Road Trip! (Phoenix-03-13-16)

In early March we packed up the trailer for a short (one month) road trip. After two days of running back and forth, moving things back into the trailer, we deemed it “packed” and ready to go.  I won’t tell you how long the list of things we “forgot to bring” is. Oh boy..

Our first stop was Phoenix, where we both had appointments at the Mayo Clinic for our annual physicals. We were Very impressed, and glad we made the switch!  I had booked several days at a park in Scottsdale, since I didn’t know how long we would need to be there.  With all our lab results in within hours, we were free to leave the following day!



We spent our few free hours exploring a museum we’d never been to before- the Musical Instrument Museum. The museum had about 7 rooms of displays with instruments and music from all over the world. 







This one contained music from different parts of Canada and the U.S.  Each display had typical instruments from the area, and a video showcasing the music of the region.  Everyone was given a set of headphones and as you approached a TV screen, the audio would automatically play.

Other rooms showcased different styles of music, such as Zydeco, country, and Marching Band.

One particular room displayed music and memorabilia from specific musicians.  Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Elvis and John Lennon were among the stars.  This is the piano that  Lennon used to compose “Imagine”.

Taylor Swift, as one of the most successful musicians in the world, warranted a “double wide” display.

The final room was the Experience Room, where you could try out musical instruments of all kinds.  I liked the banjo and the harp and Paul liked the drums.

Being done a day earlier than we expected gave us an extra day to play.  With temperatures predicted to be unseasonably cool, we elected to beeline straight for Picacho Peak, one of our favorite places to hike.

This  6-7 mile hike is challenging in a fun way, with lots of cables to use when the trail gets really steep, but it’s not a fun hike to do on a hot day.



























This is our 5th or 6th time hiking this trail.  You can hike it in a loop, starting from one of two trail heads (we have done it both ways) or you can hike up and down from the same trail head.  That’s how we did it this time, because if you hike the loop, you have to walk two miles down a road to get back to your car (unless you brought bikes).














This is what we call a “twofer” hike.  The hike itself is fun, and the destination also makes it worth the work.

After a short stay at Picacho, we made our way to Tucson.

Vikings and Labrador (07-28-13)

We left Gros Morne early in the morning and headed north, towards the town of St. Anthony’s.  Our first destination, L'Anse aux Meadows was about a 4 hour drive. 

 

L’Anse aux Meadows is the archeological site of a very early (1000 A.D.) Viking settlement.  The site was discovered in 1960 when a Norwegian explorer realized there might be a settlement in this area after reading some old Norse Sagas.

The age of this site makes it the earliest known European settlement in North America, predating Columbus by almost 500 years.

The tour was in two parts- the first one showing the actual archeological site where the original Viking buildings stood, and the second part was a living history area in reconstructed buildings.

There was a lot to be learned in the museum as well. For instance, we refer to the Viking age in European history, but a Viking was, specifically, a raider or pirate, and most Norse people of that time were traders and explorers.  Still, we use the term, just as we use the term “space age” to denote recent history, but not many people are actually astronauts.

…Adventures in Labrador…

The trip to Labrador was….well, it was a lot of things.  Stressful, frustrating, wet (it rained the entire time we were there) and a bunch of other adjectives too.  But at least we can take it off our bucket list!

Our original idea was to spend the night in St. Anthony’s on Newfoundland, then take the ferry over to Labrador for the day, just to say we went.  Instead, we finished touring L’Anse aux Meadows early enough that we had time to drive to the ferry and catch the last one to Labrador.  Once we had a hotel reservation, we headed for the ferry terminal. If you don’t have a ferry reservation, it’s first come/first served for the 1.5 hour trip. After purchasing  tickets for ourselves and one truck, we waited for an hour or so and did manage to get on the ferry.

By this time it was getting late.  Sort of.  We found out that we would actually land in Quebec, where the time is an hour and a half earlier.  Great!  Now instead of having a pretty late dinner, we’d have an early dinner. Nope.

Once we landed, we drove the 15 minutes to our hotel in L’Anse au Clair (L’Anse means cove, FYI) and by then we were in Labrador, not Quebec, and we were back on Newfoundland time- even though most of Labrador is in yet another time zone.  Anyway, we figured we wouldn't be there long enough to worry about figuring it out!

After checking in at the hotel, we headed to the hotel restaurant.  I’m not even sure there is a second restaurant in town- many of the towns in Newfoundland don’t have restaurants, and many only have a convenience store, not a full grocery store, and Labrador is more remote than Newfoundland. 

The dining room was occupied by people on a bus tour, so we had to wait quite a while for dinner, but that was fine.  Of course, when we went down for breakfast in the morning, the same people were eating breakfast. No big deal, but it seemed like we kept bumping into this bus tour everywhere we went!

We tried to go online and book the return trip on the ferry, and ran into a potential glitch.  The woman who sold us our ticket over from Newfoundland didn't actually sell us the correct ticket.  Apparently, any truck over 3/4 ton is considered to be a commercial vehicle. That would be us.  Unfortunately, all the commercial spots on the ferry are already taken..for the next 3 days! Oops. 

At that point, there was nothing we could do except try to go on standby again so we spent the morning driving along the coast of Labrador.  We couldn't see very much because it was raining.

We made it as far as the small town of Red Bay, where they have a pretty interesting whale exhibit, but we only had 20 minutes to look around before we needed to head back to get in line for the ferry.

We made a quick stop at the Visitor Center, where we were told we’d better get to the ferry ASAP since on Saturdays the standby line can be long. So off we run, to the ferry office, where we waited for 45 minutes for them to open.  But we had our spot in line!  Paul, being very clever, had brought the receipt from the previous trip with him. When she asked us what type of vehicle we have, and Paul said “ a truck” she asked how big a truck and he just handed her the other receipt.  “Well” she said, “If you came over non-commercial, I guess you can go back non-commercial.” Whew!

Of course, by now the wind was whipping the rain around, and the seas were looking pretty rough.  We figured we could handle it for the short hour and a half ride, but since we weren't sure we’d be able to actually eat on the ferry, we ate whatever we could find in the truck before we got on it.  It turned out to be fine- the wind was not from a direction that would affect the ferry much.

The 4 hour drive back to the trailer was accomplished almost completely in the rain.  Dinner time arrived halfway through the drive, so we detoured a little, over to Port au Choix, because it’s a big enough town to have restaurant options. We were glad we did- this restaurant had some of the best food we've had in a long time!  We picked it the old fashioned way- it had a parking lot full of cars.

The delay caused us to finish our drive in the dark, something you don’t really want to do on Newfoundland- there’s one moose for every 6 people on the island.  There are several things about moose that make an encounter with them while driving at night an unhappy event.  First, they are hard to see- they are dark brown, and are so tall, their eyes are not usually caught by a car’s headlights, plus they don’t tend to stare at cars, like deer do. Second, they have long legs and big bodies, so if you hit them with the car, you knock their legs out from under them, and their bodies come flying through the windshield.  Then, there’s their size.  If they do come flying through the windshield, you lose.  Lucky for us there was a big rig in front of us most of the way, and we didn't see any critters on the side of the road!

Bras d’Or Lake (07-21-13)

Pronounced B’Door Lake, the lake is really an inland sea, with part fresh water and part salt water.  We moved over to the lake, and the town of Baddeck (Ba-DECK) to explore the other half of the Cabot Trail.

We took one day and drove around the island until we pretty much reached the point where we had left off while exploring from the other side.  There are quite a few small fishing villages along the way, but not much else.  A few restaurants, I guess,  and of course some gift shops. 




We were originally going to stop and hike, but decided that it would be a long ride to get to the tip of the island and we might run out of time- so we decided to leave the hike till another day- bad idea, I guess, since it never happened.


We stopped at one of the several beachy areas, and while Paul wandered around looking for sea glass, I set the camera on burst mode and tried to get pictures of the Northern Gannet.

This white bird with black tipped wings, nests on nearby islands, and is a lot of fun to watch.  They soar above the water, and when they see a fish below the surface, they literally dive bomb down into the water.

They fold their wings completely back when they dive. It’s really hard to get a picture because a) they don’t soar too close to the shore, and b) I can’t actually see them through the viewfinder, so I just point the camera where they might be headed, and hope for the best.  I didn’t do too well getting pictures, but it was fun to watch them. You’d have to click on this picture to really see the bird.

“A Dead Man Tells No Tales” – Alexander Graham Bell

Baddeck was also home to Alexander Graham Bell, so we visited the Bell Museum.  Quite handy that it’s a National Historic Place, so our National Park pass got us in for free. By the way, the quote refers to the fact that while testing airplanes, Bell wanted planes that could land on water, so that when/if they crashed, the pilot would survive.  I thought there was some interesting information in the museum, but it was presented in a very dry and uninteresting way.  Although he is obviously known for inventing the telephone, (he gave all but 10 of his shares of Bell Telephone stock to his wife as a wedding present), he had numerous other inventions, and was a founding member of The National Geographic Society.


With the temperatures soaring yet again, hiking came off the “to do” list.  We headed instead to the Highland Village Museum.  With only 3 cars in the parking lot, we were a little skeptical, but went ahead anyway.
 

This is a Living History Museum detailing the lives of Scottish immigrants, from before they left Scotland, until the early 1900s.  Most of the buildings are original. This interpreter did a fabulous job of describing the conditions in Scotland that led whole families to leave the country.  I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with her, even the fact that she sometimes said things in Gaelic, then translated to English.

The afternoon temperature reached 90+ degrees so we elected to take a sail on the Amoeba, a small sailboat that does a 1.5 hour tour of the harbor area.  It was a little cooler on the water, which was very nice indeed!

The captain had a great sense of humor, even pulling out a Sailing for Dummies book to “look something up”, as we got underway.  He had great local knowledge and pointed out things like Alexander Graham Bell’s estate. 

 

   My favorite part, though, was the eagles!
He had fish to toss overboard for the eagles to get, so we got close up views of the birds swooping down and grabbing their treat.  Once again, it was practically impossible to get pictures of them grabbing the fish, with the boat moving and the sun shining, but I did the best I could.

He said that of course, the eagles recognize the boat, and watch for him to toss something for them.  One day, on his first day back from the Caribbean, he didn't have any fish to throw, but they circled the boat, waiting, so he tossed them a piece of pizza.  They seemed happy with it.

I did get a few decent pictures of the birds soaring directly over our head.


















We've now moved on to Sydney, Nova Scotia. where we’ll spend only one night.  Tomorrow we board the ferry to Newfoundland, and you’d think we were headed to a different planet.  We went to the liquor store, Wal-Mart , two grocery stores, the auto parts store and fueled up the truck.  We could probably live for 3 months with the amount of food we have!

Halifax- the Citadel and the City (07-08-13)

Sitting high on the hills overlooking the city,the Citadel was originally built to fight the French of Louisbourg and has been rebuilt 3 times over the years to protect Halifax and its harbor from a land attack that never came.

Because the harbor here is very deep and well designed by nature, it has played an important role both in commerce and in times of war.
During the revolutionary war Halifax hosted the British soldiers after they were run out of Boston. They say that Halifax could have been the 14th colony if there hadn't been such a huge British military presence here at the time.

During World Wars I and II the harbor was used to funnel troops and supplies to Europe.  In 1917 there was a horrible accident in the harbor. A French cargo ship full of explosives collided with another vessel in the harbor, and the ensuing fire caused an explosion that killed 2000 people and injured 9000.  It was the largest man made explosion prior to nuclear weapons.

The day we visited it was spitting rain but we brought umbrellas, hoping that would keep the rain away.  Our ploy didn't work very well.

We took the free guided tour which was led by a "Scottish Sergeant" in full kilt regalia.  Oops, wrong picture.

 

Years ago England refused to let Scottish soldiers dress in traditional Scottish garb, but when the ranks of the English army shrank to an uncomfortably low level,    the two cultures worked it out so that there would be specific Scottish regiments that would be allowed to wear traditional garb.

Our guide did a nice job of giving us the picture of what life would have been like at the fort back in the mid 1800s.

I did have one question for him that showcased my ignorance of Canadian history.  We had watched the orientation movie about the city and it mentioned, in a sort of casual way, the years before and after Canada separated from Great Britain.  So I said to the guide-" Wait a minute then.  When the U.S. wanted to separate from England, we had to go to war with them to get the independence we wanted, but when Canada wanted it's independence, England just said 'ok, sure'??"  Yup, pretty much.

While walking the grounds of the Citadel, we noticed several camera crews, and being nosy, we asked what it was all about.  It turns out that the Canadian Minister of Defense  was at the Citadel to make an announcement of some kind.

             

We did walk the riverfront again, during the daytime, and checked out some of the stores. 

The jazz festival is still going on, and a free concert was in process so we stopped to listen for a few minutes.  Unfortunately, neither of us is a huge jazz fan so we soon moved on.

   Along the way we tried "Cows" Ice Cream, the self

proclaimed best ice cream in Canada, and weren't overly impressed.  As we continued to walk Paul decided that even though we had just had ice cream, he had to try Poutine. 

We've been seeing it offered different places and it was "calling his name".  So, what is it?  French fries with cheese curds and gravy.  To that you can add a variety of “toppings” such as bacon or pulled pork, or in Paul’s case, both.  It's pretty popular up here, but it's a little over the top for me.



            Halifax is also home to the Nova Scotia Archives, and Paul and I spent one morning trying, unsuccessfully to add to my knowledge of my family history.  Most of my grandparents and great grandparents are from the Cape Breton area of Nova Scotia. Although we didn't find out anything new, we do plan on spending a few days exploring the towns that they lived in.

P. E. I. (07-05-13)

Many times, in our travels, we come across small towns, with no apparent industry in the area, and we wonder how the residents make their money.

On PEI, the rolling hills of farmer’s fields, and small, picturesque harbors full of working boats leave no doubt as to how the islanders earn their living-the island is known for it’s potatoes and it’s lobster.  I am sure it’s not an easy life, but you can feel the pride of accomplishment and the sense of neighborhood everywhere you go.

With a population of just 140,000, you won’t find many urban cities on Prince Edward Island.  Most towns, or villages, have very small populations, with the only local grocery store being a food Co-operative. Charlottetown is the only major “city” and visiting it was the only time we saw a population density that would even be considered suburban where we come from.

The nightlife in Charlottetown was pretty awesome though.  We only had one evening to spend in town, so we had to spread ourselves very thin, moving from venue to venue.   We started the evening early, with drinks overlooking the harbor.

Our second stop was for appetizers on Victoria Row.  Victoria Row is closed to vehicle traffic, and boasts a small bandstand in the center of it..  There are 4-5 restaurants with outdoor seating nearby, so we took advantage of the incredibly good weather and listened to some music while we ate at Fishbones.

Our next stop was just around the corner, where we once again enjoyed some great live music while we enjoyed our dinner al fresco. 

We finished up the evening inside, at the Old Triangle, where we had a drink while listening to live fiddle music.  All in all, we crammed a lot of good times into one evening!  

Part of our time on PEI has been spent with family.  My uncle’s wife is from the small village of Tignish, on PEI. The last time I was here, I was about 12, and I met a lot of her family.  Her dad, Eugene, owned the general store in town, and it’s now owned by her brother. Tignish was settled by Acadians in 1799, when they were forced to leave Acadie.  My aunt is Acadian and her family was one of the original 8 families to settle in Tignish.

Canada Day was celebrated at my uncle’s cottage on the river.

 

I’d never heard of an octopus before, in this context at least, so my cousin Greg showed his off for the camera before he ate it. (It’s a hotdog).

PEI has three “scenic loops” and Paul and I managed to drive most of all of them. That’s a lot of driving! 

The North Cape loop took us through the town of Tignish, and out to the northern point of the island, where we encountered the Wind farm, complete with interpretive center. This small wind farm supplies 5% of the electricity needed on the island.  These wind turbines don’t look that big- until you see them laying on the ground:

The interpretive center was very well done, and worth the visit.  I am sure I knew at one time what a BTU is (British Thermal Unit), but it was nice to be reminded that it is the amount of energy required to heat one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.   There, now everyone’s memory has been refreshed. 

On the east side of the island, the scenery is just as beautiful.  We passed by numerous rivers and harbors.  We sat and had lunch overlooking this river, where we watched a pair of bald eagles for a while.

 

With temperatures hitting 30 degrees (86 F)  we were tempted to go for a swim but contented ourselves with a stroll in the shallows.

PEI actually boasts a small distillery where they make, of course, potato vodka, among other things.  We took the short tour- very worth it- as our tour guide was very personable and knowledgeable. The vodka is distilled 4 times, at which point it is 180 proof. 

The blueberry vodka sits in blueberries for 2 weeks, then gets distilled again.  All spirits are colorless when they are distilled, and the rums etc.  receive their colorings from the oak barrels.
The last process is the marrying, or blending process. He said basically, since they don’t want the vodka to be 180 proof, they add water back in, but no one wants to use the term “watered down”, so they use fancier names for it!

The final stop was the tasting room, where we sampled two vodkas, a rum, and an apple brandy.  Having never been to a distillery before, he taught me that the first sip of vodka is the “neutral sip”, and the second sip is where you really taste the flavor of the vodka. Blueberry was my favorite.  We talked about the “burn” and he said that all spirits will have a burn, but with quality spirits, the flavor will come first, and the burn will be an afterthought. 

The tour was interesting, but we left empty handed. As it actually says on the rum bottle- it would be a crime to ruin the flavor of the  rum by adding coke, and we agree- at $55 a bottle, it would feel criminal to dilute the spirits with coke, but that’s the only way either of us would drink vodka or rum so there you go.  It would be like using Don Julio to make a Margarita!


As fulltimers, we make all our plans in chalk- easily erased, and that’s just what we’ve done.  We originally decided not to go to Newfoundland.  It’s an expensive 7 hour  ferry ride to get there, and everyone who goes says you need at least 2-3 weeks to see it.  Well,  we’ve changed our minds and decided that we need to take advantage of the fact that we are here and don’t know when we’ll be back.  We’ve booked the ferry to Newfoundland for July 23. We plan to be there 16 days, but we talked to someone who grew up there and he looked very skeptical.  He thinks we’ll regret not staying longer,  so we are already thinking we might add a few more days.  That means we’ll have to bypass other things we wanted to see, like Georgian Bay, Toronto, and maybe Montreal, but we reasoned that those places are nearer to Michigan, and more accessible to us in general.