11 PM. Dark now. I'm driving with the windows down so I can enjoy the fresh air from the fields. Off to the right of the highway, there are fireflys flitting above a fence adjacent to a field. 30 minutes down the road, I notice a flashing green light on the center of the dashboard. Remember, this is a rented van. I don't recall any warning lights being in that area of the dashboard. What could it be. I put my hand up to touch the light. It flys away.
2 AM. I am getting tired. I don't want to take the time to check in to a motel. Nor do I want to deal with moving the animals into a room. There's a rest area up ahead. I'll pull into that. I get out of the van. Take Libby, the dog, for a walk. Back in the car, I rest my head against the window. Try to sleep. The trucks in the rest area all have their engines running. I don't know if I can sleep here. I close my eyes. When I open them, it's 4 AM. The very first rays of sunlight are appearing on the horizon. I feel very rested. I take Libby for another walk. Check the cats, and rabbit. All is okay. I check the map. I'm in the middle of Nebraska. I start the engine, and pull onto the highway. I accelerate up to the speed limit, 75 MPH, set the speed control for a little past that mark. Turn on the Sirius radio. Find National Public Radio. I'm on the road again.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Continiued - 3 cats, dog, rabbit - 2100 miles 2 days
It's 8 PM Monday evening. I have the animals in the van. The cages, plus the dog, take up the whole back of the van. My son asks me how I plan to get all of the animals into the motel room each night. I tell him that I'll work it out. Then he tells me that one of the cats has a kidney problem. "Monitor him," he says. "What do you mean," I say.
My son tells me to see if the cat is peeing regularly, or if he gets listless.
"Then what?"
"Call me. You may have to take him to a vet."
"Sure," I reply.
And, I'm off. The sun is low. It will be below the horizon in an hour or so. Right now, it's shining in my face. I pull the visor down. Keep my sun glasses on.
I'm in Iowa in 20 minutes. Heading SW. The sun is right on the horizon. Kinda balanced there. The road is on a ridge, with a shallow valley on either side. There's a light fog in the valleys. The sun behind the hills makes them look black, while the fog captures some light making a striking contrast to the black hills.
My son tells me to see if the cat is peeing regularly, or if he gets listless.
"Then what?"
"Call me. You may have to take him to a vet."
"Sure," I reply.
And, I'm off. The sun is low. It will be below the horizon in an hour or so. Right now, it's shining in my face. I pull the visor down. Keep my sun glasses on.
I'm in Iowa in 20 minutes. Heading SW. The sun is right on the horizon. Kinda balanced there. The road is on a ridge, with a shallow valley on either side. There's a light fog in the valleys. The sun behind the hills makes them look black, while the fog captures some light making a striking contrast to the black hills.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
3 cats, 1 dog, 1 rabbit - Illinois to California
Saturday night I got a call from my oldest son who lives in Galena, Il. He said,"Dad, can you come back here and drive our animals out to California."
My wife and I live in Grass Valley, Ca in the foothills of the High Sierra, and about 90 minutes NE of Sacramento. We publish a magazine, On the Beach on the Internet. It's about hotels really on the beach, and it's a full time job keeping it up to date. But, our son needed helped. So, I stopped work, pulled up Southwest Airliines, and booked a flight out for 6 AM Sunday morning.
Bryce, and his wife, Jen, are moving back to California. They couldn't manage the move with the animals. I was needed to transport the pets for them.
Upon arriving in Chicago, I'd rent a van, drive to Galena, 3 hours west of Chicago, get the animals, and head west.
More later.
My wife and I live in Grass Valley, Ca in the foothills of the High Sierra, and about 90 minutes NE of Sacramento. We publish a magazine, On the Beach on the Internet. It's about hotels really on the beach, and it's a full time job keeping it up to date. But, our son needed helped. So, I stopped work, pulled up Southwest Airliines, and booked a flight out for 6 AM Sunday morning.
Bryce, and his wife, Jen, are moving back to California. They couldn't manage the move with the animals. I was needed to transport the pets for them.
Upon arriving in Chicago, I'd rent a van, drive to Galena, 3 hours west of Chicago, get the animals, and head west.
More later.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Gotland - Sweden
Very few Americans visit this island. I “discovered” Gotland while I was looking for information on beaches in Sweden, and came across an article on Gotland beaches on this web site for information on beaches.
During the Viking era, Gotland was a base for Viking exploration of Europe and Russia. More Vikinng artifacts have been found on Gotland than in any other part of Sweden. To this day, hordes of silver are still being discovered on Gotland. There is, on average, one find a year.
In the Middle Ages, Gotland became a trading center for the powerful Hanseatic League. The center of operations for this trading organization on Gotland was the town of Visby. The merchants of the League, primarily Germans, during the 12th century, built a defensive wall, with a moat, around the city. The wall is over 2 miles in length, Most of the wall is stil in tact. The wall, and the town it encircles is one of the b est representations of a Medieval walled city in Northern Europe. Unesco has declared the old town of Visby, and the walll, as a World Heritage site.
You can read the rest of this article by clicking on the link at the top of this post.
During the Viking era, Gotland was a base for Viking exploration of Europe and Russia. More Vikinng artifacts have been found on Gotland than in any other part of Sweden. To this day, hordes of silver are still being discovered on Gotland. There is, on average, one find a year.
In the Middle Ages, Gotland became a trading center for the powerful Hanseatic League. The center of operations for this trading organization on Gotland was the town of Visby. The merchants of the League, primarily Germans, during the 12th century, built a defensive wall, with a moat, around the city. The wall is over 2 miles in length, Most of the wall is stil in tact. The wall, and the town it encircles is one of the b est representations of a Medieval walled city in Northern Europe. Unesco has declared the old town of Visby, and the walll, as a World Heritage site.
You can read the rest of this article by clicking on the link at the top of this post.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Italy and Croatia
This September we're going to Italy and Croatia. We want to do a farm stay in the Tuscan region, and stay in a villa near Dubrovnik in Croatia. We're like to hear from anyone who has done something similar.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
I guess not. We're off to Newfoundland.
September 24, 2005 - Our journey to Newfoundland begins. Our original plans were to see as much of eastern Canada as possible, and also see the fall colors. When I saw on a map that Newfoundland was a five hour ferry ride from mainland Canada, I decided that we probably couldn't fit it into our schedule. Part of my planning for this trip was requesting each of the provinces of eastern Canada to send me a travel planning guide.
One day I opened my mail and found a large 81/2 by 11 travel guide to Newfoundland. The picture on the cover immediately captured my attention. A man was standing on a large rock looking down a fjord. A fjord, yes, not in Norway, but in Newfoundland. Inside the guide were more pictures, and text, from people who had been to Newfoundland, extolling it as one of the "must see places in the world." Powerful stuff.
This was a travel promotion guide that really worked. I discussed my new find with Pat, my wife, and we changed our plans to make Newfoundland the focus of our trip, while still driving through much of eastern Canada and parts of New England and the MidWest.
September 25 - We arrive in Galena, Ill to spend a few days with our oldest son, Bryce, and his wife, Jen. Galena is a very picturesque town located in a valley near the Mississippi River.
September 27 - Today we drove north into Wisconsin, followed the Mississippi River, and ended up in St Paul, MN at our friends house, Nora and Tony. We were still uncertain of the exact path that we'd follow to get to Nova Scotia and the ferry to Newfoundland. But, both Bryce and Tony said we had to see Mackinac Island (pronounced Mackinaw).
September 28 - North to Duluth on Lake Superior, then east into Michigan. Today we really began to see some fall colors. North of St Paul and Minneapolis, the country is rural and the towns small. We stopped in one very poor looking little town to take a restroom break. They had four thrift stores in two blocks. The bank had a sign outside that said,"Guns are not permitted inside."
It was early evening when we got into Michigan. We saw a sign that said the worlds highest ski jump was off to our left. Since we had no particular goal in mind for a destination this evening, we took off in search of the ski jump. We never found the road that would take us to the jump, but we did get a glimpse of it way off in the distance sitting on top of a small mountain. The detour was well worth it. With the long golden rays of the setting sun giving brilliance to the reds and golds in the trees, we saw of herd of dear frollicking like dogs in a meadow off to our left. We stopped here along the roadside to watch them till they faded into the darkness. I've never seen deer play like this.
Around 8 PM we came across an Indian casino and resort. Checking in, the clerk gave us each $5 to gamble on their slot machines. With the first pull on a slot, I won $55. That about paid for the room for the night. Before going to bed we soaked in the huge indoor jaccuzzi.
September 29 - We're headed due east towards Mackinac Island. It was very cold last night. Probably neer freezing. The colors along this stretch of the northern peninsula of Michigan are awesome. We keep stopping the car to take pictures of superb trees whose leaves are either gold or red. During the trip we took over 800 photographs. About a third were of trees. However, I'm only going to post one tree picture in this report. You'll see it later on in New Brunswick.
One town we pass through is named, "Norway." With a name like that you'd think that it would be a very special place. The only thing special about this run down town was the sign entering the town that had a small viking type boat sitting in front of the sign. It's evening when we arrive in the small town that is the jumping off point to go over to Macinaw Island, which is about a mile offshore in Lake Huron. We get a motel for about $40, eat dinner, watch Alias on TV, and go to bed.
September 30 - We catch the 8 AM boat to Mackinac. There's at least three boat services that whisk you over to island in about 18 minutes. I didn't really know what to expect when we got to the island. I knew that they didn't allow cars on the island.
Once there, you walk, ride a bike, ride a horse,
or take a carriage. The air was crisp and the wind made it very chilly. But the brilliant sun that shined throughout the day made the weather bearable. This town is one of the neatest towns I've ever seen. It's clearly worldclass in that the buildings are almost all of the period in the late 1800's, early 1900's. There are lots of shops, so Pat and I go our separate ways. She gets on a carriage for a tour of the town and part of the island. I rent a bicycle to ride the 8 miles around the island and to check out some of the town off the main street.
Is quaint an overused word? Maybe so, but this town is quiantness with a capital Q. Every building, shop, home is worthy of a picture. The Grand Hotel is just that. It is the most elegant, best maintained, 1800's style resort hotel that I have seen. It is formal. After 6 PM men must have on coats and ties and women be in dresses.
Pat and I put Mackinac Island on the list of everyone must see places in the world.
There were a lot of people here on this weekday.
In the summer, the streets must be jammed with people, bicycles and horses. By the way there are more vetenarians on the island than doctors. About every fourth shop is a fudge shop, and I have to tell you the fudge is the best I have ever tasted. We started with just a pound, but had to go back for more. Come January the lake freezes over. Things pretty much come to a standstill until spring.
We get back to the mainland in the late afternoon and head for Canada. Going through customs is a piece of cake. The customs man is very casual and friendly. He is a perfect welcome to Canada as we are going to find that all of the Canadians we come in contact with are warm and friendly. Because there is no great beauty of note, we drive till late evening and stay in a non descript roadside motel in Blind River, Canada.
October 1 - Heading towards North Bay, an accident has the road closed. We must take a detour that takes us about 60 miles out of the way. But, the detour turns out to be a blessing in disguise. Since leaving Michigan, we hadn't seen any outstanding Fall colors. This detour takes us into some high country and brings us into North Bay from the north. The colors we see are breathtaking causing us to stop the car repeatedly to take pictures.
We arrive in North Bay in the early evening with enough sunlight to find a nice campground just a few miles outside of town. This is a nice town on a big lake. We have dinner, take in a movie, and retire to our cozy tent where our camping bed is more comfortable than any motel we've stayed in.
Oct 2 - The towns are few and far apart. The country is beautiful. Sometimes we are in a forest and other times in nearly barren rocky plains. We arrive in Ottawa in mid afternoon. This is the capital of Canada. So, we have to take some time to get off the freeway and see the capital buildings. What we see takes our breath away. The capital buildings are situated on a bluff overlooking a river. The buildings are modeled along what you see in London. Along the river is a jogging path. The weather is warm and sunny. People are out enjoying their beautiful city. We linger to dusk. Dinner for us is a couple of hot sausages in buns bought from a sidewalk vendor on a pedestrian only street.
Once again we are driving into the night. We had wanted to avoid this. However, we want to be in Quebec City in the morning, and it's a long way from Ottawa. It's almost midnight when we get to the outskirts of Quebec City. The motel prices are too high for just getting in bed. We end up in a K.O.A.type campground right next to the freeway. Sleep is difficult because of the noise of the freeway and especially the big trucks.
Oct 3 - We've been to Quevec City before, but it's worth visiting again. The city is bigger than I remembered and the traffic getting to the old town, the only walled fortress city in North America, is congested. Once we arrive in old town, we know that we'll be here the rest of the day. The streets are lined with shops and restaurants. The architecture is lovely to behold. The city is perched above the St Lawrence River. The atmosphere invites you to linger.We have dinner in old town and leave the city as dusk is approaching. We drive until about 10 PM. Then we find a campground just off the highway. Luckily this campground is quiet and we get a good nights rest.
Oct 4 - By mid-morning we are in New Brunswick. The visitor center welcoming us into the province is the nicest visitor center we've ever seen. The building is pretty and situated behind a meadow surrounded by trees in full fall color. Inside, beside the usual brochures, they have very infomative exhibits and free Internet access. That night we camped alongside a river on the outskirts of Fredericton, the capital of New Brunswick. Before making camp, we toured a tourist spot where they had recreated a village similar to what would have been found in this area in the 1800's.
Oct 5 - This turns out to be a very full day for us. After walking around Fredericton, which isn't all that interesting, in the morning, we head off to the Bay of Fundy park.
This is where some of the highest tides in the world occur. Unfortunately for us the tides were normal this day. Still, the park was pretty and the hike down to the bluffs above the bay a welcome relief from all of the driving we'd been doing.
From the bay we headed towards a town that claims to be the lobster capital of the world. Quite a claim, and we thought it would be a good place to have our first lobster of the trip.
On the way to the Lobster Capital we spotted what
we think was the tree that best captured the essence
of all the beautiful fall color trees that we had seen. So, out of thousands of trees, here is the one picture of a tree that you'll see in this blog. We were drawn to it because it stood alone in a field, and it's leaves ran the range of colors thant we had seen.
It was late afternoon when we arrived at the entrance to the Lobster Capital. Well, the only lobster we saw in this pitiful run down fishing village was a giant lobster sculpture at the entrance to town. This was no place to have dinner. We headed towards Nova Scotia. Dinner was at a McDonalds. We drove until about 8 PM, made camp, took in a movie, and went to bed.
Oct 6th - Today we'll catch the ferry to Newfoundland. The drive to Sydney, the jumpoff point for the ferry, is mellow but not spectacular.
We do see a bald eagle fly over the car. The ferry leaves in the mid-afternoon. We arrive about 30 minutes before boarding time and take up our place in line. The ferry is huge, able to carry hundreds of cars, including buses and semi-trucks.
After we drove our car onto the ferry, we went up to the lounge areas. We were quite surprised by the layout of the passenger areas. There were several separate lounges for watching T.V. or a movie. We saw two movies on the way over to Newfoundland. The bar area was cozy, and the food served in the restaurant, cafeteria style, was excellent. It was some of the best food we were to have on our trip.
The crossing to Newfoundland was smooth. We arrived in Port au Basque after dark. We couldn't find the place where we had reservations. The town isn't very big, but the streets follow the topography, and the street signs were hard to see. We went into a service station and asked the attendant if she knew the way to our destination. She knew, and drew us a map. But, guy in there to pay for his gas said he knew where we were going and we could just follow him. I stayed on his tail as we wound though the town maze. Arriving at the condos, there didn't appear to be anyplace to check in. The helpful driver got out of his pickup and went into an art gallery to ask if they knew where we were supposed to check in. It turns out that the art gallery was the check in place. I've told you that the Canadians were friendly. This is an example of just how friendly and helpful they are. Our condo was 2 bedrooms and only $75 for the night. After camping for several nights, lots of driving, and it was cold, windy, and drizzling, the condo was very welcome. We were going to take baths, but the water had a yellowish tint to it. We settled for showers. Later on the trip we learned that most of the water on New Foundland has this tint. Nothing wrong with it. It's just the minerals in the water. After showering, we settled into the comfortable living room and watched T.V.
Oct 7 - It was raining lightly as we headed out of Port au Basque. Low clouds obscured the tops of the mountains as we headed up the coast towards Gros Morne National Park. Newfoundland is much bigger than it appears on a map. It looks small on a map because you see it against the mainland of North America. The peninsula that we're heading north on is almost 500 miles long. We've decided that we'll just focus on one part of that peninsula, Gros Morne National Park. By the time we get to the park entrance it's mid-afternoon. Inside the park discovery center, I go straight to the information desk, point to the picutre of the man standing on a rock overlooking the fjord, and ask, "How do I get here?"
The answer was shocking. " You can't get there."
"What do you mean."
She told me that you had to get a specail permit to travel into the remote wilderness of Gros Morne.
"Okay, how do you get the permit."
"You have to make an appointmet with a ranger. Then, at your meeting, demonstrate that you have the skills and equipment for accomplishing this trip. If you are granted a permit, you will be issued a transponder which will allow us to locate you should you need to be rescued."
Very cool, I thought. Having been a wilderness ranger in the 70's, I was very familiar with the "wilderness permit system." However, we never had the authority to turn back adults who were not properly equipped. Now, even though we didn't have the equipment, nor time, to make this journey, I was very impressed with the park policy, and the fact that we were on the edge of such challenging topograpy.
One day I opened my mail and found a large 81/2 by 11 travel guide to Newfoundland. The picture on the cover immediately captured my attention. A man was standing on a large rock looking down a fjord. A fjord, yes, not in Norway, but in Newfoundland. Inside the guide were more pictures, and text, from people who had been to Newfoundland, extolling it as one of the "must see places in the world." Powerful stuff.This was a travel promotion guide that really worked. I discussed my new find with Pat, my wife, and we changed our plans to make Newfoundland the focus of our trip, while still driving through much of eastern Canada and parts of New England and the MidWest.
September 25 - We arrive in Galena, Ill to spend a few days with our oldest son, Bryce, and his wife, Jen. Galena is a very picturesque town located in a valley near the Mississippi River.
September 27 - Today we drove north into Wisconsin, followed the Mississippi River, and ended up in St Paul, MN at our friends house, Nora and Tony. We were still uncertain of the exact path that we'd follow to get to Nova Scotia and the ferry to Newfoundland. But, both Bryce and Tony said we had to see Mackinac Island (pronounced Mackinaw).
September 28 - North to Duluth on Lake Superior, then east into Michigan. Today we really began to see some fall colors. North of St Paul and Minneapolis, the country is rural and the towns small. We stopped in one very poor looking little town to take a restroom break. They had four thrift stores in two blocks. The bank had a sign outside that said,"Guns are not permitted inside."
It was early evening when we got into Michigan. We saw a sign that said the worlds highest ski jump was off to our left. Since we had no particular goal in mind for a destination this evening, we took off in search of the ski jump. We never found the road that would take us to the jump, but we did get a glimpse of it way off in the distance sitting on top of a small mountain. The detour was well worth it. With the long golden rays of the setting sun giving brilliance to the reds and golds in the trees, we saw of herd of dear frollicking like dogs in a meadow off to our left. We stopped here along the roadside to watch them till they faded into the darkness. I've never seen deer play like this.
Around 8 PM we came across an Indian casino and resort. Checking in, the clerk gave us each $5 to gamble on their slot machines. With the first pull on a slot, I won $55. That about paid for the room for the night. Before going to bed we soaked in the huge indoor jaccuzzi.
September 29 - We're headed due east towards Mackinac Island. It was very cold last night. Probably neer freezing. The colors along this stretch of the northern peninsula of Michigan are awesome. We keep stopping the car to take pictures of superb trees whose leaves are either gold or red. During the trip we took over 800 photographs. About a third were of trees. However, I'm only going to post one tree picture in this report. You'll see it later on in New Brunswick.
One town we pass through is named, "Norway." With a name like that you'd think that it would be a very special place. The only thing special about this run down town was the sign entering the town that had a small viking type boat sitting in front of the sign. It's evening when we arrive in the small town that is the jumping off point to go over to Macinaw Island, which is about a mile offshore in Lake Huron. We get a motel for about $40, eat dinner, watch Alias on TV, and go to bed.
September 30 - We catch the 8 AM boat to Mackinac. There's at least three boat services that whisk you over to island in about 18 minutes. I didn't really know what to expect when we got to the island. I knew that they didn't allow cars on the island.
Once there, you walk, ride a bike, ride a horse,or take a carriage. The air was crisp and the wind made it very chilly. But the brilliant sun that shined throughout the day made the weather bearable. This town is one of the neatest towns I've ever seen. It's clearly worldclass in that the buildings are almost all of the period in the late 1800's, early 1900's. There are lots of shops, so Pat and I go our separate ways. She gets on a carriage for a tour of the town and part of the island. I rent a bicycle to ride the 8 miles around the island and to check out some of the town off the main street.
Is quaint an overused word? Maybe so, but this town is quiantness with a capital Q. Every building, shop, home is worthy of a picture. The Grand Hotel is just that. It is the most elegant, best maintained, 1800's style resort hotel that I have seen. It is formal. After 6 PM men must have on coats and ties and women be in dresses.Pat and I put Mackinac Island on the list of everyone must see places in the world.
There were a lot of people here on this weekday.In the summer, the streets must be jammed with people, bicycles and horses. By the way there are more vetenarians on the island than doctors. About every fourth shop is a fudge shop, and I have to tell you the fudge is the best I have ever tasted. We started with just a pound, but had to go back for more. Come January the lake freezes over. Things pretty much come to a standstill until spring.
We get back to the mainland in the late afternoon and head for Canada. Going through customs is a piece of cake. The customs man is very casual and friendly. He is a perfect welcome to Canada as we are going to find that all of the Canadians we come in contact with are warm and friendly. Because there is no great beauty of note, we drive till late evening and stay in a non descript roadside motel in Blind River, Canada.
October 1 - Heading towards North Bay, an accident has the road closed. We must take a detour that takes us about 60 miles out of the way. But, the detour turns out to be a blessing in disguise. Since leaving Michigan, we hadn't seen any outstanding Fall colors. This detour takes us into some high country and brings us into North Bay from the north. The colors we see are breathtaking causing us to stop the car repeatedly to take pictures.
We arrive in North Bay in the early evening with enough sunlight to find a nice campground just a few miles outside of town. This is a nice town on a big lake. We have dinner, take in a movie, and retire to our cozy tent where our camping bed is more comfortable than any motel we've stayed in.
Oct 2 - The towns are few and far apart. The country is beautiful. Sometimes we are in a forest and other times in nearly barren rocky plains. We arrive in Ottawa in mid afternoon. This is the capital of Canada. So, we have to take some time to get off the freeway and see the capital buildings. What we see takes our breath away. The capital buildings are situated on a bluff overlooking a river. The buildings are modeled along what you see in London. Along the river is a jogging path. The weather is warm and sunny. People are out enjoying their beautiful city. We linger to dusk. Dinner for us is a couple of hot sausages in buns bought from a sidewalk vendor on a pedestrian only street.
Once again we are driving into the night. We had wanted to avoid this. However, we want to be in Quebec City in the morning, and it's a long way from Ottawa. It's almost midnight when we get to the outskirts of Quebec City. The motel prices are too high for just getting in bed. We end up in a K.O.A.type campground right next to the freeway. Sleep is difficult because of the noise of the freeway and especially the big trucks.
Oct 3 - We've been to Quevec City before, but it's worth visiting again. The city is bigger than I remembered and the traffic getting to the old town, the only walled fortress city in North America, is congested. Once we arrive in old town, we know that we'll be here the rest of the day. The streets are lined with shops and restaurants. The architecture is lovely to behold. The city is perched above the St Lawrence River. The atmosphere invites you to linger.We have dinner in old town and leave the city as dusk is approaching. We drive until about 10 PM. Then we find a campground just off the highway. Luckily this campground is quiet and we get a good nights rest.
Oct 4 - By mid-morning we are in New Brunswick. The visitor center welcoming us into the province is the nicest visitor center we've ever seen. The building is pretty and situated behind a meadow surrounded by trees in full fall color. Inside, beside the usual brochures, they have very infomative exhibits and free Internet access. That night we camped alongside a river on the outskirts of Fredericton, the capital of New Brunswick. Before making camp, we toured a tourist spot where they had recreated a village similar to what would have been found in this area in the 1800's.
Oct 5 - This turns out to be a very full day for us. After walking around Fredericton, which isn't all that interesting, in the morning, we head off to the Bay of Fundy park.
This is where some of the highest tides in the world occur. Unfortunately for us the tides were normal this day. Still, the park was pretty and the hike down to the bluffs above the bay a welcome relief from all of the driving we'd been doing.From the bay we headed towards a town that claims to be the lobster capital of the world. Quite a claim, and we thought it would be a good place to have our first lobster of the trip.
On the way to the Lobster Capital we spotted what
we think was the tree that best captured the essence
of all the beautiful fall color trees that we had seen. So, out of thousands of trees, here is the one picture of a tree that you'll see in this blog. We were drawn to it because it stood alone in a field, and it's leaves ran the range of colors thant we had seen.
It was late afternoon when we arrived at the entrance to the Lobster Capital. Well, the only lobster we saw in this pitiful run down fishing village was a giant lobster sculpture at the entrance to town. This was no place to have dinner. We headed towards Nova Scotia. Dinner was at a McDonalds. We drove until about 8 PM, made camp, took in a movie, and went to bed.
Oct 6th - Today we'll catch the ferry to Newfoundland. The drive to Sydney, the jumpoff point for the ferry, is mellow but not spectacular.We do see a bald eagle fly over the car. The ferry leaves in the mid-afternoon. We arrive about 30 minutes before boarding time and take up our place in line. The ferry is huge, able to carry hundreds of cars, including buses and semi-trucks.
After we drove our car onto the ferry, we went up to the lounge areas. We were quite surprised by the layout of the passenger areas. There were several separate lounges for watching T.V. or a movie. We saw two movies on the way over to Newfoundland. The bar area was cozy, and the food served in the restaurant, cafeteria style, was excellent. It was some of the best food we were to have on our trip.
The crossing to Newfoundland was smooth. We arrived in Port au Basque after dark. We couldn't find the place where we had reservations. The town isn't very big, but the streets follow the topography, and the street signs were hard to see. We went into a service station and asked the attendant if she knew the way to our destination. She knew, and drew us a map. But, guy in there to pay for his gas said he knew where we were going and we could just follow him. I stayed on his tail as we wound though the town maze. Arriving at the condos, there didn't appear to be anyplace to check in. The helpful driver got out of his pickup and went into an art gallery to ask if they knew where we were supposed to check in. It turns out that the art gallery was the check in place. I've told you that the Canadians were friendly. This is an example of just how friendly and helpful they are. Our condo was 2 bedrooms and only $75 for the night. After camping for several nights, lots of driving, and it was cold, windy, and drizzling, the condo was very welcome. We were going to take baths, but the water had a yellowish tint to it. We settled for showers. Later on the trip we learned that most of the water on New Foundland has this tint. Nothing wrong with it. It's just the minerals in the water. After showering, we settled into the comfortable living room and watched T.V.
Oct 7 - It was raining lightly as we headed out of Port au Basque. Low clouds obscured the tops of the mountains as we headed up the coast towards Gros Morne National Park. Newfoundland is much bigger than it appears on a map. It looks small on a map because you see it against the mainland of North America. The peninsula that we're heading north on is almost 500 miles long. We've decided that we'll just focus on one part of that peninsula, Gros Morne National Park. By the time we get to the park entrance it's mid-afternoon. Inside the park discovery center, I go straight to the information desk, point to the picutre of the man standing on a rock overlooking the fjord, and ask, "How do I get here?"
The answer was shocking. " You can't get there."
"What do you mean."
She told me that you had to get a specail permit to travel into the remote wilderness of Gros Morne.
"Okay, how do you get the permit."
"You have to make an appointmet with a ranger. Then, at your meeting, demonstrate that you have the skills and equipment for accomplishing this trip. If you are granted a permit, you will be issued a transponder which will allow us to locate you should you need to be rescued."
Very cool, I thought. Having been a wilderness ranger in the 70's, I was very familiar with the "wilderness permit system." However, we never had the authority to turn back adults who were not properly equipped. Now, even though we didn't have the equipment, nor time, to make this journey, I was very impressed with the park policy, and the fact that we were on the edge of such challenging topograpy.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Is the Journey Over?
We're back in Nevada City, a gold mining town which is in California not Nevada, in the foothills of the High Sierra about 1 hour northeast of Sacramento. After all of our travel over the last 6 weeks, we still find this town to be enchanting and on par with towns like Bergen and Ruros in Norway. Both of these towns are World Heritage Sites and Nevada City certainly should have a similar designation.
Last night we attended "Summer Nights" where the two main streets are closed to vehicle traffic and turned over to vendors, muscians, and hundreds of people to enjoy the warm summer evenings on Wednesdays in July. At the top of Broad Street, the main street, a band was playing music with a fiery latin beat. In the beginning, only one couple was dancing to the music. But by mid-evening, dozens of people, children included, were swinging to the hot sounds. When the band finally played their last piece for the night, Elisa, Mike, Maya, our Grand Daughter, and myself turned to walk down the street towards their home about 1/2 mile away. The light from what would become a giant full moon was just beginning to show over the pine trees in the distance.
Now it's time to start looking for land to build our home on. So, the journey continues.
Last night we attended "Summer Nights" where the two main streets are closed to vehicle traffic and turned over to vendors, muscians, and hundreds of people to enjoy the warm summer evenings on Wednesdays in July. At the top of Broad Street, the main street, a band was playing music with a fiery latin beat. In the beginning, only one couple was dancing to the music. But by mid-evening, dozens of people, children included, were swinging to the hot sounds. When the band finally played their last piece for the night, Elisa, Mike, Maya, our Grand Daughter, and myself turned to walk down the street towards their home about 1/2 mile away. The light from what would become a giant full moon was just beginning to show over the pine trees in the distance.
Now it's time to start looking for land to build our home on. So, the journey continues.
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