Dateline July 12, 2012..Arrive in Newfoundland and Cape Saint Mary

We arrived at the ferry terminal for the trip to Newfoundland and were amazed by the size of the ships. The ferry was over 750 feet in length and had ten floors. The inside was set up like a cruise ship, thankfully, since we had around a 15 hour trip, leaving North Sydney around 6:30 PM and and arriving around 10:00 in the morning in Argentia, about two hours from St. John’s. Our cabin was 2 bunk beds so Janice figured out how to flip up the top so we did not crash our heads at night. The beds we very single beds and “leaned” a little but we slept well until about 6:30 am. The boat trip was an easy crossing and we arrived on schedule.

Stopping at the famous info center, we got all the local information for the St. John’s area. We were informed that the Cape Saint Mary Ecological Preserve at the south tip of the Avalon Peninsula washed on three sides by the Atlantic was considered one of the most spectacular (and accessible!) sea bird colonies in North America. We were told that for over a century, naturalists and lovers of the outdoors have been drawn to the preserve, amazed by the immensity; the whirling clamor of 70,000 seabirds and the whales that can be seen from the shore.

It was a good 90 minute drive south and John and Janice began wondering if this was a good choice. We arrived in a dense fog where you couldn’t even see the lighthouse across the street. You could certainly here the fog horn! We almost drove away thinking it was just a bad day, but decided to go into the interpretation center. The ranger told us that we first needed to change our shoes, flip flops don’t make it on the trail, and immediately head out to the end of the trail, about a mile to the bird nesting area and that the fog should have lifted out there. We went back, changed our shoes and headed out the rocky path. We would stop and head over to the side of the cliff to see what we could, nothing but fog.

We finally made it to the end and it was worth the trip. The colony of birds was unbelievable.

A look at the mass of the rookery.

There were thousands of birds with babies and some with eggs waiting for them to hatch. One of the pairs would go off to find food and soar around the point to look for food and to return to their mate. We identified three types of birds.

Most of the nests were Northern Gannet. The Northern Gannet Gannet pairs may remain together over several seasons. They perform elaborate greeting rituals at the nest, stretching their bills and necks skywards and gently tapping bills together. These birds are spectacular divers, plunging into the ocean at high speed, with their bodies completely straightened out like an arrow before striking the water. If a fish is taken after diving, gannets swallow the fish underwater before surfacing. Although they are strong and agile fliers, they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings, they can have a wing span of 6 feet.

 

Gannet Soaring

The Black-Legged Kittiwake, it is a species of gull. They also seemed to have a ritual when the mate returned.

Black Legged Kittiwake pair (see the egg?)

Last was a Common Murre which is a type of AUK. Unlike penguins, modern auks can fly, they are good swimmers and divers, but their walking appears clumsy.

Murre, penguin like..

The pictures we were able to capture and the captions say it all. We were so concentrated on the birds that we didn’t search the ocean for whales.

 

View as we approached the nesting area

 

Gannet pair hugging upon return

Mom and Baby Gannet

Babies and Mom Gannet

Black Legged Kittiwake and baby

As we left we headed back to the lighthouse, fog lifted!

Dateline: July 11, 2012, Halifax, the Tattoo and Cape Benton

Cape Benton

Our drive to Halifax was short and we entered the city to find, what else, the info center! We first went to the Maritime Museum since both of us fount the Titanic interesting.

Museum model of Titanic

Halifax was where all the found bodies were taken for identification. The museum did a great job of “telling the story” through displays that included parts of the Titanic from the grave in the North Atlantic.

We drove out of the city to our campground for two nights and caught up with Ruth and Ann, who had just arrived in Nova Scotia. We have no proof that they were with us, because we didn’t get pictures. (per Ruth’s rule in Alaska-if you don’t have the picture of the bear, you didn’t see it.) We enjoyed a cocktail or two and had a good time catching up.

The scheduled get together was for the Halifax Tattoo which we all had tickets for on Saturday afternoon. A little history: The Tattoo is presented annually by the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo Society with support from the Government of Canada, the Province of Nova Scotia, the Canadian Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Halifax Regional Municipality and the Corporate Community.

Where does the name Tattoo come from? In 17th century Dutch villages, drummers marched through the streets summoning British soldiers to return to their quarters from the taverns and inns. A drumbeat signaling innkeepers to “doe den tap toe” or ‘turn off the taps” was shortened to “tattoo”. The phrase now heralds the amazing entertainment highlighted by marching bands, hundreds of musicians, acrobats, dancers and military competitions. The unique and varied talent of hundreds of Canadian and international military and civilian performers makes the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo the world’s largest annual indoor show.

The Nova Scotia Tattoo was first held in 1979 to mark the visit of HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother to Nova Scotia for the International Gathering of the Clans. It has been held every year since and was granted Royal Status by Her Majesty The Queen in 2006 on the occasion of her 80th Birthday.

The themes of this year’s show included: the RMS Titanic sinking 100 years ago, Her Majesty’s The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the War of 1812. The playing of the 1812 Overture was stunning with all the canon fire and great military bands. One of the unplanned events was a wedding at the beginning of the show. A Canadian woman working in the Tattoo met a German member of their band two years ago during the Tattoo, so they wanted to get married at the Tattoo this year and the event occurred during our show. It is hard to describe the Tattoo and give it justice in words. It was one of the greatest shows that we have ever attended.

The Finally!!

If you ever plan a trip to Halifax, do it during the week of the Tattoo!

We said our goodbyes to Ann and Ruth and headed out first thing in the morning for Cape Brenton.  The Island has a long and storied past, even before Europeans discovered it the native Mi’kmaq were its first residents. John Cabot, who likely was the first European to come ashore, claimed the Island for England in 1497. The French, Scottish and Irish peoples settled in different areas of the Island, while the ‘ownership’ changed hands frequently between the French and British. The French constructed a Fortress at Louisbourg to help protect their interests. Even though it was twice captured by the British it remained part of the French colonies until it was ceded to the British under the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

We first drove up the Ceilidh Trail with great views of small harbors and shoreline. We stopped in Mabou and had a wonderful fish and chips lunch at the Red Shoe Pub. The Red Shoe is owned by the Rankin Family, one of Canada’s most famous country singing stars. The pub is worth a stop for lunch only to be followed a few miles up the road in Glenville at the Glenora Inn and Distillery for a shot of their single malt whiskey and a tour of the distillery. After a warm-up, the shot, we headed onto the Cabot Trail. There are wonderful vistas of the shoreline, but we think we are a bit jaded  because we have been blessed to travel and she shorelines in Alaska, Capetown in South Africa and the Ocean Drive between Melbourne and Adelaide Australia. We would have preferred just crossing over to the Sydney area rather than completing the trail but we kept looking for the one magical moment. After completing the trail. The road ends in Englishtown where a small cable ferry takes you across to the road on the next island.

The point where the cable ferry crosses

We spent the night at the Englishtown Ridge Campground and continued into North Sydney in the morning.

Many people talk about the golf on Cape Brenton Island. There are a number of excellent courses, we chose to play Seaview Golf and Country Club in North Sydney, ranked on the list of the ten best golf courses in Nova Scotia. It was a wonderful 18 holes of great views, challenging holes and small greens that rolled beautifully. We played about 12:30 and had the course to ourselves, so were around in just over 3 hours.

Our last day on Cape Brenton was spent traveling out to the Marconi National Historical Site of Canada, located on Table Head in Glace Bay.

Many people contributed to the development of wireless communications, but the best known is Guglielmo Marconi. In1895, at the age of 21, Marconi demonstrated the transmission and reception of wireless signals over a distance of about one mile on the family estate near Bologna, Italy. He moved to England in1896, and set up a company there in1897 to manufacture and lease wireless equipment. This was wireless before the age of electronics. The radio transmitter utilized the electrical impulses produced by a high voltage spark, and was called a spark transmitter. The receiver detected the radio signal with a primitive device called a coherer, but it had no means of amplifying the signal electronically. Despite its simplicity, the system worked, and was gradually developed to provide reliable wireless communications over distances of a hundred miles or more. Wireless was especially useful at sea, where distress signals from sinking ships saved thousands of lives. The next goal for Marconi was worldwide radio communications, and the first step was to bridge the Atlantic Ocean. In December, 1901 Marconi received a radio test signal at St. John’s, Newfoundland that was transmitted by his station in Cornwall, England.
The company that operated the transatlantic telegraph cable threatened Marconi with legal action if he continued his experiments because they held a monopoly on telegraph operations in Newfoundland. Rather than endure legal delays, Marconi left Newfoundland and sailed to North Sydney, Cape Breton. There alert Canadian officials persuaded him to build a permanent station in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In 1902 he built this radio station for transatlantic communications. In December of that year he transmitted Morse code messages from this station to his station in Cornwall.

John worked for the Army Security Agency in their communications security operations and part of his job was the review of both voice and Morse code messages, so it was most interesting to visit the site. What made it even more special was the presence of James Charlong a retired gentleman and radio operator (Handle VEIAL1).

James..

James spends 7 days a week when the museum is open communicating around the world in Morse code. He logs all radio contacts that total in to the thousands over the summer. We introduced ourselves to James and he insisted on giving us a tour of the ruins from the original transmission facility. It is mostly cement foundations but James bought it to life with his explanation on how it all worked. James made this visit one of the highlights of our trip to the Maritime’s.

Time to say goodbye to Cape Brenton and take the ferry to Newfoundland.

Dateline July 5, 2012 Nova Scotia… Pictou to Peggy’s Cove

Map of Novia Scotia we start in the orange

The weather was beautiful for the ferry trip from PEI to Nova Scotia. The lighthouse came into view as we entered the harbor. Stopping at the info center, they even made reservations for a campsite for us near Halifax  when we arrive in Halifax for the Tattoo. We drove down to Truro which is at the beginning of the Bay of Fundy.

We missed the bore  (when the tide pushes back into the river and can create waves up stream, some reported as high as 14 feet)  but may catch it on the way back from Newfoundland.

We drove along the southern side of the Bay of Fundy to Grand Pré where we stayed at the Land Of Evangeline Family Camping Resort.

The highlight of the camp was the beach and seeing the tide way out, the Bay of Fundy is all about tides.

Tide out, Bay of Fundy

We took off in the morning with a destination of Parker’s Cove. The roadway primarily runs through the Annapolis Valley and is mostly agriculture.

Our first stop, big surprise, was Domaine De Grand Pré for a taste of their local wines. Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley has become an excellent source of wines for Canada over the last ten years, winning many awards. Wine making in Nova Scotia has only been going on less than 30 years. The growing season is only about four months, so the reds do not have the full body that are normal in California wines. The grapes for the most part are hybrids that can handle colder winters. We tried their champagne since a bottle was in order for our anniversary, it was very good. We picked out another white and a red then moved on down the road about one mile and came upon another winery! We pulled into Muir Murray Estates and sampled some great wines. They had a rosé that they call Tickled Pink. It was fun as a summer wine. The owner Jon Muir Murray came into the tasting room and introduced himself. Jon was new to the wine business, having bought the property and developed the vineyards over the last ten years. An interesting person, a Scottish ex-pat, he had spent a number of years in South Africa, leaving after apartheid ended and moved to Bermuda. He was an ear nose and throat surgeon. He said because of his outspokenness after a change in government from conservative to liberal in 2002, the government would not renew his medical license and was asked to leave. We then purchased a few bottles and headed for Halls Harbor on the Bay of Fundy. It was about 15 miles off the main road and we were told a “must see”. We parked and got out, took some pictures and decided to have lunch on the deck overlooking the harbor. The tide was out, so it had the assortment of boats laying on the bottom of the empty harbor.

Halls Cove low tide

Lunch was an ordeal, wait for the table and then get in line to order your food. Two buses of tourist had just arrived. John waited in line for 20 minutes and came back to the table to say he hadn’t moved forward, so we left. We believe they call it a TOURIST TRAP!! Sandwiches in the RV mad sense and we continued down the Annapolis Valley, occasionally veering off to see the shoreline just to end up on small dirt roads that seemed to go nowhere. We decided to just stay on the main road and finally turned and took the road to Parkers Cove.

Parkers Cove is a working fishing cove off the Bay of Fundy. The tides, as they went out left the boats on the cove bottom,

Boats in low tide

some leaning on their sides and others actually supported on both sides by wooden braces

Boat braces

that are put in the water when they dock the boats and are tied in place to make sure the boat stays upright when the tide is out. The only “store” in town is really a wholesale fish market that sells a few things retail, surprise no t-shirts! Lobster was $4.50 a pound and Haddock was $6.00 a pound. We told the owner that we wanted a 2 pound lobster and a half pound of haddock the next day. He told us they would be in fresh in the morning,  literally “today’s catch”. It doesn’t get any better than that. Several days later we stopped at a chain grocery store and the haddock was $16.00/pound! Guess the price goes up with aging, oh, that’s scotch!

We stayed at Cove Oceanfront Campground. The site is fantastic overlooking the beach and Parkers Cove. It is 3 tiers of sites, all with great views. We decided to stay two nights and use it as our base for the next few days. July 3^rdwas our anniversary so we decided to play golf. The owner of the fish store in Parkers Cove was a member of Annapolis Royal Golf Club, so we drove over to it in the morning. The course was short, about 5,500 yards, but up and down with small greens and narrow fairways. The views were just grand, looking out over the water to the village of Annapolis Royal with several churches and an the old Fort Anne.

Annapolis Royal Golf Club

It was a delight. The owner bought it 7 years ago when he moved from England where he had been in the hotel business. He laughed and said it certainly is a slower pace of life. After golf we visited the town and then went back to Parkers Cove to pick up the lobster and haddock for dinner. We prepared part of the lobster for an appetizer, sauteed in butter with an onion, just wonderful! We then had the haddock for dinner with the champagne we bought the day before. It made for a great 13^th anniversary.

Morning took us on our travels around the far western port of Yarmouth where we saw a sign for the lighthouse. Since we thought it was time for lunch we thought that would be a fun place to have it. Little did we know it was a 30 minute drive out to the lighthouse! You need to remember that seeing lighthouses in the Maritimes is like churches in Europe! We made it to the lighthouse and laughed on our way back to town. Not reading the map we then went south for about 10 miles before we looked and saw we were headed nowhere, turned around and finally got back on the road to Shelbourne. Shelburne was another “must see”. The old town was used for two old Hollywood movies. The buildings were interesting, but

“My” little boy!

Janice loved the seat that made John look like a little boy!! On the road to something more exciting.

The village of Lunenburg is a great town with a lot of historical buildings. The highlight was the restoration of Bluenose II.

In 1920, the Halifax Herald newspaper established a formal racing series. The races would be between real sail carriers that were bona-fide working ships. The winning trophy was the International Fisherman’s Trophy. Two factors created the series; the friendly rivalry between the U.S. and Canadian Fishing schooners as well as the view held by schooner-men had for the America’s Cup. They were
“yachts” being sailed by “yachtsmen”, forever being towed in from races for repairs or “adjustments” of one kind or another. In 1919 the New York Yacht Club cancelled a race because of 23 knot winds being too high, schooner-men could take no more! The first year race was won by the schooner Esperanto out of Gloucester, MA, taking the trophy to New England.

Dismayed, Nova Scotia had a new ship designed and built in Lunenburg. Bluenose was launched in March, 1921. After a season of fishing on the Grand Banks, Bluenose defeated Gloucester’s Elise bring the trophy to Nova Scotia. In an 18 year racing career, Bluenose did not give up the trophy. Many American and Canadian vessels were built to beat her, but none could do it. The Second World War ended the era of the great fishing schooners. Replaced by modern steel trawlers, the fleets of sailing salt-bankers no longer set out to challenge the cruel North Atlantic to reap a harvest of cod for the markets of the world. With no money raised to make a museum of Bluenose, it was sold and became a transport in the Caribbean Islands where it eventually hit a reef in Haiti and sank.   Bluenose was an icon in Canada and featured on stamps and the ten cent coin.

In 1963 Bluenose II was built to the same plans as the original Bluenose and is kept in Lunenburg. It is currently under renovation in dry dock with completion scheduled for later this year. Seeing the ship and watching the video in the visitors center about the history of the original Bluenose was the highlight of visiting Lunenburg.

Our next stop was a visit to Peggy’s Cove. This is one of the most photographed locations in Nova Scotia. Up until two years ago they had a post office located in the lighthouse.

It was very beautiful and was the most recommended place for us to visit.

Dateline July 1, Canada Day, Prince Edward Island

The Confederation Bridge links New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island, completed in 1997 replacing ferry service that was subsidized by the Canadian Rail System. The challenge to building the 8 mile bridge at a cost of 1.3 Billion dollars were many including the tides that moved under the bridge at 18 niles per hour, enough to move a bolder the size of a house!

We crossed the bridge and arrived at the info center on the PEI side where we were given great information on the sites to see and places to stay. Since it was mid afternoon, we decided to find a camp site for a few days and use it as a center to travel and see Prince Edward Island. On the north central Green Gables Shore we found Crystal Beach Campground in New Annan. It was a great central point for the next few days.

In the morning we drove into Summerside the largest city on the Western end of PEI, known as the North Cape, to start the tour of the coast, lighthouses and towns. One of the “must” stops is The Bottle Houses. This is almost a post on its own. Over 25 000 recycled bottles were ingeniously cemented together to create the Bottle Houses. They were built by the late Édouard T. Arsenault. He gave birth to these houses after having received a postcard of a glass castle from his daughter in 1979, an attraction she had visited on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. That same summer, he started collecting bottles from his community, mostly from a local restaurant, community dance halls, friends, relatives and neighbors. In the spring of 1980, at the age of 66, he began his construction, a mere hobby yet. As his six-gabled structure was taking form, visitors started coming in. Impressed by his work, they encouraged him to continue and to advertise it as a tourist attraction. And so, in 1981, the first Bottle House was open to the public. From 1980 to the spring of 1984, he cleverly cemented over 25,000 bottles of various shapes, sizes and colors, into three fantasy-like buildings.

The tour begins with THE CHAPEL made of approximately 10,000 bottles, some of the interesting designs included crosses made of beer bottles and the alter made with liquor bottles that you may recognize the shape. Proceeding out of the chapel you come to THE SIX-GABLED HOUSE, his first building he erected with 12,000 bottles. Back then there was no recycling except soda pop and beer bottles, so he would go each week to dance halls, the legion, restaurants and the local dump to collect bottles. His favorite instrument was a pump organ that is in the house. The third building is THE TAVERN. All the buildings were amazing and what a pleasure to visit.

Back in the RoadTrek we continued on the North Cape Coast Drive passing through many agriculture communities on our way to the North Cape Lighthouse. They have a wind farm the generates 4% of the electrical energy for PEI (this sounds like a lot but remember the population of PEI is around 140,000).  this is also a research facility working on combining different green energies including hydrogen.  The Wind Energy Interpretation Center gave us a good education. The PEI Wind-Hydrogen Village has been developed in North Cape, Prince Edward Island as Canada’s first grid-independent Sustainable Energy Supply System for northern and remote communities. The system is designed to operate on the basis that when the wind is blowing, wind turbines supply power to connected loads including a hydrogen production system. When there is low or no wind conditions, stored hydrogen is used to fuel a back-up generator that keeps the electricity flowing without any disruption of supply.

The PEI Wind-Hydrogen Village is intended to demonstrate an effective and sustainable means for addressing the intermittency of wind power in stand-alone applications. Hydrogen produced from local wind and water is a truly clean and renewable energy carrier with potential for reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels for stationary power and transportation applications.The North Cape is also the home of the largest rock reef in the world, at low tide you can walk all the way out, it was not low tide but that did not stop a family from the challenge. It was fun to see a family freeze their tails off as they waded out towards the end of the reef. Enough for the day we settled back into Crystal Beach for dinner and a view of the sunset.

Not only was the sunset spectacular there was a rainbow over our rig at the same time!

Off in the morning to visit the Green Gable Shores. In and around Cavendish there are a number of golf courses. Believe it or not, we left the clubs in the RV and continued to tour. We would see a lighthouse on the map and chase up a side road a few miles, ending on a dirt road and no lighthouse! This happened several times, so we decided to just stay on the regular roads and see what was offered. There were many picturesque small harbors along the way. We then proceeded into the capital of Charlottetown. How Charlottetown plays in the history of Canada is most interesting. There is a Founder’s Hall presentation that goes through the history and is worth the price of admission.

The Charlottetown Conference was held there in September of 1864 to discuss the Canadian confederation. The original intent was combining New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland into a Maritime Union that the British Crown believed would be less economically and politically dependent. The Province of Canada, Ontario and Quebec asked to participate. The outcome was the Canadian Confederation which took place after another conference in Quebec and one in London, finalized as the British North America Act in 1867. Prince Edward Island waited until 1871 when a ferry link was promised for joining the Confederation. This of course was replaced by the bridge and why it was named the Confederation Bridge. Newfoundland did not join the Confederation until March of 1949 after a ferry link was approved.

We closed down camp at Crystal Beach and headed towards the east end of PEI. July 30 was the last day of the lobster season for the east end of the island and July 1^st was the first day of lobster season for the west end of the island. Each small harbor that we drove through had many lobster boats arriving with the final catch and bringing the lobster pots into the harbor. By the end of the day it was party time in each village celebrating the end of the season. We parked in St. Peters at the town park to enjoy a lobster sandwich we made in the RV. There was an elderly couple that spends the summer in the area and they shared many stories with us about the changes in St. Peters since Chuck was a kid growing up there. His family had a 100 acre farm that was plowed using horses as there were no tractors. He said they were poor, but didn’t know it. There was no electric or telephones. He said the town was twice the size of the current town with all the farming and fishing that took place. He had us laughing when he told us that lobster was a poor mans food and if you had it for supper the night before, you never mentioned it. St Peters Bay is a huge muscle farm. We were told that 90% of the mussels served in Canada come from the muscle farms in St. Peters Bay.

Mussel Tending

Aquaculture is a good size industry on Prince Edward Island. Mussels are placed in socks that are attached to a buoy where they filter tiny plankton out of the water for their food, so they need no supplemental feeding. They get all their nourishment naturally, from the pristine ocean waters that surround them while they grow. In return, they improve the water quality as they clear the water of excess plankton.

We moved on and stopped at the Prince Edward Distillery for a tour. This is a must for anyone that visits PEI. Some years ago Arla Johnson and Julie Shore opened a B & B. They were from Fort Myers Florida and fell in love with PEI. Julie’s family was from North Carolina and had been distillers of liquor before prohibition, having it her blood she studied at Cornell Ag School and always wanted to build a distillery. Arla said it took seven years for Julie to convince her to build the distillery. A tour of the distillery is a “must see”. They are distillers of Artisan-crafted spirits including Prince Edward Potato Vodka, Prince Edward Wild Blueberry, and Prince Edward Gin as well as adding several whiskys and a wonderful rum.

We continued up to the East end Lighthouse and started the return trip down the coast to the Provincial Park at Woods Island for our last night on PEI. We met Chris Greening and his wife Mylissa the that evening. They were visiting Mylissa’s family in Nova Scotia and they had taken the ferry to PEI for Canada Day. Chris is a young dairy farmer from the Edmonton area of Alberta where he had taken over the family dairy farm. We had a wonderful political discussion with him as he was very interested in what was happening in the United States regarding the Tea Party. We were joking about the t-shirt that we had purchased on the Alabama golf trip from the North Alabama Tea Party, he said he would love something like that. John is a great believer in when someone admires a neck tie and says they would love one like it, you take it off and give it to them as a gift, don’t know where that comes from, but it is a fun and great tradition. Needless to say, Chris now has the shirt. What was fun was having a discussion about the problems in Canada and those of the USA. He has the problem of finding labor that is willing to put the long hours in that are required in the dairy business. We think that he summarized a problem that we all recognize, if in Canada or the USA.

Morning came and we had the joy of celebrating Canada Day with our new Canadian friend. We were only 3 miles from the Ferry and caught the 9:45 AM ferry to Nova Scotia and another adventure. Say goodbye to the Woods Island Lighthouse as we left the harbor and the wonderful Prince Edward Island.

Gaspé Peninsula and Eastern New Brunswick

Leaving Quebec City we took route 132 on the southern side of the St Lawrence River to the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec.

Map of Gaspé

Gaspé extends into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The Appalachian Mountains actually end on the peninsula. It is separated from New Brunswick on its southern side by the Chaleur Bay and the Restigouche River. The primary economy was fishing and timber, both over worked and tourism has become the leading industry for the 100,000 residents in the almost 12,000 square mile peninsula.

Unfortunately we toured in pouring rain, however driving through the small villages,

Countryside

population usually only 1,000 or less, was interesting, as there were small roads, called navigateurs, off of 132 that took you to the shoreline side of the villages then back out to 132, the best way to see each village. We drove to the most eastern point of the peninsula to Percé Rock which appears from a distance like a ship under sail. It is considered one of the world’s largest natural arches located in water and is considered a geologically and historically-rich natural icon of Quebec and a major attraction in the Gaspé region. It reminded us of the London Arch on the Great Ocean Road in Australia. This section of the peninsula is called Lands End. John looked for the outlet store, and Janice had to remind him that the “Lands End” was an online store, duh! Just beyond Percé we found a fish market called Poissonnerie D. Caron at 8 rue Windsor East in Cap-d’Espoir. We bought some fresh cod for dinner. Traveling along the coast, the weather improved and we saw some beautiful vistas. We found a great campsite in Carleton, called Carleton-sur-Mer.

camp view..rather wonderful.

The campsites were on an isthmus off the main road right on the beach. We prepare our cod and enjoyed a nice bottle of white wine.

The next morning was sunny and bright and we made our way along the coast to the bridge connecting the peninsula to New Brunswick at Campbellton. After getting loaded with information at the info center we decided to play golf at Restigouche Golf and Country Club in Campbellton.

Golf Vista’s

Founded in 1923 this 18 hole course overlooks the Restigouche River and the Bay of Chaleur providing many spectacular views of the Appalachian Mountain Range and the Province of Quebec. The thunder storms began on the 9^th green and that became the end of the round. Good course and fun. We headed out to the Bathurst area to find a campsite for the evening. In the morning we headed out towards The Acadian Isles following the eastern coast of the province. The rain continued so we stopped at the Creek Seafood Restaurant in Moncton, New Brunswick. The clam chowder was one of the finest we have tried and the lobster club sandwich was sensational. The rain and thunder storms got worse and we continued down the coast to Miramichi where we stayed at a campsite just south of the city off of route 11. Camp Miramichi was relatively new, the couple that purchased it three years ago has actually built four tree houses that people can book and stay in. The site is off the ocean, but was a delight.

We took a leisurely drive along the coast, stopping at a small seafood stand and bought a  lobster that was steamed, stopping along the road, Janice captured the lobster from the shell and prepared lobster salad and made some sandwiches.

We arrived at the Confederation Bridge  to Prince Edward Island. After continuing to PEI, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland we will return and do the rest of New Brunswick. On to PEI!

Dateline June 20-23, 2012 Montreal and Quebec City

Having had a wonderful time at the wedding we began the drive to Canada and the Maritime Provinces. We stopped in Clinton New York to visit with Janice’s cousin Bobbie Dawes, her fathers niece..

Cousin Bobbie Dawes and Janice

We Have made it by to see Bobbie the last three years. We had a good visit, shared stories and pictures and moved back on the road deciding to stay free at at the Akwesane Mohawk Indian Casino in Akwesane, New York before entering Canada. We continued on to Montreal in the morning and got set up at the Camping Alouette camp ground just outside of Montreal. In the morning we drove to the Metro, like the commuters and took the subway into the city. We went out to the Botanical Gardens just across the street from the 1984 Olympic site. The gardens were delightful. We were still amazed by the construction of the Olympic stadium, with the wire from the overhanging tower supporting the roof.

We were scheduled to have lunch with David Williams. David is John’s sister Carol’s husband Parker’s cousin! (Want to try that again!) Courtney and Amanda were also in town and joined us for a lovely lunch at Poutineville, a real Quebec country style restaurant. A few questions, we are sure! What’s poutine? A traditional poutine consists of fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy. Sometimes other toppings are added. What’s a “cheese curd”? Little chunks of white cheese with a squeaky rubbery texture. They generally come out of the same places that make cheddar cheese, as all cheddar goes through a curd phase before being pressed into molds and aged. Needless to say, this will probably be a crime to eat in New York City, along with the 32 ounce drink, in no time.

Left to right Courtney, Amanda, David, Janice, John

As you can see in Amanda’s face a glow that the camera picked up, we found out a few days ago that she is pregnant and we have another (our second) grandchild on the way.

After lunch, Courtney and Amanda had some things to do, so David was kind to take us on a tour of some of the hills that overlook Montreal and his Mount Royal neighborhood overlooking the city.

Beautiful Stained Glass

The Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal was just beautiful. In 1904, Saint Andre Bessette, C.S.C, began the construction of St. Joseph, a small chapel on the slopes of Mont Royal near Notre Dame College. Soon the growing number of visitors made it too small. Even though it was enlarged, a larger church was needed and in 1917 one was completed and can seat 1,000. In 1924, the construction of the basilica of Saint Joseph’s Oratory was inaugurated; it was finally completed in 1967.

Entrance St Joseph

The basilica is dedicated to Saint Joseph, to whom Brother André credited all his reported miracles. These were mostly related to some kind of healing power, and many pilgrims (handicapped, blind, ill, etc.) poured into his Basilica, including numerous Protestants. On display in the basilica is a wall covered with thousands of crutches from those who came to the basilica and were allegedly healed. Pope John-Paul II deemed the miracles to be authentic and beautified Brother André in 1982. In October 2010 Pope Benedict XVI canonized the saint.

We said our good byes and look forward to seeing David again maybe he will visit us in Florida.

In the morning we packed up and headed for Quebec City, arriving at our campground, a KOA (West Quebec) facility in the early afternoon. We have to admit, it was one of the best campgrounds we had stayed at in our travels and highly recommend it. Unfortunately we were having camera problems, Janice dropped it one too many times, so went to Best Buy (they even spoke English for us) and picked out a new camera base. We hope it makes a difference in the quality of the pictures!

We took a shuttle bus from the camp to the old town Quebec and toured the city for the day. Quebec City, the only walled city in North America, is situated on the “rock of Quebec” which is the northeast end of a long, narrow triangular promontory, to the north of which lies the valley of the St. Charles and to the south that of the St. Lawrence. The incline on the St. Charles side is not as steep as the cliffs up from the St. Lawrence. The cliff near the citadel is 350 feet high and almost vertical. The only access to the top of the cliff is from steep, narrow trails. On top of the cliffs, at the east end, sits the fortified city, including the citadel (fort). Cannons line the walls down towards the St. Charles river. The harbor site below the city and thus supplies could reach the city either by road from the west or boat from Montreal to Quebec via the St. Lawrence River.

Lower City

The ups and downs from the upper city to the lower city gave us a good work out. It is a great place to tour, the churches were magnificent,

Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Québec

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Québec (Our Lady of Quebec City), is the primate church of Canada and seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec, the oldest see in the New World north of Mexico. It is also the parish church of the oldest parish in North America.

Cathedral of the Holy Trinity

The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity is the first Anglican cathedral built outside the British Isles and is the Mother Church of the Diocese of Quebec. After visiting Notre-Dame, we were fascinated by the simplicity of Holy Trinity.

The many restaurants and colorful shops were fun to look at. The Château Frontenac (now a Fairmont Hotel)

Château Frontenac

rises above the town and is just a great old landmark hotel built by the Canadian Pacific Railroad. It opened in 1893, six years after the Banff Springs Hotel in the Canadian Rockies which was owned and built by the railroad. We had the pleasure of visiting it in Banff last year on our way back from Alaska.

The Citadel, part of the Quebec City fortification, above the city is still an active duty Canadian Army Base . It is a massive star-shaped fort, towers We took a tour and it was fascinating.

Citadel

The tower in the center, called the Clock Tower, of the picture was actually used to tell ships the time by the position of the ball. We asked the guide, how the French got beat in the Battle of Quebec. It was a great story about an arrogant Marquis de Montcalm, who felt the fort, the Citadal, wouldn’t hold the British out. Those that had built to fort thought otherwise and advised the general to keep the men in the fort. He decided to put the men outside the walls and the British, led by Major-General James Wolfe. defeated them and so Canada became a British Colony. Before the surrender both leaders died from gun shot wounds the day before.

Exhausted we went back to the location where the shuttle would take us back to camp and watched the street musicians and the children,

Little French girl watching the muscian

it was actually very relaxing and a great end to our day in Quebec.

Flute Musician with little boy dancing

Now that we have the big cities out of the way it is time to move on to the countryside and the Maritime provinces.

 

 

OH..BTW…our garage is getting there, latest picture.

Garage as of June 24.

Dateline June 16, 2012: The wedding before heading to the Canada Maritimes

Garage June 13

After two weeks at home we are back in the Road Trek. One of the “home” projects was to build a garage and a storage room in the old carport that connects directly to the kitchen. Here is a picture of the cement blocks as we leave the house. We will include some pictures as we get them on the progress while we are enjoying our trip.

First stop is Gettysburg for our son James’ wedding to Mary Albin. Friday night we held the rehearsal dinner in Gettysburg at The Appalachian Brewing Company, just up the block from some of the Gettysburg battle grounds, fortunately there were no battles indoors between the wedding party and the parents. It was a pleasure to meet all of

James and Mary with sister Kieran and Janice

Mary’s family, her parents Janet and Jim were great people and all the family was so pleasant.   A great time was had by all. The “virtual keg” was the open bar with all the various beers made at the brewery being available established a good start for what , for some was a long evening.We have no knowledge of the “after party” as it was well beyond our bed time.

Granddaughter Izzy

Our grand daughter Izzy did everything to be the center of attention. John made a toast to the couple recognizing all the “women” in James’ life, starting with sister Kieran, his mother Rosellen and her best friend, and great friend to all of the family, Maureen Corbett, Janice and ending with Mary, who really has tamed him, since the rest of us couldn’t!

Right to left..Maureen, Rosellen, James, Janice, Kieran and Mary

Saturday was beautiful and an ideal day for an outside garden wedding. Mary’s sister Shelly hosted a lovely brunch at her house. We enjoyed a quiet afternoon at the Codorus State Park, just outside Hanover, where we camped. We then headed over for the 6:00 wedding, parked the RV and of course made ourselves a drink. We got out and immediately found John’s sister Carol and her husband Parker.

Carol and Parker

 

Many of James’ mothers family was down from Long Island and it was fun to see all of them. We headed over where the wedding was going to take place.

Groomsmen including John

Janice was one of the selected photographers so kept very busy snapping pictures. Mary’s brother John is deployed to Afghanistan, so unable to attend, but he was still in wedding!

Her other brother Jim, had his reserve duty this weekend and also was not able to attend  

James and Mary Wilson

First Kiss

The crowed moved over to the pavilion for the reception. A good time was had by all with all dancing up a storm. When it came time to cut the cake, James told of the tradition in the Wilson family of using his grand fathers sword from ROTC graduation at the University of Washington in 1944 that had been used when he and “Grammy” were married and used by all of the family since. Dancing continued with John dancing with James’ mother and his daughter Kieran.

Our best wishes to James and Mary Wilson.

Dateline May 27, 2012, RTJ Capital Hill and Magnolia..End of Our Trail

On to Montgomery where we played at the Capital Hill Robert Trent Jones golf courses. Staying at Gunter Hill Park a National Campground that was built by the Army Corps of Engineers as part of the effort to solve problems with the Alabama River around Montgomery. The campsites were right on the waterfront of backwaters to the river. The fishing is suppose to be excellent. Our many thanks to all our taxpaying friends as the cost was only $16 per night including power, water and clean restrooms and showers! The first nigh Pete and Bunny had a propane leak, fortunately outside, so the first order of business in the morning was taking their RoadTrek to have it fixed.

We then headed over to the Capital Hill complex to play our first round on the Legislature course.

Legislator 18

They categorized it as a more traditional course which plays in and out of pine trees and along a bluff. It was a wonderful course to play.  It was an interesting round as we were delayed at the end of the third hole because of lightning. After an hour we returned and finished the seventh hole before another lightning stoppage. Since we had to pick up Pete and Bunny’s Roadtrek by 5:00 we got a rain check to complete the round after one of the other rounds. John and Bunny were leading in the match against Pete and Janice.

We got up the next day and Bunny complained of a gas leak again, Pete told her it was just “Swamp Gas” and not to worry!

Swamp gas and golf!

On to the RTJ courses. You can have all the “Judge” jokes you want, but that was the course for the second day! “You be the Judge”; “The course will Judge you”, or any combination. We to the starter on the bluff that overlooked downtown Montgomery. Below was the “Judge” with the Alabama River’s glistening backwaters. The stunning vistas of the course unfolded before your eyes. The first tee sits 200 feet above the fairway overlooking the layout that Robert Trent Jones wanted to make a nightmare for your start of the round. The fairway had a middle crest any any ball either left or right either went in the cypress swamp or the water on the right!

Judge #1

The course had 14 holes adjoining the water and a stunning bulkhead island green, it was long and difficult, but the most fun of the three courses at Capital Hill. The Judge is described as simply magnificent, it is and The Judge takes you to your knees! After golf and a few beers we decided on cooking some local seafood for dinner, Catfish! We had a great meal, the fish was great and we retired for the long day of golf coming up. John and Bunny won the match over Pete and Janice.

We headed back in the morning for a long day of golf at the Capital Hill complex to first play the Senator and then finish the Legislature match. The Senator is a Scottish-Links style course with beautifully manicured bent grass greens, holds over 160 pot-hole bunkers and mounds 20 to 40 feet in height. The secluded settings of each hole makes you feel as if you are the only foursome on the course. The Senator will host the Navistar LPGA Classic in September. Back to the Wilson’s vs. the Warenski’s. The match ended in the firs tie, so a half point to each player. With that match finished, it was back to the 8^th hole on the Legislature to complete the rained out round the first day. The 8^th and 9^thholes were great playing above the Alabama River which was outdone taking in the views riding down the “Sky Bridge” to the back nine looking over the native cypress swamps, which lined many of the fairways the last several holes took you back up to the bluff and played back into the clubhouse.

Legislator through the beautiful marsh

The Legislature was a wonderful course and one of our favorites. Needless to say we were beat after 29 holes of golf. Bunny and John held on to win the match. Point standings after finishing in Montgomery were: Bunny 6.5, John 7.5, Pete 4.5, Janice 2.5.

What a trip so far. The Warenski’s have been an absolute pleasure to travel with. The golf has been a blast and the handicaps have made the competition really fair, Janice having the lowest handicap has been disadvantaged by all the strokes given to the other players, but that is the game of golf.

We left Montgomery and headed out to Mobile for our last two rounds on the Robert Trent Jones Trail. Magnolia Groves. The property includes creeks, marshland, and lakes, with each of the 54 holes carved from a thick forest of hardwood and pine. Magnolia Grove was recently voted into Golf World Magazine’s Reader Choice Top 50 Public Courses. The Falls and Crossings courses were also named by Golf Digest’s Places to Play as two of the nation’s Great Value courses, and both courses were listed in America’s Top 50 Affordable Courses.The Crossings course plays host to the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic held each in April. We first played the Crossings as the last match between the Wilson’s and the Warenski’s. Pete and Bunny beat the heck out of us leaving us three down with three holes to play. The Wilson’s won 16 and 17 to be one down and Pete and Bunny nailed the coffin closed by winning the 18^th hole, winning two up. The Crossings course, which doubles across railroad tracks, is a shot maker’s layout. The course was renovated in 2009 with newly designed green complexes and extensive tree removal. Several holes were entirely redesigned with new water features, including the par-3 fourteenth hole. The course was a pleasure to play.

We ended all the match events with the last round to be played Saturday morning on the Falls Course. The last day was to be individual play with the net score determining the points to be awarded. First-4 points, Second-3 points, Third-2 points and Fourth-1 point. Anyone could win, with unfortunately only Janice, mathematically out-although even with the lowest handicap, she could win the Individual! Standings: John and Bunny 7.5 points each Pete 6.5 and Janice 2.5. Off to the Falls Course, The Falls course is characterized by large, liberally contoured greens and massive, cloverleaf bunkers.

John by the falls

On the 10th, a 570-yard par five and possibly the best strategic hole on the course, a waterfall cascades just beneath a contoured green that falls eight feet from front to back.

Bunny showing her game right on the falls

The course was a pleasure to play. Janice won the Individual shooting a 78 from the men’s white tees, what a great round of golf and a well deserved win! Peter was second, and John beat Bunny by 1 stroke for third. This left the final results with John winning 9.5, Bunny and Peter had 8.5 points and Janice 6.5 points. What a great ending to 13 rounds of golf over some magnificent courses.

Our campsite in Mobile was the Meaher Alabama State Park This 1,327-acre park is situated in the wetlands of Mobile Bay and is a day-use picnicking and scenic park with modern camping hook-ups and bathhouse facilities for overnight visitors. A boat ramp and fishing pier appeals to every fisherman. A self-guided walk on two nature trails includes a boardwalk with a up close view of the Mobile Delta. The wildlife was sensational including the alligator checking out the campers for a morning meal! We enjoyed a few evenings of sunset cocktails and the last night had dinner at one of the local beach restaurants, Felix, which YELP and locals rated very highly. As the sun sets over Mobile, Alabama, we say goodby to the Robert Trent Jones Trail.

Sunset and the end of the Trail

We had no idea how our trip would turn out, we were excited to play the courses and use our RoadTrek as the “Hotel” and “Restaurant”. The trip was beyond our expectations, we had a blast with Pete and Bunny playing golf and sharing the evenings. We are planning to do another state in the future, such as Missouri or Louisiana. It is always sad to end an adventure, but heading home for a few weeks was a great feeling, especially with the storm brewing in the Atlantic headed for northern Florida. We spend Sunday on the road, arriving back in Flagler Beach in time to see the ocean waves crashing into the pier. Once in the house and turning on the TV we saw reports on the national news about the major storm hitting Flagler Beach with pictures of our local pier. It is funny what a joke these weather “shows” are! We are fine, little rain and wind, but no loss of power.

Stay tuned for our summer adventures. We are home for a few weeks and then head up to Gettysburg for our son James’ wedding to Mary Albin and then on to eastern Canada.

Dateline May 20, 2012, RTJ Golf Oxmoor Valley

The drive to Birmingham was about 90 minutes and we arrived at the Oak Mountain State Park, just outside the city in Pelham. With over 50 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails set in a picturesque 9,940-acre park, there is something for all outdoor enthusiasts to appreciate and enjoy. There is something for everyone, even a golf course for us duffers! With two fishing lakes at the north end of the park, you can rent boats or use your own(electric trolling or oars) or fish from the banks. Other activities included mountain bike trails, a demonstration farm, and rental horseback riding facilities. While we were in the park on May 19^th, the XTERRA Oak Mountain Trail Runs were held on the great nature trails inside the State Park. One of the campers next to us from East Hampton, Long Island came in second in the triathlon portion for women over 50. Good God was she in great shape!

Returning to play in Birmingham was a pleasure. They have three courses plus the short course. Ross Bridge is a resort course and the greens fees are high, since we played it on our last trip we decided to play the Ridge and Valley courses at Oxmoor facility. We had the pleasure of playing the Valley course our last time, but had not played the Ridge. Arriving for our 10 AM tee time on Friday morning, there was not a cloud in the sky. We hit some balls and headed over to the Ridge. The match that day was Janice and Bunny vs. John and Pete. The story is not of the match, but the absolutely great golf course that we played. Seldom do you have the pleasure of playing one hole after the next with such vistas and grounds that were in perfect shape. The Ridge course,

#1 Ridge

with its roller coaster fairways, heavy tree cover and precipitous 150-foot elevation changes, is incredibly photogenic. As a reminder of the site’s former use, the green at the par-five 3rd is buttressed by a shelf of exposed shale rock. By the way, John and Pete were victorious.

The 19^th hole was its usually fun respite from the heat. The bartender asked us if we had ever tried an Ice Tea, not Long Island or just ordinary ice tea, it was a liquor that you mixed with water. We shared one to try and immediately went to the liquor store and got two bottle for the campsite. A stop at Costco for chicken and smoked salmon, which we enjoyed for dinner along with Ice Tea.

Saturday was another beautiful day and it was time to play the Valley Course. The fun for the Wilson’s was that we had played it two years ago and having some memory of the course from before was nice. The Valley course is dotted with picturesque lakes, beautiful rolling fairways and stretches two miles downrange along a slender valley. The par-3 second hole plays over a pond to a green guarded by bunkers in front and that was a challenge to put it mildly! The format again was the boys against the girls, taking no prisoners, John and Pete won again. As usual we enjoyed the wildlife on the course, a group of turkeys passed our way. In addition we have seen many close par 3 shots from all, Birdie Bunny had 2 in one day and at the Valley Janice added one.

As usual we stopped in for our ice cold beers and talked about our day of golf..as usually memorable.

On to Montgomery and the Capital Courses, The Senator, The Legislator and the Judge!

Standings: Bunny 4 John 6 Pete 4 Janice 2

Dateline May 17,2012, RTJ Golf Hampton Cove and Silver Lakes

Having enjoyed our days in the Florence, Muscle Shoals area it was time to move on the Huntsville area and stay at another beautiful Alabama State Park. Monte Sano State Park had wonderful facilities at the top of a mountain (about 1600 feet) above Huntsville. Our first day it rained and gave us the opportunity to enjoy our living quarters, read and relax. We headed out the following morning for the Hampton Cove Robert Trent Jones complex. The courses drained very well and we were able to get out on the course around 11:00 to enjoy another fun match with Pete and Bunny. We played the River Course, the only Robert Trent Jones layout without a single bunker. The River Course is a throwback to the way courses were built long ago. The dirt was merely pushed up to create the greens and tees, leaving all else, including massive oak trees, as is. The course was a beauty with water on 16 holes, must admit, no sand traps was a pleasure. Match up for the day was John and Bunny vs. Janice and Pete. Winners – John and Bunny

Back to the state park for our gourmet feast and a good night of sleep. In the morning we broke camp. That is a big deal, unplug the electric and disconnect the water hose! We headed back to the Hampton Cove complex about 5 miles away and prepared to play the Highlands Course. The course was recently renovated to convert it back to its original design as a true Scottish links course, with rolling fairways and long, waving grasses. It had plenty of sand, water, hills and trees. The nicer of the two courses. It was again a beautiful day with Wilson’s vs. the Warenski’s. Pete and Bunny were the winners.

We then headed to play Silver Lake in the Gadsden area. The drive from Huntsville was about 80 mikes and we enjoyed some beautiful lakes and Tennessee river views. We stayed at a county park in Gadsden named Noccalula Park and Campground. This park has a rich history with beautiful picnic areas, and waterfalls.

Named by Golf Digest’s Places to Play as one of the nation’s Great Value courses in the public category, Silver Lakes is set on rolling terrain at the edge of Talladega National Forest between Anniston and Gadsden. Silver Lakes features three Championship nines plus a nine hole Short Course. This facility is anchored by a number of strong par fours that play to pedestal greens perched 30 to 40 feet above fairway level.

The courses have been totally redone in the last 2 years. All greens were replaced and huge amounts of work completed, all due to a class 4 tornado that ripped through there and destroyed the courses. They lost over 40 thousand trees and the top of the clubhouse but only some remnants of the disaster remain.

Trees not gone but folded

It is a remarkable restoration even if the trees will take many decades to return.

We first played The Backbreaker nine which is a photographer’s dream, boasting beautiful views of the Appalachian foothills from its elevated tees. We quickly figured exactly how the Backbreaker course got its name, by the time we hit our approach on the first hole. The green sits steeply above the fairway. It was a great 9 holes followed by The Mindbreaker, although slightly easier than the Backbreaker it was another great test of golf. We also ran into a slithering visitor on one of the holes, he was about 5 feet long and did not like us much, we think he is a harmless brown water snake. We highly recommend visiting Silver Lakes for a great day of golf. Again the Wilson’s played the Warenski’s, but won the match.

On to Oxmoor in Birmingham for more adventures!

Standings: Bunny 4, Pete 2, John 4, Janice 2.