It is the oldest building still standing in downtown Boston and is a good example of Colonial-era architecture.

The Old North Church is the oldest church in Boston, built in 1723, and is most famous for the signals sent from its steeple the night of Paul Revere’s legendary ride. The signal lanterns warned the country of the march of the British troops to Lexington and Concord.

Copps Hill Burial Grounds is the second oldest burying ground in Boston, established in 1660. The Granary Burying Ground is the city’s third-oldest cemetery. It serves as the resting place for many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including three signers of the Declaration of Independence and the five victims of the Boston Massacre.

Riding the trolley gave us an excellent view of the city as it currently stands, as well as allowing us to turn back the pages of history of relive the bustling seaport days of a colonial Boston. We visited the Theatre District which encompassed Cheers, Chinatown, and the Boston Public Garden and Swan Boats; the Back Bay and Copley Square area consisting of Trinity Church with its magnificent stained glass windows, the Boston Public Library, and Sam Adams Brewery. Cambridge gave us a glimpse of Harvard Square, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There was also a walking tour – The Freedom Trail. Winding around 16 historical sites, this 2.5 mile trail is a good introduction to Boston history. All in all, we were three pooped people by the time we returned to the train and rode back to Cape Ann. A pizza sounded really good and we enjoyed a really delicious one before heading back to the trailer.

We so enjoyed Martha’s visit but all too soon it was over and time for her to go home and for us to move our rig southward. The weather is growing cold and we still have several Northeast states that we want to visit, so before we get snowbound, we’ll head on over to Connecticut and Rhode Island to see what we are able to find.

Fall Foliage in New England

2008-10-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Wow! Did we ever time the Fall Foliage right here in Maine. Change is in the air as the long summer days transition into fall where the days in Maine are perfect – sunny and warm! After a few days of resting up and getting the truck and trailer washed and cleaned, we decided to head over to Bar Harbor, a popular resort town with bustling boutiques. Bar Harbor is both a town and a village. The town occupies approximately one-third of Mount Desert Island. The cruise ships dock in Frenchman’s Bay and within minutes after their arrival, the streets are flooded with tourists. After a few hours looking at the shops and making a couple of purchases (McKenzie decided she definitely needed an Acadia National Park T-shirt as we were planning on grooming her in the next day and she would need a t-shirt to avoid getting sunburned), we had lobster bisque and clam chowder at one of the outdoor restaurants. We then took a scenic drive thru Acadia National Park via the Park Loop Road. This road provides the best introduction to the park and though it can be driven in an hour, we spent several hours exploring the many sites along the way.

Acadia National Park protects more than 47,000 acres of granite-domed mountains, woodlands, lakes and ponds, and ocean shoreline. For hikers, naturalists, or just someone wanting to commute with nature, ANP is a wonderful place to go. There are more than 100 miles of hiking trails, and you can bike or walk the 50 or so miles of carriage roads as they meander thru the park. These roads were conceived and designed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and are closed to automobiles. It is a wonderful opportunity to see all types of wildlife – deer, raccoon, squirrels, chipmunks, porcupine, beaver, fox, eagle, osprey, and hawks.

The scenic Park Loop Road led us to Sand Beach which is a popular ocean beach located in ANP. The arctic current controls the water temperature here and at the time we visited, the ocean temperature was a chilly 50 degrees. McKenzie and George strolled along the sand (dogs are allowed on the beach after September 15th) enjoying the spot where the sea meets the land. As is typical this time of year, the weather is very changeable and the sunny morning we had experienced quickly changed to cloudy, drizzling, windy cold temperatures. Though it was getting late and the weather was certainly more blustery, we took the short hike to Cadillac Mountain. At 1,532 feet it is the highest elevation in the park and also the highest point on the United States Atlantic Coast. It began as a molten magma that intruded into older, overlying rock. As it cooled, it hardened and crystallized. It glistens with quartz crystal and pink feldspar gives this granite its pink hue. From the smooth summit, there is an awesome 360 degree view of the jagged coastline that runs around the island.

We had been told that Bar Harbor had some of the best lobster around so we just had to try some. Several folks had recommended that we try the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound and it was quite a treat, in more ways than one. We walked into the small building and the first thing we had to do, was choose our lobster from a large holding pen. The price was based on the weight of the lobster. We decided a two pounder would be just about right for each of us. The lobsters were then taken outside to the large boiling pots to be cooked. We ordered corn on the cob and cole slaw, which was extra and were told to find a spot to sit til our number was called. The tables were fairly large, so you just introduced yourself and sat down at any available chair. When your number was called, you went up and got your tray with the whole cooked lobster and the sides you had ordered. Though we felt it was pretty expensive, it was definitely the best lobster we had ever tasted, very sweet and tender. An hour later, our tummies were filled and we were ready to head back to the trailer.

The next day, we drove to Freeport, Maine to visit the LL Bean flagship store and were we ever glad we did. We both found numerous items we didn’t even know we needed! There are actually several LL Bean stores there. The flagship store, the outlet store, a biking and camping store, and boating and hunting store, and these are just LL Bean’s. Freeport’s Main Street is an outlet shoppers paradise with stores such as GAP, Coach, Timberland, Leatherman, Yankee Candles, etc. We spent all day there and made several trips back to the truck. It was definitely worth the trip if for nothing else than to just say you have been there and seen it.

Before we left Wiscasset, Maine, we had to try Red’s Eats! It is just a small dive which is well known for serving the best lobster rolls around. Once again, it was a pricey sandwich ($18.00) but you got a whole pound of lobster on the roll. George ordered crabcakes as he is not as crazy about lobster as I am and he said they were delicious as well. McKenzie got a tidbit of lobster and decided that it was a pretty good treat!

After several days in Maine, we headed over to New Hampshire and stayed in a lovely little campground amidst all the trees with their lovely red, orange and yellow leaves. We visited Portsmouth and Concord. Portsmouth was founded in 1623 and was home to sea captains, beer barons and revolutionaries. Many of the old homes of the sea captains and merchants have been restored and are in beautiful condition. One of the ones we especially liked was the Moffatt-Ladd House. It is one of America’s finest urban Georgian merchant estates. The site includes the mansion, two outbuildings, and a terraced Colonial Revival garden. Commissioned by the merchant, John Moffatt in 1760-63, the house remained in the hands of his descendants until it became a museum in 1912. Signer of the Declaration of Independence, William Whipple and his wife Katharine Moffatt Whipple lived here throughout the Revolution. Moffatt’s great granddaughter, Maria Ladd and her husband Alexander Ladd took ownership of the house in 1819. We thoroughly enjoyed strolling through the town and visiting the small shops and could easily see why it was chosen as one of the Top 50 Best Walking Cities in America.

As we were in the prime week of Fall Foliage, we drove several of the roads just looking at the beautiful autumn colors. George was justifiably impressed with the colors, having spent most of his life in Texas. The sugar maples, sycamores, and aspens were definitely showing off their rich hues with pride.

Moving on to Vermont, we noticed that the trees were dropping their leaves very quickly. Upon arriving at the campground, we learned that they had had two nights of frost, which explained the knee-deep piles of leaves. Vermont’s hills and valleys are laced with an abundance of scenic roads and highways. It is also the home to more than 100 covered bridges, of which more than 50 have been extensively repaired or restored and many listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Staying outside Brattleboro we drove scenic Route 5, up to Hanover, stopping at the King Arthur Flour Mill in Norwich which claims to be the biggest, best baking store in Vermont. We also drove over the the Colony Mill Marketplace in Keene, NH. In 1838 the prominent Faulkner and Colony families constructed a large brick building to house their woolen mill. The mill produced the finest materials for the Union troops of the Civil War and for the Allied forces of World Wars I and II. In 1953 when it closed its doors, the mill was the second oldest textile mill in the U.S. to operate under the same management in the same location. In 1983, the mill building was restored and transformed into a regional marketplace with wonderful, unusual shops inside.

Winter seems to have set in. It is barely 40 degrees today, cold, windy and drizzling, but it is just temporary. Tomorrow will be a beautiful fall day once again with temperatures in the 50’s. We stayed at home today and just relaxed and were thankful that we didn’t have to get out in the weather. Tomorrow we will head for Connecticut for a week. We are thoroughly enjoying taking our time and moving much slower than we have for the past four months. Life is definitely good!

Back to New Brunswick One More Time!

2008-10-06T21:57:00.000-07:00

The next morning found us heading down the Fundy Coastal Drive in New Brunswick. There was a small area of the Province that we had missed when we came thru originally and we wanted to catch it on the way out.

It was a windy, drizzly day but we decided to drive up to Moncton, New Brunswick to experience Magnetic Hill. We were able to drive our truck and fifth-wheel to the foot of the hill, shift the truck into neutral, and sat tight while we coasted uphill on Mountain Road. It was quite an experience but we must admit that the magnetic hill that we enjoyed with Betty and Al, was just as good, if not better. Is it really magnetic, or magic?
McKenzie, George and I got out to look around a bit though most of the shops were already closed for the season. McKenzie enjoyed sitting in one of the chairs in the outside restaurant and seemed disappointed when no one brought her any treats.

From there, we drove over to the Hopewell Rocks for a chance to walk on the ocean floor! When we arrived, it was almost high tide and the water was coming in so we just walked around and looked a bit. Although the flower pot rocks come in a variety of different shapes and sizes, they have all been formed over millions of years by the dynamic movements of the earth and erosion from glaciers, tides, snow, ice and winds. The story of the rocks began approximately 300 million years ago when fast-flowing streams deposited thick layers of sand and gravel at Hopewell Cape from nearby Caledonia Mountains. Over time the sand and gravel compacted into layers of conglomerate rock and sandstone. Forces within the earth thrust and tilted the rock layers, creating large vertical and horizontal fractures. From this point on the flower pots began to evolve into their unique shapes. We took a few pictures of the flower pots while the tide was in. The ranger told us that once the tide is completely in, there would be just enough room to kayak under the Lover’s Arch.

Imagine 100 billion tons of water moving in and out of a bay twice every 25 hours. Powered by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun, Fundy’s tides are among the highest in the world and vary daily with the changing positions of these celestial bodies. Because the Bay of Fundy is funnel shaped – wide and deep at one end and shallow at the other, tides are pushed increasingly higher as they move up the Bay. By the time they reach “the Rocks”, the tides are over four stories high.

Big Cove and Castle Rock boast two of Hopewell’s largest and most interesting sea caves. The vertical cliffs in this area are nearly 100 feet high.

When we came back the next day at low tide, we were able to walk down on the ocean floor and look closely at the flower pots and caves. We had a window of approximately three hours to do our looking before the water returned. It was very amazing to sit on the rocks and watch the tide start coming back in. Also, a lot of fun to walk around and look at all the different carved formations.

The Bay of Fundy is a refueling stop for thousands of sandpipers on their trip south. In late summer, thousands fly from their nesting sites in the Artic. Each shorebird stops to rest and gorge constantly for about two weeks during early to mid August. From “the Rocks” the Sandpipers will fly three days and four nights non-stop to their winter home on the northern coast of South America. During their stopover, they will eat enough mud shrimp which live in the nutrient rich mud flats, to double their weight. The extra fat gives them the energy to complete their journey.

The next morning found us at Saint John, New Brunswick. We had wanted to go the City Market which houses Canada’s oldest continuing farmers’ market. The roof of the building was built like a ship's inverted hull and inside has colorful stalls displaying local produce, meat, seafood, and just about anything you want to eat. It was fun to walk thru all the displays. Once we were finished there, we walked down to the old cemetery which was established shortly after the landing of the United Empire Loyalists in 1783.

Our final stop in New Brunswick was at the Reversing Falls. Once again, we saw it at low tide and again at high tide. As the tide in Saint John Harbor rises, the downward flow in the St. John River slows and stops. The push of the Bay’s tides continues to high tide, causing the river to create rapids upstream. This happens twice in 24 hours. We have to say that this was a big disappointment. I thought we were actually going to see waterfalls reverse themselves, but it was just small rapids in the water. So, if you are short on time and need to skip something, this would probably be a good one.

We left and drove through the small villages of St. George and St. Martins and on to St. Stephen where we crossed the border into Maine. The border crossing was pretty uneventful this time. They had us pull our rig into a huge garage and x-rayed it and we were on our way. It is good to be back in the old US of A. Now we have to get reoriented to all the things we have been missing these past four months such as television, internet, US currency, etc. We thoroughly enjoyed our Canada tour this summer and can’t say enough good things about Newfoundland, but it is always nice to get back to family and friends. We’re arriving in Maine just at the fall foliage time so hopefully, we’ll be able to get some good pictures to share with you as we travel around the New England area. Love and hugs to all of you!!

Leaving Newfoundland - Back to Nova Scotia!

2008-10-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

Though a tropical storm was hitting New Brunswick and parts of Nova Scotia, our ferry was scheduled to leave Port aux Basques on time. We noticed that there were not nearly as many of us in line waiting to go back to Nova Scotia as there had been when we were coming to Newfoundland. The ship was on time and we loaded and made our way up to the deck where we would be for the next six hours. By the time we were ready to leave port, the captain announced that we would be sitting for a while til the wind died down. About two hours later, we finally left Port aux Basques and had a pretty uneventful trip across the water, though it was quite rocky at times. We spent the night at the Arms of Gold campground in North Sydney and left early the next morning to drive to Baddeck to see the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Along the way, we noticed that the colors of the leaves are just starting to change.

The Alexander Graham Bell Museum explores the life of a very remarkable person whose achievements have touched all of us. Artifacts, audio-visual programs and photographs tell the story of Alexander Graham Bell, a story filled with family, friends, associates and a magnificent family home still privately owned by his descendants. As a teacher, inventor and most of all a humanitarian, Bell bridged the world between sound and silence, teaching deaf people to speak and pursue ideas from transmitting sound on light to treadle-powered graphophones.
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1847. He grew up in a family where speech and hearing were very important. His mother was an accomplished pianist, despite severe and growing deafness. Bell had just started his teaching career when tragedy struck. In 1867, his younger brother died from tuberculosis. In 1870, his older brother also died from the same disease and soon Alex was in poor health. His father decided to move the family to Ontario for a better climate.

By 1870, the race was on to improve the telegraph. Ambitious and needing money, Bell took up the challenge. Bell knew something about electricity and a lot about sound, speech and hearing. A daring idea formed in his mind: an electrical device, working much like the human ear that would transmit speech itself – a talking wire. By 1875, Bell had found a gifted assistant, Thomas Watson. On a hot day in June 1875, Watson accidentally plucked a transmitter reed on Bell’s apparatus. Bell in another room heard a sound. Watson had unexpectedly generated an electric current strong enough to activate Bell’s receiver. Could voice pulsations do the same? Bell quickly modified his apparatus and Watson could hear the muffled sound of Bell’s voice. The telephone was born! Bell received the telephone patent in February, 1876, but his apparatus had yet to transmit a clear intelligible sentence. Then on March 10, 1876, Bell’s call “Mr. Watson come here, I need you!” was clearly heard by Watson in another room. Bell’s invention was now a working reality.

While struggling with his experiments, Bell fell in love with his pupil, Mabel Hubbard. He had greatly improved her ability to speak. She helped Bell thru the many frustrations and disappointments that preceded his telephone triumph. On her 18th birthday Mabel, with her parents consent, agreed to marry Bell. They were married on July 11, 1877.

Rather than rest on his laurels, Bell was determined to show that his invention of the phone was not a fluke. In 1880, the government of France awarded Bell the prestigious Volta Prize. Now living in Washington, Bell used the prize money to establish the Volta Lab. Its purpose was to develop and market new inventions. While Bell’s mind explored the world, his heart was with the deaf. He worked hard to increase the number of qualified teachers of speech education and advocated day schools for the deaf, rather than segregated boarding schools. In 1890, Bell inspired and financed the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. This organization merged with the Volta Bureau in 1908 and continues today as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf.

Following a visit in 1805, Alex and Mabel Bell decided to make Baddeck, Nova Scotia their second home and named it Beinn Bhreagh. The lakes and hills of Cape Breton reminded Bell of his native Scotland. He could pursue his scientific and humanitarian interests free of the formality, distraction and summer heat of Washington.

When Bell was 59, he met F.W. “Casey” Baldwin. Baldwin was only 24, a young engineering graduate from Toronto. Mrs. Bell arranged the meeting. She knew how much her husband needed partners with practical skills and fresh ideas. With no son of their own, the Bells virtually adopted Baldwin who made Beinn Bhreagh his home for the rest of his life. Casey was fascinated by airplanes and boats of all kinds. With Baldwin at his side, Bell was destined to explore yet another exciting world – hydrofoil speedboats.

As early as 1906, Bell and Baldwin were considering another way to get a seaplane into the air – hydrofoils. Hydrofoils could lift a hull right out of the water, thus decreasing water resistance and increasing speed. Bell and Baldwin started testing hydrofoil ideas in 1908. When the U.S. entered the war in April 1917, Bell thought his best contribution would be a high speed watercraft. The U.S. Navy needed a submarine chaser. Baldwin quickly designed an 18 meter craft called the HD-4. Launched in October 1918, the HD-4 had a short but impressive career. On September 9, 1919, she made her record run of 114 kilometers per hour, a new world water speed record! By the time the HD-4 set her speed record, the war was over. Interest soon waned and there were no commercial prospects for the HD-4. Bell had been intimately involved in the development of the HD-4. It was his last great achievement. By 1920, Bell was 73 years old and tired. He died in 1922. Baldwin carried on his hydrofoil development for over 20 years.

After leaving the museum, we drove down some very beautiful roads with the fall foliage just turning, toward the town of Pictou, the birthplace of New Scotland. Their museum on the wharf was very ingenious as it had tidbits of information on tiny sailboats. However, once we stepped on board the replica of the Ship Hector, we stepped into living history.

In the early 18th century, conditions varied from area to area across the Highlands. It was not uncommon to find people living in turf hovels, scratching out a meager existence. As opportunities for a reasonable life continued to diminish, the concept of emigration began to prove to be the one reasonable avenue for escape. The Highlanders who left Lock Broom in July of 1773, were not forced to leave Scotland. For the most part, the people of the Hector made a conscious decision to leave their native soil for Nova Scotia and in doing so, purchased their passage. It was not uncommon during this period for shipping agents to solicit passengers for emigration to North America. It is estimated that between 1763 and 1775, more than 20,000 people left from the Highlands for the colonies. In one year alone, it is known that 54 emigrant ships sailed from the western sea locks with local emigrants bound for new homes in new lands. John Pagen ran an ad in Glasgow and Edinburgh promising the first 20 families 150 acres of land for man and wife and 50 more acres for every member of the family at the low rate of six pence sterling for each acre. Pagen would allow the settlers a period of 2 years to pay for their land. Transportation would not be free, with settlers required to pay in cash in advance. The cost was reasonable enough with an adult ticket costing less than the price of a cow. Little did the settlers know that while Pagen stated the land included 20 miles of coastline with good fishing and excellent soil for raising crops and livestock, he had failed to mention that it was actually located far back from the shore and was covered with thick forest.

Bound together by a desire to start new lives, committed to the journey before them, the passengers of the Hector faced an uncertain future, but did so with the conviction that whatever the future held for them in the new land, it was a certain improvement over the lives that they were leaving behind. Little did this brave band know of the hardships that lay ahead.

The Hector was registered at 200 tons berthen, which was the weight of the cargo she could carry. Her hold measurements were approximately 85 feet long with a breadth of 33 feet and a depth of 11 feet 5 inches. It was in this hold that the people of Hector, close to 200 men, women, and children would live their daily lives for nearly twelve weeks during the voyage to Pictou, Nova Scotia. The passengers were herded down the walkway to the dark, stuffy cavern which was to be their home for many weeks. In the light of the open hatch and a few fish-oil lamps slung on the bulkheads, they were shown their beds- rough pine boards with two feet of space between the upper and lower tiers.

For the first leg of their journey, the weather was fine and the passengers were able to enjoy the fresh, clean air and sunshine on deck, away from the confines of the ill-smelling hold. Water was rationed to one Scotch pint of water per day to every full freight passenger. Food was also rationed to three pounds of salt beef, four pounds of bread and four pounds of oatmeal per week. The food seemed to be sufficient to cover their needs for the voyage, although little did they know that Pagen had not loaded any provisions for their first year in Pictou, nor had he loaded even sufficient food to last the voyage. No one could foresee the terrible storm that would blow the Hector so far off her course, nor the disease that would run rampant thru the emigrants crowded into the hold. While the rations were considered plentiful enough at first, the passengers complained about the moulding oatcakes and would throw them, half-eaten into the scuppers of the ship. Hugh MacLeod would gather up these discarded scraps and keep them in a bag, possibly sensing that in the days to come, they would be sorely needed as food.

The pilgrims kept up their spirits as best they could by song, pipe music, dancing, wrestling and other amusements, through the long and painful voyage. The ship was so rotten, that the passengers could pick the wood out of her sides with their fingers. They met with a severe gale off the coast of Newfoundland and were driven back so far that it took them 14 days to get back to the point at which the storm met them. The accommodations were wretched, small pox and dysentry broke out among the passengers. Eighteen of the children died and were committed to the deep. Their stock of provisions became almost exhausted, the water became scarce and bad, adding greatly to their suffering. On September 15, 1773, the battered ship made her way into Pictou Harbor. Aided by a few settlers who had come before them, they were able to erect shelters and camps of the crudest kind for themselves and their families. Their feelings of disappointment were most bitter when they compared the actual facts that stretched before them with the comfort and prosperity that had been promised. The few who had a little money bought whatever provisions they could from the agents; while others less fortunate exchanged their clothing and other personal belongings for food. The first winter was very cruel and passed with severity unequalled to those experienced in Scotland. A number of the settlers left, unable to cope with the extreme hardships. Those that stayed survived only by working the best they could and earning small amounts of money required to barely exist. Others worked as indentured servants in other settlements. Truro was the nearest town and was many days walk through the frozen, trackless wilderness. Those that did venture there to buy potatoes and flour had to then drag the heavy sacks back thru the snow and ice to their shacks were their ill-clad, famished families huddled.

Inevitably Spring arrived and the warmth of the sun brought forth new life in the forests and new crops sprang from the small clearings that had begun to dot the landscape. Renewed with hope after surviving the harsh winter, the settlers built new homes on the land that they had cleared. For those that remained, this was now indeed their new home. For the people of Hector, this was their land, paid for by their labor, their sweat, and their hardships. It was home, the New Scotland – Nova Scotia!

Southwest Coast Adventure in Newfoundland

2008-09-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

As we headed back down the Viking Trail, we stopped to look at the Nurse Bennett Heritage House in Daniel’s Harbor. Built in 1922, this traditional two-story house was home to Nurse Myra Bennett for 68 years. Nurse Bennett arrived on the Great Northern Peninsula in the early 1920’s. The young English nurse had signed a two-year contract that essentially named her the nurse, doctor, midwife and confidant to hundreds of people eking out a living on more than 180 miles of isolated coastline. For more than 50 years she traveled by boat and by dog team, on horse and on foot. No patient was too far away, no call came too late at night. The Heritage House, her former home has many of the tools used by Nurse Bennett to deliver 5,000 babies and extract 3,000 teeth during her career.

A few miles further down Route 430, we arrived at The Arches, which is a natural rock archway created over millions of years by a combination of glacial action, erosion by wind and water, and other geological changes. Severe storms continue to change the Arches. Far in the future they will probably be reduced to rock pillars or sea stacks.

Sally’s Cove is believed to be named after Sally Short who, along with her children, left her husband only to be shipwrecked in the cove. Today Sally’s Cove is most noted for its lobster fishery and brightly colored fishing sheds that hug the pebble beach shoreline.

We decided to try one more time to see if we could arrange to take the Western Brook boat tour in Gros Morne National Park. Last time we were booked, the winds reached 60 miles per hour and the tour was cancelled. This tour is heralded as Newfoundland’s most breathtaking water tour. The tour goes thru the dramatic Western Brook Pond fjord and is definitely a memorable experience. Carved by glaciers over a billion years ago, this 10 mile body of water happens to be Gros Morne National Park’s largest lake. Waterfalls cascade from 2,000 feet cliffs above and turn to mist before reaching the water below. A three kilometer walk to the boat docks allowed us to view the bog area as well as many of the plants and trees that were beginning to show off their fall colors. We spent one more night overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence and were treated to a gorgeous sunset.

As we headed further south the next morning, we got a close view of a couple of moose. The one closest to the RV had a beautiful rack but quickly ran back into the forest before I could get my camera focused. The second one, which ran across in front of us, had to be a female, because she just stood around in the brush and let me take several pictures of her. What a photo hound! Anyway, now we have seen a total of five moose on this trip. I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before but moose are not native to the province. In 1904, four were taken off a train at Howley and introduced into the wild where their numbers grew quickly.

Still further south, around Steady Brook, is the location of Marble Mountain Ski Resort. Though I don’t ski anymore (too old and too clumsy), I can just imagine “shooshing” down the mountainside.

On route 1 (Trans Canada Highway), the Old Man in the Mountain watches every vehicle that makes the 35 mile drive from Corner Brook to Deer Lake. Legend has it that Spanish pirates buried treasure on Shellbird Island, and that a weatherbeaten old man is guarding the riches. Can you spot his face in the rock formation?

We stopped briefly in Corner Brook but quickly decided that it was not a town we wanted to spend much time in. Too crowded and built on a hillside with tiny, narrow roads. Further down the road we spotted fishing villages, lobster dorys painted bright orange and a fishing boat peacefully bobbing out in the bay. The fog and low lying clouds made a perfect picture and as we drove along, we noticed the red leaves of the maple trees which were becoming very vibrant.

Stephenville is a town which has the distinction of being both a sea port and an airport. An F-102 Delta Dagger aircraft, permanently grounded next to town hall, was presented as a memorial to the former Ernest Harmon Air Force Base, located there from 1941-1966. While there, we took a detour and drove routes 460 and 463 which are named the French Ancestors Route. We could definitely tell we were back in the country of the French heritage as we noticed the unusual yard ornamentations. We visited our Lady of Mercy church, the largest wooden structure in Newfoundland, checked out Red Island, named for its red cliffs, and visited the province’s only alpaca and llama farm. We drove across a wooden bridge and arrived at another wooden church, Holy Trinity Anglican church which was built in 1914 and while it is not the largest, it well may be the oldest, in the community.

On Routes 406 and 407, we entered Codroy Valley. People here live off the land. They raise dairy cows, sheep, and horses. The fertile valley is known for its agricultural products. Framed by the Long Range and Anguille mountains, and the Atlantic Ocean, Codroy Valley is comprised of 15 communities and a population of 2,200. A walk thru the Valley’s Wetlands allows you to view up to 200 species of migratory birds. Further along the coast, we stopped to view the Cape Anguille Light Station. Since the early 1900s this beacon of refuge and safety has been tended by a member of the Patry family. This site is also the most western site in Newfoundland. We have now been on the farthest points of each side of the island.

Today is our last full day on the island. We will be heading out on the Port aux Basques ferry tomorrow which is the shorter of the two ferries. Port aux Basques is the “gateway to Newfoundland”. This ice-free port was a 16th century fishing station for French, Portuguese and Basques fishermen seeking shelter when violent storms whipped the Gulf of St. Lawrence into a white-crested fury. It is also a former railway town; the final port of call for the infamously slow Newfie Bullet – rumoured to take more than 27 hours to reach this town from St. John’s.

We traveled past Port aux Basques on route 470 to Isle aux Morts called Deadman’s Island by the French. The name reflects the many ships wrecked on these shores. A hike sounded like a good idea so we hiked Harvey’s Trail. George Harvey was a local hero famous for saving nearly 200 people in two shipwrecks off the coast of Isle aux Morts. He fished in the summer and rested in the winter. With the fish he caught, he bought commodities like flour, sugar and molasses to tide him and his family over in winter. The weather was rough and there were no other families on the island for company. He often buried bodies that would float ashore from shipwrecks he did not even know occurred. Shipwrecks and the Newfoundland coast are two items that belong together, especially at Isle aux Morts. An estimated 3,000 shipwrecks have occurred along the southwest coast over the last 130 years.

The two biggest feats in his life came in 1828 and 10 years later in 1838. July 10, 1828 could hardly be called a summer’s day as hurricane force winds whipped thru the area. George Harvey was a Newfoundland fisherman and could tell this was going to be a fierce storm. That night George got up, put on his rubber gear and took a walk along the beach. There he discovered driftwood and some supplies. He knew from experience there was a wreck nearby. The Despatch, after a navigation error had landed on Wreck Bay. The vessel’s mission was to take a load of Irish immigrants to Quebec City where they were going to make a new life for themselves. George rushed back to his small two room bungalow and told his family what he had seen. Immediately his 17 year old daughter, Anne, and his 12 year old son, Tom, volunteered to go with their father. It was two days before the water was stable enough for them to launch their punt. When it was possible, off they went with their Newfoundland dog, Hairyman, in tow.

The passengers who were aboard the Despatch had no way of getting off the ship. Every time they’d launch a long boat, it would get swept back in, destroying the boat and leaving nothing but driftwood behind. All they could do was wait, cling to the rocks, and hope to be rescued. George, Anne, and Tom launched their 12 foot punt into the raging waters. They put aside any concern for their own welfare. With Anne moving the main oars and Tom the rear, the Harvey family rowed about three miles. The fierceness of the ocean made going right up to the ship impossible. George decided to keep the boat positioned where it was. With no other way of reaching the stranded voyagers, George tied a rope around his Newfoundland dog, Hairyman, and ordered him into the water and to the vessel. The dog knew just what to do. He fought the big waves and after being driven back several times, he finally reached the brig and was eagerly drawn aboard. Once there, the crew tied another rope around the dog and without any instructions, he returned to his master. With the dog aboard the punt, the Harveys had the task of getting back to the nearest point of land, a little over a mile away. This meant an extreme amount of work on the oars through vicious seas. George Harvey knew only too well the mood of the ocean. It was a good possibility that the punt would capsize and the family could drown. It was a chance he decided to take as about 200 lives depended on him. Luck was on their side that night for the huge sea took them and placed them near the shore. When the sea receded, the punt was land bound. Quickly they tied their boat and began to drag the stout cable that the Despatch had sent to them and strung the cable tightly between ship and land. Though the conditions were hazardous, the crew on the slowly sinking ship set up buoys and soon transported the passengers to land. Just as the last man came off the buoy, the Despatch slid off the rocks and under the sea. George clothed and fed the people with his meager supplies and rowed a long boat eight miles to Port aux Basques to report the wreck. About four days later a ship was sent to retrieve the survivors and took them to their original destination of Quebec City. George received a special medal from King George IV to commemorate the brave rescue. He was also given 100 pounds of Sterling Silver from Lloyds of London.

On September 14, 1838, a similar incident happened. The captain of the Rankin was trying to change course and soon found his 650 ton cargo ship grounded. He began firing rockets, hoping someone would see them. As luck would have it, Anne and George were walking along the shore and saw the distress signals. They once again launched their 12 foot punt into the sea. Fortunately, the seas had abated some and they were able to row their little boat up to the ship. Then in groups of three, the Harveys took the clinging survivors to shore one mile away. Once again the Harveys opened their home and provisions to these 25 until a rescue vessel could be dispatched to take the survivors safely home. We enjoyed the hike and the history lesson and McKenzie did a really great job of walking the trail and climbing the stairs along the way.

Our next stop was Burnt Islands where a causeway was built to link a single community divided by water. We couldn’t resist taking a picture of the local grocery story and filling station that provides services for this small fishing village.

The last stop for the day was a trip out to the Rose Blanche lighthouse. This is one of the last granite lighthouses on the Atlantic seaboard. It was built in 1871 from a nearby granite quarry. The building operated as a lighthouse from 1873 to the 1940s. There were six keepers over the approximately 70 years of the lighthouse’s existence. After it was abandoned, the building fell into ruins. In 1988 the Southwest Development Association and other community groups began the long process of restoring the structure to its former condition. Actual restoration began in 1996 and was completed in two years. The reconstructed lighthouse is furnished with 19th century reproduced furniture and local antiques. One remarkable feature is the stone steps within the tower walls which kept the tower from collapsing after it was abandoned.

McKenzie enjoyed tossing a coin into the old well and making a wish. (I wonder how many dog treats she wished for?)
We were all pretty well tired by the time we got back to the trailer. These past 6 ½ weeks have been wonderful. Though we are looking forward to getting back to the States (TV and internet – Yeah!!), we are sad to have this trip coming to an end. Here, there is no road rage and very little graffiti. Though the island is a paradise, the people are what make it so great. The moment you lose faith in people, it’s time to come to Newfoundland. Here you will hear them laugh at themselves, sing songs and tell tales. If you need a hand, you get an army. They treat you for who you are and don’t put on phony airs. It is truly a place that will continue to live on inside of us long after we’ve traveled on to new adventures. We hope you’ve enjoyed the trip as much as we have and maybe some day you’ll want to experience the lime green, bright yellow and aquamarine houses spilling into the harbor, for yourself.

St. Anthony - Newfoundland

2008-09-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

The Viking Trail continues on to St. Anthony, where another visitor had quite a different impact. Dr. Wilfred Grenfell brought modern medicine to northern Newfoundland and the remote communities of coastal Labrador beginning in the 1890s.

The Grenfell house was built in 1909-1910. Originally standing alone on the hill, the house became knows as “the castle” with flower beds and vegetable gardens. Now, taken over by wildflowers and shaded by trees, it offers a quiet welcome to visitors from around the world. The home has been restored with most of the original furnishings and tells the life story of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell and his wife Anne MacClanahan Grenfell. The airy veranda was exceptionally peaceful and overlooking the harbor, you can understand why the doctor and his wife chose this piece of property for the location of their home.

The name Dr. Wilfred Grenfell is synonymous with the history and development of the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula and the Labrador coast. The reason he is held in high regard is that he was more than a doctor. Dr. Grenfell was a spiritual leader, a driving force behind economic development and a believer in helping people do things for themselves.

A trail behind the house, ambles up into the hills. It was across these “White Hills” that Dr. Grenfell set out in 1908 on his dog team to attend a patient in Englee, some 50 miles to the south of St. Anthony. He loved this area and requested that when he died, his ashes be buried here. Inset in a large boulder are the ashes of Sir Wilfred and Lady Grenfell, along with four other prominent figures who played significant roles in the ongoing development of Grenfell Mission.

The Grenfell Interpretation Center depicts his life. He was born February 25, 1865 in a small coastal town in the north of England. In 1883 he entered London Hospital Medical School. While in London, he heard the American evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, speak and his words changed Grenfell’s life and he decided to commit his life to Christ. Grenfell joined the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, an organization which provided medical and spiritual services to North Sea fishermen. In 1897, he was sent to Newfoundland to investigate the conditions in the Labrador fishery. “We’re wonderful glad to have you” a fisherman said, “We’ve never had a doctor in these parts before”. This was the start of Grenfell’s lifelong work on a coast that was ice blocked and inaccessible for many months of the year. He was devoted to improving the lives of the people. He practiced medicine, built hospitals, established schools and orphanages and when not working on the coast, traveled in the United Kingdom and North America looking for support and labor.

By 1908, Grenfell and his work were well known in Canada, England and the USA, but the events of Easter Sunday, 1908, assured his reputation worldwide. In response to an emergency call, he set off by dogsled across the frozen land to Hare Bay. It was spring and the ice was breaking up. Heedless of the danger, he crossed the Bay. The ice gave way and he was cast into the frigid water. Struggling with his dogs, he finally reached a 12 foot icepan and climbed on freezing, cold and soaking wet. The stage was set for the worst ordeal of his life. Grenfell was in fine physical condition and mentally shrewd enough to rationalize his predicament. He knew that the icepan would soon begin melting and that his six dogs and he would suffer hypothermia as the cold, winds of night blew in. He had to make a decision and though he said it felt like murder, he killed three of his largest dogs and used their hides to wrap up in, while snuggling together with the remaining three. He had made previous arrangements, that if he did not show up by a specified time, a search party should be sent out. His optimism, ingenuity, calmness and religious faith held him at arms length from death’s door through the night as the ice carried him toward the open sea. At first light, five men pushed and rowed a boat thru slush, ice and open water to save “their beloved doctor”. The details of this survival circulated in newspapers worldwide and Grenfell wrote his account in a booklet, sold for fundraising. In his home, he has a wood and brass plaque that honors the three dogs who gave their lives to save his.

Grenfell authored 33 books, published hundreds or articles, created Christmas cards to provide for the Children’s Homes and held prayer meetings on mission ships, wharfs, and fishing boats. In 1892, there were no magistrates on the entire Labrador coast. The Newfoundland government appointed Grenfell as an unpaid magistrate and justice of the peace. He established a network of hospitals and nursing stations that stretched the length of the northern Newfoundland and Labrador coast, and created Children’s Homes for children who were orphans or who could not be cared for by their parents. During his life, he received many honors and awards for his dedicated work and in 1928, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.

Grenfell met Anne MacClanahan, the daughter of a U.S. Confederate Army Officer while on board a ship returning from a fund raising tour in England. They were married in 1909 and came to live in the Grenfell house which they had designed together. Anne gave Grenfell’s life comfort and refinement and she became totally involved in his work. She organized his fundraising, tours and lectures, edited his books, and helped secure scholarships for the children of the area to continue their education. She died of cancer in 1938.

As time passed, organizations such as the New England Grenfell Association and the Grenfell Association of America shouldered more and more responsibility for the Labrador work and the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen was reduced. In 1912, the Grenfell Association (IGA) came into being. By the late 1920’s the pace had begun to take its toll and Grenfell had his first series of heart attacks. Grenfell died in Vermont on October 9, 1940. When Grenfell died, the mission survived and continued under the guiding hand of Dr. Charles Curtis. In 1937, the mission’s assets included 6 hospitals, 7 nursing stations, 2 hospital ships and assorted vessels, 12 clothing distributions, King George the Fifth Institute in St. John’s, the supply schooner George B. Cluett, and a haul up slip for schooner repairs.

Becoming a province of Canada in 1949, brought more change. Canadian family allowances, old age pensions, and many other benefits meant improved living standards. Federal and Provincial governments began funding health care. As the need for charity diminished, IGA fund raising branches gradually fell dormant. In 1981, the Association passed to the Province, all health related assets for the sum of $1.00. The Province in turn, set up the Grenfell Regional Health Services, under the direction of a local board.

The northern portion of the Great Northern Peninsula has Newfoundland’s longest iceberg-watching season off Fishing Point. Iceberg Alley runs right by the Fishing Point Lighthouse. This is also an excellent place to spot whales. After standing out in the cold wind looking for whales (obviously we weren’t going to see any icebergs this time of year), we decided we’d stop in the Lightkeeper’s Seafood Restaurant and have lunch. This way we could still watch for whales in the warmth of the restaurant. George had fishcakes and I had a fishburger that was so big that George ended up having to eat half of it. Still no whales. I guess the few we saw playing off May Point is all we are going to see this trip.

We have thoroughly enjoyed being here at this time of year after most of the other tourists have headed for warmer climates but if you are interested in eating lobster, seeing whales frolicking in the ocean, watching crystal blue icebergs sail down the ocean, and being part of all the “tourist” attractions, then it would be better to arrive here no later than June. We are finding some of the touristy stuff is closed, which really doesn’t matter to us as we were more interested in learning the history of the land and its people and we have probably driven 2400 miles around the island, poking our noses in most of the nooks and crannies. In a day or so, we will be heading down to the southern portion of the western peninsula – the final portion of our trip. We arrived here as strangers, but we are leaving as family and it will be sad to go. The concept of “paradise found” is not about stumbling upon some ready-made bliss. Rather, it entails nothing less than a willingness to see things differently, to surrender yourself to the inevitable surroundings, to lose a bit of the old you to discover a new you. And, that is what we’ve found in Newfoundland!

Gros Morne & L'Anse aux Meadows - Newfoundland

2008-09-29T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hang on to your hats, we’re on the Viking Trail! This trail has its base at Deer Lake and follows a northward journey for approximately 315 miles to the tip of the peninsula at St. Anthony. This vibrant region offers a wide range of natural and cultural experiences, including Gros Morne National Park and L’Anse aux Meadows, home to the Vikings.

Heading to our first stop, Gros Morne, we passed lots of tall evergreen trees, blue waters and white, sandy beaches. From the scars and rocky rubble left on the earth’s surface by tectonic forces, to the natural beauty of seascapes, mountaintops, and tracts of forests – the park is beauty magnified. There is the beautiful Western Brook Pond, a gigantic glacier-carved fjord with sides 2,000 feet high, over 60 miles of hiking trails, beaches of many types, and a quaint lighthouse. There’s even a theatre festival which we decided to attend the first night we arrived. The Gros Morene Theatre Festival has been entertaining audiences for the past twelve years. It is a professional theatre with over 40 professional actors, musicians, writers, designers and technicians. The play we attended was “A Rum for the Money” which was a comedy drama set in the 1960’s in a small dory on the waters between Newfoundland and St. Pierre & Miquelon. Three Newfoundland men were on a rum running mission in the middle of the night escaping and dodging French bullets and then evading R.C.M.P. cutters when they are hit and broken apart by a mysterious night vessel. An eerie night ensues as our three rum runners question their lot in life as inexplicable happenings engulf them. We enjoyed the play but did not enjoy the ride back home after dark, trying to make sure we didn’t have a face-to-face meeting with a moose! We stayed in a campground that allowed us to back up directly over the ocean, allowing us views of beautiful sunsets and gentle rolling waves. We were the only ones in the campground, so it felt like our own private slice of heaven. And, true to its reputation – the weather changed! As one local put it, “You can enjoy all the seasons in one day here in Newfoundland”! We started out with a beautiful sunny day with a mild breeze and gently rolling waves. (View out our side window.) By noon, the temperature had dropped and it was cloudy. At 1:00 p.m., when we were due to take our boat tour of the inland fjord, the winds reached 50 miles per hour and the boat trip was cancelled. We’ll try to catch one on our way back down the peninsula. As we hiked back, the wind was so strong, it practically blew us off the boardwalk over the bog! By the time, we got back to the trailer, McKenzie was hanging onto the back of the sofa for dear life as it bobbed and weaved with the tremendous winds. Temperatures had dropped to the 40’s! The ocean was magnificent! The waves were crashing on the shore and the white froth was blowing everywhere! Though we could have done without the wind, it was an exciting opportunity to experience.

Before the change in the weather, we had taken a ride over to Rocky Harbor to visit the lighthouse at Lobster Cove Head which has guided ships safely into Bonne Bay for over a century. Until the late 1800’s, there was no lighthouse at the entrance. Each inhabitant of Rocky Harbor donated a pint of oil per week to keep a light in the window of a local home. In 1897, the pre-fabricated cast iron sections of the lighthouse were hauled up from shore by oxen. It first cast its beam in April, 1898. George and McKenzie enjoyed the view but couldn’t imagine oxen carting the lighthouse up these steep cliffs. Since George and I had bought Newfoundland t-shirts, we figured McKenzie deserved one too. She enjoyed modeling hers!
On a still day, with the Tablelands reflected in the waters of Bonne Bay, it is difficult to imagine the dangers that lurk beneath the calm. In places the water is very deep making safe anchorage for boats difficult. This area can be the site of punishing hurricane force winds when a cold easterly flow drops down from the highlands and compresses in the valley. As this air flows out, it creates a low pressure area which results in winds that can blow the roofs off houses and produce waves that damage local wharfs.

We decided we’d had enough of the high winds, rain, and waves and headed up the peninsula. The pounding surf was still showing its anger as we drove thru Sally’s Cove. But a little further down the road, there was a weather change and the rain and wind stopped. As we drove, we noticed garden plots lining the sides of the roads, without a house in site. We were told that these are roadside gardens, nurtured and maintained by residents of the nearby towns, who take great pride in their ability to grow fresh, tasty vegetables. Looking like mini-plots of farmland, the gardens are fenced off with an array of posts and sticks and guarded by makeshift scarecrows, tin cans and plastic bags. These small plots – located miles from a community – provide their owners with vegetables which are harvested in late summer or fall and stored in root cellars during the winter. No one ever touches anyone else’s garden or the bounty from it. It’s just a way of life!

Another oddity that we noticed as we drove along was the wood that had been cut and stacked into a “teepee” shape. This is to allow the wood to dry and the moisture to run out. Once this happens, the wood is then cut and stacked – again all along the roadside. Each family cuts and stacks their own wood and as they need it, they drive their trucks or skidoos to their stack and fill them up. Once again, the Newfoundland Code of Behavior, prevents any “borrowing” off your neighbor’s stack.

While species like cod are in decline, lobster is king along this shore and we saw hundreds of lobster traps stacked up along the side of the road. The lobster enters the hole made in the net and gets caught and can’t get back out. Too bad we weren’t here in June!

Labrador is just a ferry crossing away. Though we would love to go there, it is not on the agenda for this trip as the weather is starting to push us southward. Labrador is recognized as one of the last great wilderness areas in the world and perhaps we’ll come back one summer to spend some time there.

L’Anse aux Meadows was, and still is, a tiny fishing village. The Northern Peninsula is land’s end for Newfoundland and North America, with the northern end of the Island jutting into the Labrador Sea. George stood on the most Northern part of Newfoundland for a picture.

L’Anse aux Meadows was first brought to the attention of the world in 1960 thanks to Dr. Helge Ingstad, a historian and explorer, and his wife Anne Stine Ingstad, an archaelogist. This Norwegian couple was determined to prove the North American existence of the legendary site spoken of in the Norse Sagas. Their years of searching came to an end when they met George Decker, a local fisherman. He noticed unusual grassy mounds in the area, the type the Ingstads were searching for. Twelve years of archaeological research followed, conducted first by the Ingstads and then by Parks Canada. Those grassy mounds turned out to be remnants of eight 11th century Norse buildings. During their work in the 1960’s and 70’s, archaeologists uncovered remnants of iron production – an important early clue that Vikings had visited the site. Only the Norse, had the ability and technology to produce iron from bog ore.
It is documented that a substantial Viking expedition from Greenland landed on the shores of what is now L’Anse aux Meadows around the year 1000. Under the leadership of Leif Eiriksson, the group of between 70-90 people established an encampment that served as the base for exploring south throughout the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Over the next couple of decades, the Vikings would make a number of voyages to this region of the world they called Vinland, mainly in search of hardwood lumber since Greenland has no trees. These trips would result in the first contact between Europeans and North American Aboriginal Peoples.

The National Historic site is a model which illustrates how the site may have looked at the time of the Norse. In addition to the remains of the Norse buildings, there are three full scale replicas of sod huts. Our costumed Viking interpreters explained many of the customs and much of the history as we toured the site. For instance, did you know that the Vikings did not have horns on their helmets? This was Hollywood taking a free license to make them look more fierce. The sod huts were smoky inside and as I wandered outside to get a fresh breath of air, I roamed right into the middle of the filming crew who were trying to make a Tourism film. For some reason, they did not want me in the picture, but were very polite in apologizing for interrupting my tour, as they shooed me away from the area.

On our walk back to the Historic center, we stopped to view the sculpture, a “Meeting of Two Worlds” which is an interpretive artwork that captures the historical significance of L’Anse aux Meadows. It was developed in two parts; one completed by Newfoundland and the other by Sweden. Symbolically corresponding to the geographic points of departure and landing of the Vikings, the two pieces come together to form an archway over the walking trail leading to the archaeological site. Where the two elements meet, the artistic styles fuse, representing the first contact between the European and North American Aboriginal cultures.

Well, that was a bit beyond my comprehension, but what I did comprehend was two moose out in the field chomping away at the bog plants. Gosh they were huge! I didn’t get a very good picture as they were quite a ways away, but will share it with you anyway. This makes a total of three moose we have seen in the last two days. The first one came out of the woods as we were driving down the road. I yelled and by the time I was able to get the words out of my mouth, George saw it and tried to begin slowing down. Fortunately, we must have surprised him as much as he surprised us because he just stood there for a minute looking at us as if to say “What in the heck is that ?” and then just as our trailer passed him, he took off across the road right behind us. That was a little too up close and personal for us!

We headed back to our trailer and decided to rest for the remainder of the day. Tomorrow will be another adventure to St. Anthony!

Beothuk Indians, Airplanes, & Logging in New Foundland

2008-09-18T06:01:00.005-07:00

As we traveled the Kittiwake Coast, we drove thru Terra Nova National Park. This park protects approximately 250 square miles of boreal forest and scenic coastline. Boating, kayaking, and hiking are the predominant sports of this area. The Visitor Information Marine Centre has exciting marine exhibits to help visitors explore the local marine environment – aquariums, a touch tank, underwater camera and more.

Our next stop was in Boyd’s Cove where an interpretation center, trail and archaeological site provide a picture of native life. The Beothuks chose Boyd’s Cove for a number of reasons. The site has a good beach upon which to draw up canoes and Indian Brook, which enters the sea just below the site, is a good source of fresh water. The site is located on top of a glacial moraine with sand and gravel. When it rained, the site quickly drained thru the glacial silt, keeping it dry. Smelt come in large number each year to spawn and from the tiny smelt bones recovered at the site, it is known that it was a favorite food of the Beothuk. Believed to live at Boyd’s Cove between 1650 and 1720, the Beothuks were a hunting and fishing people. They avoided trade with the European fishermen who were there in the Spring and left in the Fall. Once they had left, the Beothuks would visit the fishing premises and pick up nails, fish hooks and other objects lost and abandoned by the fishermen and rework them for their own uses.

The Beothuks dug large, shallow pits into the ground and erected sturdy bark-covered wigwams in them. The archaelogists have found the remains of eleven of these warm, comfortable dwellings. Once the Europeans began living full time in the Cove, the Beothuks were pushed into the interior away from their coastal hunting and fishing grounds. Many bloody encounters between the settlers and the Beothuk were recorded in the early 1700s and 1800s. In June, 1829, the last Beothuk, Shanawdithit, died in St. Johns.

Located along the trail that leads from the Interpretation Center to the archaelogical site are interpretive panels which deal with the relationship between the Beothuk and their natural environment. McKenzie was anxious to get on her way down the trail!

Along the trail, we spotted beautiful colored mushrooms and McKenzie enjoyed tracking and leading us to the bronze statue created by Newfoundland artist, Gerald Squires and entitled, “The Spirit of Beothuk”. Squires portrayed Shanawdithit with her vulnerability and strength as well as her torment and tenderness.

At the end of the “Road to the Isles” is the historic community of Twillingate. Most people flock to this area to explore its history and discover the mighty icebergs, whales, and birds up close on one of the boat tours. When we arrived there, the wind was blowing in gusts of 40 to 50 mph. and no boats were going out. However, since it was the end of the season, we would probably not have seen whales and certainly not icebergs anyway. We did drive up to Long Point Lighthouse which sits a commanding 300 feet above sea level. The viewing platform overlooks the famous “iceberg alley” where each Spring, hundreds of icebergs, most weighing between 100 and 200 thousand tons, carve a path through the ocean. We can just imagine how breathtaking it would be to experience that view. We were overwhelmed with the view even without the icebergs. George and I followed the pathways around the cliffs and kept our eyes peeled for whales. The wind finally got the better of us and we decided we’d had enough for the day.

Crows Head is a little village outside Twillingate and we were lucky enough to be able to get reservations to the last performance for the year at the “All Around the Circle Dinner Theatre”. This is a group of seven Newfoundlanders who entertain with singing, dancing, musical instruments and comedy. In addition, they also prepare a traditional Newfoundland dinner consisting of homemade vegetable beef soup, pan-fried cod, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, homemade bread roll, dessert and tea or coffee. They entertained about 40 of us for a good hour and a half and each of them was extremely talented!

The next morning we awoke to 56 degrees and more wind than yesterday, mixed with rain. We decided it was definitely time to get off the tip of this peninsula and to start on our inland trip. But before we left Twillingate, we paid a visit to the Auk Island Winery which touts that they are the “only winery in the world that makes fine wines using iceberg water”. They also make their wines out of berries found on the island, so we bought a bottle to try.

Our trail now led us over to Gander which is the hub for the Kittiwake Coast. Known as “the Crossroads of the World”, Gander gained its fame from its international airport, conveniently located about halfway between the major metropolitan areas of North America and Europe. The airfield was constructed during the wartime because of its inland location and the region’s reputation for being fog-free.

The Silent Witnesses Memorial, located along the Trans Canada Highway, is dedicated to those who perished in the 1985 Arrow Air crash. On December 11, 1985, Arrow Air Flight MF1285R departed Cairo, Egypt on an international charter flight to Fort Campbell, Kentucky via Cologne, Germany and Gander, Newfoundland. On board were 8 crew and 248 passengers. The flight had been chartered to transport troops, their personal effects, and some military equipment from peacekeeping duties in the Sinai desert. All 248 passengers were members of the 101st Airborne Division (U.S. Army), based at Fort Campbell. The flight departed Cairo and arrived at Cologne on December 11, 1985 for a planned technical stop. A complete crew change took place following which the flight departed for Gander at 11:20 p.m. The flight arrived at Gander at 5:34 a.m. where passengers were deplaned and the aircraft refueled and serviced. The flight departed Gander at 6:45 a.m. The aircraft gained little altitude after rotation and began to descend crossing the Trans Canada Highway, approximately 900 feet beyond the departure end of the runway. The aircraft continued to descend until it struck downsloping terrain approximately 3,000 feet beyond the departure end of the runway. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and severe fuel-fed fires. All 256 occupants on board sustained fatal injuries. The accident occurred at 6:46 a.m. during the hours of darkness and was the worst air disaster ever on Canadian soil.

On June 24, 1990, a dedication ceremony was held in memory of the 101st Airborne Division. This memorial depicts an unarmed American soldier standing atop a massive rock holding the hands of two children. The children, a boy and a girl, each hold an olive branch indicative of the peacekeeping mission of the 101st Airborne Division “Screaming Eagles” on the Sinai peninsula. Behind them rise three tall staffs, each bearing a flag, Canada, U.S., and Newfoundland. As the trio stands looking into the future, they are surrounded by the trees, hills, and rocks of the actual Arrow Air crash site, overlooking Gander Lake in the direction of Fort Campbell. The natural surroundings are the “Silent Witnesses” of the precise moment when 256 dreams ended and the hearts and imaginations of an entire world were captured.

Down the hill from the memorial is the “Cross of Sacrifice” which is 22 feet in height. The inscription “Rendezvous with Destiny”, the motto of the 101st Airborne Division is inscribed on the remains of the emergency exit door of the ill-fated DC-8. Surrounding the cross are planted 256 native trees as a tribute to each of the crash victims.

Gander was again in the news 16 years after this tragedy when on September 11, 2001, the world was shocked by unexpected acts of terrorism in the United States. Within minutes, the airspace over North America was shut down and many aircrafts were forced to land as soon as possible. At Gander International airport, 39 international aircraft landed and the town of Gander, along with nearby communities such as Appleton, Gambo, Glenwood, and Lewisporte, played host to more than 6,500 unexpected visitors. The town provided meals, necessary supplies, and places to sleep until the planes were once again allowed in the air.

The next morning we headed further into the interior of Newfoundland. It is definitely not as scenic being on the Trans Canada (Rt. #1) highway, but it is the only way over to the west coast. As you can see, you would see very little if you just stayed on the Trans Can all the way across the island. We made a brief detour at Bishop Falls to take a small hike to the Bishop Falls Trestle. This is a former railway trestle, now a boardwalk that spans 927 feet across the Exploits River. The steel and granite structure was built in 1901 and is the longest trestle in Newfoundland. Since we had an absolutely gorgeous, sunny, wind-free day, it was a nice deviation to walk across it and look at the peaceful, flowing river. On the way back, we spotted this unusual decorated tree. You never know who is watching you.

Our last stop for the day was at Grand Falls-Windsor and the Loggers Life Provincial Museum. The museum recreates life at a typical 1930’s depression era logging camp. It would have normally housed 25-30 men who worked cutting timber for paper mills. They normally were paid $.90 per cord of wood and the normal logger could cut an average of two cords a day. As if this wasn’t bad enough, they had to pay $25.00 a month out of their pay for room and board. For this they received three meals a day and a wooden bunk. They would chop fir boughs to lay on top of the bunks to help keep them warm and reduce the hardness of the wood. Many of them were fishermen looking for extra money to feed their families and might have walked for days before arriving at the camp, hoping to get hired. They worked long days in boggy, wet land, with very strict rules to live by. Sometimes there were two men to a bunk, but always they had their fill of food, However they were not allowed to talk in the dining room at meal time in order to facilitate getting everyone served quickly. The times were hard, the pay was poor but to many, it was the only chance their family, which they had left back at home, had at surviving. In later years, the logging companies built the company town of Grand Falls and many of the loggers brought their families to live here where the company provided a school for the children, a store for supplies, and homes for the workers. If you did not work for the logging company, you could not live in the town of Grand Falls, so those who were not working for the logging company, settled outside the city and that area became knows as Windsor. Gradually both towns joined together as one and as the introduction of power saws meant fewer men could cut more wood, companies employed smaller workforces and the logging industry declined.

Tomorrow will find us trying to find a laundry and probably visiting one more museum here in Grand Falls-Windsor and then we’ll be on our way over to Gros Morne National Park on the western shore of Newfoundland. The weather is starting to get a little cooler but we are still having some very beautiful sunny days. I think both of us are ready to get back over to the coast though and get out of the forests. Who knows what we will see next, but it has surely been exciting. Hope you’ll stay with us for the rest of the trip!

A Mini-Series, Unions, and Bonavista

2008-09-18T06:01:00.004-07:00

The wind was blowing, the sun was shining and we were heading off to the Random Passage film set. This area was preserved from the TV Series “Random Passage” which was filmed in 2002. The film set replicates an early 1800s fishing station that includes houses, church, school, garden, sheep, and salt fish making. McKenzie got her first introduction to sheep. It seemed they didn’t want her infringing on their territory and when she decided to sniff one, she got a good “butt” for her effort. Lucky for the sheep, her daddy picked her up before she got her terrier attitude in gear! Our guide also showed us how to carry two buckets of water without spilling a drop and though I got dressed for the part, the winter wool cloak was just too heavy and hot. I have a new respect for actresses and actors! We so enjoyed the movie set, that we bought the DVD before we left so we can sit down and see the entire storyline.

The next town we arrived at was Port Union, the only union-built town in North America. In 1916, the town of Port Union began to take shape. The Fisherman’s Protective Union Trading Company premises was completed and the Union Corporate Headquarters transferred from St. John’s. A salt fish processing store, a department store with electric elevators, a seal oil plant, houses built for workers, and a medicine shop were among some of the amenities available in Port Union back in the early 1900’s, when cod ruled international trade. Throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, that trade was closely controlled by a small elite group of merchants. An archaic “truck” or trade system was in place. The merchant monopoly set the prices, and fishermen were paid in goods, not cash. In 1908, the Fishermen’s Protective Union (FPU) founded by William Coaker, set out to change all that. Its goal was to revolutionize the fishery, placing control of the fish trade in the hands of fishermen. It chose Port Union – part of a coast steeped in the 500 year fishing tradition – as the center of FPU activities.

William Coaker was an activist, labor leader, visionary, businessman, publisher and politician. He began his career as a fish handler on the St. John’s docks and led his first successful strike when he was 13 years old. Later, the Fisherman’s Protective Union he envisioned and founded grew in three years to a record 25,000 members – one tenth of Newfoundland’s population at the time. Convinced that whoever controlled the media controlled the message, he set up a press and published the Fishermen’s Advocate. He was eventually knighted for his achievements. His bungalow, as he called it, was beautiful!

At the tip of the Bonavista Peninsula is the town of Bonavista, one of the most important towns in Newfoundland. In 1497, Giovanni Caboto aka John Cabot was said to have sighted land and claimed the island for Britain. He noted the plentiful cod stocks and, for the next couple of hundred years, people arrived from England and Ireland to fish. We drove out to Cape Bonavista and took pictures of the lighthouse which is currently under refurbishment and the sea stacks and cliffs surrounding it. South of Cape Bonavista is a very unusual rock formation known as the Dungeon. The Dungeon is a twin entrance sea cave with a collapsed roof.

Back in town we visited the Matthew Legacy site which berths the full scale replica of John Cabot’s ship, The Matthew, which brought John Cabot and his crew to the “New Founde Lande” more than 500 years ago.

With all the talk of “salt fish”, we decided we had to try some to see what how it tastes. I had fishcakes made out of mashed potatoes, onions and salt fish, fried into a patty and George tried the salt fish and hardtack. Both were good but I don’t think I could take a steady diet of it.

To walk off the lunch, we decided to visit the Mockbeggar Plantation which may well be the oldest fishery plantation on the island of Newfoundland. One of the unusual aspects of the house was a beautiful open beamed library. The house was built in the 1870’s and was the home of F. Gordon Bradley, Newfoundland’s first federal cabinet minister after Confederation. It has been restored to the 1939 period.

Ryan Premises is a restored 19th century industrial salt fish complex of warehouses and a proprietor’s house. For more than 500 years the fishery has influenced settlement, culture, and economic development on Canada’s east coast. Ryan Premises National Historic Site depicts the rich history of the fishery and its impact upon the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. James Ryan was only 15 when he and his father, Michael, a native of Ireland started the James Ryan firm in 1857. The business quickly became a typical mercantile establishment, supplying essential food and supplies to the community while finding foreign markets for the fish upon which the community depended for its survival. When James Ryan died in 1917, the business was at its peak and Ryan was a wealthy man. The family business continued for another 61 years but gradually declined along with the salt fish trade and closed its doors for good in 1978.

Because of over-fishing with new modern innovations, traps and ships, a moratorium has been declared on catching cod on the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts. Now, fishermen are limited to a certain number of pounds of fish or a certain number of fish which can be caught during a specified period once or twice a year. Gradually the cod stocks are recovering, but it is a slow process. In the mean time, thousands of fishermen have had to find new careers.

As we head out of Bonavista, we will be driving down the Bonavista peninsula toward Terra Nova National Park, gradually making our way around one of the most beautiful islands we have ever visited. There’s still lots of history and gorgeous scenery so we hope you’ll stop by again and take a few minutes to dream along with us.

Mussels & A Picture Postcard Town

2008-09-18T06:01:00.003-07:00

We were interested in stopping in Trinity, Newfoundland to see whether the Rising Tide Theatre was still open for the season. They are a professional theatre company which has been a major force in the artistic and economic life of the province for the past thirty years. Unfortunately, we have found that many of the tourist attractions are starting to shut down for the season or are operating on a reduced schedule. Fortunately for us, they did have a performance the evening we arrived and we were allowed to park in the harbor parking lot for the night. The play we saw was entitled “It’s Like A Dream To Me” and was a one man show based on the life of Paddy “Iron” McCarthy, who in his time saw sweeping changes in Newfoundland. It was very memorable and later talking with the actor at the library, he indicated he had written the play last winter after reading a book about Paddy McCarthy who fished for 80 years and is still alive today.

The little town of Trinity was a lot more than we expected. The town itself was small and a true coastal gem. They have several historical buildings, such as the Lester-Garland House which is a reconstructed Georgian brick house rebuilt to the 1819-1920 period. We especially enjoyed seeing the table made from a mahogany log taken out of the Atlantic Ocean which was riddled with holes and grooves made by a marine borer (worm) which lives in submerged wood. The carpenter simply worked around the holes and made them part of the design of the table. The St. Paul’s Anglican Church with its 102 foot spire was exceptionally beautiful.

The Hiscock House had a very interesting history. Richard Hiscock married Emma and had a home built in Trinity. Richard’s mother did not want him to be a fisherman because she had lost her husband to the sea; therefore Richard learned the trade as a blacksmith. After ten years of living in the house and with Emma expecting her seventh child, Richard left home to go to Shoal Harbour to canvass for the re-election of a friend. On that journey a squall came up and Richard was drowned. Although alone, Emma was a fortunate woman, Richard had left her a large house with outbuildings, a forge, a garden and a shop. Using these resources she was able to support herself and her children. She became the town’s postmistress, setting up the post office in her parlor. She and her children sold vegetables and herbs from their garden, eggs from their hens and milk from their cows. Emma also took in boarders to supplement the family income. Emma died in 1936 and the house has now been restored to the 1910 period.

The Green Family Forge operates as a living history blacksmith museum. The Green family worked as blacksmiths in Trinity since approximately 1750. Several generations carried on the family legacy until the business closed in 1955.

We were lucky enough to get to take a tour of a mussel farm on the M.V. Mussel Bound catamaran. We had noticed a large group of blue and white barrels floating in the bay when we pulled into the town and were wondering what they were. On the tour, we learned the history of the cove and the surrounding areas, the story of the ship which sank in the harbor, carrying a shipment of wine, how mussels grow in the water and we got to see them clinging on to the ropes which are attached to the barrels. Rick, the owner, can tell when the mussels are ready to be harvested by how deep the barrel is sunk in the water. The larger the mussels grow, the more they weigh down the barrels. It takes approximately three years to grow a mussel that can be harvested.Each year new rope ladders are built and set out for the mussels to attach to so they can begin to grow. They have a natural predator in the starfish which loves to eat them before they develop. Of course, a mussel tour wouldn’t be complete unless we got to sample some, and Rick and Jocelyn cooked up a pot for us. They were delicious. On the way back to the harbor, we had entertainment aboard the ship.

By the time we got back to the dock, it was late, so we decided to spend one more night in the parking lot as we had beautiful scenery, just waiting for us to enjoy.

Houses, Miners & Warships

2008-09-18T06:01:00.002-07:00

We awoke to a beautiful day and headed on around the Burin Peninsula. Stop one was in Grand Banks at the Provincial Seamen’s Museum. Although the museum had had a fire, we were able to learn a lot about cod fishing by reading the signs surrounding the mural on the building. In the mural, you will see a large sailing ship which is the schooner and a small boat which is called a “dory”. Using both vessels together made it possible to travel further, faster, and stay at sea longer. Each schooner could carry 6-12 dories. Schooners sailed to Grand Banks loaded with salt and bait. Once there, the dories were loaded into the water and the two man crew used long lines of baited hooks called “trawls” to catch the cod. When the dories were filled, they returned to the schooner and the fish were gutted, split and stored in the cargo hold between layers of salt to preserve it during the voyage home. When the schooner arrived at home port, its cargo of salted fish was preserved by being dried in the sun, which required good weather and back-breaking labor. After shaking to remove excess salt, the split fish were spread outside on wooden forms called “flakes”. Women who were primarily responsible for this job, worked from daylight to dusk, laying out the fish and turning them so they wouldn’t get sunburned while keeping them from moisture and rot. The trade schooners carried the dried salt fish to markets in Spain, Portugal, France and all over the West Indies. They returned with rum, sugar, molasses and manufactured goods.

When fish were plentiful and prices high, fortunes were made for merchants and ship owners. In turn, they paid the dory men and shore workers in credit, not cash. The “truck” system was a complicated method of credit and debits. Merchants supplied fishermen and their families with provisions and gear on credit. At the end of the season, the value of the fish they had caught and processed was tallied. After their debts were paid, the balance was given in credit notes that could be redeemed for food, clothing and other goods at the merchant’s store. When the fishing was bad, there was no credit, just debt.

Further into town, we stopped to view the George C. Harris home, a merchant’s house near the waterfront. Built in 1908 the Queen Anne style house has a widow’s walk where shore-bound women waited and watched, sometimes in vain, for their menfolk to return from trips to sea. This home was given to George C. Harris and his wife by his father for their wedding gift. The home was very nicely restored and our favorite rooms were Charlotte’s sitting room where she entertained her women friends and of course, the widow’s walk where you could see the harbor and for miles around the town.
Beside the house is the Mariner’s Memorial Garden which pays tribute to the thousands of mariners lost at sea who sailed from Grand Banks and parts along the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts. The life sized bronze female figure represents and exemplifies the virtues and strength of character of thousands of Newfoundland wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters who have endured the loss of their men. The water and beach rocks shoreline contains the names of seamen who lost their lives while making a living on the sea.

We stopped to take a couple of pictures of other homes in Grand Banks and especially liked the B&B and the historic home. The roads are once again small and snake throughout the town.
Further down the road in Fortune, we stopped to visit the Heritage House which was the home of George and Mary Lake. This house was a turn-of-the-century house that depicts the way of life of a common working family. The small kitchen encompassed most of the downstairs with only a parlor as the other room on the first floor. The two-story building measuring 36 feet wide by 46 feet long was built in 1883 at a cost of approximately $92.50. It was definitely different from the large home in Grand Banks of the well-to-do merchant.

We took a walk down to the harbor area and viewed the fishing sheds which gave us a nostalgic step back into the late 1800s.

Fortune is the gateway to France! At least it is the place to catch a ferry that will take you to the French owned island of St. Pierre. Since it was so late in the season and things were beginning to close up, we decided not to go over, especially since we would have had to spend at least two nights and their prices were even more expensive than here. Anyway, we contented ourselves with taking a picture of the islands from Point May.
While I was taking pictures of the island of St. Pierre, George happened to notice about 6 whales having a jolly old time playing and splashing out in the bay. We watched them for quite some time, however they weren’t close enough that we could get a picture. But we did feel privileged to see them as they are usually gone by this time of year.
The scenery was gorgeous as we watched rivers flow into ponds and ponds flow into the bays. We even saw a cemetery laid out on a hillside on one of the points of land. Lawn was especially pretty with the rock wall at the entrance to the town.
St. Lawrence would be our last stop for this peninsula and we were definitely surprised when we pulled into the Miner’s Museum. They had a wonderful display on the fluorspar mines and a lot of history. Until the establishment of the fluorspar mining industry, people of St. Lawrence lived and worked much like other people in the area. Through inshore fishing, small-scale farming, and other traditional activities, they survived on this rugged, remote coast just as their European ancestors had for centuries. In 1933, the St. Lawrence Corporation of Newfoundland, an American based company, entered into a deal with several local businessmen to mine and export a trial shipment of the area’s fluorspar deposits. The people of St. Lawrence, struggling to survive the Great Depression, were spurred on by the promise of steady paying work and invested many days of back-breaking, unpaid labor to get the mines up and working. The mines prospered and expanded and in 1939 “The Corporation” was joined by a second company, Newfoundland Fluorspar Limited. By the early 1940’s, the St. Lawrence mines had become a major enterprise, employing hundreds of people and creating numerous jobs. The introduction of mining and its expansion dramatically altered the economics of the town and altered the lives of the community. Many turned away from fishing and a traditional way of life and adopted the structural lifestyle dictated by the industrial schedule. The people of St. Lawrence paid a heavy price for this prosperity. By the 1950’s, many miners had died and others were yet to die from silicosis, an illness caused by exposure to heavy dust in the early mines. Soon after, it was discovered that a widespread evidence of cancer was due to radon gas in the mines. Over the decades, nearly 200 miners, the vast majority of them St. Lawrence residents, lost their lives to these diseases. The mines closed in 1978.

As if that wasn’t enough of a tragic story, there was another which was set on the stage of St. Lawrence. On February 15, 1942, the supply ship, U.S.S. Pollux and destroyer escorts, Wilkes and Truxton, sailed from the U.S. for the American Naval Base at Argentia, Newfoundland. The battle of the Atlantic was in its fourth year, German U boats had sunk hundreds of Allied Ships bound for Britain with supplies. Convoys sailed under blackout conditions and radio silence, communicating by signal lamp. Navigation was by dead reckoning – estimating position and time, speed and heading. Wilkes, the only ship with radar, expected to detect landfall at about 20 miles. Radar, then in its infancy, was understood by few and required frequent maintenance. Ice and weather conditions affected accuracy and reduced its maximum range of 30 miles. Predawn, February 18th, found the convoy battling high southeast winds in heavy seas, snow and sleet. At 4:09 a.m., in darkness and zero visibility, Wilkes ran aground at Lawn Head. Radar had failed to provide timely or accurate bearings. A minute later, the Truxton grounded at Chambers Cove; 8 minutes later, Pollux also grounded at Lawn Head.

After three hours, Wilkes was refloated. Heavy surf and the icy shore battered Pollux and Truxton to pieces. 203 died and 186 survived, largely due to the heroism displayed by the people of St. Lawrence and the neighboring communities, who braved the hurricane like conditions to drag the seamen out of the ocean and up the tall, ragged cliffs. The men were cared for by the villagers until they were able to return to the U.S. In appreciation for their care, the U. S. Government built a fully equipped hospital for the city of St. Lawrence, completed in 1956.

We were so enthralled with this story, we asked the museum where the cove was and if it was accessible. The lady gave us a map and indicated we’d have to hike back to see it but that it wasn’t too far. So we headed out. McKenzie came along with us and we must say that the hike alone was worth it. We saw beautiful views of the ocean waves beating up against the boulders and George and McKenzie found a little walkway down on the beach through the boulders.

As we walked on further, we found some story boards that told us some additional information. A few of the sailors managed to climb up the cliffs and found a fisherman’s shack that was used to store hay. The first survivors, frozen and exhausted from the icy, crude-infested waters, hurricane force winds and sub zero temperatures found refuge in the hayshack. One of the men headed out to seek help and ended up at the mines where the townspeople immediately rallied, sent word to nearby communities, set up a makeshift hospital and rushed back to the cove to start the rescue operation. Note the dark areas on the shack. These were made when the sailors slid down the icy hill and tar from their crude oil saturated clothes spattered on the sides of the hayshack.

When looking at the site where the ships ran aground, it makes you wonder how anyone could have managed to scale these tall cliffs.

On the way back into town, we noticed a group of boats situated out in the middle of the harbor. We weren’t sure what they were doing but we thought it might be some of the local men who wanted to get away from their wives for a bit for a little nip. We didn’t see any bars or pubs in the village, so this seemed like a good idea.

Another site in St. Lawrence was the umbrella tree. No one seems to know why it has grown this way, but it provides a neat place for a picnic.

The last stop was at the Echoes of Valour which was dedicated to victims of the mining industry in St. Lawrence and to the sailors who tragically died in the U.S.S. Truxton and U.S.S. Pollux disaster on February 18, 1942 at Chambers Cove and Lawn Head and to the remembrance of the valiant men who fought and died in the World Wars.

This pretty much completes our tour of the Heritage Run Trail on the Burin Peninsula. Tomorrow we will head over to the Discovery Trail on the Bonavista Peninsula to see what we run into there.

Driving "the boot"

2008-09-18T06:01:00.001-07:00

Heading down the Trinity Bay side of the Baccalieu Trail we ran upon several interesting town names. There’s Heart’s Content, Heart’s Desire, and Heart’s Delight, all believed to be named after fishing vessels that fished out of these harbors during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

We also noticed that just about every town had a SUF Lodge. In Heart’s Content, the SUF Lodge #1 is a registered Heritage Structure. This structure was built by the original Society of United Fishermen. The Society was founded in 1862 by Rev. George Gardener, a Church of England clergyman. It provided sickness and death benefits for fishermen and their families. Other locals adopted the basic design of the building. The triangular shape window is the symbol of the society and can be seen on many SUF Halls throughout Newfoundland. Also in Heart’s Content was a beautiful red and white candy stick light house.

There’s a nice variety of homes in this area, from the traditional to the brand new. Many of the old clapboard homes, have been refurbished with siding, but occasionally we still run across a few of the weather-beaten ones. Though it seems the locals are getting away from the brightly painted homes and now going more with pastels and naturals, we love to see those bold colors. Of course, there is nothing like the salt-box or biscuit box house with the white picket fence to make your mind wander toward the romance novels of Ireland.

A short piece down the highway, we came to Shag Rock. The large triple-horned rock, jutting sharply out of the water near shore, is called the “Shipwrecker” and is a reminder of the dangers of the sea. While taking a picture, we spotted a beach and climbed down to it. George found a new walking stick, but McKenzie and I persuaded him to leave it behind. All of us took a turn dipping our tootsies in the cold, cold water. McKenzie was definitely not in the mood for walking in icy cold water on a cloudy day.
You just never know what you will see around the next bend or over the next hill as we found out in Whiteway, when we came upon the townspeople joining in for a Walk-a-thon down the middle of the road; or the gorgeous blue of the sea as we headed to the Burin Peninsula, via the Heritage Run Trail. This is an entirely different part of Newfoundland both in geography and outlook. The Burin Peninsula is surrounded by panoramic maritime barrens with many ponds. Here you will see hawks, barren land birds, and migratory caribou in addition to moose. Speaking of moose, this is the only one we’ve seen thus far. Though we don’t want to meet one on the road, we are still looking hard to see our first real moose. I think we are getting close, though, because we did see a weasel!

We spent our first two nights in Marystown, dropped our trailer at the information center and drove the truck over to Burin, which is built along a series of high cliffs and sheltered coves. Once a haven for pirates and privateers, Captain James Cook was sent here to set up a lookout to catch smugglers running rum and other booty from Saint-Pierre.

The Oldest Colony Trust Building at the end of the Boardwalk, was built in 1933 as an industrial freezer for the nearby fish plant. This 100 foot long building is currently used as an arts and culture center where citizens congregate to socialize and celebrate their shared cultural heritage. The view from the boardwalk is breathtaking as you stroll along the shoreline. As we were walking, George spotted a live starfish in the crystal clear water beside the boardwalk. It is so calm and serene here, it is hard to imagine the tragedy of 1929 when the town was hit by a great tidal wave created by a 7.2 earthquake in the ocean outside the harbor.
As we viewed the museum which had an extensive history on the tidal wave, we felt it could best be summed up by a letter written by one of the locals to his brother after the tragedy. “On November 20, 1929, at 5:20 p.m., we had an earth tremor. All the houses and ground shook for about five minutes. This put everyone in a panic, women screaming and praying and the men stood silent and scared. But we were just trying and partly succeeded in quieting the women, when we had a tidal wave of the worst kind. Enormous waves 20 feet high swept into the harbor on the other side. The harbor was cleared by the first wave, then the second came and brought it all in again. Such noise and scrunching you never heard. By this time we had all fled to the hills, the highest places we could find from there. We watched the third wave come and go. You could hear the poor humans who were caught screaming, women and men praying out loud. Oh God! Jack, it was terrible!” Twenty seven people lost their lives and there was many millions of dollars of devastation to the area.

Another story was of a telegraph operator who remained at her desk to keep the lines with other offices at Burin and Great Burin open until the waters swirled around her feet. Despite her apprehension, she returned to her office as soon as the waters subsided, around 11 p.m. The first message of the disaster to reach the outside world was sent by wireless from the Newfoundland Railways Boat, “Portia”. We drove to the other side of the harbor to find the spot where the tidal wave came in from the ocean and let our imagination run rampant. How horrible it must have been to see that wave approaching.
An additional tidbit of history that we gathered at the museum was regarding a merchant marine ship which sailed into the harbor in 1835 and dropped anchor at Jersey Room. The captain and the crew were infected with smallpox. Though the townspeople refused to let them come ashore, the ship stayed in the harbor until the captain and crew died. Only then did the townspeople board the ship to remove the bodies. The captain and his crew were buried in a mass grave in a grassy meadow adjacent to the harbor. Now you would think that this event would have some kind of marker so curious people like us could find the place, so off we went on a tiny uphill road just barely big enough for our truck, with cliffs dropping down to the harbor on one side and granite cliffs raising to the sky on the other. We finally found just a little sign saying “Jersey Room”, took a picture, and ended up backing all the way down the winding road. What we won’t do to try to bring you factual history thru pictures and documentation!!!!
Our last stop in Burin was the Burin Heritage House which was formerly a residence built in 1920-22 by Vincent Reddy, a local shopkeeper. It is the only Queen Anne style house left in Burin with rooms decorated as they would have been at that time.

Tomorrow we will hitch up and continue “driving the boot” as the locals say. (The peninsula is in the shape of a boot). I’m sure we’ll find more surprises just around the corner. We are finding that a lot of the places are starting to close up for the winter as this area is not really a big tourist draw except for the summer months when people want to go the French Island of St. Pierre. Once finished with this peninsula, we will head up to the northeast and take a trip around the Discovery Trail of the Bonavista Peninsula. We’re hoping that most of the sights there will still be open. If not, we are still seeing some beautiful, unspoiled country, so we hope you are enjoying the trip thus far and will stick with us to see what is coming up next. Til then, take care and enjoy life!

Admiral's Coast & the Baccalieu Trail

2008-09-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

We felt a slight tinge of regret as we pulled out from Pippy Park in St. John’s. So much had happened since we had arrived on August 20th and all of us, especially McKenzie, felt like we were leaving newly found friends much too soon, but the road is calling. We headed down the Admiral’s Coast which winds along Route 60 following the western and southern shore of Conception Bay. This region is a study in contrasts. The rocky harbors and bays contrast with the idyllic rural communities which are among the best farming areas in the province. There were vegetable stands all along the highways with beautiful lettuce, cabbage, turnips, potatoes, carrots, and greens. We just couldn’t pass them up!

Holyrood is a peaceful and scenic town located at the bottom of Conception Bay. They had a boardwalk beginning at the center of town and running to the beach, suitable for casual strolls. I dipped my toe in Conception Bay and decided it was much too cold for any further part of my anatomy. Across the street is George Cove Mountain which has an illuminated cross on the top of it. The present cross replaced a wooden one erected by appreciative American Service personnel who frequented Holyrood during World War II. After the wooden cross was blown away in a fierce northwesterly gale, the town erected a steel framed one to celebrate “Come Home Year” in 1966.

Further down the road, we came upon Harbour Main which has a local swimming pool, known as “The Tide”. Not quite like the pools we are used to, but I’m sure it is just as effective on a hot summer day.

We had read about the “disappearing church” in Avondale and it piqued our interest. Sure enough, as you come over the ridge you see the church, however, as you continue to drive on into the town, you lose it completely because of the lay of the land, until it pops up right in front of you. It must be magic and I couldn’t resist taking a picture of it once we saw it again. The Railway Station in Avondale was built by the Anglo-Newfoundland Telegraph Company, in either 1870 or 1880 and is the oldest surviving railway station in the province. Beside the station, an engine and several cars from the railway are displayed. In 1989, the Avondale residents sat on the tracks, refusing to let the workers take up the rails near the station. This is the only remaining section of main line track from the Newfoundland Railway. George and McKenzie took a breather on the Avondale Express while waiting for me to take pictures.
We know we’ve shown you a couple of pictures of small or biscuit box style homes, but we thought you’d also like to see some of the larger homes in the area of Conception Harbor. This one comes with its own yacht!
Leaving the Admiral’s Coast trail, we are now driving on the Baccalieu Trail. The name “Baccalieu Trail” pays tribute to the thousands of fishermen whose names have not been recorded in history, but whose hard work and adventures have contributed to the European settlement of North America. Today, the Baccalieu region is responsible for approximately 22% of the value of the provincial fishery. The region is comprised of almost 60 small towns which retain their peaceful community centered lifestyle and which follow the coast on the north shore of Conception Bay and the south shore of Trinity Bay.

Our first stop was Brigus which is often compared to an old English town with its many rock walls, old style architecture, lush gardens and winding, very narrow roads. After finally finding place to park our truck and trailer, we walked down the winding road to Hawthorne Cottage which was the home of Captain Robert Bartlett (1875 – 1946). We’ve all heard of Robert Peary but we had no idea who Captain Bob Bartlett was. Seems he prepared the way for Peary. In the polar expedition of 1908-09, Captain Bob, commanding the “Roosevelt”, not only broke a trail thru dense shifting packed ice, but established supply caches on the ice off northern Ellesmere Island to allow American explorer Robert Edwin Peary to make his celebrated “dash for the Pole”. Captain Bob was decorated and hailed worldwide as a great navigator and leader. During WWI, Captain Bob worked for the U.S. Army Transport Commission and during WWII, he and his famous schooner “Effie M. Morrissey” were commandeered by the U. S. Navy for hydrographic and supply work in Hudson Bay and Greenland. When he was not out exploring his beloved Arctic lands, he was much in demand as a writer, lecturer, speaker and movie-reel maker. The stories of his incredible exploits – of survival against impossible odds – of an unknown land and its inhabitants, flora and fauna, thrilled and delighted readers, listeners, and viewers the world over. His passion for Arctic exploration led him to make at least 20 voyages north, many for scientific organizations, museums, universities, and zoos, all devoted to expanding the knowledge of one of the last known frontiers in the world.

When Bartlett and his crew would stop in Brigus after an Arctic adventure, the town people were amazed to see Hawthorne’s gardens transformed into a mini zoo with musk oxen, walrus, and even a polar bear. When it was time to set sail to New York, his second home, Bartlett would load up the animals for delivery to American zoos.

Hawthorne cottage was built in 1830 in Cochranedale by John Leamon, Captain Bartlett’s maternal great-grandfather. The original square building lacked the bay windows, rear addition, and veranda that are visible today. In the winter of 1833-34, the cottage was hauled approximately 6 miles overland thru ice and snow on log rollers to its present location. It passed through the generations with various conditions of inheritance until Bartlett’s mother inherited it with a stipulation that it pass to her son. After he had achieved fame with Peary, Bob Bartlett spent most of his summers in the arctic and winters in New York. His parents, William and Mary Bartlett, and his sisters Emma and Eleanor became the permanent residents, although Bob made frequent visits on his way to and from the arctic.

The “Arctic” Room or parlor, was turned into a showcase of their brother’s memorabilia by the Bartlett women. The dining room/sitting room was a sunny room used by the family for many activities as well as meals. During the winter, a fire was kept going all day. The Bartlett women were accomplished musicians and entertained guests with songs and hymns around the piano. The radio was an important source of news and the family would gather around it when a broadcast from Captain Bob was expected.

Hawthorne Cottage was the first house in Brigus to have running water, which was supplied by a thirty foot gravity fed water tower.

After visiting the cottage, we walked around the delightful town which had a small, very English looking Bed and Breakfast. A walk behind the church and down by the seashore led us to “the Tunnel”. The Brigus Tunnel was built for Captain Abraham Bartlett by the Cornish miner, John Hoskins during the summer of 1860. Its purpose was to provide an easy access to the Bartlett wharf which projected into the deep water at its outer end. Since the holes into which the blasting charges were placed had to be drilled by hand, a special forge was constructed near the site for keeping the drills sharpened. The only explosive used was black gunpowder. The job was completed after four months of strenuous labor.

The winding, hilly roads were beginning to take their toll so we decided that Cupids would be our drycamping spot for the night. Cupids was settled in 1610 by John Guy. It is the oldest English colony in Canada and the second oldest English colony in North America. In 1610, the London & Bristol Company was formed to colonize Newfoundland, one of the very first attempts to establish an English colony in the New World. The first governor, John Guy, had made a previous voyage to Newfoundland and it was he who chose Cuper’s Cove (now Cupids) when the 39 colonists arrived in August of 1610. One of the colonists first tasks was to set to work cutting timber both to build their plantation and to load their vessel for the return voyage to England.

Guy sailed to England in the fall of 1611 and returned to Cupids in the spring of 1612. With him, he brought additional settlers (including artisans and 16 women). 62 people wintered at the colony that year. During the summer of 1612, the colony was plagued by pirates, particularly Peter Easton, who operated out of nearby Harbour Grace. The wife of colonist Nicholas Guie gave birth to a son on March 27, 1613 – the first recorded birth of an English child in Newfoundland and possibly the first in Canada.

In 1995, archaeologist, Bill Gilbert and his team began preliminary excavation of a site in Cupids which is the location of John Guy’s settlement. Since that time, digging has revealed a fireplace and building foundations plus about 100,000 artifacts dating back to the early 1600’s. We toured the archaeological dig and then the museum where the artifacts are housed. On display at the museum is the second largest Union Jack flag which was given by the British to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Cupids in 1910. (At that time, Newfoundland was not a province of Canada, but an independent country).

On our walk from the dig to the museum, we passed the Harley Hotel. I just happened to glance upwards and saw the chair perched on the widow’s peak. This was definitely a Kodak moment. After dinner, we took McKenzie for her evening constitutional and walked along the pier overlooking Conception Bay.
We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning with seagulls harmonizing with several other seabirds. After breakfast, we headed on down the Baccalieu Trail thru the peaceful and tranquil Clark’s Beach and into Spaniard’s Bay where we stopped to take a picture of some of the traditional rock walls. This particular wall was named “Lassy Wall” and was in front of the Anglican Church. It has an interesting history in that it was constructed by residents during the Great Depression who were paid with molasses.

Harbour Grace is one of the largest towns on the Baccalieu Trail. The Harbour Grace Air Field figured prominently in the history of Transatlantic flight. From 1927 – 1936, more than twenty flights took off from Harbour Grace to fly the Atlantic, some of them piloted by famous aviators such as Amelia Earhart who on May 20, 1932 became the world’s first woman pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in a Lockheed Vega.

The “Spirit of Harbour Grace”, a DC-3 airplane was restored and donated to the town in 1993 to commemorate the town’s rich past in aviation.

The SS Kyle which is moored in the harbor, was built in 1913 and became the first boat to provide Labrador with a regular scheduled service.
We had read about a scenic coastline (developed) trail approximately ½ mile long which begins and the Church in Perry’s Cove. The road leading down was very narrow and twisting and we were hoping we wouldn’t meet another car as we were towing the trailer. We all needed to stretch our legs, so George, I and McKenzie walked the trail that ended at a lookout by the ocean. Along the way, we viewed a fully intact “root cellar” which dates back some 175 years. We also stopped at the Witches Rock which invited you to dip your fingers into the water. Both of us did but McKenzie was not too keen on putting here tootsies in for a dip. On windy days the “Blowhole” is a spectacular site. We saw it spouting but by the time I got close enough to take a picture, it had pretty well died out. Along the trail, we stopped and picked wild blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. Though it is almost at the end of their season, they were still very sweet and juicy and we both ate until we thought we’d better stop. What a refreshing and tranquil side trip.

We had debated about going to the very end of the tip of the peninsula, but decided to give it a try. The roads turned out to be pretty good and we were really glad that we took the extra hour or so to make the trip. Grates Cove is at the tip and is one of the closest points in North America to Europe. The distance by water from Grates Cove to Ireland is approximately 1,545 miles. Grates Cove rock walls, formerly used to wall vegetable gardens and keep out animals, are scattered throughout the community. The walls have been declared a National Historical Site.
Having decided it was time for “happy hour”, we pulled into the museum at Sibley’s Cove. George talked with a gentleman who lived behind the museum and he told us it was only open for special events. Since we wouldn’t be bothering anyone, we decided to spend the night here. After talking for a while, the gentleman went home but not before telling George that if we needed anything during the night, “just come on up to the house”.

We passed all types of homes today. I took a few pictures of them to give you an idea of how they look. Many are new, but there are still a lot of the old cottage type homes. As we move on, I’ll try to take some varied pictures as we spot them. Though Newfoundland is definitely progressive, they also cling to a lot of the old ways. The people are terribly friendly and many of the small villages have homes perched along the rugged cliffs, defying gravity. Lakes and ponds abound. Basins of peatmoss punctuate the berry barrens. Around every corner, there are streams and rivers, gullies and brooks and on their banks, a veritable park of “nature planted” bushes, shrubs, trees and flowers. It is truly the most beautiful place we have ever been.

St. John's - A Blend of Old and New

2008-09-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

The weather has been pretty drizzly and foggy for a couple of days. We cancelled our tour and decided to just do something on our own and hopefully the weather will break before we are ready to leave St. John’s. After spending the day getting groceries, diesel, etc., we walked over to the Fluvarium which is part of the park we are staying in. The Fluvarium allows you to peer into the secret underwater life of Nagle’s Hill Brook through nine panoramic viewing windows which are built under the river. It has the highest concentration of Brown Trout in North America and it was interesting watching the feeding of the fish.

When the next morning was still quite foggy, we thought we’d go ahead and drive the Killick Coast trail which wound thru many little fishing villages and gave us some panoramic views of the ocean and the fog made you appreciate Mother Nature all the more as you stepped out onto the cliffs and felt the rage of the waves. Middle Cove, Flatrock, and Logy Bay are settled enclaves along a rugged shore and around each bend in the road is another view of the coast that seems even better than the last. One of the most popular attractions in the region is the Bell Island Mines. Closed in 1966 due to technological changes in the international steel industry, the main mines stretch out for miles underneath Conception Bay. A 20 minute ferry ride will take you across to Bell Island.

On Wednesday, our last day here, the weather decided to cooperate and turned very sunny and warm. We took our tour through Legends Tour with Gord as our tour guide. He had lived almost all of his 70 years in Newfoundland and was a wealth of information. There was one other couple from Ontario who toured with us which made a nice small group. The first thing Gord showed us was the spot where Terry Fox, the one legged runner, began his Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980. His marathon ended September 1, 1980 after 3,339 miles just outside Thunder Bay, Ontario.

We weaved thru the small streets of the downtown harbor area, barely able to inch along on some of them, headed to “The Narrows” which is the entrance to St. John’s Harbor. We were able to see across the harbor to where the light house and the remaining walls of the battery were situated. The view across the harbor to the city of St. John's was breathtaking.

We stopped to watch April, one of the artists who paints murals on the walls of the city, and wondered at her ability to bring alive Newfoundland’s fascinating story.

At the top of the hill, aptly named Signal Hill because centuries ago, the arrival of ships was signaled by flags raised atop the hill, is Cabot Tower, built in 1897 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of John Cabot’s discovery of Newfoundland and the 60th year of Queen Victoria’s reign. Here you can look out over the ocean towards Ireland and you are closer to Europe here than many parts of Canada. On the grounds outside the tower are interpretive exhibits dealing with the harbor’s fortifications. Inside on the second floor is information regarding Marconi who received the first transatlantic wireless signal on Decmeber 12, 1901, on a spot just below the tower.

Just a bit of history on Marconi which you may not know. Guglielmo Marconi established the Marconi Wireless Company in 1897. He knew that for wireless to be taken seriously, he would have to prove that messages could be sent over long distances. In 1900, he decided to attempt this by sending a signal across the Atlantic Ocean. He referred to this challenge as “The Big Thing”. After several attempts in setting up a wireless station, Marconi arrived in St. John’s on Friday, December 6, 1901 with two assistants. A large wicker hamper and several wooden crates contained the wireless equipment as well as two balloons and six kites to hold an antenna aloft. Marconi met with the Governor and Prime Minister to discuss the need for wireless to protect ships and improve safety. Marconi selected the summit of Signal Hill because it had good elevation, appropriate ground conditions and ample open space to fly balloons or kites. Marconi and his assistants spent December 9 and 10 setting up their equipment and filling a balloon with hydrogen. A local firm was hired to cover the ground in the area with large sheets of zinc that would reflect electromagnetic signals onto the antenna. The signal was not expected to be strong. Because of this, Marconi chose to use a telephone receiver instead of his Morse recorder. With everything in readiness, Marconi cabled Poldhu in England to begin transmitting on the 11th. The signal was the Morse code letter “S”. It had been selected as the simplest transmission that could be accurately distinguished through background noise and static. The next day the balloon was sent up in high winds with 80 feet of antenna wire attached. The winds were too strong and the balloon broke free and was lost. Marconi decided to wait until the next day to try again with a kite instead of risking his one remaining balloon. On Thursday, December 12, the wind was even stronger. That morning a kite was launched with two wires attached, but it was carried off by the wind. As second kite was launched with 80 feet of wire. This one held, and shortly after noon, Marconi began to listen for the three dots being blasted into the air from Poldhu, approximately 1800 miles away. About 12:30, Marconi heard three sharp clicks, corresponding to three dots. He asked his assistant to listen and he also verified that he heard the same thing. The signal faded out but was detected again at 1:10 and 2:20 p.m. The letter “S” was heard about 25 times in all. Further attempts on December 13 were hampered by poor weather. Three kites were lost that day, and on the 14th, Marconi decided to break his silence. He cabled his London office with news of his success and that evening he broke the news to reporters of the St. John’s press.

Word of Marconi’s achievement was soon shouted across the front pages of newspapers. The scientific community was thunderstruck. The strongest objections came from the companies that operated transatlantic submarine telegraph cables. The value of their stocks fell dramatically after Marconi announced his success and they moved quickly to protect their interests. Marconi was served with papers threatening legal action if he continued his work. After consulting with the directors of his company, Marconi decided not to fight the Anglo-American Telegraphy Company. In addition to the threats from the cable company, Marconi had received numerous messages of support from politicians in Nova Scotia and Canada. On December 16, the boat from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia docked in North Sydney, where Marconi found the member of Parliament for Cape Breton and the Premier of Nova Scotia waiting for him. They found an appropriate location on property owned by Dominion Coal Company who offered to give Marconi the land. By January 9, 1902, Canada and Marconi had reached an agreement. The government contributed $80,000 towards construction of the station and in return, Marconi made a commitment that when the station was completed his cost for transatlantic messages would be set at $.10 per word. This was 60% lower than the cable company rate. Work on the station began in March, 1902 and by autumn the station began conducting tests. With the announcement of the reception of the first official messages on December 22, Marconi’s dream of a transatlantic wireless service became a reality. Whew! That was a lot of information, probably more than you wanted to know, but in case you ever get chosen for “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”, you’ll know all this history about Marconi.

Another site of historic interest is the Quidi Vidi Battery which overlooks Quidi Vidi Village at the eastern edge of St. John’s. Here a narrow passage allowed the French to paddle from the Atlantic Ocean thru to the bay and with just a short hike, they’d be in St. John’s Harbor. The British would signal, again using the flags, indicating that their barrier had been broken and St. John’s would be ready for a fight.

An interesting home in the downtown area is the Government House, which is the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is also the place where the Queen used to reside when she visited.

The Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is a beautiful Romanesque cathedral. Built of Newfoundland and Irish bluestone and granite, the church is in the shape of a Latin cross. The Basilica houses John Hogan’s revered “Dead Christ” made of marble. Back down thru the winding, narrow streets we happened upon the small fishing village of Petty Harbor. Here you can watch the local fishermen readying their boats for the next cod run. George and I decided it was time to take a rest and just watch the water and boats on a few Adirondack chairs that had been painted to resemble a fish, seal, puffin and fisherman. Then back into the van for the trip to Cape Spear.

Cape Spear is the most easterly point in Canada and the site of the oldest lighthouse in Newfoundland and Labrador, dating to the 1830’s. It was also the site of a World War II coastal defense battery. Cape Spear is a rocky headland on the approach to St. John’s Harbor. As early as 1822, Governor Sir Thomas Cochrane recognized the danger it presented to inbound ships and recommended a lighthouse be built there. It has now become a totally automated facility. The water crashing into the rocks is so blue with white frothiness that it almost hurts your eyes to watch it.
That pretty much catches you up with the sites we have seen in St. John’s. Tomorrow we will head around the fourth side of the Avalon Pennisula. The Avalon Pennisula is only one of the five geographic regions in Newfoundland/Labrador. So you can see we have a lot more traveling to do yet. Newfoundland is a land of adventure and ancient mystery; of genuine people, jellybean homes, and rare scenic beauty. It is a land of contrasts and uniqueness and we hope that you are enjoying our journey of a lifetime as much as we are.

We've Been "Screeched" in Newfoundland!!

2008-09-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

As we left Portugal Cove South, traveling the Irish Loop, to head up to St. John’s, we drove thru many small villages with “biscuit box” homes. They are very square, usually two stories, with no additional “gingerbread” trim. Very plain and functional.

Our first stop was the village of Renews, the harbor town which in 1620, the 180 ton Mayflower stopped at for supplies on its voyage to Plymouth Rock. By this time, Renews had become known as the “English shore” of Newfoundland.

Another interesting tidbit of information regarding Renews is that the Irish were originally forbidden by law to practice the Roman Catholic faith. Therefore secret services were held at Mass Rock where a replica of Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto stands. The grotto was built by volunteer labor and is a shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes. Blessed by Pope John Paul II, it is the largest religious grotto east of Montreal.

We continued to drive thru very picturesque small villages, each having something worth stopping to see. We traveled thru Ferryland, where one of the first English settlements in North America was founded in 1621 by Lord Baltimore, and Witless Bay where you can hop a tour boat and within minutes you’re in a world of natural wonders. You can see humpback whales, millions of seabirds and spectacular icebergs all at the same time. Unfortunately, most of this happens in late spring and early summer, so we elected not to take the tour.

We arrived in St. John’s around noon and drove to C. A. Pippy RV Park where we had reservations for four nights. Here you can experience the joys of camping surrounded by nature while having the conveniences of St. John’s urban life within just miles. St. John’s is the capital city of Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada’s easternmost province. The city’s population is 100,646 – the largest in the province which has a total population of 505,469. If the province of Newfoundland/Labrador was in the U.S., it would rank as the fourth largest in size, behind Alaska, Texas, and California.

One of our first experiences in St. John’s was to visit the Crypt Tea Room where afternoon tea, which includes a variety of delectable homemade scones, tea biscuits, tarts, cookies and jams, is served in the Cathedral Tea Room of the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was $8.00 per person and you were allowed as many of the delicious pastries as you could eat. We enjoyed a very delightful afternoon and afterwards headed upstairs to the Cathedral where we had a most interesting tour of one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in North America. The Cathedral was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and the cornerstone was laid in 1847. The Great Fire of 1892, St. John’s third major fire of the century, destroyed the Cathedral along with the rectory, the church orphanage, and the school which stood nearby. When the city blaze began, the Bishop of the church convinced all the townspeople that the church would be safe since it was made of stone. Townspeople stored household goods and treasures in the church for safekeeping. Unfortunately, as the town burned and the air became hotter, the lead in the stained glass windows melted, allowing the glass to fall out and the flames to jump inside the church, destroying most everything. In the Cathedral’s southeast corner is the Sacristy, which contains the Cathedral’s oldest stained glass window, the tripartite Resurrection Window, which was the only stained glass to survive the fire. The interesting side note about this window is that as you look at the very top, you see a picture of the Phoenix arising from the ashes, yet this window was created in 1887, five years prior to the fire.
The High Altar of the Cathedral has a base of beautifully carved English brown oak, while the top, a single three inch thick slab measuring nine feet by three, is red Belgian marble. The Reredos, behind the High Altar was donated in 1923 by the family of the church’s fourth bishop. It is carved from white freestones and contains eleven pieces of statuary, with Christ in the center and two angels at each end. The statuary includes the patron saints of the British Isles: Andrew, David, George, and Patrick, with St. Michael the Archangel and St. Theodore of Tarsus, an Archbishop of Canterbury. The Bishop’s Throne, Canons’ Stalls, Choir Stalls, and all other woodwork in the Chancel, plus the Eagle Lectern, were designed by Gilbert Scott and built of oak by Harry Hems of Exeter, England.

A small museum is housed in one room of the Cathedral and the church boasts of having its own ghost. And if you don’t believe it, you can see it for yourself. One of the pictures hanging in the museum room is that of seven construction workers who helped rebuild the Cathedral in 1905. The legend has that one of the workers fell to his death while working on the construction; however, if you look closely at the picture of the workers at the completion of the building, you can see the seven men and the faint image of the worker who died, on the far left.

The Gargoyle above the door in the South Transept was donated by the Diocese of Bristol, England, in 1967. This gargoyle was formerly on a tower of St. Augustine’s Cathedral, Bristol around the 12th century, making this the oldest stone work in the Cathedral.

After leaving the Cathedral, we decided to do a walking tour of our own of the city. A scarcity of land near the all-important waterfront and the economy and speed of constructing homes one on the other, accounts in part for the predominance of row housing in the old city core. But individual embellishment, such as everyone’s choice of colors, makes for a distinct character and a visual treat. These row homes have aptly been named “jellybean row”.

Later in the evening, we decided to join the St. John’s Haunted Hike. We joined the Reverend for a guided ghostly tour through the historic and haunted streets of old St. John’s, beginning at 9:00 p.m. at the foot of the steps of the Cathedral. We listened to tales of murder, intrigue, duels to the death, false love, prostitution, torture and more! With the fog drifting in off the Atlantic, we descended into the dark underbelly of St. John’s, through the alleyways, following a cloaked and eerie figure, who knew the most sinister of places. An hour and 45 minutes later, we were two pooped puppies!

Everyone had told us we couldn’t miss being “screeched in” while we were in Newfoundland. This is a ceremony that once completed, entitles first-time visitors to become honorary Newfoundlanders or “Newfies”. We were directed to Christian’s Pub which is the oldest bar on George Street. Located in the center of historic downtown St. John’s, George Street is the premiere entertainment district in the province, with live music from jazz and blues to rock coming out of the pubs on each side of the three block street. Menus are varied at the restaurants that also inhabit this space and you can eat anything from a hamburger to cod’s tongues.

Anyway, back to the “Screeching In” ceremony. We went to Christian’s after 11:00 p.m. because nothing starts prior to that time. ( We’re normally in bed by that time not roaming the streets, but when in Rome-----------). We signed up for the ceremony and in about an hour, met Keith, the man who would perform the “screeching”. There were about 16 of us and after watching Keith sing several New Foundland songs and do an Irish jig or two, we began the ceremony with each of us having to repeat a Newfoundland saying: “Long may your big jib draw the ol’ cocky!” Once each of us finally mastered the correct brogue, and believe me it took a while since none of us could understand what Keith was saying, we were drawn into a circle and each of us had to take turns kissing a huge frozen cod (fish) on its lips. After this we were given 2 oz. of Newfoundland Screech Rum and had to down it in one gulp. It is reputed to be 94% over proof! I have to admit, it took my breath away and for just an instant, I forgot about kissing a fish!! The look on George's face said it all !!! Next we kneeled, put on a sou’wester ( a yellow plastic rainhat), and were knighted by Keith and his canoe paddle, as honorary Newfies. We even received a certificate for verification. By this time, we were beat and decided to head towards the trailer. Our first half day in St. John’s had definitely been different than any of our trip thus far.

On a sad note, we received a call from Martha, George’s sister, on August 20th that our dear friend and brother-in-law, Red had passed away. We were able to get a flight out of St. John’s (the only place in Newfoundland with a commercial airport) and the RV park was very gracious in allowing us to park our truck and trailer there. The manager and one of her assistants agreed to take McKenzie home with them and kept her safe and secure for us for the ten days we were back in Texas. We spent several days with Martha and a few with Jan’s parents before we flew back to St. John’s. We knew many of you had met or at least heard about Red and we wanted to share this information with you. We know his spirit is still keeping up with us and we can just imagine the story he is telling up there about us kissing a dead, frozen fish!!!!

The Avalon Pennisula - New Foundland

2008-08-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Everyone slept very well last night and we were eager to head out to do some exploring. The day started out with clouds and a bit of rain but we weren’t going to let it stop us from heading down the Cape Shore route. The scenery was just breathtaking as we drove around the shoreline, headed for St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve which houses one of the most accessible seabird colonies in North America. Unfortunately by the time we got there, the sky had opened up and it was raining up, down and sideways with wind blowing at 60-70 miles. We decided the weather was too bad to walk out to bird rock to see the birds but we did enjoy the museum. By the time we got back to the trailer, it was raining and blowing so hard that water was coming in the weep holes of the windows. We decided it was time to head on and try to get out of the wind. After a while, the wind died down a bit and it quit raining. The countryside was just as we had imagined with small villages tucked away between the unusual rock formations. While we were driving down the road, a wolf/coyote, or maybe just an old, beat-up dog, was standing in the middle of the road. As we drove on, the fog began to start coming in to shore, but a little while later, it was once again clear and we passed a most unusual yard and I just had to take a picture.
Our next stop was to be St. Vincent’s Beach on the Irish Loop where you can often spot whales. However, once again the fog came in and since we couldn’t see much, we drifted on towards Trepassey where Amelia Earhart departed in 1928 as the first female to fly across the Atlantic. The wind continued to blow and howl and we decided to stop at the Visitor’s Center in Portugal Cove South. There we met two very helpful ladies who told us of several places where we could stay overnight to get out of the wind. They also gave us the name of an excellent restaurant in Trepassey, called First Venture. We parked and headed over there for dinner. George had the Fisherman’s Platter and I had cod but more enjoyable even than the food was our waitress, Shirley. She spotted us as “foreigners” right away when she asked me if I wanted gravy and dressing on my fries. I must have given her a really dumb look because she finally suggested that she bring both the gravy and the dressing as a side and I could taste them before I covered my fries. Turned out they were both very good. The dressing was like fresh bread grated with spices, but it was not hard like you’d expect bread cubes to be. Anyway, we ate til we could hardly eat any more. We had been noticing along the way, that people had sale signs for bake apples and on the menu was “bake apple surprise”. We asked our friendly waitress, Shirley, what that was. She said she couldn’t tell us what the surprise was because then it wouldn’t be a surprise but she did explain to us what a bake apple was. It’s a tiny yellow berry, similar to a yellow raspberry that grows in the bogs and is very hard to pick. By this time we were hooked, so we ordered a Bake Apple Surprise. It was delicious. It had ice cream, cake, bake apples, and chocolate syrup. We thoroughly enjoyed this evening. We had delicious food, learned something about the tastes of the Newfoundland people, and were entertained by Shirley!

We had planned on making a trip out to Cape Race the next morning and then meeting up with one of the rangers for a hike to a fossil reserve. The refrigerator decided to act up again and we had to make some calls, but George once again got it running and by noon, we headed over to Cape Race. Driving to the Cape, was on a gravel road with some of the most beautiful scenery you will ever see. The area is known as Hyper Oceanic Barrens. This landscape, which stretches locally from Chance Cove to St. Vincents, is part of a small distinct eco-region found only on exposed headlands in eastern Newfoundland. Oceanic Barrens are fairly easy to recognize. Viewed from the sea, their headlands rise sharply in a series of rugged rocky cliffs. Venture inland and you discover a terrain that quickly softens into low rolling stretches of open barrens and bogs. Just what I would expect to see if I went to Ireland. Close proximity to the ocean produces a climate marked by short, mild winters and cool, foggy summers. Dense carpets of heath moss mixed with lichens and low growing shrubs are everywhere you look.
Cape Race National Historic Site has a lighthouse with the most powerful light on the western side of the North Atlantic. For five centuries it has been an important landmark for ships traveling across the Atlantic Ocean. With its ice, fog, and strange ocean currents, it has also been a place feared by mariners. Numerous ships have been lost at the Cape, earning it the title “Graveyard of the Atlantic”. In 1851 the British Admiralty consented to the establishment of a navigational aid. This unmanned, ineffective wooden beacon was replaced by a cast iron tower that began operating in December 1856. It is still working and manned 24 hours a day. We walked up to the top of the lighthouse and were able to go inside the actual light. It is really hot in there and makes you dizzy as it slowly turns.

Cape Race also has a direct connection to the Titanic disaster; since it was here that the stricken liner’s distress call was picked up and relayed to other ships in the area and to other stations down the eastern seaboard.

On the night of April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic passed within range of Cape Race on her ill-fated maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Early in the evening, Jack Phillips, senior wireless operator on the Titanic, made contact with Walter Gray, Officer in charge at the Cape Race station. They had trained together and knew each other. They had a friendly conversation, mainly about the magnificence of the Titanic and the great time everyone was having. A large volume of messages were sent from the Titanic to Cape Race to be relayed to destinations throughout North America. Jack Phillips continued to send messages until just before midnight, but he was aware that the ship had struck something at 11:40. Walter Gray had turned the routine work of receiving messages over to his assistants while he performed regular checks on equipment. His second officer, found him to deliver the incredible news that the Titanic had struck an iceberg and was calling CQD (Come Quick Danger), the international distress signal. Phillips was also using the newly introduced SOS signal. Gray immediately prepared reports of the situation for the owners of the Titanic, one New York Newspaper, and the Canadian Marconi Company in Montreal, who owned the wireless station at Cape Race.

The world received the news via Cape Race Marine Radio that the greatest ocean liner ever built, the unsinkable Titanic, had collided with an iceberg and was sinking. The last signal from the Titanic was heard about 2:00 a.m. Soon afterward thousands of messages began flooding the Cape Race station. They were addressed to Titanic passengers on board the ships known to be proceeding to the disaster. The senders were no doubt reasoning that passengers might have been picked up by any one of the ships and were sending the same message to the same person on all the ships. Following orders, Gray ignored numerous requests for information from a variety of sources, including the Governor of Newfoundland. Gray telephoned Governor Williams and informed him that he had no public information about the Titanic and suggested he contact the Marconi office in Montreal. This action earned Gray a telegram from the Governor expressing his displeasure and stating that the matter would be taken up with Mr. Marconi himself who was currently in New York. Confident he had taken the proper action, Gray did not respond and he never heard of the matter again.

Governor Williams sent a telegram to Marconi International Marine Communications and they responded by saying they regretted the situation and that the operator had not carried out his duty to the Governor and the people of Newfoundland possibly because he feared that providing information about the disaster would be a violation of his oath to protect the secrecy of the correspondence which he received and transmitted. Guess that put the Governor in his place!

We arranged to take a hike with a ranger back to Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve. There were 9 humans and two dogs who took the 4 mile hike through the bogs back to the cliffs containing fossilized remains of a community of marine creatures from over 565 million years ago. These were soft bodied creatures without shells, bones, muscles, or eyes. They lived on a deep dark ocean floor and fed by filtering food from the sea water. They were wiped out and buried under tons of volcanic ash.

We took McKenzie with us on the hike and I must say she did really well. She tromped thru the mud and river and stopped to have a drink of water every once in a while. Once we reached the fossils, we pulled off our shoes and either walked in our stockings or used some booties to walk on the rocks and look at the formations. It was really remarkable to see how well preserved they were and to realize that we were walking on what used to be the ocean bottom millions of years ago. McKenzie and George identified several of the fossils and we took pictures of the spindle and feather duster (spindle is the leafy thing on the left and the feather duster is on the right). On the way out, we saw a harbor seal several times frolicking out in the ocean waves.

Well, believe me, we’ve had another really full day. By evening when the fog once again enveloped our trailer, we were all ready to hit the sack. Tomorrow, we will hook up and head on toward St. John’s – the largest city and also the capital of Newfoundland. I’m sure we’ll find many interesting things to stop and look at on the way, though. Til then, take care!

We've Finally Arrived!!! - Newfoundland!!

2008-08-21T11:26:00.000-07:00

It’s finally here! The day we board the ferry – the three of us and all our worldly possessions – to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to Newfoundland! We were excited and a bit apprehensive wondering what 17 ½ hours aboard a ship would be like. The MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood , named after a former Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador and his wife, can carry 1,200 passengers, 370 automobiles, has a cafeteria, snack bar, pub with live entertainment, video arcade, gift shop, full length movies, cabins and dormitory berths. We had verified that our ship was leaving at 3:30 p.m. on Friday as scheduled and that we should be there around 1:30. We arrived at North Sydney, Nova Scotia, docks around 1:15p.m. After getting our “line-up” instructions, we were informed that the vessel we were boarding, would not be arriving at dock until 3:30 and we would not be boarding until 5:00 p.m. So we parked our truck and trailer in line and walked around and talked to other people who were also waiting. Everyone kept asking if we had make reservations for a bunk or at least a recliner for the night. We finally decided maybe we’d pay the extra $40.00 and get two recliners that we could possibly sleep in. And, so we did! About 4:00 p.m., the ship finally came creeping into the dock area. We were all tired and bored! They informed us by loudspeaker that it would be at least an hour before we could enter as they needed to clean the vessel before they could start loading us. By this time, McKenzie was ready to drive us up onto that boat herself!!

Finally, at 6:00 p.m., we started boarding. Looked like we were going to be right in the front, so maybe at least, we’d be the first one off the boat. We finally said goodby to North Sydney Nova Scotia and were underway. The weather was windy and cool.

We didn't know how warm or smelly it would be down in the belly of the boat where our trailer and truck was, so we elected to take Miss McKenzie up to the kennels on the ship. What a mistake! She didn’t like the kennels and she especially didn’t like the other dogs barking all the time. Since they wouldn’t hush up, she decided to add her two cents by howling like a banshee for at least two solid hours! To make matters worse, we could only walk her twice during the now 20 hour trip and it had to be at the time the steward designated so everyone could go at one time. She is not used to “doing her business” on command, as they only gave us 15 minutes. She also didn’t want to “do her business” on the boat floor. She was looking for grass!! We finally convinced her, took her back to the kennel, and once again she sang acappella for an hour or two.

George and I didn’t have a much better night as we couldn’t get any sleep in the recliners. They were too short for George and just generally uncomfortable for me, but we managed to make it thru the night. On the morning doggie walk, we took McKenzie to the trailer and left her there. It was cooler and much less oily smelling and she was a happy camper.

Finally at noon, we were able to disembark at Argentia, Newfoundland. 260 nautical miles from North Sydney. By this time, we had been on the boat for 20 hours and neither of us could walk a straight line – but, here we were in beautiful Newfoundland! As the ship's front end opened, we got more exicited!
Once they gave us the "go ahead", we rolled onto Newfoundland soil!

It took us a bit of time to figure out the roads here. After being lost and having to turn both the truck and trailer around twice in 20 minutes, we took a few minutes breather in a parking lot, located our position on the map, and headed off – only to get lost again. Well, it wasn’t our fault! Seems like we were looking for the Atlantic Charter Monument and though we finally found the little village it was supposed to be in, we couldn’t find the monument, but did we ever see some beautiful scenery. At last, we saw a sign and there was a couple sitting out on their porch, so we stopped to see if we could take the trailer up the gravel road to the monument. They advised against it and I then asked if we could walk it. They said sure and were nice enough to let us park the truck and trailer in their yard off the road. My mistake was not asking how far we'd have to walk. We thought we were walking just a short ways up the gravel road. About 3 miles later, we finally found the monument. Evidently a group of Canadian citizens felt the same way we did about the lack of signage leading to this historical site and have posted several signs to voice their disgust. Overall, we've found all the Canadians very proud of their provinces and they all fly the Canadian Flag as well as the flag that represents their province.

The monument indicated that in August 1941, during the Second World War, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and President Franklin Roosevelt, of the U.S. met aboard the USS Augusta in Placentia Bay to discuss their countries common goals for peace. They agreed upon 8 principles which would guide their two great countries thru the war and beyond. These principles were later issued in a press release and a London newspaper dubbed them the “Atlantic Charter”. The Atlantic Charter was accepted by an alliance of 26 nations which came into effect on January 1, 1942 to fight the Axis Powers. President Roosevelt named this alliance, “the United Nations”.

Okay, this was a little too much on the first day, so we decided to find a place to park, have a nice glass of wine, eat dinner and go to bed. Tomorrow we will start out fully rested with map in hand and headed for the Cape Shore Loop!

Fortress of Louisbourg - Nova Scotia

2008-08-13T20:01:00.001-07:00

Step back in time to 1713! The French came to Louisbourg , after ceding Acadia and Newfoundland to the British by the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession. France’s only remaining possessions in what is now Atlantic Canada were the islands of Cape Breton and Prince Edward. The French used these islands as a base to continue the lucrative cod fishery off the Grand Banks. Fish, preserved by salting and drying, was an important foodstuff in Europe. In 1719, the French began to construct a fortified town at Louisbourg. The town and settlement along the harbour shore soon became a thriving community and developed into an important center of merchant trade. Ocean going vessels from France, the West Indies, and Canada as well as coastal ships from New England and Acadia used Louisbourg as a trade and shipping center.

Fishermen built their sod cottages on the outskirts of the Fortress. They built their homes to be as insulated as possible against the cold northerly winds of winter, with a floor comprised of dirt and horse manure and coated with animal blood to make it hard enough to be swept. Always existing with the fear of war, the families living in these sod cottages, put no more money than necessary into their homes, realizing that if the town was attacked, they would need to leave their homes and move inside the Fortress walls, burning their homes so the enemy could not utilize them.

The 1500 soldiers, for the most part, were militia men who were paid to go to Louisbourg to build the Fortress and settlement. They worked 24 hour shifts on guard duty and then were off for 48 hours. During these 48 hours, they were paid additional monies to do whatever was needed to build the settlement. Looks like George is already in trouble! The barracks housed 8 beds per room which slept 24 men. Two men slept in a bed at a time while the third man was on duty. The blankets and straw mattresses became smelly and moldy due to the wet weather and it was necessary to hang them out to dry each day.
The King’s Bastion, in its day was the largest building in North America. It was 365 feet long and housed the soldier’s barracks, the Governor’s apartments and the chapel. It was fortified by additional stone walls with a large center area. Surrounded by ramparts, it was a fort within a fortress. One might think that the fortress would be prepared for any onslaught. Yet while the harbour was well defended with batteries placed at the lighthouse and the small island just to the right of it, the land defenses were made up of a series of low hills.

The first attack came in 1745 following a declaration of war between Britain and France. The New Englanders mounted an assault on Louisbourg and within 46 days of the invasion, the fortress was captured and the French inhabitants were sent back to France. To the chagrin of the New Englanders, three years later, the town was given back to France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Once again the French returned from France to Louisbourg, but their freedom was besieged a second time just ten years later in 1758. Without a strong navy to patrol the sea beyond its walls, Louisbourg was impossible to defend. A British army captured the fortress in six weeks. Though the British did not want the fortress, they were determined that the French would not have it again and the fortifications were blown up in 1760-61.

In 1961, the Government of Canada began a $25 million dollar project aimed at reconstructing approximately ¼ of the original town and fortifications. Within this area the buildings, yards, gardens and streets were being recreated as they were during the 1740’s, immediately preceding Louisbourg’s first siege. Archaelogical excavation has yielded millions of artifacts and is ongoing today. Some 750,000 pages of documents and 500 maps and plans have been copied from archives in France, England, Scotland, the United States and Canada to reveal historical evidence of life at Louisbourg.

One of the homes, built by Joseph Douglas, an Acadian carpenter and trader was built as a duplex in 1723. He later took full possession and lived there with his wife, nine children and a slave. The timber framed building with vertical log infill is typical of many Louisbourg houses.

As we walked these streets, the sights and sounds of the 18th century came alive as we met the citizens of Louisbourg. Dozens of costumed animators become the town’s residents during the summer of 1744. The drummers had a definite job several times a day. They woke the soldiers up, told them when it was time for them to go off duty, and when it was time to sleep. The sounds of the muskets and cannons were unfamiliar to our ears, but we could understand how important these instruments were to the lives of the people who lived during that time. Some of the information amazed us. Public punishment for stealing liquor was handled by marching the thief down the streets of the settlement and then putting him in the neck chain for several hours a day for a week. The Black Rum was a good buy as it was reputed to be 75% over proof! If a visiting sailor or captain from one of the trading vessels wanted a drink, he had only to look at the signs above the establishments. If they were covered with pine boughs, liquor was served there. Also, as several buildings were built with the King’s money, they were identified by having the fleurs de lis symbol on top of the building.

We thoroughly enjoyed the day and felt that this was one of the best reconstructions we have ever visited. So, if you are in Nova Scotia, stop in at the Fortress of Louisbourg and live, if only for a day, in the year 1744!!

Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

2008-08-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

We continued to follow the Sunrise Trail through the North Umberland Shore area of Nova Scotia, heading to the Arms of Gold Campground, located about three miles from the ferry we will take to Newfoundland. Along the way, we drove thru Antigonish. The town has a strong Scottish heritage and the renowned Antigonish Highland Games have been held here every year since 1861. These are the largest and oldest highland games held outside Scotland. Antigonish is also home to St. Francis Xavier University which offers studies in Celtic languages, literature and history, and has an impressive Gaelic collection. In the Hall of Clans are hand-carved crests of the 70 founding Scottish families of Nova Scotia.

Returning back to the Trans-Canada Highway, we began driving the Ceilidh Trail which would lead us to Cape Breton Island. The Canso Causeway connects Cape Breton with the mainland. Before the causeway’s completion in 1955, Cape Breton was reachable only by ferry. The Arm of Gold campground, where we will camp for the next five days, is very scenic. It sits on a far finger of the Bras d’Or Lake and is very well kept and seems to be a very popular spot. McKenzie found lots of friends in the campground but I think she is still pining for her little French boyfriend, Teddy, whom she met in Montreal. No one else seems to have her attention.
The Cabot Trail will be our first adventure after we’ve taken a day or so to just rest up and get the trailer ready for the ferry voyage. Scottish traditions are still very strong in these areas and the Gaelic language is still taught in many of the local schools. The Cabot Trail winds for nearly 185 miles through the beautiful highlands and plateaus of Cape Breton. Being a loop trail, you can start or end your journey at a number of different spots.

Tuesday, we headed out early for the Cabot Trail. It is supposed to rain today and tomorrow, so we decided we’d just make the best of it and see what we could see today. Our first stop was at Lake O’Law picnic site which featured the Three Sisters mountains. McKenzie thought we were ready to have lunch, so she just made herself at home and was patiently waiting for the food. I had to explain to her that we had lots of miles to travel before it was time for lunch. Margaree Harbour is a colorful coastal village that wraps around a harbour filled with fishing boats. Everything looked very lush and green against the blue sapphire water. A little further down Cabot Trail at Cap Le Moine, we ran upon Joe’s Scarecrow Village. He must have had at least a hundred scarecrows dressed up in a field with cute little paper tags attached to each, telling visitors their names and a bit of history about them. George and McKenzie decided to visit with two of the seniors at the Senior Citizen party and Jan later joined in a game of “ring around the rosie” with several of the scarecrow children. Now I have to say, this is a “first”. I don’t think we’ve ever run across a Scarecrow Village in all our travels before!

Cheticamp is a busy fishing village with a thriving Acadian culture. It is also a center for rug hooking as well as many other crafts. In one of the studios, a lady was giving a demonstration of how she does the rug hooking. First she draws the picture freehand. Then she starts hooking the wool fibers through a burlap type backing and forms beautiful designs and pictures, making everything from coasters, rugs, and wall hangings, to bookmarkers. It was fascinating to watch how fast she could do this art.

The Cabot Trail road was very twisty and winding but overall it was a pretty good two lane road. Parts of it run through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, one of Canada’s most stunning and diverse national parks encompassing 356 square miles of beautiful highland and coastal habitats. There are rocky shorelines, sandy beaches, mountain trails, old-growth forests, waterfalls, and highland barrens to discover. Moose are prevalent throughout the park. We saw two while we were viewing the beautiful bays and bogs.

I had read about a waterfall just a short distance into the forest on a gravel road. It was probably the worst road we have ever been on. We could barely creep through all the potholes, but once we arrived, we were rewarded with the beautiful Beulach Bahn Falls, which cascades like a liquid curtain of white lace 50 feet down into a clear flowing stream.

Back on the Trail, we took a detour through Neil’s Harbour, another ruggedly picturesque fishing village. Further along, at Green Cove, we explored a unique shoreline of huge blocks of pink granite, worn smooth by the constantly pounding surf of the open sea.

By this time, it was drizzling and the fog started rolling in. We made several more stops at artist’s studios, some of which were located in a barn or workshop by their home. It was very interesting talking with them. One lady told us that they had been full timers for four years and then they came to Cape Breton Island on a visit and never left. She made beautiful pottery, plates, cups, bowls, etc. but we can only use so much of that. Once we got ready to leave, she asked if we’d like some fresh eggs and we bought a dozen from her.

We arrived home about 5:30 p.m. George was exhausted from driving all those twisty roads, but we certainly saw some awesome scenery, gorgeous homemade crafts, and even a few unusual attractions. What more could you ask for? We’re not sure yet whether we will head out to the Fortress of Louisburg tomorrow or stay around the trailer and get a few things done. George would like to get the oil changed in the truck as we are racking up the mileage really quickly, so we’ll just see what the day brings. If we don’t go to Louisburg tomorrow, we will probably go on Thursday as that is one of attractions we had on our list of things to see and our days here in Nova Scotia are rapidly decreasing. Hope you enjoyed Cabot’s Trail as much as we did!

Scallops and Waves in Nova Scotia

2008-08-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

Leaving the Halifax area, we drove Route 103 around the eastern portion of Nova Scotia. This route was good for the truck and trailer but because it was a bit inland, the scenery was very monotonous – mostly just forested hills with pines and spruce. As we had already seen a number of lighthouses and the coastal bays, we decided not to try to take the truck and trailer on Route 3 which was very narrow and curvy.

As we wandered along, we passed by ancient Acadian villages where the tricolor flag (blue, white, and red stripes with a gold star in the upper left hand corner – almost looks like the Texas flag) of the Acadian Nation greeted us. The major center at this end of the province, is Yarmouth. Yarmouth was settled in 1761 and the town’s proximity to the ports of New England and lucrative trade with the West Indies brought a prosperity to this fishing village that remains today. One of Yarmouth’s most scenic drives (which we didn’t take since we had the trailer tagging along behind us), leads to one of Nova Scotia’s most dramatic and historically significant lighthouses, Cape Forchu. The original lighthouse built in 1839 was replaced by the current structure in the 1960’s. Rising 75 feet in the air, the lighthouse’s two-million-candlepower beam can be seen over 30 nautical miles out at sea.

As we left Yarmouth, we began traveling on the Evangeline Trail, along the awesome Fundy shoreline and over the fields of the Annapolis Valley. Our destination was Digby, which just by chance, was having their annual Digby Scallop Days festival. We had trouble finding a campground but were finally able to talk the owner of Fundy Spray Campground in Smith Cove (about 10 minutes from Digby) to let us drycamp for two nights. As soon as we were set up, we headed over to Digby to try out the world famous Digby scallops. We had gotten a referral from the campground manager and we had to admit that the scallops were the best we had ever eaten. They were so tender they almost melted in your mouth. George had a seafood lasagna and it was delicious also, and loaded with seafood. George even got a free piece of lemon pie with his dinner. The Captain’s Cabin was a great place to eat, wonderful service and very reasonably priced.

Digby was founded in 1783 by Loyalists from the New England colonies led by Admiral Robert Digby. The town overlooks the magnificent Annapolis Basin and the Digby Gut,

which opens out into the Bay of Fundy. Digby is home port to one of North America’s
largest scallop fleets. The historic waterfront is lined with shops, cafes and restaurants. At the end of the boardwalk a restored 92 foot scallop dragger, the Lady Vanessa, has been made into a private museum highlighting the local fishery and scallop–dragging.

After walking around the town, and looking over some of the vendor’s wares, we noticed a group of people doing Tai Chai on the waterfront. It looked so peaceful and refreshing with the harbor in the background, that I almost wanted to join in. In fact, if we keep eating our way across Canada, I’m going to have to do something!! Anyway, there was a music concert at 7:00 with Blueberry Grunt as the musicians. They are a local group of four guys and a girl who do a pretty decent job of playing a variety of music and instruments. As we looked around, we noticed that the majority of the crowd was in their 50’s and older. It was starting to cool down and with the wind coming off the harbor, we decided to head back to the trailer.

Once we arrived back at the trailer, we found our refrigerator was not working properly again. The check light kept coming on. We had had the same problem a couple of weeks ago and George had cleaned it and it started working again. We decided to buy a new thermocoupler at that time so we’d have it if it started misbehaving again. So, at 9:00 p.m., George was out putting in a new thermocoupler. That didn’t seem to fix it either. The next morning we drove into Digby and talked with a guy who knew something about RV refrigerators and he gave us some ideas. Finally George thought he had figured out what was wrong and the refrigerator worked until we got ready to leave the next morning. Then the check light came on again. More about that later.

We had planned on spending the day at Bear River, which according to the tourist guide, was the “Switzerland of Nova Scotia.” I have to say, if this is what Switzerland looks like, we haven’t missed much. The town was about two blocks long with most of the buildings falling down, being torn down, or just empty. The pictures in the literature showed a colorful town and stated that the village is “best known for its many outstanding artists and craftspeople with their attractive shops and studios.” The few that were open, didn’t offer a lot and we were through in less than an hour. This was a major disappointment but we realize that each of these little villages and towns have to try to bring in tourists by offering something different from the neighboring towns. Several of their buildings were built on wooden stilts, as stated in the literature, to keep them above the dramatic high tides from the Fundy Bay.

Fortunately, the next morning, George was able to reach the owner of the nearest RV repair shop and he said he’d take a look at the refrigerator if we’d drive about 35 miles back toward Yarmouth. We did and after 30 minutes of trying different things, Dave finally decided it was the reigniter. We replaced that and were on our way once again.

After the Bear River fiasco, we decided to head straight over to Truro where we’ll spend the night and hopefully get to experience the tidal bore. If anything peaks our interest as we’re heading over there, we’ll stop and give it a look, but we are not going out of our way based on the information in the tourist guide.

We arrived at Truro around 4:30 and found our way to the Wal-Mart. I went in to ask permission to drop our trailer while we drove down to see the tidal bore and to see if we could spend the night there as there were signs indicating there was “no overnight parking”. The manager was very nice and told me that we could surely leave the trailer there and spend the night as well. The city evidently put up the signs, but the manager said he’d never heard of them enforcing it. We ate and headed over to the Salmon River to watch the tidal bore. For those of you unfamiliar with a Tidal Bore, it is an amazing phenomenon seen in very few parts of the world. The Bay of Fundy is particularly noted for having the highest tides in the world. Twice daily, a wave of water rushes from the Minas Basin to fill the channel of the Salmon River in a matter of minutes. As the tide passes toward the head of the bay, it is in effect squeezed by the ever-narrowing sides and by the constant shallowing of the bottom. As it reaches the very head of the bay, the advancing tide becomes a wave varying from just a ripple to several feet in height, and this wave, called a “tidal bore”, continues up the rivers which empty into the bay. Thus, we have the phenomenon of a river changing its flow before our very eyes as the bore rushes in over the outgoing river. The height of the tidal bore increases with the range of the tide, which in turn, varies with the phases of the moon. The best time to view the tidal bore is during a full moon or a new moon. Equally interesting as the wave itself is the time it takes for the river to fill to high tide – just over one hour from the arrival of the tidal bore, as compared to the conventional six hours to reach high tide along coastal waters.

Okay, now you know what we are looking for! We took our lawn chairs and went early as Mother Nature does not wear a wristwatch. Of course, she had to add a little drama to the situation by pricking one of the clouds directly over us, so it slowly showered down on our heads. Luckily, there was a porch where we could await the arrival! Finally, we saw some disturbance in the waves around the bend and sure enough, we saw the water slowly making its way toward us. McKenzie was wondering what in the world we were supposed to be looking for? The waves were definitely not high by any stretch of the imagination, but as they crawled toward us and forced the river to start flowing in the opposite direction, the small hairs on the back of our necks raised to let us know that we were witnessing a miracle of nature! Within just a few minutes, the water had almost covered the bed of the river and would continue to fill it.

There were other things to see in Truro, such as the Victoria Park in the center of town. It is comprised of 1,000 acres of trees, winding paths, and waterfalls. Today, with a population of about 12,000 Truro is an important center of transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, trade and education. Its central location has a direct bearing on its climate. It is located just 15 miles north of the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole and therefore escapes the extremes in temperature and weather conditions often experienced in other areas.

Tomorrow will find us winding our way over to the Northumberland Shore area of Nova Scotia, traveling the Sunrise Trail. Gently rolling farmlands create a quilt of emerald green fields that meets the sparkling blue waters of the Northumberland Strait. Our destination will be Golden Arms RV Park outside North Sydney, where we will spend a few days sightseeing and then getting ready for our trip across the water to New Foundland!

Nova Scotia - Peggy's Cove and Bluenose II

2008-08-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

Though we have had a lot of rain and the day looked a bit cloudy, we decided to take the Lighthouse route over to the town of Mahone Bay where the narrow streets are lined with a unique collection of studios and galleries of some of Canada’s finest artists and craftspeople, specialty shops, a pub, restaurants and cafes. The three waterfront churches form one of the most photographed scenes in Nova Scotia. It was cool and crisp and everything looked breathtaking.

From Mahone Bay, the lighthouse route continues to Lunenburg, one of Nova Scotia’s most historic and beautiful towns. Its colorful waterfront, narrow streets and captivating architecture radiate the flavor of the town’s seafaring heritage. The early settlers of 1753 were primarily farmers, but they quickly turned to the sea for their livelihood, building a world-class fishing and shipbuilding industry. At the turn of the century, Lunenburg’s schooner fleet sailed the Grand Banks, competing with the fleets of New England to bring home the abundance of cod. In Old Town Lunenburg, dozens of historic buildings and homes dating back to 1760 have been beautifully maintained. The streets still follow the original town plan of 1753.

Beginning the early hours of November 1, 2003, fire ravaged St. John’s Anglican Church of Canada, substantially destroying the building. Undaunted by the destruction, the parishioners decided to restore the church. With financial help from friends around the world and the skills of local craftspeople and artists, the church was reopened for worship on June 12, 2005.

One of the attractions on the wharf is the Bluenose II. On March 26, 1921, Smith & Rhuland’s launched the fishing schooner Bluenose. At 258 tons, she was the largest schooner ever launched in Lunenburg. Although built primarily to challenge the Americans who had won the first series for the International Fisherman’s Trophy, she also had to pay her own way as a working fishing vessel. In 1921, under command of Capt. Angus Walters of Lunenburg, she defeated the Gloucester, Maine schooner, Elsie, and successfully defended her title four times between 1922 and 1928. Each time she had to defeat other Canadian challengers in order to earn the right to race against the Americans. By 1942, she had outlived her usefulness as a fishing vessel and was sold to the West Indies Trading Company. She was lost in a storm off the coast of Haiti in January, 1946. Bluenose’s legacy lives on with her depiction on a stamp issued in the 1930’s , on the Canadian dime, and in Bluenose II, a replica also designed and built by the same folks who built Bluenose. Bluenose II serves as the Nova Scotia sailing ambassador and a symbol of Lunenburg’s great seafaring heritage.

Once finished with Lunenburg, we headed back over to Peggy’s Cove to get a better look at everything. The picturesque setting and lighthouse are among the most photographed spots in Canada. A romantic folk tail tells how the cove got its name. “Young Peggy was traveling to Halifax to meet her fiance when the ship she was on foundered on the rocks. She was rescued by local folk and as visitors went to see her, they would say they were going to see Peggy of the Cove”.

The land becomes more rugged and barren, and granite boulders and rocky outcroppings create a landscape of sea carved beauty. Fishermen were inspired to make their permanent home here because of the sheltered cove which offered close proximity to large populations of fish in the St. Margaret’s Bay and a safe place to land their catch. In 1811, six fishermen and their families became the first residents of Peggy’s Cove, receiving a land grant of 800 acres from King George III. More families came in the years that followed and the community took shape. Residents built sturdy houses around the cove, later adding a schoolhouse in 1839, a lighthouse in 1868, and a church in 1850. In these early years, the community was self sufficient. There was a general store and a post office. Families raised livestock and a few crops despite the thin soil.

The graceful lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove sits high upon the smooth wave-worn granite of the coast. The lighthouse was first built in 1868 and consisted of a wooden house topped by a beacon. Each evening the lighthouse keeper lit a kerosene oil lamp magnified by a silver plated mirror creating the red light which marked the eastern entrance to St. Margaret’s Bay and guiding the fishermen into the cove. In 1914 an octagon-shaped lighthouse built of concrete and reinforced steel, standing nearly 50 feet high, replaced the old structure and is the lighthouse we see today. The old lighthouse keepers dwelling remained next to the lighthouse until it was damaged by Hurricane Edna in 1954. The lighthouse was used until 1958 when it became automated. Several changes have occurred over the years including the switch from a red light to a white light then to a green light in the late 1970’s. During the summer months, the lower level serves as the village post office from where visitors can send post cards and letters. Each piece of mail receives a special cancellation mark in the shape of a lighthouse.

While walking around, we noticed this old car which has been making its way across North America. I guess that’s one way to travel. Don’t know what kind of gas it uses, but the sign says "West Coast to East Coast and back home to Oregon!"

Before going home, McKenzie decided she needed some homemade ice cream. After all she’s been climbing granite boulders and walking all over the place, so it’s time for a treat. She selected, with some help from George and me, a scoop of Banana Cardomen, and two scoops of Maple Walnut in a waffle cone. MMMMM – it was surely good!!

Tomorrow will find us heading out and around Nova Scotia. We will most probably keep the truck and trailer on the inside passage as it is a much better road. When we want to see a village or a site that is on the coast, we’ll drop the trailer and head over there in the truck. Many of these roads are very twisty and narrow and we don’t want to get into a spot with the trailer where we can’t turn it around. After a couple of days, we should arrive in the north part of the province and will take the Cabot Trail around before ending up in Sydney to catch the ferry over to New Foundland on August 15th. Hope you’re enjoying our trip as much as we are!

Halifax, Nova Scotia - The Beauty and Tragedy

2008-08-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

We left PEI early Sunday and crossed the Confederation Bridge back into New Brunswick and then over to Nova Scotia. The bridge only charges you when you leave, so we had to pay the toll of $55.00 for our truck and trailer. As we drove closer to Halifax, the fog started settling in and we could barely see the city as we drove by. The coastal drive to our campground, Wayside RV Park on St. Margaret’s Bay was very beautiful. On Monday, we decided to drive into Halifax. With a population of close to 373,000,(more than one-third of Nova Scotia’s population) Halifax Regional Municipality is the largest city east of Quebec City and north of Boston. Since we arrived early, we thought a ferry trip over to Dartmouth, Halifax’s sister city, might be a good way to start the day. Dartmouth was established in 1750, just a year after the founding of Halifax. The Dartmouth waterfront park has a boardwalk that stretches out to the east and west of the ferry terminal and provides an excellent view of McNab’s Island, George’s Island (bet you didn’t know George owned an island), and the two bridges. Just a short walk along the boardwalk brought us to the Peace Pavillion which displays historically or culturally significant stones and bricks contributed by countries all over the world. We saw a stone from the Berlin Wall and also one from the Great Wall in China. While we were in Dartmouth, we noticed everyone lining up along the sides of the street. Upon asking, we were told they were waiting for the Natal Day Parade which celebrates the birth of Nova Scotia.

Once back on the ferry, and headed back to the Halifax waterfront, we passed Theodore Too. Based on a popular TV show, this world renown tugboat offers tours that bring the big harbor to life. Throughout the year, the waterfront bustles with events and activities, such as today when everyone was on hand for the celebration of Natal Day. Dozens of performers offer free entertainment, and believe me, San Francisco has nothing on this town as far as hilly streets go! I was seriously puffing by the time we walked to the Public Gardens, about 12 blocks from the wharf area. Begun in 1836, the 17 acres are a wonderful place to enjoy the shady tranquility of a bench. Winding pathways lead past duck ponds, sparkling fountains, stately trees and formal floating flowerbeds. There is also a charming red-roofed bandstand in the center of the cool oasis, where bands give free concerts. It was so tranquil and beautiful here. The Dahlias were in bloom and enormous and the serpentine flower beds were vibrant with color.
While in the wharf area, we visited the NovaScotian Crystal studio where the old-world craft of mouth-blown, hand-cut crystal has been revived. I just had to have a small piece of the beautiful crystal with a lighthouse cut into it as a remembrance.

Since we hadn’t visited a museum in a while, we decided to go into the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic which commemorates two catastrophes – the Halifax Explosion and the “unsinkable” Titanic. The museum also displays over 20,000 maritime artifacts, providing a vital link between the city and the sea and seafaring life.

On December 6, 1917, the Norwegian ship, Imo, collided with a French ammunition ship, Mont Blanc outside the mouth of the Halifax Harbor. At 8:45 a.m., Imo’s bow struck the Mont Blanc, tearing her hull and creating showers of sparks. Fire broke out quickly spreading through the ship. Taking to lifeboats, Mont Blanc’s crew roared frantically towards shore. The Captain, pilot and five crew members of the Imo were killed. All the crew of the Mont Blanc survived. The huge column of black smoke with flames bursting thru, attracted crowds of spectators. Slowly the burning ship drifted toward Halifax and came to rest at Pier 6. Seconds before 9:05 a.m., the Mont Blanc blew up. There was such terrific force that one gun barrel landed more than 3 ½ miles away. Not one piece of her remained beside the dock where she had finished her voyage. Fragments rained on the surrounding area, crashing through buildings with enough force to embed them where they landed. Churches, houses, schools, factories, docks and ships were destroyed in the swath of the blast. A thick fog filled with soot and oil shrouded the area. The wooden buildings turned to cinders and the town was ablaze. The death toll rose to over 1,700.

Vincent Coleman worked at the station in the Richmond rail yard only a few hundred feet from Pier 6 where the Mont Blanc drifted ashore in flames. Warned of her explosive cargo, he returned to his telegraph key to stop incoming trains. He was killed by the explosion but his message was heard by every station from Halifax to Truro, alerting the Canadian Government Railway to the imminent disaster. The Railway was able to respond very quickly sending 6 relief trains to Halifax the day of the explosion with medical help and firefighters from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Help poured in from far and near. Maine quickly sent a completely equipped expedition and set up a temporary hospital. Over 12,000 homes were damaged and 6,000 people were left without shelter.

The official inquiry opened less than a week after the explosion. The captain and pilot of the Mont Blanc and the naval commanding officer were charged with manslaughter and released on bail. Later the charges were dropped because gross negligence causing death could not be proved against any one of them. In the Nova Scotia District Court of Canada in April 1918, the Mont Blanc was declared solely to blame for the disaster. In May, 1919, on appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, both ships were judged equally at fault. Thus no blame was ever laid in the largest man-made explosion of that time.

The years passed and the city’s scars gradually disappeared. New homes, schools, churches, factories and docks replace the desolation that had existed. Every year the Province of Nova Scotia presents a Christmas tree to Boston in gratitude for their help after the explosion.

The second really interesting area of the museum was about the Titantic. As we all know, on April 10, 1912, the Titanic left on her maiden voyage with over 2,200 passengers and crew members on board. Four days later, she struck an iceberg south of Newfoundland. She sank in 2 hours and 40 minutes. Just over 700 survivors in lifeboats were rescued by the Carpathia and taken to New York. What we didn’t know,was that the White Star Line, which had offices located on Hollis street in Halifax, commissioned four Canadian vessels to look for bodies in the area of the disaster. Two of these ships, the Mackay-Bennett and the Minia were cable ships based in Halifax. The four ships were able to recover 330 Titanic victims. Many were buried at sea, but the remaining bodies were brought to Halifax the closest major port to the area of the sinking. All of the Titanic victims, thought to be Protestant, were buried in Fairview Lawn Cemetery, just outside downtown Halifax.

John Henry Barnstead, Deputy Registrar of Deaths, improvised a remarkably thorough identification system for the bodies brought back to Halifax. They were numbered as soon as they were pulled from the sea and all personal affects were put into bags. Further details (tattoos, clothing, jewelry) were noted and photos were taken at the temporary morgue. (This system was later used during the Halifax explosion in 1917).

Though we had seen some of the Titanic exhibits previously, this museum had a couple of artifacts we had never seen before. The first was a pair of small brown shoes. These shoes were saved by Clarence Northtower, a Halifax police sergeant in 1912 who helped guard the bodies and belongings of the Titanic victims. Clothing was burned to stop souvenir hunters but he was too emotional when he saw the little pair of brown leather shoes and didn’t have the heart to burn them. When no relatives came to claim the shoes, he placed them in his desk drawer at the police station and there they remained until he retired in 1918. Many researchers now believe that the shoes belonged to the two year old son of Alma Paulson, a third class passenger traveling with her four children, who all perished.

Another unique artifact was a complete deck chair made of mahogany and other hardwoods that bears a carved five-pointed star, the emblem of the White Star Line.

Having relived the catastrophe of the Titanic, we decided to drive down to Fairview Lawn Cemetery – the final resting place of her victims! We learned that since the Titanic sank at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, and given the freezing temperature of the water, it was believed that most of the victims died of exposure soon after the sinking. Therefore, all the gravestones have the inscription “Died on April 15, 1912.” The numbers on the gravestones are the number that was assigned when the body was found. Some gravestones don’t have a name, because in many cases, there were no distinguishing marks or personal belongings that enabled a positive identification. However, thanks to careful research based on details provided in the Coroner’s files – a number of the Titanic victims have been identified in recent years. A few of the stones are larger because the families, friends or other groups assumed the cost. The White Star line purchased a section of land in the Fairview Lawn Cemetery and paid for small black granite headstones engraved with the name and/or number of the victim and the date of the tragedy.

There were over three times as many men (including the crew) on board the Titanic as there were women. However, the percentage of women who survived was much greater. In fact, because the Titanic’s crew tried to give preference to women and children, over half of the 705 survivors were women and children. Four of the 19 female victims recovered are buried at Fairview.

At the top of the first row of the graves, is a small vertical monument with the following etched on it - “Created to the memory of an Unknown Child”. The body of this very young child was one of the first bodies recovered by the seamen from Mackay-Bennett. Profoundly moved by this sad event, the crew of the Mackay-Bennett asked to sponsor a memorial service for the “Unknown Child”. The service was held on May 4, 1912 at St. George’s Round Church and the crew purchased the headstone for the child. The Coroner’s records and the passenger list combined to later identify the child as Gosta Leonard Paulson, age 2 years, who was traveling with his mother, Alma and his brothers and sisters. Alma’s grave is located directly across from her son. About one-third of the victims remain unidentified at this point.

The City of Halifax also has many other interesting attractions. We only touched the tip of the iceberg. We did stop by Pier 21 which is Canada’s “Ellis Island”. In the decade immediately following World War II, Canada received about 1 ¼ million immigrants from Europe. The newcomers consisted of dependants of returning Canadian servicemen and people dislocated by the conflict and its aftermath in their homelands. Most of them arrived by sea with Halifax serving as the major point of entry. The immigration shed was opened in 1928 and closed in 1971.

Halifax also has a star-shaped Citadel and at midday, cover your ears – the firing of the noon-day gun is a Halifax tradition dating from the late 1800’s.

On the way back to our campsite, we decided to take a quick tour to Peggy’s Cove. The graceful lighthouse sits high upon the smooth wave-worn granite of the coast and is a revered symbol of the sea-born spirit of Nova Scotia. We’ll come back here tomorrow when we do our coastal shore drive. Just west of Peggy’s Cove, a short walking trail leads to a stone monument at the Swiss Air Memorial Site, in memory of the 229 lives lost when Swiss Air Flight 111 crashed into the bay September 2, 1998.
Tomorrow we’ll drive along the South Shore Lighthouse Route to see some more of the magnificent harbor views. Nova Scotia is definitely a very beautiful province.

We're In PEI - Land of Potatoes and Anne of Green Gables

2008-08-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Prince Edward Island! We are headed over the Confederation Bridge. This massive structure spans 7 miles over the Northumberland Strait connecting Borden, Prince Edward Island to the mainland; Cape Jourimain, New Brunswick. The Confederation Bridge was built for vehicles only, with a single lane and one emergency lane in each direction. If visiting the Island by foot or by bicycle, you would have to take the 24 hour shuttle service that is provided. Once you have entered PEI, you will find yourself in the midst of Gateway Village with an array of specialty shops, restaurants, and an information center.
We decided to find a RV park and Holiday Haven in Cornwall had been recommended to us. We had a lovely spot overlooking the water and could watch the people dig for clams in the evening when the tide went out. Prince Edward Island is a crescent shaped sandbar of less than 200 miles tip to tip. PEI is famous for many things such as Anne of Green Gables, potatoes, and world famous seafood. It is flooded with artisans and each studio is open to the public all summer. There are three separate coastal drives one can take, offering something for everyone. Bicycling and hiking are also extremely popular here and a good way to explore the island is by utilizing the Confederation Trail which is built on an abandoned railway and extends from tip to tip of the island.

On Friday, we decided to venture down to Charlottetown, PEI’s capital city, with a population of 35,000. We walked the beautiful tree-laced streets and followed the boardwalk along the Charlottetown Waterfront to explore the quaint shops. We walked by St. Dunstan’s Basilica, one of Canada’s largest churches, known for its twin Gothic spires, an impressive altar and fine Italian carvings.

At the information center, we learned that PEI farmers have been growing potatoes since 1790 and are accountable for almost ¼ of the Canadian production. More than 30 varieties of potatoes are grown in the red dirt of Canada’s smallest province. PEI produces some of the best potatoes in the world and supplies to customers in over 30 countries around the world.
Behind the Information Center is the Sand Lot where artists create giant sand sculptures. The sand sculpture is made from fine grains of sand with natural occurring silt and clay and water. Once the artist completes the sand sculpture, a sealer is sprayed on the surface to keep the water in. This transparent layer will allow the sand sculpture to stay standing for months thru rain, wind and sun.

After all that walking, we decided to stop by the Gahan House, brewers of handcrafted ales. We each tried a house-brewed ale along with seafood chowder and french fried PEI sweet potatoes. Everything was fabulous!

We walked a little more and then had to have a Cow ice cream cone. They claim to have the best ice cream around, served in a handmade waffle cone. I must admit, even though I am not very fond of ice cream, this was truly, truly yummy stuff!! At that point, we decided to head back to the trailer and since it was still fairly early, we washed both the truck and trailer. They were both looking pretty pitiful after being driven over 5,500 miles across Canada.

We awoke to cloudy, windy weather on Saturday but decided to go ahead and drive around the Blue Heron Coastal Drive and stop at a few of the artist’s studios as well as visiting the Anne of Green Gables Museum. The book, Anne of Green Gables, was first published in 1908 and has long been revered as a Canadian literary classic. It was written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, who was born and raised on PEI. The tale begins as Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of Green Gables, Prince Edward Island, send for a boy orphan to help them out at the farm. The requested orphan takes the shape of Anne Shirley, a redheaded 11 year old girl who can talk a mile a minute, much to the Cuthbert’s dismay. But Anne’s disarmingly charming personality quickly converts Marilla and Matthew and her feisty spirit soon draws many friends- and much trouble- her way. The novel describes the beauty of the island and the timelessness of the Island way of life. The novel has been translated into more than a dozen languages and believed to have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. The Green Gables Museum is actually the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Aunt and Uncle and the place where she stayed at various times in her life. She was married in the front parlor on July 5, 1911 and derived many of her ideas for her 22 novels from this house.

Inside the museum, you can view the front parlor where Lucy got married, and her Enchanted bookcase in which her character, Anne, sees her reflection but believes that the reflections are real people whom she names and becomes very attached to. We also saw the blue chest which Lucy wrote about in her book entitled, “The Story Girl”. In this book, she tells of a true romance which happened in her Aunt and Uncle’s home in 1847. It is a story about Eliza Montgomery, a distant cousin of the author who was to be married in the house. The day of the wedding, the bridegroom did not show up. Eliza buried her wedding cake in the front yard, locked all her wedding clothes and gifts in the Blue Chest, and warned that the chest was never to be opened. It remained locked in the Campbell kitchen for nearly 40 years until Lucy got permission from Eliza to open it. Eliza never married.

Jan auditioned for the part of Anne, but it seemed that something was just wrong about the pigtails!!!
We stopped at probably 15 or more studios and thoroughly enjoyed all the pottery, woodworking, paintings, glass, etc. It is so much more fun to look at these type of shops than the typical souvenir shops. Of course, we found a couple of pottery bowls and a lighthouse painting that we just had to have. Gradually, the day got worse, with rain, wind and colder weather. Though it is still around 67, the wind coming off the water is cold, so we thought we’d just head back to the trailer and rest a bit before heading out tomorrow to Nova Scotia. Hope the weather improves before then, but if not, we’ll just take it easy and gradually make our way to Halifax.

Blue Lobster, Leprosy, and Soap - New Brunswick!

2008-08-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

As we prepared to leave our campsite in Perce, it was drizzling, but shortly after we got on our way, it stopped raining, still staying cloudy throughout the day. We drove the last leg of the Gaspe peninsula which took us thru many small coastal towns such as New Carlisle, Rene Levesque’s birthplace. He was Premier of Quebec from 1976 – 1985. For a touch of originality and humor, we noticed that the fire hydrants were all painted as various characters. McKenzie couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have her picture taken with Tigre, the fire hydrant!

About 3:00 p.m., we made our way into another Canadian province, New Brunswick. Once across the bridge that separates Quebec from New Brunswick, we stopped at the Visitor’s Center and decided that since it looked like a rain storm was headed our way, that we’d just spend the night there in the parking lot. Thankfully, the weather has been cool enough at night for us to drycamp when we are just passing thru a city. Once the rain was over and we had eaten dinner, we took a walking tour around the city of Campbellton, the entry point to Atlantic Canada on the shores of Chaleur Bay. It is home to the “world’s largest salmon, Restigouche Sam” who is a 28 feet tall sculpture of an Atlantic Salmon.

Having become so proficient in French, we decided to drive down the east coast of New Brunswick along the Acadian Coastal Drive. Since most of the Acadian descendants were from France, they still speak mostly French even though most of them are bilingual. They settled in this area, set up their homes and began a new way of life from the one they had experienced in France. Thru many wars between England and France, England became the owner of this area. Because the Acadians would not pledge their allegiance to England and give up their religion and French speech, England had them deported to many of the 13 colonies. To prevent them from returning to their land, they burned their homes and buildings. However, at some point, many of the Acadians did return and rebuilt their lives. The gateway to the Acadian Peninsula is home to a very colorful lighthouse in Grande-Anse and claims that its bays are the “warmest salt water north of Virginia.” McKenzie was very interested in the fishy smelling wooden box until she learned that it was a lobster “trap”. At the sound of that word, she gave her dad a worried look as if to say, “you aren’t going to put me in that stinky thing are you?” Our first stop was at the New Brunswick Aquarium and Marine Center in Shippagan where we saw tons of fish and invertebrate species, who live in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and in the lakes and rivers of eastern Canada. This aquarium is the largest public aquarium in Atlantic Canada. They also had a history of the fishing industry, a seal tank, and believe it or not – a blue lobster! Evidently the blue lobsters are similar to albinos and when the lobster fishermen catch one, they bring it to the aquarium so there will always be one on display. The seals are Harbour Seals and grow to 5-6 feet in length, weighing more than 198 pounds. They are remarkable divers and can last for more than 20 minutes under water and go as far as 328 feet. In captivity, they will eat approximately 9 pounds of fish per day. As it was late when we finished with the aquarium, and we had parked the rig at the marina next door, we decided to spend the night there. We definitely drew as much attention as the boats. Everyone kept driving by and circling around our truck and trailer. Seems like everywhere we go up here, people stop and stare at our rig. In fact at one of the campgrounds, there were so many guys hanging around waiting for us to get set up so they could ask questions, that we thought they were a greeting committee!

Our third day on the Acadian peninsula found us heading toward Tracadie-Sheila. We learned that they had a museum which commemorates the only 19th century leprosarium existing in eastern Canada. For 121 years, facilities in Tracadie served as a Lazaretto – a hospital for people with leprosy. The legend has it that a European visitor came to Tracadie and asked one of the Acadians for help. Being the kind person that he was, he took the European into his home not knowing that he had leprosy. Once the European died, the Acadian also became a leper. Originally the facilities were unattended with no doctors or nurses and the lepers lived in wretched conditions. In 1868, sisters from the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph in Montreal, came to the lazaretto and begin ministering to the lepers. They continued this ministry until the last leper left in 1965. The historical Museum of Tracadie opened its doors in 1968. Inside the museum is historical data about Tracadie, hospital equipment, articles related to the pioneer’s life, and information about the leper hospital. Along the grounds is the cemetery where the sisters were buried – numbering 59. A short walk further will bring you to the cemetery where the lepers were buried, which coincidentally, numbered 59. It was pathetic to learn that in the next 24 hours, over 1,500 men, women and children will be diagnosed with leprosy. Most of them live in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Central America, and a few in North America. We did not know that leprosy was still a viable disease today, but learned that with multi-drug therapy, the disease can be completely cured. Just another reason for each of us to be so thankful today for our health.

On that note, we decided we needed something a little more uplifting, so we headed on down the road to Bouctouche to visit the Olivier Soapery. This is Canada’s only soap Economuseum, dedicated to keeping the traditional craft of soap-making alive. Their theme is “if you wouldn’t put it in your mouth, don’t put it on your skin. They use wholesome ingredients and cold processes that preserve the integrity of the raw materials. Every product is made by hand and believe me, they have hundreds of products –soaps, deodorants, skin crèmes for cellulite, acne, diaper rash, athlete’s foot, and even their own brand of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The gentlemen who gives the demonstration is very entertaining as well as a good salesman. They claim their soaps last three to four times longer than the average bar and at the price of $7.95 and up, they would need to in order to keep people coming back. All in all, it was good, clean (no pun intended) entertainment!

The next morning, we drove in Shediac, New Brunswick which is appropriately named, “the Lobster Capital of the World” because of its lobster fishing, processing plants, live lobster tanks, and the famous Shediac Lobster Festival. Also, because here is where you will see the World’s largest lobster. The giant lobster sculpture is 35 feet in length, 16 feet in height and width and weighs 55 tons. George and McKenzie also got to meet Captain Hook up close and personal!! Since we were there at lunch time, we couldn’t pass up some of the excellent seafood. George had fish and chips and I had a lobster roll that was quite good, just not enough of it. After lunch we drove on to Cap-Pele which is North America’s largest exporter of smoked herring. In addition, we visited Sainte-Therese-d’Avila church, built in the shape of a boat with the largest stained glass windows in the Maritimes.
Later in the day, we made our way to Confederation Bridge which will take us over to Prince Edward Island where we will spend some time in Charlottestown. The Acadian coast has been beautiful an we'll be looking foward to the rest of New Brunswick later in our travels.We’ll hopefully catch the southern part of the province when it is time for us to head back to the states. Join us on Prince Edward Island (PEI, as the local folk call it) for the next leg of our journey.

Gaspe Peninsula - Rocks and Birds

2008-07-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

As we continued traveling around the Gaspe (which means Land’s End) Peninsula, we were amazed at the beautiful sites that appeared around almost every corner. Each one seemed to be better than the previous. Located on the south side of the St. Lawrence, this peninsula, with its rugged but breathtaking landform, is the continuation of the Appalachian range. The head of the Gaspe Peninsula constitutes the end of the Appalachians, and contains a large quantity of fauna and flora. Here the land joins with the sea and from this union are born pebble beaches, dizzing cliffs, small coves and fine sand beaches. For as far as the eye can see, there is only water – the tide goes out, comes in and creates rolling surf and waves.
While driving along, we spied the La Martre Lighthouse which was built in 1906 and remains operational. As we had mentioned previously each lighthouse prism is unique to itself, so the ships will know their exact location by the light they see coming from the lighthouse. La Martre lighthouse signals four short lights and one long one. Soon after leaving, we found a lovely spot by the side of the road and figured it was meant for us to spend the night there. We pulled over and had a beautiful view of the St. Lawrence and we were able to see the lighthouse work once it became dark. We stopped about noon and just relaxed, watched the water and listened to the waves.

The next morning, we headed out to the towns of Gaspe and Perce. We had decided to take an interior road instead of the coastal one we had been on, figuring we’d see farmland and meadows. What a mistake! It was a hilly, curvy road right through and over the Chic Choc Mountains. The grades were 14-16% and we were barely climbing up some of them. Once we got to Gaspe, we decided that we’d rather spend our time in Perce as there was nothing of real interest to us in Gaspe. So we drove a little further and stayed at the Camping Tete d’Indien about 20 miles from Perce. The campground was small but the staff was very helpful and sold us tickets for the Bonaventure Island boat trip as well as made reservations for us to have a wonderful seafood dinner at a very quaint restaurant. We sat at the table right behind the old stove and I have to say, it was an eating extravaganza! We had reservations (the only way you could get in) at 6:30. I had a whole steamed lobster (approximately 2 lbs.) and George had Cod. With that, we each had a seafood bisque that was to die for! Then our main dinner entre came. After eating that, we were served a chef's salad. By this time, we were absolutely stuffed, but it was time for dessert and coffee. They had apple pie, sugar pie, strawberry shortcake, strawberries and fresh fruit and cheesecake. We could hardly waddle out of the restaurant. There was absolutely no rush. In fact, they didn't finish serving us and get us our bill until 8:45 p.m. That would never happen in the states. It was a bit pricey but what a dining experience!

The campground we stayed at got its name from a rock resembling the profile of an Indian. Notice the face in the middle of the picture? Legend says “white men came from Europe on a great ship, kidnapped a young Indian girl and took her back to their country far away. Ever since, her lover tirelessly awaits the return of his beloved, with his back to the sea and sorrow in his eyes, his gaze fixed on the cliffs.”

Once we set up, we drove into Perce and looked around for a while, found where we could park the truck without having to pay, for the boat trip tomorrow, and looked over the dock where we would be boarding the boat. We also took some pictures of the Perce Rock and both of us walked in the St. Lawrence Gulf. It’s about the coldest water I think I’ve ever been in!
The next day we drove into Perce, parked the truck and walked to the dock. The boatride would go all the way around the Perce (pierced) Rock which is an impressive monolith that is one of the most photographed sites in North America. It is made of limestone and the arch is 20 meters in diameter. On our way to Bonaventure Island, we saw thousands of Northern Gannets nesting on the ledges of the cliffs. They, are delightfully animated and colorful birds, and share their spot with seals splashing about in the lower waters. The highpoint of our visit to this 4 square kilometer rocky land fashioned by the sea, was the sight of 250,000 Northern Gannets nesting on the island. These Gannets return to the same nesting site each year. Both partners help build the nest using algae, feathers, flotsam and grass. We noticed that many of the Gannets raised their heads with their beaks pointed at the sky. We soon learned that before taking off, the Gannet raises its bill skyward for a few seconds and fills its air cells located in its neck to absorb the shock of the dive. Then taking a deep breath, it releases a hoarse cry and takes flight. These little creatures fascinated us for quite some time. Babies had been hatched and mothers were protecting them from danger. The babies were fuzzy, like newborn chicks, and had black beaks instead of the grey color on the adults.

The boat tour was $25.00 per person and took about an hour and a half to go around Perce Rock and then travel around Bonaventure Island and back to the dock. You could get off at Bonaventure and pay an additional $3.50 each to hike any or all of the four trails on the island. We hiked two of them, which was approximately 4.5 miles – plenty for us since a good deal of the hike was uphill. We were both pooped by the time we returned to the dock and caught the ship back across the Bay. Included in the price of the tour was the Discovery Museum which gave us a great deal of information regarding the settlement of Perce. In the 17th century, Perce was to become the pride of fishing in the Gaspe Peninsula. 400-600 European fisherman would gather each summer to catch Cod. Under the English regime, experienced Cod fisherman set up permanent instead of seasonal stations along the St. Lawrence Gulf run by well organized fish trading companies. The crews of the cod trading vessels were no longer equal to the task and laborers were hired from as far as Quebec City. The fisherman would set out to sea before dawn, while at the packing shed, others performed specialized tasks to process the fish. Throughout the season, the workers would prepare dried cod (summer fishing), green cod (fall fishing) and cod liver oil for foreign markets. At the dawn of the 20th century, the era of great fisheries came to an end. In the calm serenity of Perce, Bonadventure Island, and Perce Rock, a new era was about to come to life. While the first cruises around Bonaventure Island were getting under way, painters, photographers, poets and novelists, naturalists, and other passionate visitors from home and abroad were discovering the area and tourism began to flourish!

Well, this was definitely a full day and tomorrow we will continue our trip around Gaspe Peninsula. McKenzie says she is bored and it is time to get back on the road. We will see the Bay area as well as the Valley area before we head into New Brunswick. I’m sure we’ll find new and different things to enjoy so stop back by the blog whenever you can. We miss and love all of you and hope you are enjoying this trip as much as we are. See you soon!

Woodcarvers, Lighthouses and Sinking Ships!!

2008-07-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

We awoke to rain and wind on the morning we had scheduled to head out of Old Quebec, but fortunately by the time we were underway, the weather had improved a bit. We have decided we wanted to take Route 132 which is the coastal highway around the Gaspesie Pennisula.

Approximately 85 kilometers down the road, we stopped at the little town of St. Jean Port Jolie where the long main street accommodates the galleries of the region’s most popular woodcarvers. We walked along the road and visited most of the galleries.

While there were some very unique carvings, most of them were quite expensive. We did run across a park that had some very unusual carvings. Everything was written in French so we had no idea what it was but McKenzie really enjoyed playing "crazy dog" and running around the carvings pulling me behind while holding on to her leash.

We did enjoy one gallery in particular though. The artist was Noel Guay and he had been carving since 1957. His specialty was wildlife and had we had a place to put it, we would have certainly bought one of his pieces. His son, Mario has been mastering the art for 30 years and also does a fantastic job. After spending several hours looking, we headed down the road a bit further and found a nice large spot by the highway where we could drycamp for the night. One of the things we noticed about this area is that there are fields and fields of mustard. It is so yellow that it almost hurts your eyes to look at it. Two other couples from Quebec joined us and since one of them spoke a bit of English, we had a nice conversation. They had been on a two week holiday going around the peninsula and were now heading back home.

The next morning brought more drizzly rain and wind and the temperature dropped dramatically. We decided it was time to get out our coats once we arrived at the Pointe-au-Pere lighthouse, overlooking the St. Lawrence River. Although there are approximately 16 lighthouses along the Pennisula, Pointe-au-Pere is the most photographed and well known. We walked the 128 steps (and believe me, I counted every one of them!) up to the top of the lighthouse. Even though it was very overcast, the view out over the St. Lawrence was beautiful. We learned that each lighthouse has its own method of lighting which tells the ships where they are and which lighthouse is sending out the light. We also learned that we definitely wouldn’t have wanted to be a lighthouse keeper, even though they were given a house to live in plus their wages. Their jobs were long and dangerous, especially when it came to washing the outside of the windows of the lighthouse, as they were expected to do once a month. Looking down on the sites from the top of the lighthouse, there is no way you would have had me hanging out washing windows!

Lighthouses have become a thing of the past now since GPS has taken over. It’s sad, but I guess that is progress. Anyway, we were glad to get a close up view of this one.

In addition to the lighthouse information, we found out something additional. We all know about the Titanic, but we were totally unaware of the second most tragic ocean liner wreckage in history – the Empress of Ireland!
Taking advantage of the wave of immigration, the Canadian Pacific Railway began building twin ocean liners measuring 167 meters in length to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1904: the Empress of Britain and the Empress of Ireland.

Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company built the Empress of Ireland with 7,000 workers in 14 months. After being launched on January 27, 1906, the Empress of Ireland embarked on her maiden voyage from Quebec to Liverpool on June 29, 1906. After the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the number of safety boats aboard the Empress of Ireland was increased from 20 to 40. On the morning of May 28, 1914, as before every departure, safety exercises including launching of the life boats, fire fighting, and closing the water tight doors were carried out in less than 3 minutes. Putting each of the lifeboats in the water required 10 members of the crew. Aboard ship, for the six day voyage from Quebec to Liverpool were 420 crew members and 1057 passengers, including more than 200 former employees of a Detroit automotive factory.

The crew cast off at 4:27 p.m. on May 28, 1914. As the ocean liner prepared to carry out her 192nd crossing of the Atlantic, the passengers aboard took their places. Captain Henry George Kendall was on his first voyage in command of the Empress of Ireland. At the time, ships greater than 30 meters were required to have the assistance of a pilot to navigate on the St. Lawrence. As he had done for 8 years, Adelard Bernier guided the ship for the 157 miles separating Quebec and Pointe-au-Pere, where he was then dropped off.

Through the fog at a distance of some hundred meters, the crew of the Empress saw the bow of the Storstad heading directly toward them. Collision seemed inevitable. At 1:55 a.m., the Storstad rammed the Empress and then immediately backed off. Several passengers heard the initial sound and felt a shock that some thought to be that of the ship mooring to a wharf. The enormous hole some 4 meters in width and 14 meters in height created by the Storstad allowed a huge quantity of water to enter several decks at the same time. The Storstad penetrated the ship so deeply that it damaged the water tight bulkhead separating the two huge boiler rooms. These were flooded in less than 2 minutes. About 270,000 litres of water per second were pouring into the rooms. The fires in the furnaces were doused causing the pressure in the boilers to decrease such that the ship lost its capacity to maneuver.

As soon as the alarm was sounded, the crew members assigned to manually close the water tight doors proceeded to their stations. The water had already flooded several passageways. The listing of the ocean liner prevented the crew from activating the closing mechanisms on the starboard doors. Crewmembers already at their stations tried to lower lifeboats into the water but the weight of the lifeboats (2 tons), the complexity of the maneuver, and the angle of the ship made launching the lifeboats impossible. Only 5 of 21 starboard lifeboats were lowered.

Ronald Ferguson, the chief telegraphist, sent an SOS stating that the ship was listing badly at 1:56 and again at 2:04 a.m. As the listing worsened, (the inclination of the ship was greater than 60 degrees) the passengers were thrown into total darkness and found it increasingly difficult to reach the decks. The water already flooding most of the 2nd and 3rd class cabins on the starboard side, condemned hundreds to their death. Others fell into the icy water or were hit with moving objects. Captain Kendall, still at his command, was thrown overboard, but miraculously survived.

The Storstad launched their boats at 2:08 a.m. and started picking up survivors. The pilot boat, Eureka, arrived at the scene of the tragedy 45 minutes after the shipwreck, followed by another boat. At 6:00 a.m., the two boats unloaded their survivors at the wharf of Rimouski. Shortly after, the Storstad set sail for Montreal where it arrived on May 31. Upon docking at the wharf of the Dominion Coal Company, the ship unloaded its coal and was seized for inquiry by Court Order from the Admirality Court of Quebec. The inquiry commission concluded that Officer Alfred Toftenes, commander of the Storstad that night, was guilty of negligence. He had changed the course of his ship in the fog. As to Captain Kendall, he was let off with blame for having stopped his vessel in the fog for 8 minutes while trying to determine which way to move.

In mid June, the Canadian Pacific, under pressure from the families, ordered a search for the bodies. By the end of July, just over 250 had been recovered. Divers removed the safe on August 20th along with 212 silver ingots with a value of $1,099,000 at that time.

On September 15, 1914, the diving work on the wreck seized. World War I had begun and the tragedy of the Empress of Ireland was forgotten! The ship had sank in 14 minutes, with only 465 survivors!!

We were quite moved by this story and totally unaware of it before coming here. We’ll be heading on down the road tomorrow and hopefully find other interesting things to share with you. Til then, enjoy life and take care of one another.

Bonjour Quebec City!

2008-07-21T22:54:00.000-07:00

Only two days in Quebec and we’ve learned to speak French!!! Well, not really, but we have learned to point a lot. Actually, we were kind of prepared to not like Quebec City. We had heard the usual about the unfriendliness of the folks here and the fact that they would only speak French, but we found all that to be untrue. Most of the people we met in Quebec City were very friendly and those that could speak English did so when they found out we were from the States. They were extremely helpful and we were very pleased with our visit.

On its 400th anniversary, “the cradle of the French presence in North America” opened its door to the world. Artists, performances and magical encounters take center stage in this once-in-a-lifetime get-together. The City of Quebec was founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain and is also known as the cradle of French Civilization in North America. It is the capital of Quebec and seat of the National Assembly. Quebec City has a population of 638,000 of which 95% are French speaking. It is the largest province in Canada and one of the safest regions in North America.

We stayed at Au Sous-Bois campground, about 15 miles outside the city. We were able to drive our truck to the Aquarium, about 7 miles away and then catch a bus into town. The bus cost $2.00 per person and was good for as many rides as you wished during the day. We got off at the Ferry and began exploring Old Quebec City.

It was very beautiful and reminded me of what I thought you would see in Paris. Many small cobblestone streets with shops and outdoor cafes on both sides and lots of flowers.

After walking around for a while, we decided to have an Italian Buffet at one of the outdoor cafes. The food was very good and fortified us for the walking which we would be doing for the rest of the day. The celebrated hotel, Chateau Frontenac, is one of the most photographed spots in old Quebec City.

On top of the Museum of Civilization is a rooftop garden aptly named the Visionaries Garden. It is a garden for everyone that reflects the cycle of life: it is born, blooms, and shares its riches before returning to the earth. Vegetables, herbs and flowers are in abundance along this tiered garden high up above the buildings. It also includes a “talking well”. From the depths of the well, children speak to us about their lives, their fears and their hopes while pictures float at the bottom depicting day and night time images.

Located along side the Louise Basin is Espace 400 which is the official headquarters of the 400th anniversary celebrations. Here the grain silos are located which will act as the backdrop for the astonishing Image Mill, the largest outdoor architectural projection ever created. The grain silos are used as an enormous screen on which to project striking images from the history of Quebec. This project took three years to develop and two months to set up. Though it was cold and windy, George and I were amazed at the technology for this light and sound show, and glad that we braved the weather to experience it.

Right next to Espace 400 is the Ephemeral Gardens. Eleven avant-garde gardens were created by artists and architects from Quebec, Canada, the First Nations, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom using minerals, plants, sounds and smells.

Located on Cap Diamant, the Citadelle constitutes the eastern flank of Quebec’s fortifications and is known as the Gibraltar of America. Construction of the Citadelle began in 1820 and lasted more than 30 years. It is star shaped and is an active military base. It has a changing of the guard but since we had just seen the one at the Legislative building in Ottawa, we didn’t stay for this one. Looking down from the Citadel you can see the broad boardwalk that flows through the lower town.

All in all, we were very pleased with our visit to Quebec City. The bus service was excellent and the city was very quaint and different from anything we had seen previously. It is well worth a visit. George especially enjoyed lounging around with Mr. Moose.

We are now heading to the Gaspe peninsula in Quebec and will be there for at least a week. From there, we will be entering New Brunswick. We’re not sure what to expect once again on this adventure as we will be hugging the coastline, but at the first opportunity, we’ll update the blog so you can share our trip with us. Til then, stay healthy and happy

Montreal and "Smoked Meat" Sandwiches

2008-07-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

We pulled into Camping Alouette RV Park, located about 15 miles from Montreal. We will stay here three nights and had already decided that since Montreal is such a huge city, we would take a Gray Line bus tour to view the city. We chose this park because the bus will pick up in the park and take you down to the Gray Line station. The tour was about $41.00 per person (senior rates) and it was well worth it! We were picked up at 8:30 a.m. and would return to the park around 4:30 p.m.

Montreal has a population of approximately 3,800,000 people within a 55 kilometer distance. The French colonists were the first to arrive in Montreal, followed by the English, the Scottish and the Irish. Today, 80 distinct ethnic communities are represented in its population. It boasts a rather large underground pedestrian network which appears to just be one continuous mall, leading you by any kind of store you can imagine and almost any type of fast food spot. It definitely makes Houston’s underground look pretty pitiful by comparison. George is trying to decide which direction we need to go in the underground tunnel.

One of the first stops on the tour was Notre Dame Basilica.

A stone church was built between 1672 and 1683. It was located right in the middle of Notre-Dame Street. By 1800, many parishioners had to listen to mass in the square in front of the chapel because it was no longer large enough to accommodate everyone. The west tower, called Perseverance, was the first of the twin towers to be constructed. It was completed in 1841 and houses the great bell, which weighs 10,900 kg. A 10 bell carillon is housed in Temperance, the second tower, which was completed in 1843. The magnificent interior is sculpted in wood. Paintings, sculptures and stained glass windows illustrate biblical passages as well as 350 years of parish history. The organ has four keyboards, 99 stops and approximately 7,000 pipes.
Old Montreal allows you to wander down narrow, winding streets dating back to the origins of the French colony. There are many splendid buildings from the 1700’s and some of the most remarkable 19th century Victorian commercial buildings in North America. This charming historical setting has some superb public squares, five history museums, over thirty art galleries and numerous boutiques and sidewalk cafes.

Our tour also took us by the Biodome which recreates four of the finest ecosystems of the Americas, complete with plants, animals by the thousands, cliffs and waterways, and even the climate itself. A tour of the Biodome covers the lush, humid and hot tropical forest; the Laurentian Forest, where beavers, otters and lynx are waiting; the St. Lawrence Marine Ecosystem, with a basin of 2.5 million litres of salt water and which is home to an astounding variety of birdlife and underwater fauna; and finally, a visit to the two Poles with a chance to admire penguins and auks at the same time.

The Biodome stands in the shadows of the Montreal Tower at Olympic Park. Built for the 1976 Summer Olympic Games, the Olympic Stadium is the park’s centerpiece. It is topped by the tallest inclined tower in the world, Montreal Tower. After riding in a cable car up the incline, the Observatory provides a view on a clear day of up to 80 kilometers in every direction.

Mount Royal Park is affectionately referred to as “the Mountain” by locals and has become the preferred viewing spot for nature lovers, bird watchers and sports enthusiasts. The numerous paths and superb lookout points offer hours of recreation. Though we had a cloudy day, you could still see quite a bit of Montreal from the top of the park.

The same architect who designed Central Park in New York also designed Mount Royal. There are beautiful flower gardens throughout the park. Also, found on the slopes of Mount Royal are two of the city’s oldest cemeteries, Mount Royal which covers 165 acres and Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery which is Canada’s largest cemetery. Since 1854, more than 900,000 people have been buried there. Nearby on the parks outskirts, are the campuses of two universities as well as Saint Joseph’s Oratory which welcomes pilgrims annually. It is one of the world’s most visited shrines. The basilica’s huge dome reaches 97 meters and is second only in height to Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The shrine, devoted to Saint Joseph consists of a primitive chapel, a votive chapel, a crypt and a basilica large enough to accommodate 10,000 worshippers.
The road leading up to Mount Royal allows interesting views of homes costing upwards of a million dollars.

When the bus brought us back to the station, we decided to go to Dunn’s which was recommended by a lady who was born in Montreal. They make a sandwich called “smoked meat”, which we would probably call a Reuben in the States. A lady sat down next to us who was from Montreal and had been to Dunn’s many times. She told us how to order the sandwich and to have them exchange the fries for poutine fries (fries with a brown gravy and cheese curds). It was very delicious! We had had poutine fries out at the desert this year when Wally and Sam had made them for one of the happy hours. Then the lady said we couldn’t leave without having a piece of the Dunn’s special cheesecake! By the time we left, we could hardly waddle out! But it was delicious and we have now been thoroughly indoctrinated to French Canadian food.

Though the day was cloudy and rainy, we enjoyed the tour thoroughly and were very thankful that we did not have to drive ourselves into the city. After a full day of riding around and walking, we decided that we’d take a day off to catch up on some housekeeping items and relax before heading off to our last city, Old Quebec.

We’ve found the Province of Quebec to be a real challenge. Everything is written in French and that is most all that is spoken here. Many of the tourism employees will speak English but a lot of the residents either can’t or won’t speak English. The grocery stores are quite frustrating as all the aisles are labeled in French and we found ourselves going up and down all the aisles to look for the items we wanted. We’ve also found that things are getting more expensive the farther east we go in Canada. I think we will definitely be ready to start slowing down and taking life a little easier after our next few day in Old Quebec. We have decided to drive around the coastal road of Quebec to Perce and then on down to New Brunswick. We’re not sure what we will encounter, but we thought it would be a lovely drive and are looking forward to getting away from the cities. Of the three cities we have visited so far, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, - Ottawa is our most favorite. It is definitely the smaller of the three and has a nice mix of old and new. All signs are in both English and French and the Rideau Canal is a very beautiful walking, running, and biking trail. Large boats come down the canal, park and spend the evening in Ottawa.And of course, we loved the Beaver Tails which are whole wheat pastries stretched to the shape of a beaver’s tail and float cooked on Canola or Soya oil. They are served piping hot and topped with your choice of several delectable toppings such as cinnamon and sugar, chocolate, nuts, etc.

We’ll be looking forward to our next city visit in Old Quebec in the next few days so we hope you will join us. By the way, does anybody speak French????

Welcome to Canada's Parliament!!

2008-07-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

We are staying at a campground quite a ways outside of Ottawa however, we were able to drive our truck about 12 miles to the local Wal-Mart, park and catch the bus which let us off right across the street from Parliament Hill. Bus cost was $3.00 one way per person. All of the tours are free and we didn’t have any trouble getting tickets for all three of the tours we wanted to take on the morning when we first arrived.

On this hilltop overlooking the Ottawa River, parliamentarians gather to make the laws of the land. The Parliament Buildings – which include the Centre Block, East Block and West Block – house the Senate and the House of Commons chambers, the Library of Parliament, and offices for parliamentarians and staff.

A little history for background information. Before Ottawa became the beautiful city it is today, it used to be a rough lumber town with roads of mud. In 1857, after years of indecision by “colonial” politicians, Queen Victoria chose this little lumber town as the capital of the Province of Canada (consisting at that time of what is today Quebec and Ontario). She made the choice from looking at a painting and based it the fact that it was in very close proximity to Quebec, and also that it lay a more secure distance from the American border as the U.S. was trying to annex Canadian property at that time. With the emergence of a new nation, the Fathers of Confederation decided that Canada’s head of state would be a monarch. Queen Victoria was adopted as the sovereign of Canada. Canada’s present queen is the sovereign not only of Canada and the United Kingdom, but also of 14 other countries that have similar political structures as that of Canada. When she visits one of these countries, she speaks and acts as queen of that country, and not as queen of the United Kingdom. As a constitutional monarch, the Queen acts solely on the advice of the ministers of the country concerned.

Every day during the summer months at 10:00 a.m., you can view the Changing of the Guards. The ceremony is a very stirring military drill set to the music of the Canadian Forces band. It takes place on Parliament Hill in front of the Centre Block. The Old Guard is inspected and then turns the key over to the New Guard. The ceremony lasts approximately 30 minutes. These guards also stand vigil over the Tomb on the Unknown Soldier.

The Centre Block, constructed between 1916 and 1922, is the home of the Senate and the House of Commons. It is here that national issues are investigated and where legislation is introduced, debated and revised and, once passed, becomes the law of the land. The Senate Chamber is located in the east half of the Centre Block. Its red carpeting and upholstery and a ceiling of gold leaf create an air of regal splendour. The names of former governors general are carved in the ceiling. The Chamber’s upper walls are lined with murals depicting stirring scenes from the First World War. Below them, images of Canada’s flora and fauna are carved in stone and wood. This room is where the Queen of Canada, or the Governor General, her representative, addresses Parliament and gives Royal Assent to bills destined to become law. At the north end of the Chamber is a raised platform with a pair of thrones, the larger of the two for the Queen or the Governor General and the smaller one for the spouse of either the Queen or the Governor General. For regular sitting of the Senate, the Speaker’s chair is placed in front of the thrones, but is removed when the Queen or her representative are present. Senators belonging to the governing political party in the House of Commons sit to the Speaker’s right. To the Speaker’s left sit those senators belonging to all other parties, including those who have chosen to sit as independent senators. Senate proceedings are open to both the public and journalists. When a bill is submitted, the Senate is the group who study it and make any recommendations for change before it becomes law. They also have “strike down” authority, to completely kill a bill that has been recommended. There are currently 105 Senators.

The House of Commons Chamber is located in the west half of the Centre Block. It is decorated in green carpeting and upholstery, in the tradition of the British House of Commons. The rectangular Chamber is made of white oak and Tyndall limestone from Manitoba. The Speaker is spokesperson and presiding officer of the House of Commons. A Member of Parliament chosen by fellow members through secret ballot, the Speaker ensures that all rules and procedures are followed and oversees the administration of the House. He sits in a throne chair at the head of the room. Stone carvings, stained glass windows and other artistic representations of Canada’s history decorate the Chamber, as a constant reminder of the Canadians that Members of Parliament represent and serve. There are currently 308 Members of Parliament in the House.

The Hall of Honour crosses through the center of the building. With its graceful arched ceilings and rich sculpture, it links all the elements of the Centre Block together and serves as a fitting setting for national commemorations and ceremonies. In front of the Centre Block stands the Peace Tower, the most striking feature and one of the most recognized symbols on Parliament Hill. The Peace Tower was named in commemoration of Canada’s commitment to peace. On the third floor is the Memorial chamber, a richly carved room of gently light built to honor Canadians who died in the armed conflicts in which Canada has fought since the Confederation. The 302 foot tower also contains an observation area and the Carillon, a series of 53 bells sounded from a keyboard. The largest bell weighs in at 22,400 pounds. The Dominion Carillonneur entertains visitors every day at 2:00 with regular recitals.

The Library of Parliament is at the end of the Hall of Honour. It is the only place that you are not allowed to take pictures inside and it is astounding. Its floor features a beautiful pattern of cherry, oak and walnut. Hundreds of flowers, masks and mythical creatures are carved in the paneling of white pine. In the center of the circular, domed room stands a white marble statue of the young Queen Victoria. When the fire started on February 3, 1916, a conscientious employee quickly shut the metal doors to the library. While other parts of the building were reduced to a charred shell, the library was spared, saving over half a million books and documents.

Our second tour was to the East Block which is primarily offices, however they have restored four rooms to look just as they did in 1872. Several people dressed in costumes showed up as we were touring and pretended to be characters of that period.

Our last tour of the day was the grounds. On both the second tour and this one, we were the only two people, so we had a private tour all to ourselves. Parliament Hill has been home to stray cats for decades. However, it is only since the 1970’s that volunteers have paid special care and attention to these animals: creating the “cat sanctuary”. All animals have been neutered to ensure the health and stability of the colony and have been inoculated against various diseases. The cats as well as pigeons, sparrows, squirrels, raccoons, chickadees, and even ground hogs, are fed on a daily basis. It costs $6,000 per year to take care of them. The Federal government does not contribute anything to this cost. It is primarily made up of contributions.

Also on the grounds is the Canadian Police and Peace Officers Memorial Honor Roll which pays tribute to the sacrifices of these brave men and women who were killed in the performance of their duty.

The Victoria Bell is also on display. This is the bell which was housed in the Victoria Tower at the time of the fire. Shortly after striking midnight, the Victoria Bell came crashing down into the building. It was later recovered from the ruins and put on display. The bell is mounted at an angle to symbolize the position it was in when it came crashing down at the stroke of midnight.

The Whisper Wall is also a rare oddity. When two people sit at either end of the wall and whisper, it sounds as if the voice is magnified. Another of those anomalies that can’t be explained.

At the foot of the central walk to the Parliament Buildings is the monument for commemorating Canada’s 100th anniversary of Confederation in 1967. The Centennial Flame is a permanent reminder of the unbounded optimism of the centennial year. Alberta natural gas feeds the flame that burns through the water which flows over the bronze shields of the provinces and territories that existed in 1967. Each of the twelve segments is also ornamented with the floral symbol and the date that the province or territory joined the Confederation.

A final sculpture is the Women are Persons! Five women are rejoicing over tea because of their victory in the Persons Case of 1929, a landmark step in Canadian women’s struggle for equality. These five women won a legal challenge to have women considered “persons” under the British North American Act, making them eligible for appointment to the Senate.

Well, as you can tell, it was another full and tiring day. Thankfully, the weather is holding up well and was not too hot. This is a beautiful city, more old and rustic, and Parliament Hill is a “must see”. We thoroughly enjoyed learning some of the history of Canada and hopefully understanding their Parliament a bit better.

During the summer months, they do a nightly sound and light show. The spirit of the nation is revealed through captivating music, shimmering lights and stunning giant projections on the Parliament Buildings. We hope to attend that tomorrow night. It is supposed to be spectacular!!!
We are now half way thru our “city life in Canada” tour and will be heading to Montreal and then over to Quebec to visit the last two cities before heading into the Maritimes. I think we will both be ready for some beautiful landscapes and a much slower pace of life. We hope you are enjoying each of these beautiful spots in Canada as much as we are and will continue to check us out from time to time to see what we’ve gotten into next. Til we can do the next blog, God be with each of you and may you experience life to the fullest!

Toronto, Canada - A Castle and a Museum!

2008-07-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

On the brow of a hill, overlooking Toronto, the striking silhouette of a massive castle dominates the skyline and stirs the imagination. Based on a life-long fascination with European castles, Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, a prominent Canadian financier, industrialist, and military officer of the early twentieth century, borrowed the most pleasing elements of Norman, Gothic, and Romanesque styles to create Casa Loma. With more than 350,000 visitors annually, Casa Loma continues to be one of Toronto, Ontario’s premiere tourist attractions. From its imposing stone gates, to its magnificent gardens, terraced grounds, medievil turrets and 98 rooms, this fairytale castle is both impressive and bewildering: one cannot help but wonder about the kind of man who would build such a home for himself.

Born in Kingston, Ontario in 1859, Sir Henry Pellatt was the most dramatic Canadian of his day. He was a visionary, whether it was being first to bring electric lights to the streets of Toronto or the first to invest in a Canadian air service. He was a patriot and philanthropist, as commanding officer and private sponsor of the Queen’s Own Rifles, the Canadian regiment that still marches to this day. And he was a colossus in Canadian business, with interests in everything from insurance to railways. At his height, Sir Henry sat on dozens of corporate boards comprising fully 25% of Canada’s economy, a feat unmatched today. When he commissioned noted architect E. J. Lennox to help him realize a life-long dream – the creation of a “medieval” castle on the brow of a hill overlooking Toronto, it would be the largest home in Canada.

The construction began in 1911 and took 300 men nearly three years to complete at a cost of $3,500,000. Sir Henry and his beloved wife, Mary, filled the home with many treasured antiques and paintings.
The tour starts in the Great Hall, the central point of the castle, with its soaring 60 foot oak-beamed ceiling. It’s really a bargain at $11.00 a ticket for seniors over the age of 60. It is a self guided digital audio tour and takes you through the castle step by step. We marveled at the beauty of the stained glass dome in the castle’s Conservatory, discovered the Pellatt family crest in the Library ceiling, and observed the intricate carving of the paneled Oak Room. A serving room originally served two purposes. When formal dinners were held in the dining room, this room was used by servants as a serving room. Food was brought here from the kitchens, served on to plates, and then taken into the diners. At other times, this room was an intimate breakfast area for the Pellatts. A breath-taking view of the city rewarded us as we climbed up the turreted towers. There are secret stairways and a luxurious carriage room and stables connected to the castle by an 800 foot tunnel. The stables housed his prized horses and the stalls are constructed of Mahogany while the floors are clad in Spanish tiles.

Lady Pellatt’s suite reflected her love of pastel colors and was large enough to allow her to maneuver later in her life when she became wheelchair-bound. The original Gardens of Casa Loma were modeled after an English Gentleman’s Garden containing a series of parterres with gravel paths, vegetable gardens, flowers and fruit trees. A greenhouse complex, featuring a potting shed and conservatory served as a work area for a staff of three gardeners who tended to the magnificent grounds. Today, both formal and informal gardens adorn the beautifully landscaped grounds of this six acre estate. At every turn the senses are delighted by dancing fountains, unusual sculpture, and the dazzling, everchanging colors of a Canadian garden.
But the demands of maintaining his castle, combined with a series of ill-advised investments and the fall of the Home Bank of Canada, undid Sir Henry. He and Lady Mary were forced to leave Casa Loma and auction off their possessions to pay off his debts. In 1920, the City of Toronto raised taxes from $6,836 per year (in today’s dollars) to $116,891 per year (also today’s dollars). Lady Pellatt held the title to Casa Loma but at her death in 1924, the title reverted to Henry, making financial matters even worse. In 1930, after failed attempts to operate Casa Lomas as an exclusive apartment-hotel, the magnificent building sat vacant! In 1935 the City decided to take the cruel step of forcing the then 75 year old Pellatt into bankruptcy for back taxes. The City staff was aware that a declaration of bankruptcy would cause Sir Henry to lose his knighthood – a title that was very precious to him. The City purchased the estate for a grossly undervalued $27,305. Once the action was completed, a previously scheduled bankruptcy hearing was suddenly and permanently adjourned. Pellatt was able to retain his title of Knight Bachelor but at the cost of his million dollar estate! It is now owned by the City of Toronto and operated by the Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma and remains today as a monument to this extraordinary Canadian.

After spending four hours touring the castle and grounds, we have to admit that it is probably one of the best tours we have been on. We’ve been to the Vanderbilt Mansion, Hearst Castle, a Plantation home and now Casa Loma. For the price, you can’t find a better tour with more information.

Though we were tired, we decided to also tour the Royal Ontario Museum which is Canada’s largest museum of world cultures and natural history. It also ranks as the fifth largest museum in North America and contains more than six million items and over 40 separate galleries. It is truly a one-stop sightseeing extravaganza where you can travel from one amazing exhibit to the next to learn about the world’s history and culture. Dinosaurs, aquatic fossils, an ancient Egyptian mummy case, Greek and Roman Artifacts, Life in China, Korea, and Japan, and Canada’s First Peoples are just some of the options. Another four hours and we just were able to walk thru all the exhibits. It is easily a two day event if you truly wanted to delve into everything. The building’s latest addition is built in the shape of a crystal and provides a very picturesque façade for the museum. Once again, if you like museums, this is a must-see!

We drug our worn-out bodies back to the subway – fortunately it wasn’t far from the museum – and rode home. Tomorrow we will be heading out and arriving at Ottawa for another fun-packed three days. See you down the road!

Back To Canada - Toronto - Day 1

2008-07-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

After saying some tearful goodbyes and promising to get back together soon, we left Damon , Kim and the kids to head back toward our adventure in crossing Canada. We decided to cross the border at Sarnia which is by Flint, Michigan. The crossing took a while as there was quite a bit of traffic and we were singled out to be “inspected”. They requested that we pull the truck and trailer over to an inspection station and then asked that we open all the enclosures on the truck and trailer. After about five minutes, we were cleared, told to go into Immigration and have them clear our passports and then we were on our way. Seems like crossing the border on the east side of Canada is a bit more trouble than we have ever experienced in crossing on the west side.

Our first stop was at a campground in Toronto, Ontario, called the Indian Line Campground. It is run by a conservation group and appears to have most of the trailer residents residing long term while they work in Toronto. There didn’t appear to be a lot of travelers and what we did see had Ontario plates. Anyway, we decided to stay for three days so we could put Ontario on our map and get to see several of the sights that we were interested in. Toronto is a multi cultural hub. You can take a long, lazy walk with your pet in downtown parks, have a leisurely brunch on flower-filled patios and lively dinners in world class eateries. The Toronto Transit Commission makes Toronto easy to see, using subways, buses and streetcars. We walked across the street from the campground and caught the bus which was like a greyline coach, and rode the 12 miles down to the subway station. The cost was $4.50 per person per way. Once we arrived at the subway, we bought a $9.00 ticket which allowed both of us to ride the subways as many times as we wanted during one day (this is only good on weekends and holidays). You can get to most of the sights by taking the subway.

Our first stop was in downtown at Union Station (seems like every city has one). We decided to walk down to the World’s only Hockey Hall of Fame. It is home to the Stanley Cup and has something for everyone: state of the art games, interactive exhibits, larger-than-life statues, a replica dressing room and rink zone, and hockey’s most precious artifacts. I only recognized a few of the names, not being a huge hockey fan.
We got a first hand look at Gordie Howe’s skates that he had worn during the final few years as a member of the Detroit Red Wings, ending in 1971. He retired as the NHL’s all-time leader in games played, goals, assists and points, but would return two years later in the WHA and play seven seasons with his sons, including one final year in the NHL with Hartford at the age of 52.

We also learned about Mario Lemeaux who was one of the most dominant offensive forces in NHL history. He amassed 613 goals, 1,494 points while lifting the Pittsburg Penguins from the NHL basement to consecutive Stanley Cup wins in 1991 and 1992.

And, of course, we can’t talk about hockey without mentioning Wayne Gretzky whose 20 year NHL career ended with his name attached to 61 individual records. After four Stanley Cups with the Oilers, he was traded to Los Angeles, generating tremendous growth of hockey in the U.S. On January 29, 1998, Wayne Gretzky received perhaps the greatest achievement of his life as he was presented with the Order of Canada medallion from Canada’s Governor General, Romeo LeBlanc.
George and I got to touch the Stanley Cup and admire its beauty. The original Stanley Cup was given by Lord Stanley on March 18, 1892. His aide purchased the gold lined silver bowl for less than $50.00. Once it was decided to engrave the names of all the team members of a winning team on the trophy, the looks changed from a bowl to the present day look with the stand attached to the bowl. Originally, a new band was added to the bottom of the trophy each year, but now, the top band in removed and placed in the museum and each remaining band is moved up to allow for the current year’s winner to be placed on the trophy.

After spending several hours in the museum, we decided to walk the city a bit and strode over to the St. Lawrence Market Complex, located at the heart of historic Old Town Tornonto. It has been Toronto’s Market Place for over 200 years. Vendors bring in every type of food, in-season vegetables and fruits, homemade bakery items, and all types of meats. Outside tents are set up to sell one-of-a-kind jewelry, clothes, leather, etc. You can find all kinds of unusual items here.

The Distillery District is a national historic site and is widely regarded as Canada’s centre for Arts, Culture, and Entertainment. Once the largest Distillery in the world, it was built in 1837 to convert surplus grain from an 1832 gristmill into whiskey. It now holds, critically acclaimed restaurants, internationally accredited art galleries and local boutique shops.

By this time, we had walked several miles and decided we’d make one more walk down Front Street and over to the CN Tower before calling it a day. The CN Tower is the tall sphere looking thing in the middle of this picture and was originally only going to be an antenna, built to solve the telecommunications problems of a rapidly growing city. From this height broadcasters could send their unobstructed signals to just about every where in the region. It wasn’t til late in the building process, that the designers decided to turn the CN Tower into a tourist attraction. Over 2 million people visit the tower each year. In 1995, it was classified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Engineers. To the very top of the skypod, is 147 stories or 1,465 feet. The Lookout area is 1,136 feet from the street and the “Glass Floor” is 1,122 feet. The total weight of the tower is 130,000 tons.

The Glass Floor was first opened on June 26, 1994. It gives you a very erie feeling to walk on glass at 1,122 feet in the air with nothing but tiny objects far below your feet. George and I both took a turn walking and sitting on it and decided we preferred concrete though the reinforced area for the glass floor is comprised of 256 square feet of solid glass – five times stronger than the required weight bearing standard for commercial floors. It is able to withstand the weight of 14 large hippos!! (Guess we're safe after all).

Lightning strikes the tower on the average of 75 times per year. Long copper strips running down the tower feed into massive grounding rods buried below ground level to ensure the strike safely finds its way to the ground. And believe me, the ground is a long way down as you can tell from this picture taken from the observation deck. Well, it looks like we’ve had enough for one day, so we trudged back to Union Station and caught the subway back to the bus station. Tomorrow is another day and we have some interesting things scheduled, so check back when you have a moment and see what else we’ve found here in Toronto.

Back to the States and Family!

2008-07-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

Once we crossed the border we spent a couple of nights in Cook, Minnesota. We had planned on spending only one night but then decided to take McKenzie to the Vet since she was still suffering from diahrrea. There was a small hotel off the main road who also had a RV park with hookups. We had asked if we could stay overnight without hooking up and they agreed. It was plenty cool and we didn't need electricity other than what could be generated by our solar. The next morning I asked them for a reference for a vet and they gave us directions to the nearest vet who was about 4 miles away. Since McKenzie had this several years ago, we knew that a prescription of Flagyl pretty well took care of her problem, so after a brief examination, the vet gave us some Flagyl and some additional heart worm medicine to hold us til we got back to Texas, and we were off. McKenzie did well and was feeling good within a couple of days. We pulled into the Kankakee State Park, in Bourbonnais, Illinois on Thursday, got a site and set up for the next thirteen days. We wanted to be here for our son's 40th birthday on July 4th.

We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Damon, Kim and the grandkids, Debra and Drew. Debra had gotten a new camera and wanted to hike to the Indian Caves to take pictures. We took a day when Damon and Kim had to work and did just that. It has been way too many years since I had been out to the Caves, but we found them and then decided to hike all the way back to the back. The water was a bit high so there were lovely water falls. The water was cold but everyone enjoyed sloshing back thru the water and climbing on the rocks to get back up to the highest caves. In Drew's words, "It was awesome!!!" By the time we hiked back to the truck, we were hungry so we went to another old haunting place of mine from when I was a kid - Janicke's Hot Dogs. They have pork tenderloin sandwiches to die for and A&W root beer! What more could you ask for? When we got home, everyone was pooped out!

The kids came to visit us at the trailer for a day and night. We stopped at my favorite pizza parlor and had dinner. Then we headed out to the state park and set out on a mission to find enough wood to make a fire so we could have smores! George and I had already confiscated some left over wood so all we needed were little pieces. Once we drug everything back to the campsite, Debra started the fire. She does a teriffic job of making campfires and we thoroughly enjoyed both the smores and the campfire! The next morning, George dropped us off at the main entrance to the park and while he went to the grocery store, the kids and I took a hike back to the campground, once more giving Debra lots of possible photography shots. She's thinking of entering several of her photographs, poems, and other sculptures that she has made in the annual Fair this year. Debra and Drew helped me make some chocolate chip cookies while Grandpa cooked hamburgers and hotdogs. Kim and Damon came out for lunch and we had quite a feast.

I made a cake for Damon's birthday and Kim made spaghetti and salad, so we had quite a meal to celebrate. Since he was born on 4th of July,we thought it would be appropriate that he had sparkler candles on his cake. He did an excellent job of blowing them all out, several times, before extinguishing the flames.

We had been saving some "bubbly" for a very special occasion and this seemed like the time to break it open!

The dogs all got along pretty well on this trip. We had groomed McKenzie so she was wearing her pink and black dress so she wouldn't get sunburned. I think she must have thought that this "magic cape" gave her some kind of supernatural powers because she suddenly started standing up to Scout and when he gave her the "evil eye" she just pounced on him! Of course, we had to interfere because she didn't realize that he was probably three times as big as she was and could do some serious damage if he decided to get even. Lucy just sat by and took it all in. Though she is a terrier too like McKenzie, she knows that she rules the household so there was no reason to enter into the raucaus.

All in all, we had a very good visit. We all played Wii games, board games, and watched some of the Blue Ray disc movies. Kim served us some great dinners and we enjoyed visiting with everyone. Seems like the kids have grown at least 4 inches every time we see them.

On Wednesday, we will head back up to Ontario, Canada for our two month visit to the maritime provinces. We'd like to spend a few days at Ottowa, Montreal, and Quebec before getting over to the maritimes. We have surely enjoyed getting to see Damon, Kim and the grandkids though and will be looking forward to the next time we all can get together somewhere.

As we get a chance, we will update this blog. Not sure what to expect in the way of WiFi but we'll do the best we can to keep you updated of the things we are seeing and doing. We love and miss all of you! Hugs from us to you!!!!