Trip Update May-Nov 2018 Part 1 Newfoundland

Hike near Cape Spear with Mary, Elysia, Pat, Crystal, and Jason

We flew to Halifax after our Iceland trip. We returned to Eldon and Lois’s lakeside country estate and exclusive campground in Nova Scotia. We stayed here several days, avoiding travel on the Memorial Day weekend. We enjoyed the hospitality of neighbors, Art and Carol, before heading out to catch the ferry to Newfoundland. We were several hours into our 16-hour cruise when the ship returned to North Sydney, due to a medical emergency.  Somehow the captain made up the time and delivered us to Argentia, NL only an hour behind schedule. 

Caribou

East Coast Trail

Old Man Birdhouse

Pink Lady Slipper

East Coast Trail

We spent the next week hiking the East Coast Trail and exploring the Avalon Peninsula. We headed to St John’s and spent time with my Aunt Catherine and her family. My Cousin Mary and her daughter Crystal flew up from Florida. We gathered for a service for my deceased Aunt Bernie at the family cemetery in Conception Harbor. Afterwards we celebrated the life of this remarkable woman at Jason and Elysia’s (Catherine’s daughter) waterfront home. This is the same home where my mother and her siblings were raised. Here I met several of my Newfoundland cousins for the first time. We stayed in the St John’s area for another week, hiking with family and enjoying great dinners out and lobsters with Catherine and Hal. The four of us went on an interesting underground tour at the #2 Iron Mine on Bell Island.

Moose in the campground

Celebration of my Aunt Bernie's Life

Then we started our journey across Newfoundland. Our goal was to see places we had not seen on our two previous trips across NL, but of course, we had to return to some of our favorite places also. Elliston, with its large Puffin population, is a place you never get tired of seeing. We attended the Bonavista Festival and then we headed down the Burin Peninsula for the first time to explore its history and hike its trails. On a remote section of coast, miles from the nearest town of St Laurence, one of the US Navy’s greatest disaster occurred. Three WWII war ships ran aground nearly simultaneously and two sank, the USS Truxtun and USS Pollux. The heroic efforts of the locals saved the lives of 326 sailors who, without their help, would have surely perished with the 296 crewman that drown in the icy cold water. In recognition of their valor and extraordinary efforts, the US Congress authorized the construction of a hospital in St Laurence.

Puffin at Elliston

From here we headed to Terra Nova NP and spent several days hiking. We had two moose walk through our campground. At Gander, we went to the North Atlantic Aviation Museum. When 9/11 occurred, the US closed its airspace and all incoming international flights were diverted to other airports. Thirty-eight of these planes landed at Gander. The people of Gander opened their homes and hearts to these strangers, providing food and shelter for 6,759 stranded travelers.

Hal and Catherine joined us at Bell Island Mine #2 Tour

We zig-zagged through central NL and ended up at Fleur-de-Lys, a harbor town at the northern tip of the Baie Verte peninsula. The sheltered harbor has been used for 4500 years, and a soapstone deposit was quarried by the Dorset, 2000 years ago, to make cooking pots, bowls and oil lamps. We explored this area and the nearby town of La Scie before heading to Gros Morne NP.

Gros Morne NP

This was our third visit here, but there is always something new to discover in this 697 sq. mi. UNESCO World Heritage Site. In addition to a great variety of hiking terrain, Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador puts on professional, culturally rich performances at their Cow Head theater. We attended three plays and learned more about the local customs, music and history. In fact, we had been attending performances all over Newfoundland, some more professional than others, but all were entertaining.

Fall Leaves

American Toad

South of Gros Morne NP we drove through Stephenville, site of a former USAF base, to get to the Port au Port peninsula. A Francophone community populates this scenic area. This is the only officially bilingual area in Newfoundland where you might hear Newfoundland French, a nearly extinct dialect.

We took the 6-hour ferry from Port au Basques to North Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Cedar Cove

Sunset

Trip Update May- Nov 2018 Part 2 Atlantic Canada

Frazier Lake NS

Lupine in Goldboro, NS

It had been many years since we visited Cape Brenton NP, so we headed up the Cabot Trail and hiked most of the trails in the park. We took the ferry to Prince Edward Island (PEI) and camped at Northumberland PP. From here we rode our bikes to Woods Island lighthouse and drove into Charlottetown to see Jesus Christ Superstar. We moved on to Red Point PP and spent a day hiking in the Greenwich section of PEI NP. We also toured the Memorial Gardens in Georgetown. The Confederation Trail provided more opportunities to bike. After covering most of eastern PEI, we moved to Cavendish CG in PEI NP. We biked around the area and stopped in New Glasgow for a lobster supper. At Fort Amherst we learned it was the first military fortification on the island while under the control of France and later by Britain. 

Cape Brenton NP, NS

PEI

Birch Bark Wigwam, NS

Our last move took us to Linkletter PP - from here we drove to Lennox island, home of PEI’s largest Mi’kmaq community. We hiked the Path of Our Forefathers. Obviously considerable money had been spent developing this trail with bridges and signs, but the trail was dying of neglect. The trails were overgrown, signs unreadable, bridges were dangerous to cross and litter was everywhere; not much respect for their forefathers. 

Panmure Island Lighthouse, PEI

Confederation Bridge between PEI and NB

We crossed the Confederation Bridge and landed on Cape Jourimain, New Brunswick. There is a nice interpretive center there and miles of hiking trails. We drove north to Kouchibouguac NP, a large coastal park with lagoons, salt marshes and forest. Another good park for hiking and biking. We did a canoe trip and saw a pair of eagles, a Blue Heron rookery and lots of cormorants.

Bald Eagle 

Canoeing in Kouchibouguac NP

Laverty falls, Fundy NP

We moved on to Fundy NP. While there we drove up to Hopewell (Flowerpot) Rocks to catch low tide. We hardly recognized the place! A small parking lot with a rickety set of stairs was replaced by acres of parking, a Visitors Center, paved trails, heavy duty staircases leading down to the beach and of course a healthy admission fee. It was still an interesting and beautiful place. The VC had some interesting and educational exhibits. The difference between high and low tide can be as high as 53.5 feet.

Hopewell Rocks, Bay of Fundy

White Peacock, Kingsbrae Gardens

Our last stop in NB was St Andrews-by-the-Sea. In addition to hiking, we returned to Kingsbrae Gardens. As well as its variety of plants, it has a sculpture garden that rotates exhibits periodically. From here we returned to the US.

Sunset

Trip Update May-Nov 2018 Part 3 New England and PA

Acadia NP

View from Cadillac Mountain

We crossed the border and headed for Acadia NP. Late September is still a very busy time of year there and we could not get a camp site in the park. Fortunately, we could take the shuttle around the park, because parking was impossible. After several days of hiking we relocated to Bangor, where we found the City Forest, a great park with lots of hiking/biking trails. We stayed at Mt Blue SP, before we reached Grafton Notch SP. Here we met some through hikers who had about three weeks left before completing the Appalachian Trail.  I was surprised to find out that one of the hikers, instead of surviving on trail food, was eating pizza every day.   At least he didn’t have to worry about getting fat.

Grafton Notch SP, ME

Lake Groton VT

Rock Art in Barre, VT

We drove to VT and camped at Groton Forest CG. In addition to hiking here, we went into nearby Barre, VT and took a tour of the Rock of Ages Quarry and Factory and the VT Granite Museum. Interestingly, all of the granite quarries in VT are owned by foreign companies. We walked through Hope Cemetery, which had more than its share of unusual and decorative headstones.

Moss Glen Falls, VT 

We got out of the RV and stayed at Smuggler’s Notch Mountain Resort for a week. We had stayed at this timeshare before in the springtime and wanted to return in the Fall because there was so much hiking you could do right on the resort property. The fall colors were at their peak while we were there (second week of September). One evening we drove to Hyde Park to see the production of “All Shook Up” (an Elvis tribute). We were close to Stowe and did some shopping and dining there. We went to Moss Glen Falls and Sterling Falls Gorge, which was a beautiful hike.

Lincoln Woods, NH

Fall Colors in NH

We left VT and headed SE to the South Mountain Resort, a timeshare in Lincoln, NH in the White Mountains. The leaves were near the end of the peak season here, but beautiful weather brought hordes of visitors to the area. There were traffic jams that extended for miles and parking at trail heads was non-existent. By Monday the weather turned wet, cold and windy and the day-trippers had cleared out. Unfortunately, the weather stayed nasty all week and we even had some snow! We were glad we were not in the RV that week. We tried unsuccessfully to get some work done on the RV at Camping World in Conway, but after diagnosing the problem with our levelers, they didn’t have the parts on hand. 

Rocky Gorge, NH

Flight 93 National Memorial, PA

We left the White Mountains and headed to Elkhart, IN to get RV work done at the Phoenix Cruiser Factory. We detoured down to York, PA to put stuff in storage, so the RV would not be overly cluttered when they gutted it for repairs/upgrades. Our first stop was Hampton Beach SP in NH. It was right on the ocean and we did some beach walks. Few campgrounds are open in late October in the North East, but we found an open KOA in NY so we headed there. We expected a near empty campground and were surprised to find the place packed. A Halloween Party was in full swing and we were lucky to get the last available site. In York, we met Linda and Rick for dinner before hitting the turnpike. We stopped in Somerset, PA and went to the Flight 93 National Memorial. We had visited this site a few years prior and the was a small memorial there. Now the Flight 93 NM covered 2200 acres. The only part not completed was the installation of the bells in the Bell Tower. The next day we took a side trip to Ohiopyle, PA and toured Kentuck Knob, a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Ohiopyle Falls, PA

Kentuck Knob, PA 

At Elkhart, we dropped our RV off at the factory and drove 3 hours south to visit Phil and Connie, who live outside Indianapolis. We took a drive on Rt 40 and did some antiquing. We also visited with Steven, Shannon and Jamison and saw their big house. We drove back to Elkhart assuming the work would be done in about two days. However, the parts person had been out with the flu and the parts were delayed a couple days. Finally, the parts were installed and we were back on the road, about two days later than expected. That night we stayed at an Ohio turnpike rest area RV facility. There were no trees or trails, but it had every thing else you would find at a full-service campground - all for $20/night! After a night at Shawnee SP in PA, we reached Ramblin Pines CG in Woodbine, MD where we would stay for 4 weeks before heading to Myrtle Beach, SC for a Habitat for Humanity house build.

Sunset

Iceland May-June 2018, Part 1 Cruise around Iceland

Our ship, Ocean Diamond

Our Planned Route

On 5/29, we boarded ProCruise’s Ocean Diamond along with 146 other passengers for a 10 day/9-night cruise around Iceland. We started in Reykjavik and traveled around Iceland in a clockwise direction, stopping at a different port every day.

Lava Formations

 Snaefellsjokull Glacier

Church Rock

On our first stop, in West Iceland, we took a Snowcat trip up on Snaefellsjokull Glacier on top of a volcano. Down at the coast we walked along the shore to see birds and unusual lava formations.

Puffin

Oldest Windmill in Iceland

Male Eider Duck

 Next, we took a trip to Vigur Island, in the West Fjords to see how Eider duck down is collected and processed. Due to high winds in North Iceland, our trip to Grimsey Island was cancelled and replaced with a hike through a natural area on the island of Hrisey. 

Harbor Seals

Siglufjordur

Black headed Gull

Hrisey Island

Rock Ptarmigan

Godafoss

 The following day we took a bus trip to Godafoss waterfall, and Myvatn lake, took a soak at the Myvatn Nature Baths and enjoyed the impressive lava formations at Dimmuborgir and other interesting sites. 

Lava formations at Dimmuborgir

Hverir, Geothermal Area

Dressed for high speed adventure

The best excursion was whale watching on RIB boats from Husavik in North Iceland. We dressed in survival suits and then the driver hit the gas. We got airborne with every wave, followed by a crash landing. I didn’t know if my old back would survive the beating. When we finally slowed down we were at Puffin Island and puffins were flying all around us. Then we took off across the bay at breakneck speed to catch up to some whales that had surfaced. We repeated this process several times until we had our fill of whale pictures. Then we zoomed back to the dock. I took some pain meds but was still stiff and sore the next day. Can’t wait to do it again!

Whale Watching

 In East Iceland, we toured a nature preserve and took a Super Jeep into the Vatnajokull National Park. Next, in South Iceland, we docked at Heimaey Island, The Pompeii of the North. Much of the town was half buried from a volcanic eruption in 1973. The islanders prevented the closure of their harbor, by pumping tons of salt water on the flowing lava. The experts said this would never work, but it did. They  dug themselves out and the town is quite functional again. Quite an amazing place! This island is also famous for the million puffins that nest here. Then we returned to Reykjavik and said good-bye to our new friends.