Maritime - Week Seven

Sunday, July 17, 2005 - Day 43

Sydney, NS

We hung around the coach for a while this morning, then about 10 or so moved to a site with full hookups.  Only problem was the dish could not lock onto a signal.  For whatever reason, and I didn't have one, it could not find the satellite when searching in the correct window.  After trying what should have been the right window, the dish then started searching the whole sky.

So, about 11 we decided to stow the dish and drive over to Baddeck, about 30 miles away, to visit the little town and the museum there about Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.  That, at least, is what he is most noted for.  But, he was also instrumental in a lot of other inventions, such and the hydrofoil boat, a boat that rises out of the water and rides on hydroplanes.  There were a lot of artifacts from his effort there.  He also was very involved in developing speech methods for the deaf.

We had lunch about 2:15 at the 'Yellow Cello", a little open air pizza/sub place, then returned to the coach to try the dish again.

After getting back to the coach, I watched the dish, and with my compass, I thought maybe it was not moving around toward the north enough.  I called Ground Control, the same guy I have talked to before, and he had me check the compass setting of the software compared to actual magnetic north.  Once we adjusted the compass, the dish searched further to the north, and there it was.  Back in business.

We have gotten acquainted with the guy that owns the park, which is located on his Great-Great-Grandfather's farm.  He came by the coach with a whole plate full of Crab Claws for us.  He said they had been caught last night, cooked this morning, and the meat would be great for Crab Meat sandwiches.   To return the favor, Donna is gonna bake a batch of her Famous Ultimate Brownies... eat your heart out, JD !!!!

Monday, July 18, 2005 - Day 44

Sydney, NS

Today we drove the northwest part of the Breton Highlands on the Cabot Trail.  Most of the drive was through a National Park with lots of beautiful scenery.  We visited a few artist studios, including a really nice glass place, and a place where they make and sell Pewter trinkets, medallions, key chains, and much more.

We looked around several of the villages, having lunch in one, and watching a boat load of BIG crab being unloaded in another village called Cheticamp.  These villages were not inside the Park, but were on the same road that traverses the park.  One of the main things we were looking for was the wildlife.. and we were not disappointed.  We saws an eagle, a group of whales, some sea lions, a bear, a moose, and lots of 'little' creatures.

For dinner tonight we had crab-meat sandwiches.  Donna is cooking a batch of her famous ultimate brownies which we will give to John in the morning.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - Day 45

Sydney, NS

When we left this morning, we dropped off a plate of the brownies for John and Flora.  They weren't around but Stacy, the young lady in the office, took them to give to them.  From all the comments when we got back, there is no question the brownies were the hit of the day around here.  In fact a guy parked across from us saw Donna outside this afternoon and told her how much everyone was bragging on them (but he didn't get any).  So Donna fixed him a little plate from what we still had available.  And, then tonight Donna took the rest to John and Flora for tomorrow.

We took a drive over to Glace Bay today, a city that, according to John, at one time was the largest city in the Western Hemisphere.  It was a major immigration point, as well as a major shipping point.  Still a fair size little town, but not much happening except a small fishing fleet and a few other related industries.

Then we went to Sydney, a town of about 30,000 now, that also was at one time a highly productive city, but now is really struggling.  Just three blocks from downtown is one of North America's largest toxic waste site, the notorious Sydney Tar Ponds and the defunct steel mill.  The 'pond' is actually the tidal estuary of Muggah Creek, and toxic wastes are carried out to sea with every tide.

From the founding of the Sydney Steel Mill in 1901, some of the world's dirtiest coal was burned here to produce coke, and wastes were simply allowed to accumulate.  An attempt at cleanup in 1986 cost $55 million and was a total failure.

The distress of the area is very evident as we drove through some of the residential areas with abandoned homes and lots of deferred maintenance on the houses and in the yard.

Early to bed tonight, we have to get up at 5, be gone from here by 5:30 to load onto the 7am ferry to Newfoundland.  We will not have access to the internet until late Wednesday night, and probably won't have cell service until Friday or Saturday.  I will update things and add more pictures as soon as possible.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - Day 46

Enroute to Newfoundland

We were up and going by 5 this morning, with a short trip to the ferry terminal.  Got measured and ticketed and lined up to load before 6.  Visited with a few other RV'ers while in line, including a guy from Manville, Texas who was driving a '92 Foretravel, and was with the Tracks group, which is one of the RV Caravan groups that take RV'ers on organized tours.

By 6:15 we were loading up, which went totally uneventful, as was the remainder of the trip.  Well, mostly uneventful anyway, but I'll get to that later.  The boat was huge, can hold 500 vehicles and 1200 passengers.  We learned that this voyage had 350 vehicles and 500 passengers.  The trip was scheduled for 14 hours, meaning we would arrive about 9:30 Newfoundland time.  Newfoundland time is 30 minutes ( not an hour) faster that Nova Scotia time, which will be 2 1/2 hours earlier than Texas time.  We actually didn't arrive until about midnight and didn't get off the boat until 12.:30 or so.

There were lots of different type areas in which to sit, some with movies playing, some with chairs and tables in the dining room, and some outside the dining room with tables and chairs. We moved around a bit, took a few naps in reclining chairs, watched a movie or two.  We were actually about 2 1/2 hours late because of the fog and the boat had one engine down, so it was not running on full power.

Now for the real problem that occurred when we docked, and the crew allowed us to return to our vehicles on the vehicle decks.  Escalators and stairs were taking folks down to the 2 or 3 different levels, and the bottom level is where we were located.  As we reached the bottom of the escalator, about 12 or 15 people were waiting on the crew to open the door to the vehicle deck.  No crew member was there, the door was locked, and the small place was filling up with people, with no way back except back up the escalator.. and more people still coming.  I started yelling to the people at the top to NOT get on.. but most ignored me, until finally one guy understood, ran back up a few steps, and stopped everyone else.  That stopped the people from coming, and finally someone shut off the escalator, and we were all able to walk back up, then back down a separate set of stairs where the door had been opened.  The situation could have gotten real bad if we had about 20 or 30 more people in the small confined area at the bottom of the escalator.

The ferry goes to a little town of Argentia, which is really not a town, but just a ferry landing. There are no campgrounds there and we found out the Tracks folks were going to a school parking lot about 10 miles away.  We also learned that the Welcome Center, located about 2 miles away, had a parking lot.  So we whipped in there as soon as we got there, and we ended up with 14 RV's in the lot.  But we all just worked together, and had plenty room.

Didn't take any pictures from the boat, because the fog kept visibility to almost nothing, but Donna got a couple of shots as we drove on the boat.

Thursday, July 21, 2005 - Day 47

St. John's, Newfoundland

Lots of fog again this morning when we got up about 8 or so.  Almost all the folks that had parked last night were still in the parking lot, visiting, and not in any hurry to leave.  The road from Argentia to St. John's goes through some areas heavily populated by moose, and there are lots of accidents every year between vehicles and moose. 

Like us, I am sure most folks wanted to visit the Welcome Center, which opened at 9, before leaving for the next destination.  The Welcome Center had a very informative exhibit about Argentia and the role it played during World War II era when Argentia became a very important US naval and air base, through an agreement with the British government.  It was a very important defense position for the northern Atlantic, as well as a major enroute base for material headed for Europe to fight the Nazi's.

When I first got up this morning I tried to get the DataStorm to lock on to the satellite, but for whatever reason, two pieces of my equipment were not communicating with each other.  I decided to try again once we reached St. John's at the campground.

We left Argentia at 10, made the 82 mile trip to C A Pippy Campground in St. John's about 11:30.  We did not have reservations, and they had no space available, so we decided to stay in their 'dry-camping' area.  Actually, we would have chosen to be here anyway, because all other sites are too wooded for the DataStorm.  After more attempts, I called DataStorm, and they are shipping me a new Dish Controller, which should be here on Monday, 25th.

So we are gonna be without the satellite connection until then.  In the meantime, I will keep the journal updated, and  publish it as I can get access to the Internet.

Friday, July 22, 2005 - Day 48

St. John's, NF

We got up this morning to a really foggy morning, and waited a while to leave, hoping it would break up.  And it did break up here in St. John's, but on our way to Cape Spear the fog kept getting thicker and thicker, the closer we got to the ocean.  Visibility at Cap Spear was maybe 1/2 mile, so there was no way we would see any whales.  We did however walk the boardwalk down to the point, viewed the World War II gun emplacements, and tried to spot a whale or two.  At on point Donna and another lady said they could hear one 'blowing'.  Maybe they did!! 

We continued on around the trail, then climbed a trail with an occasional set of steps to get up to the lighthouse itself. After spending a while there and no improvement in the fog conditions we continued on down the coast south of St. Johns.  We drove through a little area called Maddox Cove and then to Petty Harbor.

It was at Petty Harbor that we met Alex, a really interesting fisherman.  His main fishing efforts are directed at crab.  His quota is 16,000 lbs per season, for which he get $1.50 per pound.  But he says he can catch his quota in 3 or 4 days of fishing.  The rest of the time he fishes for cod, squid, herring, and other kinds of fish.  As we were about to leave, we asked Alex since it was about lunch time for a good local place to eat.  Trying to understand his Irish accent, I thought he said Big Goose, Donna said he said Blue Goose.  We asked how to get there, he said:  "Oh, just to da top of da hill, right at stop sign, and thar she be.  Thar be da pizza place at da stop sign, go to ta right ta Big Goose, dey got da good Newfie food". Okay, that sounded simple enough, so off we went.  We climbed all the way to the top of the hill, and about 4 miles more.. no stop sign.  We thought we missed it. Turned around, back to the bottom of the hill, back up, still no stop sign. So we had drive that 4 or 5 miles again, decided we missed it, so we kept on going another 5 miles or so, and there was the stop sign, but no pizza place, just a country store.

We went inside to ask about Big Goose, and this place was baking fresh bread.  Smelled so good we almost forgot to ask about Big Goose.  Finally asked a lady that worked there, after much effort and her asking another lady, she said it was just up the road, was a grocery store with a deli with seats, but we didn't want to eat there, we wanted to go to the Captain's Table about 30 minutes further south, where we were headed anyway.  It still sounded like she said Bid-Goose.  As we pulled out of the parking lot we saw a sign directing folks to Bidgoode's. Finally, we got the name right.

So, on down to Witless Bay, and area where a number of Whale and Puffin boats tours operate out of, found the Captain's Table, had a great lunch of Fish & Chips ( Fried Cod Fish and Fried Potatoes). Then on back up the coast to stop back by the Country Store to get some of that fresh baked bread.

On the way back, is when we met a neat old fellow by the name of Doug Warren.  He builds yard and porch furniture, so we stopped to look it over.  Doug is 79 years old, retired after 45 years as an electrician.  Now we just met a 'TALKER'!  A really nice guy, loves life, loves people, and loves to talk.  We probably sat around with him for nearly and hour, listening to him tell about life in the area, the people he meets, and all with an Irish accent, that was sometimes hard for us to understand.  He told us we needed to try a traditional dish called 'Flipper Pie'.  Okay, we asked what it is.  He said "Flipper, with a pastry and peas, carrots, and other stuff".  Now, my first thought about Flipper was the TV show back in the 50's about a Dolphin, and I am thinking "They eat Flipper's flipper?"

So, back to the country store to buy bread, and this time we asked if they had Flipper Pie.  They referred us to Bidgoode's ( Remember Big Goose).  So off we go!  Now we found Flipper Pie in the deli, it looked like a Chicken Pot Pie and the ingredients included 'flipper', but what is flipper.  We finally asked a lady what 'flipper' is.  She explained it is 'Seal Meat'.  So if any of you East Texas friends want some Flipper Pie, just let us know, we'll bring some back.

We are still in the dry-camping area of C A Pippy Park.  The satellite is still down, but the replacement part is on its way, and hopefully will be here Monday. 

Saturday, July 23, 2005 - Day 49

St. John's, NF

Today we decided to take a short drive and ferry ride to Bell Island, a 20 minute drive and a 20 minute ferry ride north of St. John's.  As we approached the island, the bluffs were unbelievable, sheer cliffs of 100 to 200 feet.  Once a thriving mining town, Bell Island has one of the richest and oldest mining operations in the world.  The underground (actually under the water) began in 1902 and continued until 1949, reaching as far as 3 miles out under the sea floor.

Bell Island was the only place in North America to have seen enemy action in World War II.  The pier, where 80,000 tons of iron ore were stored for shipping, was torpedoed by German U-Boats in 1942. 

We drove a circle route around the island, at one point following a 4-wheeler road right to the edge of the cliffs.  We hoped to maybe see a whale, as several boats were slowing trolling around doing the same thing.  But, no luck.

We then took a circular route back into St. John's, and went back to Cape Spear to see if visibility was better.  And, it was!  For about 30 minutes we watched a couple of Humpbacks traveling along the coast-line with one boat keeping pace.  After the whales were out of sight, we headed back toward St. John's and stopped at a little village named Blackhead.  From a parking overlook, we saw another big whale making it's way along the coast.

Cape Spear is the most easterly spot in North America, and if we could get up early enough to be there at daybreak, then we would be the first people in North America to see the sun that day.  Maybe tomorrow, if its not raining.

We then went to Signal Hill, which is on a high bluff overlooking the harbor entrance.  Although Signal Hill was not a defense site, it was used for many years as a signaling station.  In the early 1900's Marconi received the first trans-atlantic message atop Signal Hill.