Oct Nov 2012 ME to Bonaire Part 2 of 2

Breakfast in Bonaire

Sunset at Captain Don's

Kathy

Yanjin and Eric

Pink Flamingos

Troupial

Paul Allen's toy

The whole gang

The purpose of this trip to Bonaire was to get Yanjin down there to see the wastewater plant he helped design. This plant was a project that Yanjin, Eldon and I have been working on for the last 7 years or more as we continue to optimize the treatment process. Despite this effort, this trip to Bonaire would be the first time that the three of us would meet together. Yanjin brought along his wife Yang and children Eric and Kathy. Yanjin’s family learned how to snorkel and we enjoyed the Chinese meals prepared by Yang. The children had a great time and are ready for their next trip. Eldon and Lois did a great job putting this all together and hosting it. Paul Allen (Microsoft) visited the island while we were there in his small yacht (300 feet). It comes complete with a helicopter, sailboat, and motor boat. Maybe the dock was not big enough for his 400 foot yacht.

Oct Nov 2012 ME to Bonaire Part 1 of 2

After leaving Campobello Island we headed for Bar Harbor and Acadia NP. A few days later we checked into a timeshare in Killington VT. We spent 8 nights here, hiking and exploring the area. We visited the Billings Farm and Museum near Woodstock. At the Calvin Coolidge SHS we walked though the town where he grew up and toured the preserved buildings. We bought a few things at a craft fair in Rutland. On our way south to York we stopped at the Vermont Country Store, Haines Falls, and Promised Land SP.

Eldon and Lois NS property

Jordan Pond, Acadia NP

Haines Falls, NY

North South Lake SP, NY

North South Lake SP, NY

Camping at Cedarville SF, MD

We camped near York, at Pinchot SP for a few days, while visiting Pat’s father and Linda and Rick. Later we moved to the Patapsco SP so we could visit our doctors, friends and my family. We were fortunate to have enough time to see all almost all of our friends in the area. When Hurricane Sandy came, we relocated to Cherry Hill Campground, where there were no large trees to fall on our RV. Other than the RV rocking with the high winds, we had no other problems with the storm. We celebrated my father’s 90^th birthday with my family before heading to Bonaire. Pat’s extended family got together for her father’s 85^th birthday.
PS
Remember when we had a battery problem while in New Brunswick? Well after sending a letter to Ford, we got a full reimbursement for the battery. (The next time you have a problem with a vendor, say "I'm retired and have all the time in the world to fight this")

September 2012 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Part 1 of 3

Peggy's Cove

Mercey River, Kejimkujik

Grand-Pre NHS

Glooscap

Our first stop in Nova Scotia was Halifax. We visited the Pier 21 Immigration Museum and found it interesting with many firsthand accounts from people who entered Canada through that facility or who worked there. We traveled back in time to visit the Alexander Keith Brewery. Some of their 18^th century workers gave us a tour, entertained us and provided generous samples of their beer. The Maritime Museum had a Titanic display along with a lot of other maritime historical stuff. We also learned about the Halifax Explosion, the largest man-made explosion before atom age. A ship full of explosive, headed for Europe in 1917, collided with another ship in the harbor. The explosion leveled 2 sq miles of Halifax, killing 2,000 and injuring 9,000.

Not far from Halifax is Terence Bay, the site of the greatest maritime disaster prior to the Titanic. The SS Atlantic headed for an unplanned stop in Halifax to load extra coal. They missed the entrance to the harbor and wrecked near Terence Bay killing 535 persons.  In 1998, Swiss Air Flight 111 (a.k.a. The UN Shuttle), crashed in the water near Peggy’s Cove, and a memorial for the 226 lives lost is nearby. Clearly this is a dangerous place!

Sept 2012 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Part 2 of 3

In Lunenburg, we spent a day at the Fisheries Museum, but missed seeing the Bluenose II. Needing a break from museums, we went to Kejimkujik Seaside NP. We did a great coastal hike here, saw lots of seals and managed to get completely soaked by a downpour before we got back to the RV. We moved inland to Kejimkujik Park and spent 5 days hiking, biking and canoeing. Then we headed back east along the Fundy coast. Unfortunately, the three times we stopped at a National Historical Sites, they were closed on the day we arrived. Apparently recent budget cutbacks caused them to reduce their hours. We did find the Nova Scotia Provincial Museum open; the best of these was Sherbrooke Village, where costumed interpreters provided tours of each of the buildings.

Porcupine

Eastern Coyote

Dickson Falls, Fundy NP

Too much time on the beach for Bigfoot

We met Eldon and Lois at their place near Isaac’s Harbor. They had a spot for our RV (water, electric and sewer) just like being at a KOA except for the lack of screaming kids. The first day was fine, but a storm moved in. Eldon was anxious to start working on his shed and dock, but the weather delayed his start. Unfortunately we had to move on, but Eldon got lots of help from his neighbor, Art, and others. The dock got completed and a good portion of his shed. 

Sept 2012 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Part 3 of 3

Salmon Fish Farm

Gibraltar Rock

Roosevelt's Cottage

Mulholland Pt Lighthouse

We started our final leg back to Maryland. We stopped at Fundy NP before heading to Campobello Island in NB. It took too ferries to get there from Canada’s mainland, but it was worth it. There are lots of trails on the island, but the main attraction was Roosevelt’s Cottage. FDR spent his summers growing up on this island and so did his children. We learned more about Eleanor’s involvement in humanitarian causes during our “Tea with Eleanor”. Before we left the island, we stopped at Mulholland Pt. Lighthouse. From the point we could see dozens of seals fighting the strong tidal current, but feasting on the incoming bounty of fish. We crossed the Roosevelt Bridge to enter Maine and ended our 12 week tour of Canada.

Aug 2012 Gaspe Peninsula and New Brunswick Part 1 of 3

Pat in the Fireweed

Du Bic NP at sunset

Harbor Seal

My favorite French sign

Aug 2012 Gaspe Peninsula and New Brunswick Part 2 of 3

Don't step on me

Getting ready for a night time canoe trip

Forillon NP

Cape-Bon-Ami Lighthouse

Aug 2012 Gaspe Peninsula and New Brunswick Part 3 of 3

After crossing the St Lawrence River, we arrived at Riviere-Du-Loup.  We spent the night at a nice municipal campground. After I returned from taking a shower in the rest room, Pat informed me that our sewage (black water) tank had overflowed into our shower. Sure enough, the shower pan had stinky liquid in it. We could dump the tanks, but this would involve moving the RV and it was already late, very dark, and the RV was up on leveling blocks. We considered turning the exhaust fan on, closing the bathroom door and dealing with it in the morning. Pat left for her shower, and I decided to do a bucket transfer. I slowly drained the black water tank into a small bucket and dumped it into a nearby sewer drain. After 10 bucket loads, I expected to see the shower floor drained. To my surprise, the level had not changed. Then I remembered that the shower drained to the gray water (wash water) tank. I went outside and drained 10 bucket loads from the gray water tank and this took care of the immediate problem. The next day we dumped both tanks and Pat cleaned and disinfected everything stored in the shower. Normally we dump our waste tanks every second time we fill our water tank, but our routine got messed up when we topped off our water tank on two occasions. Lesson learned (the hard way, of course!).

We had a nice hike around Parc de Chutes and then headed for du Bic NP. This park is known for its seal colony and we saw about 50 harbor seals resting on rocks at low tide. It was a good area to bike and hike in. During one bike ride we came across two foxes along the road. Our next stop was Gaspésie NP in the most mountainous region of the peninsula. We went for a sunset canoe (voyager type) trip with a park naturalist. Unfortunately all interpretive programs are done in French only, so we didn’t learn much on that outing. A week of on-and-off rain started, and it was difficult to get a hike in without returning soaked.

We left Quebec’s National Park system and entered Canada’s National Park system at Forillon NP, at the eastern end of the Gaspe Peninsula. The rainy and foggy weather continued through our stay here making picture taking a challenge. We were at the start of a hike when an excited couple ran up to us and warned us about a small bear just up the trail. We went to investigate and found a large porcupine. We assume this was the small bear they found. Later while seaching for seals, we saw 2 more porcupines.

The weather improved and we moved down the coast to Perce so we could explore Bonaventure Island. For a $20 boat ride, we inspected Perce Rock, an interesting rock formation, and then circled Bonaventure Island. Along the way we saw at least 50 gray seals, a minke whale, and thousands of Gannets. We got off the boat and walked across the island and saw a few more minkes and a fox. On the opposite side of the island was the world’s second largest gannet colony. This colony has a population of 250,000 birds and, trust me, it smelled like it! I think there were a dozen flies for each bird, but unfortunately, the flies liked the sweaty hikers better. After a short visit we circled back to the boat, learning about the history of the island along the way. Our last stop in Quebec was Miguasha NP which is famous for its fossil laden cliffs, where they found fossil evidence of the link between fish and land based animals. There is an outstanding fossil museum on site.

Perce Rock

A portion of the Gannet Colony

A Gannet and a Minke Whale

Pat on Bonaventure Island

After seven weeks in French speaking Quebec, we were quite happy to enter bilingual New Brunswick.  We soon found out that our 6 year battery died after 18 months. We got a Ford replacement battery and found out all we had to do to get a pro-rated refund was to take the old battery back to the Florida Ford dealer who sold it to us! Ford will be hearing from us. We took the coast road south and spent a few days in Acadian country and then went to Kouchibouguac NP. This is a large coastal park with lots of bike trails and short hiking trails. We spent 5 days here until the Labor Day weekend approached, and then we packed up and headed for Halifax, NS.

July 2012 Quebec Part 1 of 2

Chateau Frontenac

Montmorency Falls

St Anne Basilica Beaupre

Jacques-Cartier NP

July 2012 Quebec Part 2 of 2

When we entered Canadian customs, they were not busy; in fact they were looking for something to do. I wanted to get some wildlife photos in Canada, but guess they misunderstood me when I told them the purpose of my trip was to “Shoot some moose”. They decided they would search our RV. Two agents went through every compartment in the RV looking for drugs, weapons, sex workers, aliens and rednecks. They automatically assume that all Americans carry weapons. Well, they didn’t find any contraband.

We set up camp across the St Lawrence River from Old Quebec City. We would park the RV and take the ferry right to the Old City. We spent two days exploring the historical part of town. We even took a sightseeing boat down the river. We moved across the river, visited the Aquarium of Quebec and stayed at a timeshare 20 km NE of Quebec City. From here we saw many local attractions and waterfalls. We planned the rest of our trip, making camping reservations for the next 6 weeks. The most impressive sight was St. Anne Basilica Beaupre; on par with the best churches in Europe or Russia.

We were surprised to find that Quebec has its own National Parks, run by SEPAC. There is no connection with Canadian National Parks. First we took a day trip to Grand-Jardins NP where we did some hiking. We were not impressed with the park although it was a scenic area. Next we had 5 nights in Jacques-Cartier NP. We loved this park! Plenty of hiking, biking, and canoeing and we did it all; such a treasure and less than an hour from Quebec City. We saw 2 moose on our canoeing trip. Next we stayed at the Wildlife Preserve of the Laurentians. It sounded interesting, but turned out to be basically a hunting and fishing camp. We drove back to Jacques-Cartier NP for two more days of hiking.

We moved north into the Saguenay Valley and visited Monts-Valin NP. We did some nice hikes there, but it was difficult getting around the gravel roads park in a RV, so it was just a one day visit. Don’t know if the rough roads were to blame, but our TV died that day and replacement will have to wait until Oct.  No Olympics for us. We visited some local attractions that dealt with the history of the area and learned how important hydro power was to develop the local pulp processing and alum smelting (ALCOA) plants. We even saw a multimedia show inside a former elevated water storage tank!

The Saguenay Valley is a cyclist paradise with 100’s of KM of trails.  Point-Taillon NP is basically a cycling park with a bike trail around and across the entire park. We biked through the park in hopes of seeing at least one of the many moose that live in the park, but the moose were camera shy.

The last park we visited in this area is Fjord-du-Saguenay NP. This large park (319 sq. km) covers most of the coastline of this 105 km long fjord; the world’s longest fjord at such a low latitude. The main attraction here is the marine life in the fjord. Unusual as it may seem, a group of Beluga whales call this fjord home. We watched 20 of them feeding from shore. This was the first time we saw Belugas in the wild.  We also took a private zodiac ride across the fjord, and saw grey seals. There are also minke whales in the fjord, but we didn’t pay for a whale watching tour to see them.

The river we canoed

Biking in Point-Taillon NP

Cruising the fjord

Fjord-du-Saguenay

From here we crossed the St Lawrence on a ferry ($154) and entered the Gaspe Peninsula.

June 2012 MD to ME Part 1 of 2

Woodchuck

The survivors of the hike

The whole gang: LtoR: Don, Rick, Pat, Linda, Randy, Tom, Nick, Pop, Jen