In Newfoundland’s Codroy Valley

Jack did the writing honors for the past couple of blogs, now it’s Carol taking 

over again. The seven-hour ferry ride from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland was 

uneventful—we slept through most of it. Our little cabin was plain but the beds 

were OK. Not sure we really needed those seasickness patches, since the ship 

didn’t roll or pitch very much.

Carol in the cabin watching TV

Once we were off the ship, about 8 am or so, we stopped at a café and service 

station to grab a bite to eat and buy a Newfoundland roadmap, and then headed 

up the road to find the bed-and-breakfast that I had booked for us, the Maclellan 

Inn. It’s only about a half hour north of the ferry terminal, in the Codroy River 

valley. It’s a cute house and Gerald, the proprietor, is a welcoming and friendly 

host. He didn’t mind us showing up so early and even insisted on making us 

something more to eat, so we had “second breakfast,” always one of our favorite 

meals!

The dining and parlor area View of the garden in the rain

I had spoken with Gerald on the phone several weeks ago and asked him about 

finding a fishing guide for Jack. The Codroy River is supposed to be one of the 

best salmon fisheries in Newfoundland and this is the prime time for the salmon 

run. Gerald called around while we were eating and got a guide, who he says is 

the best around. So Jack will be off early in the morning to try his hand at 

hooking an Atlantic salmon. And I’m sure he won’t turn his nose up at a trout 

either, if one happens along.

Newfoundland looks quite different from Nova Scotia—higher mountains, not nearly 

as many leaves on the trees. The daffodils are just blooming here, and there are 

significant snow patches still on the mountain and hill slopes all around us. It 

was a rainy and chilly day here today, but the sun came out late in the day. We 

went out exploring in the early afternoon, to get a fishing license for Jack and 

to see some of the sights. The fishing villages here are so picturesque. 

Unfortunately we both forgot our iPads so couldn’t take any photos!

I just got a big batch of book chapters to edit from the publishing company that 

I work for (freelance), so I worked on those for a good part of the day, and 

probably will keep doing that tomorrow while Jack is fishing. This is supposed 

to be a world-class birdwatching spot, so at some point I’ll grab my  birding 

binoculars and see if I can add some new birds to my lifelist.

We’ll have more pictures tomorrow…

State and province count:

[Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut,

Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland

and Labrador] 

Where we are:

Newfoundland here we come!

Had a nice quiet sleep in Sheet Harbour this morning. After breakfast and after enjoying our wonderful internet connection, we saddled up the RoadTrek and headed out for Sydney. Along the way we came upon the beautiful little town of Sherbrooke and stopped for second breakfast. We then stopped to feed the RoadTrek and pump air in her shoes. What a treat: the attendant handled the air, pumped the gas and washed the windshield. Almost made us uncomfortable since we have long forgotten what a "service" gas station is supposed to do.

Stop for second breakfast.

The scenery is beautiful up here. Very sparsely populated and very few cars on the road and even fewer hateful big trucks. Certainly NOT Interstate 81 by a long shot.

This is not Interstate 81.

We tried once again to buy a cheap pay-as-you-go telephone like our Tracfones. No luck! It appears that Canada must not like Americans using their cell phones. Our Tracfones don't work and our MiFi device doesn't work, and they have so many telephone companies that you lose track. Oh well, I don't like phones anyway and prefer email. American teenagers would go crazy up here not being able to text all day long.

We stopped outside Sydney for dinner and had lobster and mussels. Really great dinner.

Jack showing off his lobster bib.

Carol full of mussels and lobster.

Now we are waiting in our RoadTrek to board the ferry to Newfoundland for our night crossing.

Mileage: 126100
Where we are:

Remembering the Titanic

Today is the day we planned to visit the Titanic exhibits at the  Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, NS and the graveyard where so many victims of that horrific accident are buried. We started the day with Carol working on one of her book projects and me learning more about the Arduino microcontroller and the Processing program that allows the Arduino to communicate with my computer. After breakfast we broke camp and headed for Halifax. Our GPS doesn't work here and neither do our telephones, so we had to revert back to navigating using road maps. Poor us!
Along the way we spotted a troop of cyclists in some sort of uniform. As we got closer we noted they were all wearing helmets and toting pistols. Looked like they were all Halifax police cadets and we noted that many were women.

Our police escort.

We parted company with our police escort and headed across one of two toll bridges (one Canadian dollar each way) into Halifax. Driving in, or even being in, a city is not one of my favorite things to do, but in this case getting to the museum was easy. Parking cost us three Canadian dollars and fifty cents for one hour and 20 minutes. The museum was great and we learned a lot about the human remains recovery operations and saw many wooden pieces of the Titanic that were found floating in the water, including one complete deck chair. A replica of the chair was built which you can lounge in. I took a photo of Carol against a backdrop of second-class passengers walking around the deck of the Titanic. Later we strolled along the wharf, had lunch in the RoadTrek and then headed for the Fairview Lawn Cemetery.

Note stacked deck chairs on right.

 

Carol catching the big wave.

A portion of the wharf at Halifax next to the parking lot for the museum.

Viewing the Titanitic grave sites at the cemetery is a sobering experience. Included among the dead is a two-year-old boy found floating in the water whose body was never claimed. In 2010, researchers finally identified the child. He was the youngest member of a family of eight. Everyone in that family perished when the Titanic sank. The other seven members were never found, explaining why no one claimed the body of the two-year-old boy.

The three rows of similar headstones mark graves for Titanic victims.

Grave site of the two-year-old boy. Unknown at the time of burial. His family name and history discovered in 2010.

Markers for unknown dead. Numbers were given to all bodies found. Some were identified before burial. These are still unclaimed and unidentified.

We decided to start our drive to Sydney, NS by driving along the eastern coastline of Nova Scotia. We were both amazed at how sparsely populated this province is. It was foggy and cloudy, but a beautiful drive. We stopped in Sheet Harbour where we found a room in a nice old motel that had Wi-Fi, our only way to communicate with the outside world. We had a delicious meal in their restaurant. Great fish chowder!

Sheet Harbour and the motel where we are staying.

The Sheet Harbour Restaurant

Tomorrow we drive to Sydney and board the ferry at 11 pm for a seven-hour ride to Newfoundland. We'll put on our scopolamine seasickness patches in the morning but hope for gentle seas during the night crossing.

Mileage: 125,880

Where we are:

Into Canada--Twice!

We woke up to our panoramic view of the bay--another cool and delightful sunny morning. After breakfast we headed the van toward Canada, over the bridge to Campobello Island, to see the vacation home of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. Franklin's family had first bought a place on this Canadian island when he was a boy, and then he and Eleanor owned another house there, next door to his mother's place, after they married. FDR was actually on the island when he came down with polio (or whatever virus it was--there's a study out recently claiming it wasn't polio but another paralyzing virus that he had). Apparently he had contracted the virus elsewhere, but it first manifested while he was up here.

The place is now an International Park, jointly maintained by the U.S. and Canadian park services, incorporating several cottages that were part of a tourist compound here from the late 1800s. FDR and Eleanor's "cottage" (36 rooms with servant quarters!) lies on a green slope of lawn overlooking the bay--very serene setting. We made it just in time for "Tea with Eleanor" at 10 am--a program put on by two older local ladies, who serve homemade cookies (yummy!) and a special Canadian tea, and tell stories about Eleanor and her love for this place. They are obviously big fans of hers, and rightly so, as she was an admirable woman. Fun!

"Tea with Eleanor." Our tablemates were from southern Maine, a mother and daughter who come up here to get away from it all.

Inside the cottage. This is an actual boat model carved by Franklin and his son.

After touring the main cottage--very comfortable, not stuffy or fancy at all, and filled with authentic keepsakes and furniture belonging to the Roosevelts--we backtracked across the border into the U.S. and set our GPS for yet another border crossing further north, this time from Calais, Maine into St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. (When departing the island, the US border guard said we couldn't bring our clementines back into the US, even though we bought them in the US and they sat in our van the whole time. When she saw that I was about to cry, she told me I could peel them and give her just the peelings. So we sat there while I peeled 7 clementines and gave the guard the bag of peelings...)

The other crossing was uneventful. We stopped at a big grocery just over the border and tried to buy a prepaid cellphone to use while we're in Canada, but were told that we would have to have a Canadian address in order to use the prepaid minutes card. Huh? So at this point we don't have phone service at all, but hopefully we'll be able to keep getting and sending emails and surfing the internet. (If you need to contact us, try email for the time being!)

Crossing from Calais, Maine to St. Stephen, New Brunswick.

We're heading for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Lots of empty wilderness here, in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It looks like their spring is about a month behind ours in Virginia--many of the trees don't have leaves yet, or just little ones. One of the things we hope to see in Halifax is the Titanic graveyard, where some of the bodies were buried of those who perished when the Titanic sank. We must have seen the Titanic movie 7 or 8 times, so we want to pay our respects.

Jack in front of the Nova Scotia welcoming sign (Carol's shadow on the left.)

We pulled in late to a campground near Truro, NS--later than we thought actually, as we failed to realize that we'd crossed into another time zone. Time for bed. Until tomorrow...

Mileage: Ending:125,729

Down East Maine Drive

It’s nice and cool up here in Maine, and we had a great night’s sleep. Our campground, Salt Water Farm Campground, was rural, secluded and very peaceful. We took a walk after breakfast and then worked for a while, finally packing up and pulling out about 1 pm.

Thomaston campsite with St George River in background.

We decided to drive up Route 1, by the coast, up to Canada. This is called “Downeast Maine” and I finally figured out why. If you look at a map of the state, the “east coast” slants on a diagonal and is really mostly south of the rest of the state, so the “east coast” is really down. I guess that’s why.
It was a nice, but slow, drive through endless little towns and villages, some picturesque and upscale, others looking a little bit down at heel. We had our hearts set on a lobster roll, but it took us awhile to find an open lobster shack (we’re a little ahead of the season up here). Finally found one, and it was good! Lobster was yummy, but the real stand-out was the clam “chowdah”—whole clams and redskin potatoes!

Lobster shack where we had a great lobster roll and clam chowder lunch.

Interesting sights along the way: a black porcupine ambling along by the highway; a spectacular bridge over the Penobscot River, combined with an observatory tower that claims to be the “highest bridge observatory in the world”—but how many are in existence?

 

 

Penobscot River Bridge on US RT 1 in Maine. (Note observation tower in the left tower.)

 

 

We also drove by the crazy blueberry store and amusement park that we stopped at the last time we were in Maine; unfortunately it’s not open yet. The store/restaurant is a geodesic dome painted to look like a giant blueberry. They had delicious blueberry scones the last time…sigh. LOTS AND LOTS  of Duncan Donuts stores—why is there only one DD in the entire Roanoke area, while every little wide spot in the road here has one, or sometimes two??

We are heading for Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, to visit the International Roosevelt  Park tomorrow. Right now we’re staying in the easternmost town in the entire U.S.: Lubec, Maine. This is one of the most beautiful campsites we’ve stayed at—our windshield looks out on nothing but ocean and islands! Gorgeous sunset!

Lubec campsite sunset.

State count: still 9 [Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine]
Starting mileage, Oriskany: 124,375; ending mileage today, 125,416  
Where we are:

Old Ironsides Still Going Strong

We got up about 6:30 am this morning and got on the road by 8 am, to try to beat the rush and be first in line at the USS Constitution in Boston. We had a moment of panic when I looked on the internet to see where the best place to park would be, and the only place mentioned was a garage that our RoadTrek wouldn’t fit into. All the RV bloggers were saying not to drive into Boston, no place to park, not safe to leave the vehicle, etc. etc. I finally called a campground outside of Boston to see if we should stay there and take public transport into the city. The guy there was really nice and said since it was Sunday, and not really the height of their season yet, he thought we’d be OK finding some parking on the street. So we went with our original plan, just driving in and looking for a parking place, and it worked out fine. Traffic was light on a Sunday morning and we found a space in a nearby lot (mind you, it cost us $20, but not so bad when you consider that all the Constitution stuff was free…)

We arrived early at the Boston Naval Yard, where the Constitution is docked, and went through security—just like airport security. I got a little antsy and opened the door out to where we were supposed to line up to get on the ship about 15 minutes before it was supposed to be open, and the ranger had to call us down. We behaved ourselves after that.

The Constitution looks fabulous for her age—211 years! This ship has been through some serious history. Never defeated in battle, she soundly trounced 4 British ships in the War of 1812—they were shocked when their cannon balls bounced off her sides, leading to her famous nickname. (The Brits were highly incensed that this upstart nation had the nerve to design a different type of ship that was so much better than theirs—after all, they were supposed to rule the seas!) As I said in yesterday’s blog, this is the world’s oldest warship that’s still afloat. Would love to see her with full sails!
The tour was informative, delivered by real Navy sailors in 18th century garb. We talked to a couple of them about how they got this plum duty, and they had to beat out a lot of others—it’s a very competitive slot. They’re obviously proud to be doing the job.

Carol just before boarding.

Jack about to salute before going onboard.

I got to test the hammocks and we were allowed to wander pretty much all over the ship. We’ve been talking about seeing the Constitution for several years now, ever since our good friend Frank DeBord gave us the book Six Frigates to read. It tells the fascinating story of how our Navy got started, with six original ships, of which the Constitution is one. As it turns out, it’s a good thing we saw her now, because next year she’s going into dry dock for renovations, for several years! So if any of you are thinking about seeing this piece of our history, this year would be a good time.

Carol trying out the hammocks. (Jack says they are not like they were on the USCGC EAGLE.)

A view of part of the gun deck. (Jack says definitely not like on the EAGLE.)

Carol at the helm. (No comment from Jack.)

After touring the ship, we went through the nearby Constitution Museum. It’s largely geared to kids, but it did have some good displays on the three battles the Constitution won during the War of 1812. She fought two British ships in one battle and defeated them both. Nearly destroyed them, in fact.

Back on the interstate and heading north for even more history, this time searching for the Maine home of Revolutionary hero Henry Knox. We love Henry Knox, ever since we both read a high school level book on the American Revolution that we picked up at a bookstore a long time ago. It told how Henry managed to pull off a daring maneuver that succeeded in chasing the British ships out of Boston Harbor. After the colonists won the battle at Ticonderoga, Henry had the idea of hauling the big guns from Ticonderoga about 300 miles over mountains and ice-covered lakes and rivers down to Boston and installing them on the heights overlooking the harbor under cover of darkness. Somehow he talked Washington into this crazy plan and Henry miraculously managed to pull it off. Took the British totally by surprise—they were blockading Boston Harbor and suddenly woke up one morning to discover giant cannons pointing down at them. They wisely decided to leave! So Henry was a big favorite of Washington and he was named Secretary of War during Washington’s presidency.

Henry retired with his wife and family up here to a little town in Maine named Thomaston, where his wife had a large piece of land from her family. They built a beautiful mansion and named it Montpelier. It’s a lovely spot, now a museum, and the grounds are in the process of being brought back close to the state Knox planned for them. Unfortunately he died relatively young, and didn’t have the opportunity to bring many of his plans to fruition. Also unfortunately, it’s only open on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays, so we don’t get to tour the house, but we at least got to spend some time walking around the house and grounds and snap a few photos.

Henry Knox's Montpelier in Thomaston, Maine. (Knoxville in Tennessee and Fort Knox in Kentucky - where our nation keeps its gold - are named to honor General Henry Knox.)

 

 

 

We’re now happily and cozily tucked away in a small, peaceful campground overlooking the St. George River. Had a nice supper of salad and soup and getting a little bit sleepy after our early morning. All for now!

State count: 9 [Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine]
Starting mileage, 124,375; ending mileage, 125,254
Where we are:

Epic Journey Part II – 7 States in 2 Days!

We are officially on the road! We headed out yesterday, a beautiful morning, after finally getting all
our “stuff” packed into the van, around 10:20 am. Our first stop was Newville, PA, right off of I-81, for an overnight visit with our good friends Dick and Rita Parady. They used to be our partners in crime in the Oriskany Strings oldtime band (see http://www.oriskanystrings.com/), and are now retired in a beautiful “independent living” retirement community in a rural part of central PA. Had a great visit—we always have lots to yack about and laugh about! And their little dog Zoe is particularly adorable. It’s fun to watch her antics… They took us out for dinner at a neat restaurant, Boiling Springs Tavern (http://www.boilingspringstavern.net/), in a historic stone building from the mid-1800s. This area is so picturesque—trout streams, rolling green pastures and dairy farms, and interesting old houses and buildings all around. (Unfortunately we haven’t yet fully gotten into our blogging mode and forgot to bring our iPads to take photos in Boiling Springs.)

Dick, Rita, Carol relaxing (could I be more relaxed? looks like I have no bones), Jack on camera.

After dinner, we stayed up late talking and ate some wonderful crème brulee that Dick had made—he’s definitely a gourmet! He also fed us delicious steel-cut oats with strawberries and blueberries this morning… we could get used to this. We breakfasted on the patio and then said our fond farewells. It was a lovely visit to kick off our vacation!

When Jack was planning our route, he came across a town in PA named “Jim Thorpe” and was intrigued. It’s pretty much on our way so we decided to stop for a visit. Fascinating history. At one time, back in the 1800s, this was one of the wealthiest towns in America—in fact, they claim that the Industrial Revolution started here. In those days, the town was called Mauch Chunk (pronounced “Mock Chunk”, supposed to be derived from Indian words meaning “sleeping bear” after a nearby mountain that looked like, you guessed it). But things went downhill over the years and in the 1940s the place was in serious trouble economically. Then an odd thing happened: the famous Indian athlete Jim Thorpe died in 1953.

Amazing feats.

Jim Thorpe's grave (click to enlarge)

One of two statues at the memorial site. (click to enlarge)

Carol and Jack beside anthracite coal rock.

After his home state of Oklahoma refused to honor him with a memorial, his angry widow shopped his remains around the country looking for a place that would honor him (and she may have been looking for some cash as well...). The town fathers of Mauch Chunk saw a great opportunity and they agreed to build a memorial to Jim Thorpe and rename their town after him, which they did. The press attention from this was an economic windfall and the town was reborn as a charming tourist town.

Preserved railway station. (click to enlarge)

Typical architecture on Broadway. (click to enlarge)

Where we had lunch. (click to enlarge)

I have to say that my expectations weren’t very high, but this place is SO charming!! The mountain setting is beautiful (it’s in the Poconos), it has well-preserved 19th century architecture, a scenic train that runs through the Lehigh River gorge, lots of cute shops, inns and restaurants, and river rafting! And the Jim Thorpe gravesite and memorial is very well-done, a nice remembrance of perhaps the world’s greatest athlete. Amazing, superhuman feats of athleticism! We knew a little about Jim Thorpe the man before today, but now we know quite a bit—including the tragic side of his life. (Side note: his descendants are now suing the town of Jim Thorpe—they want to dig up Jim’s body and take it back to the reservation in Oklahoma where he was born.) We reluctantly left Jim Thorpe the town and got back on the road, as we wanted to be closer to Boston before stopping for the day.

New York State has severe penalties for talking on a cell phone and texting while driving.
These signs are a friendly reminder to get off the road if you want to text. This is not an issue for us.
(click to enlarge)

Tomorrow we plan to drive into Boston and tour the U.S.S. Constitution—“Old Ironsides”—the oldest commissioned warship in the world that’s still afloat. This stalwart old ship was launched in 1797, fought against the Barbary pirates and Great Britain in the War of 1812 (which we’re now celebrating the bicentennial of), and it’s still an official commissioned ship of the U.S. Navy! Can’t wait to see it.

One funny thing—our ultimate destination on this leg of the trip is actually Newfoundland, in Canada. After we left Jim Thorpe and were driving on some back roads to get to the interstate we wanted, we started seeing road signs saying “Newfoundland, 10 miles.” We’re looking at each other and saying, “Wow, that was a lot faster than we thought!” There’s actually a little village in Pennsylvania named “Newfoundland”…

Surprise! We made it to Newfoundland already!

And, oh yes, the title of this blog. We’ve actually driven through 7 states so far, but several of them were just little pieces of states so it’s not as impressive as it sounds.

State count: 7 [Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts]

Where we are now: