We left Amherst, Nova Scotia early Friday a.m. ,as planned. Got refills at Tim's near Moncton in the new thermal mugs we got for Christmas from son Rob and Darlene. Lunch was pizza and cheesecake from Karen's fridge!  Hit the Sunshine near Saint John,held it until St.Stephen.Seen many deer coming out to enjoy the sunshine!  Bought gas as soon as we crossed the border, then of course drove half a mile and gas was six cents cheaper a gallon, happens to us all the time in the States! All along the #9 hwy in Maine we noted no one had power,lots of work crews along the road!  Parked in the Brewer Wal-Mart, slept well until the back-hoe and trucks started removing mountains of snow from the parking lot.  We left at 2 a.m. and found a quieter place to sleep, the Farmington cemetery, as pictured above!  Gas 16 cents a gallon cheaper in New Hampshire, box of wine four times cheaper then home, five litre box for 11.99, thirty beer for 22 bucks. Seen our first hawk this p.m. Settled in a motel in Vermont for Saturday night, truck camper plugged in, nice hot showers, sure beats last night in the camper. Camper is filthy, filthy, but rain tomorrow, will probably wash itself before we hit New York State!

Driving through the ice & snow in Maine & hope not to see it again !

Shoveling out the camper it's Christmas Eve, put the camper on, we are ready to leave. Christmas dinner tomorrow with my youngest Sis.  Definitely an occasion we did not want to miss. Then a few drinks with Cathy & Brian, take it easy on the liquor & wine  Boxing Day with my grandchildren and son, supper with my daughter we will have lots of fun.  Friday the 27th  we're off to Maine, First night at a Walmart come wind, snow or rain !

Ten more sleeps here in snowy Chester, than Trish and I will be "on the road again!"  We leave Boxing day and hope to hit Florida for New Year's Eve!  Four months of fun in the Sun, from Florida to Texas and points in between, we hope to blog most every day, depends on the free wi-fi and where we stay. Thanks to those that take enough interest to follow us, we love your imput!

Boy, you never know where life is going to take you, we went for a quiet, quiet week- end to Phinney Cove on the Bay of Fundy, Saturday morning my daughter says "Let's go into Digby and meet the people who own this cottage!"  An hour later we are at the Wharf Rat's Rally, 25,000 motorcycles and about 50,000 people added to the small town's population, it was great, had a few beers with guys that wore Veteran patches, no problem to start up a conversation, because most Cdn vets went through Cornwallis, the base is only a few miles from Digby.  Sat. night, Sunday & Monday were very peaceful on the Bay, great food, great friends, played cards, tossed sewer washers, collected stones from the beach, beach fires, enjoyed the fog and rain, and demolished a few 24's!  Phinney Cove is not far from Paradise, Nova Scotia!!

Since returning from the Mira, we have been busy doing mini-vacations, if  Paul gets a few days off driving taxi in Chester, we are off, like a whore's drawers on a Saturday night!  We throw our pillows in the camper, stock up on Hoctaler and Hienkins, and put the pedal to the metal!  Lunenburg, Lahave, Risser's beach and all around the circle. We especially enjoyed the Hank Snow week-end in Liverpool, his most famous song was "I'm Movin" On". That's us!!!!  Then we went to Chezzetcook, Musquodobit Harbour, Martinique Beach , Meagher's Grant and Dollar Lake, again , all around the Eastern Shore circle!  Labour Day week-end, we will be on the Bay of Fundy, a place called Phinny Cove, near Canada Creek, don't ya just love the name places!  It will be a perfect ending for the summer jaunts, my daughter has a cottage there, no running water, an outdoor shower, good old wood stove and plenty of blackberries to pick, read relaxation, relaxation, relaxation! Also no TV or cell phones!!!!

Five restful days on the Mira, in beautiful Cape Breton. Now getting ready for Canada Parks Day, we will sell even-split tickets, scoop ice cream, and maybe even participate in Open Mike,  Paul has been known to sing "Out On the Mira, if he gets enough ice-cream in him!  Kid, Kids,Kids and all kinds of activities, including a few soldiers over 200 years old from Louisburg.  A good time is always had by all!

Sitting on the stern watching the sunrise over the Rock,  half hour earlier than the ROC! We had to be at the ferry at 4:30 am, Tim's doesn't serve breakfast until 5am, go figure!  The story of our trip across the province, too early or too late for breakfast sandwich or panini, we arrived near most Tim's shortly after noon hour. We talked to a guy that is home from Fort McNewfy, he says his wife has to stay here and take care of her mother, but he brings her out to Alberta once in a while,he finds it breaks up the monogamy!
What a great two weeks on the island, In Gander we visited the "Silent Witness" monument, 256 American Servicemen perished at the end of the runway in a crash during take-off.  A related story, during  9/11 when a New York bound plane was forced down in Gander, a woman on board realized this was where her son had died in the Army crash.  Her host family took her to the monument where she got to read her son's name, she then called her husband,only to to find out he had been killed in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon!

When we said cleanest washrooms yet, that was just in Newfoundland, none are cleaner than those attended by the Gator Girls on the Mira. We will be there in 24 hours. Now, still resting in Port  au Basques, get the ferry at 6:30 am ,Monday.  Talk about co-incidence, the campers next to us from Northern Ontario ran into Newfoundlanders they had met in Cuba and Costa Rica years before, they were in small towns on the coast and there sat someone they recognized, twice!    Had we stayed at Wishing Well, we  would have celebrated Christmas in July, I'm sure they had a good time.  We devoured Bill's trout last night, delicious!!! Listening to CBC , they were interviewing a 93 year old fisherman,who had never married, he said he hooked a few in his day, but could never get them into the boat!

Co-incidence,co-incidence,co-incidence, when we first pulled in to Gander last week looking for Jacque, Craig& Cody, they found us in the liquor store. Talked to a couple from Idaho in a truck camper, they had just spent a few days at Graves Island and stayed in the Windjammer Motel, three doors from our house, they raved about breakfast at Julien's, then I'm sitting in the barber chair in Stephenville, I mentioned I was from Chester, the barber told me Ray Hynes from Chester basin was sitting in the same chair the day before, we headed  for Lourdes to find Ray, ended up in Picaidilly in the nicest campground we ever stayed in at anytime, on west bay,Port au Port Bay! We found Sand Dollars, Periwinkle shells and driftwood , all just beautiful, one piece of driftwood looked exactly like a cow moose, we seen two along the highway earlier in our trip! Never did revisit Barachois Pond, we stayed at the Wishing Well campground in Riverbrook,   we had water,sewer hook-up, power from dusk to midnight, hot showers in the cleanest washrooms yet all for ten bucks!

They know how to treat seniors here in Terre Neuf, $15.00 for Provincial campsite with electricity and only $9.00 without! Spent a night in Notre Dame Bay, then on to Majumderville, actually Burlington Newfoundland ,the home of Sean Majumder and Canadian Idol finalist Rex Goudie! Camped at Flatwater Pond, then on to Sir Richard Squires Provicial Park, the site of Big falls on the Humber River, watching the salmon jumping the Falls is well worth the walk to the river.  Stayed near Deer Lake again , now on our way to Barachois Prov. Park for a couple of nine dollar nights! Sunday the temp. changed from 91degrees to 57 in less than two hours, cool for sleeping!

St. Lawrence

Really relaxing in St. Lawrence, Trish calls it the bottom of the boot, the Burin Peninsula. Snow crab, lobster, cod, Bill &Dona say none of that Marystown fried chicken & taters, the last time I ate it in Cornerbrook at Christmas five years ago ,I had a heart attack! Bill and I consume a few cold ones each day in his man cave, we solve half the world problems in the shed, and the two grandmothers solve the rest at the kitchen table, four days now, so the world will be a better place when we leave.

All around the circle.

What a beautiful day, we drove to Twillingate, looked off at Crowhead lighthouse to faintly see a few icebergs, fish & chips at Sansome on the dock, along with Iceberg beer, brewed in St. John's!
Then we stopped to let a beaver cross the road, seemed apropriate on Canada Day.

CANADA DAY

Happy CANADA DAY, sixty- four years ago today Canada joined Newfoundland, so that they could truly say they went from sea to sea. We are here with our Newfoundland family, Jacque, Craig, Becca,Cody,and Kimmy, in Gander!  Trish and I have hereditery Newfy connections, my grandmother was from Carbonear and Trish was born in Winnipeg, BUT, conceived in Conception Bay, her mother travelled by train from Manitoba to Newf, to see her husband serving on minesweepers in Conception Bay,in 1945!                      

On Friday we headed off for the Campground Host week-end gathering, Friday evening the rain held off,and we enjoyed a great slide presentation all about the Shubanacadie Canal System,from 1830 to 1871, goods were transported from Halifax Harbour to the mouth of the Shubanacadie River into the Bay of Fundy,via the Dartmouth Lakes and Grand \Lake ,then on to Saint John,New Brunswick This all ended when the railway became the best way of moving goods. The venue for the gathering was Laurie Park on Grand Lake. The pot-luck supper was amazing,such a variety of choices, then naturally storytelling around a campfire, the ultimate camping experience. During the night, the downpour of precipitation from Tropical Storm Andrea was  amazing, In the morning we decided that BBQing and campfiring was not going to be the most enjoyable that day, so we headed out to visit friends in Dartmouth,  Brian & Cathy are always so accommodating, Homemade chicken soup was on the burner, we settled in and let it rain, and rain,and rain,and rain!

Can't believe it's been almost a year since our last blog.  The camper is ready to roll, putting it on the truck on Tuesday, then we are off to the campground host week-end in Laurie Park, Enfield, Nova Scotia! In a few weeks, we are off to Newfoundland for a few weeks, then our annual hosting assignment on the Mira River, near Louisburg (300 years old), Nova Scotia.  Please follow us and feel free to comment!