Whales

One of the interesting things we are discovering is that our home province has a lot to offer in the way of interesting activities. You tend to take the things close at hand for granted instead of looking at them from the perspective of an "out of towner."
We decided to drive to Briar Island and go whale watching. Now we know this has been a great area for whale watching, read about it and heard lots about it BUT we have never driven to the end of Digby Neck to Briar Island to do it.
We started out on a beautiful, warm Monday morning. The weather forecast was good, sunny, warm and light winds and the marine forecast indicated that it would be a fog free day, which is something rare for the Fundy Shore! The drive to Briar Island was great. Nice scenery, and our timing was perfect as we were the last vehicle on the 1st ferry to Long Island and drove right on to the second ferry to Briar Island.
Westport is a beautiful little village that was originally settled in 1769 as a fishing station. Some of today's family names originate from the eleven Loyalist families that arrived in 1783. Perhaps Westport's most famous person was Captain Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail around the world solo in his sloop "Spray." Slocum"s mother was born on Briar Island and he made Westport his first port of call after leaving Boston for his famed voyage. He visited the area many times and there is a monument erected on the southern end of the island in his honour.

We has a couple of hours to spare before our whale watching trip so we walked around the village sightseeing. The tour company we had our reservation with was Briar Island Whale and Seabird Cruises Ltd. They are also heavily involved in Whale research and studies so the knowledge of their staff is excellent.

Our boat left at 5:30 in the evening and it looked like a full load of whale watchers of all ages. The water was extremely calm, winds were almost non-existent and it was quite warm, although later in the evening everyone would be adding the sweaters and jackets they were advised to bring. On our way out we passed harbour seals and began to see various seabirds such as murres, puffins  and shearwaters. There were others, but our limited knowledge of seabirds did not let us identify them. After about  an hour out we saw our first whales. They were humpbacks, but a fair distance from the boat. However about 20 minutes later we slowed down and came to a stop, with four humpbacks surfacing, diving and feeding right next to us. What a fantastic sight! They were three adults and a calf. The calf was not named but our crew recognized the three adults as Luna, Little Spot and 0034. Humpback whales have distinctive markings on their tails (flukes) that are like a fingerprint. Apparently no two are the same. This is how the researchers identify each whale and are able to keep track of its location and frequency of sighting.
The whales seemed to have no level of discomfort with the boat so close (the engines were shut off) and actually seemed to be performing for us. These are large animals. They can reach 50 feet in length (ours were around 40 feet long) and weigh many tons. They are so streamlined that they barely disturb the water as they move through it. They would surface, spout and then dive again and barely leave a ripple on the water.
Time was starting to run out and we had to head for home port as it was getting late. As we were approaching land, the boat changed course and stopped. We were all looking around as the Captain had obviously seen something we had not. I looked over the side of the boat and thought I could see white sand bottom, but it was moving. A humpback just passed under us and surfaced within 10 feet of the boat. There were two of them and they put on a spectacular performance for us by waving flippers and tails at us for about 10 minutes. What a way to wind up the evening!! 20 minutes later we were back in our truck and heading away from Briar Island, tired but extremely happy with the fantastic day we had and magnificent creatures we were privileged to spend some time with. If you ever have the chance, go watch the whales! Watch for a whale photo library to be posted soon with some of the 200 pictures we took.
P & N


Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.
  - Don Marquis

Eating Fine!!

We have been able to spend one to two hours a day walking the beaches in the area.  Depending on the wind, wave height etc. the beaches change daily. Never the same. One day rocks are exposed, the next, they are covered with sand. Sea birds around all of the time feeding in the shallows, diving for their food, finding fish, crabs, mussels and other shellfish. Of course, what they eat we eat as well. Steamed clams whenever we want to dig them, or a neighbor brings some over. Fresh fish, smoked fish and dried fish is always available at a local wharf or fish market. If you don't want to drive to get you fish, some one will be knocking on the trailer door selling fish out of their truck.
We had a great treat a couple of days ago when one of the neighbors came over with some dried mackerel fillets that he prepared himself. Unlike dried salted fish, dried fish is only soaked in a salt brine for a very short period of time before it is dried. This means that you can eat it "as is" without having to soak it for 24 hours in fresh water like you do with salt cod or salt pollock. Our neighbor caught his mackerel off the local wharf, filleted it, soaked it in salt water (salty enough to float a potato) for 5 minutes and dried them for several hours over low heat. Excellent eating.
Another new treat for us is salted green onions. You can make them yourself or buy them at any local store in this area. The really add flavor to any stew, chowder or dish you normally add green onions to. A word of caution- they are very salty if you try and eat them right out of the bottle. Add them to the food, a teaspoon at a time and let it cook! To make them, just chop up your green onions about 1/4 in thick, add them to a salt brine (again, strong enough to float a potato) mix well. Let sit for 24 hours. Fill up your bottle and seal tightly. They say it will keep forever???
Aside from seafood, we are also eating fresh berries. The strawberry season is starting to fade, but raspberries are plentiful. Fresh beets, carrots, beans. green leafy veggies and new potatoes are all available at the small local stores or from roadside vendors.
Needless to say meal planning is a very spontaneous event which totally depends on what we find during our travels each day.
We are eating "close to the earth". Everything we buy is local and fresh!  In our view, we are eating fine!
Quote of the day:
Skill, is successfully walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Intelligence, is not trying!

Finally Back

Well, after a winter and spring absence, here we are, back again!
After our trip last summer we settled in our apartment and hibernated for the winter. We spent a lot of time trying to decide what to do in 2011.  Not being fans of apartment living, after living in our own house for years, we decided that we would start looking for a small house somewhere in Nova Scotia. So our winter and spring months were spent house hunting. We looked at a number of places but all had issues of one kind or another. I'm at a stage where I don't want to spend a lot of time to fix up a "fixer upper". We are at the stage now where we are thinking of building a small house to our own specifications.
Spring and early summer arrived and the gypsy urge started to hit us, the apartment was closing in on us, so we just had to get back on the road in some way. In order to keep looking for that "ideal" house, or to find a piece of land to build on we decided that our travels will be restricted to the Maritimes this year. With this in mind, we packed up the rig, hooked up and set out for the area of Nova Scotia that is located between Yarmouth and Digby. This area known as "the french shore" was always of interest to us. It is the home of a large Acadian community (I have Acadian roots), quiet, relatively undeveloped and full of history and french acadian culture.

We found a hidden gem of an RV Park in the small community of Grosse Coques. Belle Baie Park is located on Saint Mary's Bay. It is a quiet place with a combination of seasonal and overnight sites. Very neat and tidy, clean and well run.
We arrived in Belle Baie on July 5th planning to stay for 2 or 3 days. We liked the place so much and our site overlooking the Bay that we decided to stay for the rest of July and into the 1st week of August. The weather is nice here. Always a breeze and the temperatures are in the constant low 20's C. If you like hot muggy temperatures, go inland!
It only took a few days for us to find a lot of interesting places and fresh foods. The local fish plant has fresh fish daily and is only 4 KM away. We have been eating a lot of haddock, pollock, scallops etc. We have also located most of the locations that sell fresh local vegetables and berries. The strawberries have been fantastic but the season is drawing to a close. However the raspberries are coming out now so all is well. We are filling up on fresh greens, beans, peas, beets, new potatoes and have found a place that sells all kinds of fresh herbs. So, food wise we are doing great.
There is also a great restaurant about 5 KM away. Chez Christophe is a small establishment set up in an old country home. Probably has a seating capacity of about 35 and a menu that is loaded with fish dishes and traditional Acadian food. We were there a couple of weeks ago and had a great meal. (we learned that you need reservations because the first night we went, we could not get in. They were full). As well, every Thursday night they have local Acadian musicians in for the evening, playing traditional Acadian jigs and reels. Thursday night is booked solid for the rest of the year, with a long waiting list. They are taking Thursday night reservations for next year now!!
Our meal at Christophe's was a simple one. I had the lobster meat from one lobster fried in butter and cream, served over crusty home made bread with a side salad. DW (dear wife) has salted pollock fish cakes, fried golden brown with a side of homemade green tomato chow and a salad. Big servings and no room for dessert. We expect to go again next week.
It is an interesting experiment for us to be sitting in one spot for as long as we have. We are enjoying it and are using this experience to determine if this could be the way for us to go. Up here for the summer, and down south for the winter. To do this we have to stay in one spot at each end. The cost of fuel is increasing and the days of traveling 25 thousand KM in four months are becoming limited, at least for this pocket book.

So, getting back to Belle Baie Park, we talked to the owners to see what their seasonal rates were, and when they might have a seasonal lot available. Lo and behold, the rates are good and they had several lots to choose from. They were very accommodating for us and said we could spend the rest of the season here for what we had already paid. Needless to say, we picked a lot that overlooks the beach and the pond behind the sand dunes and beach and are now settled in here until the end of September. We have lots of time to explore, look at houses (maybe). We'll be posting every few days from now on as we explore this area, its history and its culture

At Home

 Well, we have been home for just over two weeks now. We have been fairly busy getting the Montana unloaded and in to the dealer, Bluenose RV, for a bunch of little things that can occur after 25000km of driving across the country. We told them not to hurry and do it right! The rig is still there and I have to go in tomorrow and add a couple more things to the list that have to be done.
We got the truck cleaned up, finally. It took a couple of days to get four months of bugs and tar removed. Quick washes throughout the trip got road grime and mud off, but the tar and bugs needed some special attention and a lot of elbow grease. I think I might have a bit of transmission problems with the truck. It seems to shudder a bit on downshifts. Noticed it in the last three days of our trip. Talked to another Ford owner, actually an oil pipeline contractor from Alberta, who has 27 Ford trucks. He says the transmission shudder is in all of them and Ford can’t find the solution. He also said that it does not seem to get any worse, just annoying! However, I don’t like annoying and am going to chase Ford on this one. The tranny fluid has a slight smell of burnt brown sugar but seems to be the proper pink color. I’ll go back to the dealer and if nothing comes out of that I’ll go to a commercial transmission shop and see what they say. Sure would like to get it solved before we head south this winter.
Our going south plans are progressing, but slowly. Too many options out there which seem to complicate planning. We are loosely setting a departure date for late in Dec. or early Jan. Broad plans will have us going directly south, down I81 to Cajun country and then west through Texas towards Arizona. The number and lengths of stops in between will vary. What we are doing is looking for that special spot that we can consider calling home for 5 months each winter. There is a lot down there to look at.
For those of you who might be interested in what it costs to make a trip like we did this summer, my dedicated navigator, accountant and money manager came up with the following numbers.
To keep these numbers in context, here are some of the factors. Our total combined weight (truck & trailer) was 21,750 lbs. Total mileage driven was 25,135 km and our fuel consumption averaged 24.4L/100km or 11.6mpg. My driving speed on good highways was between 90 and 100kph and probably averaged out at 95kph. It was much slower on secondary roads, rough roads (of which there were plenty), long mountain uphill grades etc.
We also cook almost all our own meals. In fact I think we only ate out three times during the whole trip.
We were gone for 124 days and stayed in 54 RV Parks. Two months and one week of this time was spent in Alberta, BC, the Yukon and the North West Territories.
Our costs have broken down like this.
Food (includes cleaning supplies & toiletries) $16.67/day
Campgrounds $27.71/day
Diesel Fuel $49.82/day
Misc. (Truck & Trailer Maintenance, eating out
Wine & spirits, museum admissions and anything
else that is not included in the above.) $34.25/day


We could have reduced our costs somewhat if we had spent at least one night a week at Wal-Mart or Truck Stop parking lots at no charge, as well as no services. We always planned to do this but never did.
This is all for now. We will post occasionally to keep you up to date on our winter travel plans.
Quote of the day: I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
  - E. B. White

P & N

On to Nova Scotia.

We left Renfrew early on a Sunday morning planning to get as far as Quebec City by the end of the day. This leg of our travels is more of a transit stage, as we have driven this route from the Ottawa area to Nova Scotia many times. We also wanted to try to by-pass as much of Montreal as was possible to avoid the constant traffic jams and continuous road construction work.
The drive down through Ottawa was easy with minimal traffic, although the traffic levels increased considerably going through Ottawa. Everyone was in a hurry at 9:30 AM Sunday morning. There were a lot of people either rushing to church (which I doubt) or a lot of people who thought they were important or what they were doing was important (which is possible when you look at the number of politicians and their staff that live in this area).
We drove along the Ottawa River on old route 17 to Hawkesbury and crossed the river into Quebec. Our plan was to travel route 50 to 15, then south to 640, east to 40 and then on to Quebec City on 40. Things went smoothly until we hit the junction of 15 and 640. Last year when we travelled this route, this junction was under construction, and it still is this year. Not a lot has changed. Traffic was bumper to bumper and there were six police cruisers with cars pulled over in a 1 km stretch. It appears they were really enforcing the 50 kph construction speed limits, which was great. However, where they had cars pulled over it narrowed down the traffic lanes and further slowed things down. We eventually reached route 40 and the traffic eventually thinned out.
DW then suggested that we cross the St Lawrence River at Trois-Rivieres and link up to route 20 east. We had never crossed here before so it would be a bit of new road for us until we got on 20. Route 20 was it's usual self. Lots of traffic, mainly transport trucks, and lots of construction which we were able to get past quickly as no one was working at the sites.
We finally reached Levis and pulled into a KOA campground, just off route 20 and settled in for the night. This is a nice spot with full service, clean and modern. Great place to stay if you want to tour "Old Town" Quebec City. They have a shuttle service to the Old Town which means you can leave you vehicle at the campsite and not have to worry about where to find a parking space in the city. The other advantage is that you can visit as many wine bars and bistros as want and not have to worry about driving back intoxicated. The only requirement is that you have to remember where the shuttle is going to pick you up and what time the last run is! We plan on doing this on our next trip up through this area.
We left the next morning and continued east on 20 until we got to Riviere-du-Loup and then headed south to New Brunswick. The drive through the rest of Quebec and into NB was colorful with the trees in full fall colors. Once into NB we drove down the St. John River as far as a RV Park in Gagetown. We have stayed here before and it is now under new ownership and is called Coy Lake Camping. A lot of changes have been made and this park is slowly being improved. They still have a lot of work to do to make their sites comfortable for big rigs.
We left on Tuesday morning for the short drive to Amherst NS where we were stopping next. We arrived in Amherst around noon, got set up at Loch Lomond Campground in Nappan and then spent the rest of the day visiting relatives.
We got a later than usual start on Wednesday morning but knew we only had a short day's drive to Lunenburg NS. This was our last official day of travel for this trip and we were both a little sad that this one was over. On the flip side, we were happy to know that we would be spending time with old friends and family for a few months until we leave again, probably around Christmas time when we plan to head south to warmer climes. We will be posting occasionally over the next few weeks keeping everyone updated on our future plans. We regret that there are no photos in this post but there is a new album posted called fall colors in Ontario. Not many photos, but beautiful color.

Brandon to Renfrew

Our week in Brandon was a busy one. N was spending most of her time with our daughter and the two grandchildren. With my hearing aids I’m only able to tolerate a short time of their playing, laughing and crying on a daily basis. If the weather is warm and fine, outdoors is great but this week was cool and wet at times so most of the play was indoors.
The week did however, allow me to catch up on the blog and photos, get an appointment for the truck servicing and fixing a few nagging problems with the trailer. I was also as able to get any shopping done that was required including topping up the wine reserves.
It was cool at nights and fall is definitely in the air. The aspen trees are yellow and leaves are falling constantly. The win is blowing hard each day and rain or showers seem to be the norm.
Finally got the truck in on Friday, our last day in town, for it regular service.
Good-byes were said on Friday evening and Saturday morning saw us on the road heading east with sunny skies and a strong tail wind.
We stopped in Winnipeg to spend a couple of hours with and old friend of mine along with his wife. It was good to see them if only for a short time and we were soon on our way east again heading for Dryden, Ontario. As we headed into Ontario, we could see that fall was well on its way there also. The leaves are changing and occasionally we would see the odd splash of red in the bushes along the side of the road. We arrived in Dryden around 5 pm and settled in at our usual RV Park there, the Northwestern RV and Tenting Park. We had a late dinner and then in bed early. Long days seem to tire me out more than they used to. I wonder why?
We woke up to another frosty morning. Everything was white and the trailer seemed a bit cooler. That confused us for a few moments until N found a couple of windows still open a crack from the day before.
Again, we were on the road early heading for Nipigon. Another nice day and another tail wind. Boy, do tail winds help the gas mileage! We are trying to cover as much distance as we can each day because we have been over this road so many times and the drive is starting to get a bit boring. We arrived in Nipigon by mid afternoon and settled in an RV park that N always wanted to stay at. We are getting caught up on our budget and bookwork and enjoying the relatively warm temperature of 14C. Tonight it’s back to the minus figures so we’ll be scraping frost again tomorrow morning.

The frost was minimal on Monday morning as we left Nipigon. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day to drive the scenic route down to Sault Ste Marie. The leaves are starting to change and the yellow, orange and red colors were really coming into their prime. We arrived at our RV Park in the Sault late in the afternoon and got settled in. We decided that evening that we would stop into Elliot Lake, the next day, and take a look at the town that was claiming to be a retirement haven. The temperatures are getting warmer now which we appreciate.
We left the Sault early in Tuesday morning after making a phone call to the Elliot Lake retirement living organization. They said that they would make arrangements with the town for us to stay at the municipal RV Park, and set us up a schedule to view the town and some of the 1800 rental properties they have. It was a relative short drive to Elliot Lake (less than 200 km) and by early afternoon we were settled in at a full service RV Park in Elliot Lake, complements of the retirement living organization.
Our first engagement was a tour of the town and surrounding area. We met our tour guide, Tom, at the Retirement Living center at 5 pm. Tom, who has lived in the area since the 50’s gave us the two-hour grand tour. This is an impressive area. There are thousands of lakes in the area, miles and miles of hiking trails and 4-wheeler trails, which in the wintertime become cross-country skiing and snowmobile trails. These trails are kept separate to avoid conflicts between the different users.
We decided to have the organization show us what was available in their rental units so we were set up for another tour on Wednesday morning at 9:00 am.
Wednesday morning saw us visiting several different apartment buildings looking at one and two bedroom apartments. The Retirement Living group is a non profit organization that was able to purchase a large number of apartment buildings, town houses, duplex houses that had been built by the mining companies to house employees when the uranium mines in the area were going full blast. These buildings were built in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and the interior décor reflected this. However they have been well maintained and things like heating systems, electrical and exteriors have been brought up to today’s standards. Although the interiors are dated, so are the rents. The one-bedroom apartments start out at $475.00 with hot water provided. Heat and lights are over and above the rent and range from $60 to $120 a month depending how much you economize or don’t economize.
Thursday and we are still in Elliot Lake driving around the area in pouring rain. We checked out the shopping in the area, found out about the great fishing in the area and generally tried to get a feeling for the area. By now you are probably wondering why we have taken this detour. Well, Elliot Lake is just about the same distance from Halifax as it is from Brandon. Also, it is only a four-day drive from here to Texas and/or Arizona where we think we would want to spend the winters. Elliot Lake is a one day drive to Ottawa and to Toronto. On Friday, we looked at a couple more apartments and did our final looking around the area. Tomorrow morning we leave here and head towards Renfrew, just an hour west of Ottawa. By Sunday evening we hope to be at least half way through Quebec and if all goes well we should arrive back in Bridgewater by Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
This will probably be our last post until we are back to N.S., unless we decide to detour to some other place on the way home.

Quote for the day:
You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.
  - Woody Allen

Cheers

P & N

Southern Saskatchewan

We woke up to a cold, rainy, windy Friday morning in Swift Current. We can’t complain too much though because this is only the second time on this trip that we have had to hook up and get underway in the rain. In fact, the rain eased off to what we would call an east coast mist being driven by 40kph winds.
Swift Current is a very easy town to get around in and we were out of town and heading due south into wheat country. Who ever said that Saskatchewan was flat never drove on any other highway than the TCH. We drove through rain and wind until we reached Cadillac then turned east and headed through Assiniboia then south through Willow Bunch to Coronach where we stopped for the day. Willow Bunch had the first bi-lingual English French signs that we have seen for a long time. We found out later that this area was settled by Metis which explains the French names and bi-lingual signs.

We drove over plains, through valleys past fields of wheat that are still a long way from harvesting. It has been so wet down here that the fields are literally floating in water. The ground must be totally saturated.
Coronach is a small prairie town with the basic essentials. There is a Co-op gas station, grocery store, drugstore, insurance company, restaurant, motel, spa, a recreation center and golf course. As well, there is a small RV park where we are staying tonight.
We walked around town today, bought a couple of things which have to remain unidentified because they are gifts for certain people we know. The weather has cleared some but the wind is howling. Must be gusting to 70 kph. It was a good evening to stay in and play cards.
Tomorrow we are heading up Route 34 to Bengough where there is a regional park. We will probably stay there for a couple of days, and hope that the rain stops, so the back roads can dry up some. If they dry up we will be able to get into the Big Muddy and see what we want to see.
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, with the wind down to a whisper. With the wind blowing as hard as it did overnight, we have no idea how the grass around us could be so white and crunchy with frost. We got hooked up and were on the road in the early morning.

Our first stop was in Big Beaver where we dropped in at Aust’s General store. It is a family owned country general store that sells just about anything and everything. Big Beaver and area was also, many years ago, the starting point for the “outlaw trail” that ran from Big Beaver down through the mid western states to Cludad Juarez, Mexico, and was established by Butch Cassidy and his “Wild Bunch”. They ran it like the pony express. They had a series of ranchers who were either on the shady side of the law, or had been threatened into cooperating, maintain a string of fresh horses for members of the gang as they ran from various lawmen and posses. Of course there were also a lot of lesser known outlaws like Dutch Henry, The Pigeon-toed Kid and a half breed known as Bloody Knife. Bank and train robbing along with stealing horses seemed to be the main occupation of these characters.
It was interesting to be able to drive and walk through some of the places where these people rode and lived. Some had small ranches in the area while others lived in caves dug out of the sandstone cliffs of “The Big Muddy”. They even had caves big enough to hold their horses and keep them out of sight.

The only way to visit these caves is to take one of the local tours that only run in July and August. We could have hired a tour guide but the daily cost for just two of us was too high. However we did get to see and walk around Castle Butte which has been a landmark for centuries, used by first nations people, outlaws, and the NWMP. We also spent a short time talking to one of the ranchers in the area who only had 10,000 acres to run his beef on.
We only drove about 60km today and stopped at a nice regional park in Bengough. Bengough is just north of the Big Muddy valley and has a population of about 450. This regional park is small, but really set up for big rigs. Lots of trees and is very quiet. We drove around the local area just sightseeing and finally settled in for the day with a nice sunset and good dinner. We decided to move on towards Brandon and the grand children the next day with a stop in the Turtle Mountain Provincial Park in southern Manitoba, south of Brandon.
We were up early the next morning and on the road by 8 am. Drove from Bengough north to Highway 13 and turned east. It was a beautiful day with a strong westerly blowing giving us a push along the way and improving our gas mileage. We drove through Weyburn, just missing seeing Keefer Sutherland by two days. Weyburn is the birthplace of Tommy Douglas, known as the father of medicare. The town dedicated a life size statue of Tommy Douglas on Friday. Keefer Sutherland is his grand son and was there for the unveiling. Needless to say most of the crowd was present to see the famous actor rather than for the unveiling of the statue.
Around this time we got a cell phone call from family in Brandon advising us that some work schedules had changed for the time we planned to be there. After the call, N suggested that we drive straight through to Brandon now and arrive early. The driving was good and the tail wind still strong and the traffic was light, so we headed to Brandon.
Crossing into Manitoba we left Sask. route 13 and entered Manitoba route 2. This route took us all the way east to route 10, then just a few short km and we were at Meadowlark RV park in Brandon setting up camp for the next week. There were some surprised grand children when we called to let them know we arrived early. They were at our trailer door in 15 minutes.
This next week will be spent with family, cleaning up our trailer, getting the truck serviced and generally getting ready for the final leg of our trip back to Nova Scotia.

Quote fro the day: Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
  - Frank Leahy

Cheers

P & N