In the next couple of days I’ll begin a road trip; a fairly extensive one covering some 16,000 km over 2 months.  The route takes us from Calgary to St. John’s Newfoundland and back.  There are three legs to the trip: I’ll be back July 15th, when I will spend the remainder of the summer…

The odometer reads 7348.4 km

We left Calgary around 8:00AM and arrived in Billings at around 5:00PM covering about 850km.   After crossing the border we stopped for lunch at the Country Skillet in Shelby Montana.  A rather typical diner, attached to a gas station and casino. Hamburgers started at $7.75. Coffee was endless for $1.90. 

We visited the battle field on Saturday. Getting there early, we avoided the rush which made it a pleasant visit. Next to the memorial to the fallen US Cavalery Soldiers is one for the Native Americans who died defending their homes and families. While the Natives won the battle, they lost the war. After defeat,…

After spending the night in Rapid City South Dakota, Sunday morning we drove to Mount Rushmore. Although entrance is free, parking is $11.- However, as we arrived before 8:00AM the entrance gate was unoccupied, and thus all was free. We walked the approximately 1 kilometre Presidential Trail that is more precisely in part a wooden…

There were a couple of things that caught my attention.  First, was how the figures meld into the landscape.  The curves of the stratum embrace the figure of Washington; the human face seems to complement the rock face. The second was the level of detail in the carving. The extension that is the pupil of…

Today we visited the House of Commons, guests of Ron Liepert MP for Calgary Signal Hill.  We had lunch in the Parliamentary Restaurant, followed by a quick tour of the Centre Block. We wrapped up our tour by attending Question Period.   The last time I visited the House one could simply walk in. Now…

This and the next two days will be driving days. Our goal is to get to Sydney Nova Scotia by June 2 to catch the ferry to Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. It is about 1600 km from Ottawa to Sydney. Today we drove just over 500 km to reach Saint-Jean-Port-Joli. A cute little town located…

Even though we are in another time zone–one hour earlier–I woke at the usual time.   There were  2 Celsius Degrees lingering in the air when I took a walk through downtown Moncton this morning.  Past are the days of the 30C+ temperatures we experienced just a short while ago in Ottawa.  The change was…

From Woody Point we drove north through Gros Morne Park to Port au Choix, and spent the night Jeannie’s Sunrise Bed & Breakfast. The purpose of this one-night stop was to break up the drive to St. Anthony which is located at the top of the Northern Peninsula. There we will visit the Viking Ruins…

Yesterday started with a boat ride out into the sea to look for icebergs. Later we hiked around Fishing Point.  Following that we drove north to Saint Lunaire-Griquet to buy some seafood at Hedderson’s Fish Market.  While it was clear, but cool, in the harbour at 9:00 AM for the boat ride, once we got…

Our second full day in St. Anthony was marked with fog and drizzle. Along the shore, cold winds blew off the sea. As a result our outdoor activity was conducted within the protective shield of our car.  We drove around the area, first to Raleigh, then to Ship Cove and Cape Onion co-located at the…

Yesterday was a travel day; a drive from Rocky Harbour to Lewisporte.  As we approached our destination the weather changed to fog and drizzle. With that we decided to relax and have a quiet day.   For dinner we visited Chelsea’s Fish & Chips, located just outside of town.  Chelsea’s is not a classic restaurant:…

We took the 10:30 ferry to Change Island, located north east of Twillingate. The crossing was just under 30 minutes.  The cost was $12 return for the three of us and the car. The return ferry, scheduled for 5:00 didn’t arrive until 5:40. The weather turned out to be excellent; clear skys and a warm 13C. …

We stayed 3 days in Twillingate. On the first we took a few hikes, one by the Lighthouse on Crow Head and a second on Burnt Island Tickle. Our second day was spent on Change Island, which I covered in an earlier post. The last day was one to relax; it was raining so we…

Trinity is a beautiful, maybe idealised, little village. It appears to be largely oriented towards tourism. Most of the people walking on the streets, in the stores and restaurants look like tourists. Many buildings look geared to tourism.  Many are classified as historical buildings and are accompanied by a plaque outlining it’s story.   We…

Giovanni Caboto (or Zuan Chabotto in Venetian) landed in Cape Bonavista in 1497. We got there in 2016.  Well, in fact the landing site was in dispute until “…for the 500th-anniversary celebrations, the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom designated Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland as the “official” landing place.” Coming to a conclusion of course…

Looking out from our cottage in Trinity, across the harbour, was a lighthouse.  It occupies the spot that was formerly Fort Point.  The Fort was built in 1746, taken by the French in 1762 and destroyed, recovered and rebuilt in 1780 and again in 1812 and then left to decay [1].  Now there are few…

Yesterday was our first full day in St. John’s. We toured around some of the major attractions (Signal Hill and Quidi Vidi Brewery), met a friend for dinner and listened to Newfoundland Folk Music. In St. John’s we’ve rented a duplex, the main floor and basement portions.  It is located within a 10 minute walk…

Yesterday, we drove to Cape Spear then continued west through Petty Harbour and Bay Bulls and finally returning to St. John’s and a walk downtown. Cape Spear currently hosts a lighthouse, but formerly hosted a fortress guarding the entrance into St. John’s Harbour.  The Cape is also the eastern-most point of land on the North…

Yesterday’s main event was a boat cruise out to Gull Island, off Bay Bulls, just west of St. John’s.  Prior to the cruise we returned to Cape Spear as it was along the way. We ended the day with a walk in the area we are staying in St. John’s. It was a sunny and…

Our last stop in Newfoundland was the terminal at Argentia for the ferry to Syndey Nova Scotia. Unfortunately the departure was delayed nearly 11 hours. This delay will impact our visit to Louisbourg and the Cabot Trail.  We had dinner on board while we waited for departure; it turned out to be excellent. We all had…

As a result of the delayed ferry we had compress our visit to Louisbourg and our drive along the Cabot Trail.  As it turned out, weather complemented these decisions. We left the Inn where we were staying in Lousibourg and arrived just before the gates opened.  At this time of year visitors are bussed to…

We left Chéticamp Nova Scotia fairly early and drove about 6 hours to Charlottetown PEI.  We decided to cross over to PEI on the Confederation Bridge.  While there is a ferry service to the island,  that was closer, co-ordinating with the schedule proved more cumbersome than necessary so we drove the extra distance. The toll for…

Yesterday we drove from Charlottetown to East Point, and then along the North Shore of the Island to Greenwich and the back to Charlottetown.   We climbed to the top of the lighthouse at East Point which gave us a view of the Point and beaches.  On the North Shore we stopped into the fishing…

Yesterday was a gentle day, we drove north from Charlottetown to Prince Edward Island National Park, and then along the Gulf Shore Parkway to Green Gables and then south to Miscouche to spend the night. Our goal for the coastal drive was to find the red sandstone cliffs facing the sea we recalled from our…

Yesterday had one objective. Have oysters in Malpeque. The village is famous for these little molluscs. They come in two sizes: small and large and are served in two portions: a half dozen and 1 dozen. I had 2 dozen. They were good.