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!