Canada Trip Rehash

   It's great to be home again and sleeping in my own bed after 31 days away. I looked back at the last month and did some calculating, aside from a great week in Whistler with my old USS Sumter shipmates, here are some stats from my trip:

   Days away: 31

   Hotel stays: 23

   Miles driven: 9,379

   Ferries trips: 7

   Ferry miles: 370

   Fuel used: 287 gal diesel

   Average MPG: 32.7

   States driven: 14

   Provinces driven: 7

   Time zones: 4

   Golf courses played: 3

   I'm happy to be home to enjoy the rest of summer with my family, friends and doggie. I missed them all. Thanks to everyone who followed my progress. More from me traveling to Ireland in September with Mary.

Glad to be home

   I made it home today (Thursday) after spending the night with Mary and family at Becky's house in Bucks County. Early that day I had hoped to see my grandson Tim at camp in New Hampshire but the weather didn't cooperate. I did get to see Casey, a happy surprise.

   When I left Portland it was wet and chilly, jacket weather for sure. When I made a stop in Connecticut it was warm and humid, I could feel it was getting close to home.

   I took I-95 south from Portland, stayed west of Boston and NYC and found myself close to Becky's place just after dark. I finished my trip, driving home from Becky's early Thursday afternoon with Gayle and Toby for company.    

   Driveway to driveway the trip was 9,379 miles and all interesting and fun.   I'll have another post or two after I figure out some of the trip stats. Thanks for following along with me.
 

 

Leaving Canada

   This morning I drove aboard the Nova Star, the new ferry between Portland Maine and Nova Scotia. Ferry crossings  here were suspended years ago but a new ship was built and put into service just this year. The ferry saves at least a days drive and maybe even two. Thanks much to Mary's cousin Jim who gave me the tip. 

   The Nova Star looks closer to a cruise ship than any ferry I've been on for this trip. It has cabins, a couple of places to eat, a bar & lounge, even a casino. The crossing is 10 hours with a time zone change back to Eastern Daylight Time. 

   Boarding today was through a pea soup fog, I took it in faith that the line I was in went to the ship and didn't drop off the pier into the ocean. I did see the bow opening, but only just when I was driving down the ramp. When we got underway at 10:00 it was hard to tell even what end if the ship was forward.

   I enjoyed everything on my Canada adventure except for the cop who gave me the speeding ticket in Nova Scotia. Now I have to figure out how to get a check drawn in Canadian dollars to pay the fine.

   I figured this might be my last trip up here for a while and I'm glad I made it all the way across without getting squirrely from being alone for three and a half weeks. Mary can be the real judge of my sanity when I get home in a day or two.

   I skipped passed the major cities of Toronto, Montreal and Quebec, but only because we've been there a number of times. I totally recommend them as fun and very interesting places to visit.

  Speaking of which, Canada has done interesting things to it's currency. Years ago they got rid of paper dollar bills and replaced it with a very popular dollar coin, nicknamed Loonie. Not long after out came a 2 dollar coin, Twoonie. 

   Now the paper bills are being replaced with vinyl plastic and they look really good; I guess they're hard to counterfeit too. Last year they got rid of their penny and cash registers automatically round to the nearest nickel for change. Maybe we'll see similar things for ourselves too. It should be easy for our congress to agree on, yes?

   I totally love my country, but I really like Canada too.

   

   The trip across to Maine was foggy until we reached the Portland Harbor. I managed one not so good picture of the ship before I pulled away.

Halifax

  I really liked Halifax back in my navy days and it was nice to see it again. I came in from the north over the big harbor bridge from Dartmouth and saw the Canadian naval fleet parked below.

   This morning i parked harbor side at the Maritime Museum for a couple of hours; it's not a big place and smaller than I remember. There's a small display from the Titanic disaster with some of the  ships floating debris on display. There's a cemetery in town where the dead passengers and crew are buried, some of the dead we're never identified. I'll make that visit at some future trip.

   Even more impressive was a film and display about the great 1917 explosion in Halifax harbor when a fully loaded ammunition ship collided, caught fire and exploded in the inner harbor; 2,000 city residents died in the blast and 9,000 more were injured. It is said to be the largest man made explosion in the world prior to Hiroshima.

   When I left the museum I drove south through the city to Peggy's Cove lighthouse, there are a lot more tourists there than my last visit 30 years ago. I drove a bit more to Lunenburg for lunch and a walk about. I arrived in foggy Yarmouth around dinnertime and will catch the morning ferry to Portland, Maine.

Louisbourg and points south

   It was Sunday, I slept in a little and managed to avoid a tour bus load of people for breakfast. The tour stayed over at my hotel but they pulled away just after 8:00. 

   I had a short drive to Louisbourg to see the restoration of a French fort that the English destroyed in the mid 1700's. Nearly 50 residential buildings and most of the fortifications have been restored using much of the original plans and drawings. 

   The re-enactors were sometimes a little hokey but they all seemed to have a sense of humor.

   The loss of Louisbourg led to the extremely harsh expulsion of about 10,000 French Acadians from their land. Many settled in what was French Louisiana and were the ancestors of today's Cajuns. The English destroyed Louisbourg and everything else that was French in the area and changed the name to New Scotland (Nova Scotia).

   I spent the morning at the fort and headed out after a fish chowder lunch. I have a reservation for Tuesday on the Nova Star ferry that goes from Yarmouth, NS to Portland, Maine. I'll need to be in town the night before for a morning departure. The ferry takes about 10 hours for the trip and it's a brand new ship so I hope it's comfortable.

   I settled in for Sunday night in Halifax. I'll visit the Museum of the Atlantic on Monday morning. I'll stop in Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg for some pictures on my way south to Yarmouth. I'm ready to come home; I miss my family and friends.

Cape Breton Island

   After a scenic breakfast in Baddeck I drove north to pick up the historic Cabot Trail. It was named for John Cabot who sailed passed Cape Breton Island in 1497, shortly after Columbus first discovered the new world. Cabot was sailing for England even though he was born in Italy.

   Cabot was the first European to set foot in North America in that era because Columbus spent all his time further south. Leif Erickson came to Canada 500 years earlier but he never made the grammar school history books.

  I made the drive before but it was almost 30 years ago with Mary and the kids. Weather was perfect for the drive and picture taking.

   I went up on the Scot side (Atlantic Ocean side) crossed over and came down on the French side. I ran across one of the locals who must not have gotten the word I was in town.

   

   After the loop I continued on to Sydney where I checked in for a room at 5:00. I took a drive out to lighthouse road to catch a shot of Sydney's harbor light. I'm still tired after walking the hilly 18 holes yesterday.

   Tomorrow I'll head east to see Louisbourg, built by the French when the island was called Acadia. Afterward I'm off to Halifax and points south.

Yet Another Ferry

  After spending the night in Charlottetown I was up early driving to the east end of Prince Edward Island to catch another ferry to Caribou, Nova Scotia.

   It was about a 30 minute drive through farmland to reach the ferry and I passed by acres of potatoes neatly planted in the red dirt fields. In my travel guide there was a statement that half the worlds potatoes come from the little Provence of PEI. I went back to be sure I read it correctly, but it can't really be true.

   The ferry dropped me off halfway up on Nova Scotia and it was a short drive to Cape Breton Island, where I was headed to drive the Cabot Trail. About mid way up the west coast is the town of Inverness, home to the famous golf course Cabot Links. About half of the 18 holes are right on the St Lawrence Sea and it was the prettiest golf venue I've ever seen.

    I was in a foursome with two local dentists who were brothers, and one of their buddies. The sun was out and the sea was glassy calm. One of my partners pointed out an area where moose hang out but I told him not to worry because moose never show up when I'm around. 

   

   I found a cabin room for the night in the town of Baddeck and I'll do the Cabot Trail in north Cape Breton Island early tomorrow. Weather looks good for pictures.

Maritimes

   I was 6th in line for the morning ferry to the south shore, I parked my car in the lane and went for some breakfast. There wasn't anywhere close to the 100 car capacity and it was a pretty hour and a quarter ride.

   I got some friendly advice about which road to take on my way to Charlottetown, PEI. I was in New Brunswick not long after leaving the ferry and the time changed to Atlantic Time, one hour ahead of the east coast at home. I could tell it was moose country, lots of wetlands and lots of moose warning signs.

   After about 420 miles I reached the bridge to PEI . It was built about 10 years ago and saved a lot of time from the old ferry. 

   Friday I press on to Nova Scotia and the Atlantic after (hopefully) a round of golf.

Quebec

   It was a pretty good day today, I spent the morning at the war museum in Ottawa  (I was the second one in the door) and I still got in 400 miles of driving.

   It started out sunny and windy but it turned cloudy and looked like rain all day, but it stayed dry.

   After a night in Ottawa and driving through city traffic around Montreal and Quebec I was feeling like I was out of the woods finally. But as I drove the north shore of the St Lawrence it started getting remote again. I drove until after 9:00 and I was worried I might not find a room for the night.

   Luckily as I got to the ferry terminal at St Simeon, there was a small motel right next to it. The room was very basic but clean and it had a great cliff side view over the St Lawrence River.

   Tomorrow I'll catch the 9:30 crossing to River du Loup, about 90 minutes across to the south shore.

Ottawa

   I left Sudbury on Tuesday morning and continued on Rt 17 East toward Ottawa, Canada's capital. The trip was a bit over 300 miles through Ontario Forrest for most of the drive. It started to rain shortly after I left and the rain followed me all day, getting me wet later in the evening at dinner.

   About one third of the way the road started to parallel the Ottawa River which begins somewhere in the many lakes of northern Ontario and Quebec. It becomes a major river long before it reaches Ottawa and eventually flows into the St Lawrence River creating the island at the city of Montreal. 

   In Ottawa the river is the border with Quebec and my hotel was on the French speaking side of the river. In Ottawa the streets are named Wellington, Albert and Queen. Across the bridge is Rue Champlain and Boul. Des Allumettiéres.

   I went to the excellent War Museum this morning. I learned some things I never heard before including the Finian Raids where Irish Americans from the US attacked Canada in the mid 1800's. There was also a note about a German landing in Labrador in WW2 where they set up a weather station to aid their U-boats. It was so remote that the Canadians didn't discover it until 1981.

Thunder Bay to Sudbury

   I spent Monday getting familiar with Lake Superior and Canada Rt. 17; some people call it the great circle route around the lake. This part of Ontario is not very populated and I was thinking it was good I spent the night in a Thunder Bay because it would have been a long drive to find another place for the night. Northern Ontario is forrest, lakes and rocky outcrops.

   As I looked into the lake close to Sault St Marie I was thinking of the ship Edmund Fitzgerald that went down not far from here. Ships pick up iron ore from loaders on the western side of the lake, close to the mines and take their cargos through locks to eastern lake ports for processing.

   Sudbury is an interesting city geology wise. The worlds largest nickel processing plant (smelter) is located in town. It's stack is a huge landmark and when it was built in the 1970's it was the tallest structure in Canada. Now only the CN Tower in Toronto is higher. The stack is still the second tallest freestanding stack in the world, the largest is in Kazakhstan.

   The plant is on top of a huge nickel and copper deposit that arrived on earth millions of years ago with an asteroid strike. It's believed to be the second largest asteroid strike ever discovered.

   I was surprised at the number of world statistics, very interesting place here in Sudbury.

  

   Tuesday I hope to make it to Ottawa, the nations capital .

Highway 61 Revisited

   When I started the morning on the north shore drive in Duluth, I spotted some signs that called it Bob Dylan Way. It was also Rt 61 and I finally made the connection to his record album from the 60's. It is a gorgeous road, worth remembering and Bob Dylan was born and grew up in the area.

   It started out as a nice suburban neighborhood with great views over the lake. It became rural before long and the road climbed high over the water. I had to choose between stopping every few minutes for a good picture or making some progress eastward. I had to make a few stops though.

   The sun was up but there was also fog on the lake. The fog was always moving so I had to be patient with picture taking. I stopped near a rock outcropping that went down to the shoreline and I dipped my hand into the cold lake. I also stopped at two lighthouses still in use along the shore.

   As I got close to the border the fog rolled inland slowing traffic to a crawl and then it started to storm. I pulled over and waited out the worst but I had to give up early and check into a hotel in Thunder Bay. I only covered about 250 miles for the day but it was already 5:00 and I was tired.

   The rain stopped around 7:00 so I drove into the center of the city for dinner. I saw more train cars than people and I came back to the main highway to eat. I wondered where the 110,000 residents were.

   I hope to make up some time tomorrow as I finish the north loop of the lake.

   

   

Lake of the Woods

   I had a quick service appointment this morning. I'd like to thank Keith Bell of St James Audi in Winnipeg. I was in and out in under 2 hours and my car was returned washed and clean. I'm thinking it might have taken longer to wash all the bugs off than to change my oil.

   I left town to the southeast and crossed the border back into the US at the very small town of Warroad, Minn. The main street is "Mom's Way" and the name stays for 40 miles beyond town.

   As I got close to the border I was the only car around; I met the border guards with no waiting. When I was explaining how a guy from Pa was crossing the border from Canada at this remote spot in the Minnesota woods I saw the guys look at one another funny. They were very courteous and professional and after a few more questions and a quick look in my trunk they waved me through.

   I stopped afterward at a park overlooking The Lake of the Woods. It's the  little notch of North Minnesota that juts above the 49th parallel, the border with Canada. Its almost all water and I've always wondered why it was important enough to change the border line. It had to do with not having any good maps of the area when the Treaty of Paris was  signed in 1783, setting the border. It took a number of surveys over the years before both countries finally agreed in 1925. The picture of the lake (below) doesn't look like much to argue over

   I passed through International Falls which seemed to be the coldest spot on earth when I was a kid.

   I made it to Duluth for the night, 500 miles for the day. Tomorrow I start to drive Lake Superior's north shore .

Three Provinces

   I started my 4th of July in Eastern Alberta and drove  650 miles through Saskatchewan and Manitoba. I was on Rt 1 (TCH) the whole way. My car was due for an oil change and I made a Saturday morning service appointment in Winnipeg.

   The road was in good shape throughout the day and there were long stretches where I was the only car in sight. The terrain started as hilly badlands and changed to flat farmlands and prairie as I came east. I played a game with license plates to see if someone came from further away than me; it was never even close.

   I planned a stop in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan for coffee and I saw a sign for a Tim Horton's. The directions said to turn right at "the moose" 5 minutes ahead and I thought it might be a photo op.  I never saw the moose or Tim Horton's and by the time the 5 minutes were up I was out of town already. I guess the moose got tired of standing around, so I stopped for coffee in Regina.

   Today's plan has me driving southeast and crossing the US border for a short stretch. The north western shore of Lake Superior is a scenic drive that starts in Duluth, Minnesota and crosses back into Canada at Thunder Bay, Ontario.

   I've always been slightly amazed at Duluth, the western most point of the Great Lakes. it's impressive that major ocean going ships can travel so far inland; Duluth is as far inland as Minneapolis.

   There wasn't a chance for pics on the highway yesterday. I started my Saturday at the Audi dealer. 

   Hope your weather is better back east now that the storm has passed.

Edmonton to Medicine Hat

   I started the day in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta. It's a city with lots of interest in Canada's tar sands oil fields which are only 300 miles to the north.

   I drove in the opposite direction down Rt 2 towards Calgary; turning off the highway before the city and heading to Drumheller, home of a famous museum. 

  When I first got off the highway I was amazed at how much farmland there was. Hundreds of square miles of cultivation made me wonder how there could ever be a shortage of food in the world. The terrain changed suddenly when I reached Drumheller, it was the edge of The Badlands.

   Just outside town is the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology which houses one of the worlds largest collections of dinosaur fossils. The exhibits all come from the nearby badlands where loose sandy soil is eroded, leaving many of the skeletons on the surface to be discovered; some even by kids out fishing. The modern building is built among the hills and valleys where the bones are discovered.

   After a couple of hours it was time to hit the roads again and I drove a few more hours to Medicine Hat, near the border with Saskatchewan. I wanted to press a bit further but there wasn't much ahead on the map for another 4 or 5 hours.

   Wishing everyone at home a happy 4th of July weekend; my plan for the day is reeling in the miles eastward.

Jasper Rockies

   I left Kamloops this morning and headed north on Rt 5, the Yellowhead Highway, toward the mountain pass at Jasper. At the base of Mt Robson I turned onto Rt 6 and crossed into Alberta and Jasper National Park. Mt. Robson is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies at almost 13,000 ft .

   The views at Jasper were worth the drive. The mountains were visible and not cloud covered like the last time I was there. The glacier fed Athabasca River runs through the park at the base of the mountains. It has a natural light blue color because of the mineral content and the scenery was all muted colors compared to the dark forrests at Banff.

   I drove through to Edmonton for the night, back in the Mountain Time Zone. Tomorrow I'll head south toward Calgary and hopefully visit a museum .

   Good luck to everyone with the storm coming up the east coast.

Canada Day

   I got an early start on the road this morning and lucky I did. Nothing was happening in Lund; I couldn't even find a cup of coffee. I decided to drive south for breakfast in Powell River, but the town was filled with bicycles for some sort of holiday race.

   On the mainland along the coast there are two ferry rides needed to drive the entire Sunshine Coast (as they call it). I checked my timetable and the northern ferry was scheduled for 9:30. I had just enough time and luckily I made it. Breakfast turned out to be coffee and an egg salad sandwich; but that was much better than three hours of waiting if I missed the 9:30.

   The southern ferry was scheduled for 1:15 and I was one of the last cars on. With everyone out for the holiday I might not have made it back to Vancouver if I had waited till later in the day.

   Once in Vancouver I took Rt 1, the TCH until I hit Rt 5 into the foothills of the Rockies at 4,000 ft.. I stopped for the night in Kamloops; the hotel was on a hill overlooking Canada Day fireworks. The show started at 10:30 after it finally got dark.

   While behind the wheel I started wondering when I'd see my first Pa license plate on my way home. There are hardly any from the US that I've seen up here so far. Tomorrow I cross the Rockies again heading east..