I am currently sitting on a very small bunk aboard the ferry to Newfoundland, the MV Highlanders, typing this post. We boarded a few minutes ago after a very long wait. Let me catch you up. Yesterday was a travel day. We left Saint John in a light mist which turned to a light rain. Easy traveling, but we were on the major freeway, the TransCanada Highway. This is the eastern most bit of the TransCanada Highway.
Ships in the harbor at Saint John
A few years ago we drove from Ontario all the way west on the TransCanada and now we are at the eastern terminus, unless maybe there is some on Newfoundland. So yesterday we wandered across New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia. We had found a diner in Moncton, Jean's Restaurant. Another perfect setting to start the day. I had my usual eggs and such and Carol had Eggs Benedict, a favorite of hers. Bacon got wrapped up in a napkin for a patiently waiting Harper out in the car.
Always a good time at breakfast.
The rain came a bit heavier but we had a good audiobook to help the hours tick by. We had made reservations a the Hearthstone Motel. Not our best selection of roadside hotels but we made the best of it. Carol and I set up our chairs and a small table on the sidewalk, fortified ourselves with drinks, and set ourselves to the demanding business of a serious game of cribbage. We play on Carols father's cribbage board, from his time as a Merchant Marine on the ore boats of the Great Lakes.
Carol rushes ahead…
It was a touch and go game, Carol dashed into the lead with a great hand. She pulled out ahead of me by pegging a 20. Slowly I crept up on her and after the final turn we were neck and neck until we were both side by side, five holes from the end...I was the pone so I counted out first, a well fought win for the old guy. There was a restaurant in the hotel and I had talked with the waitress earlier and asked if Harper could join us there for supper, and she was agreeable. Carol, Harper and I had a table by the window looking out over the main shipping channel that separated Cape Breton from the mainland of Nova Scotia.
Harper at supper
We both enjoyed a cup (very large cup) of seafood chowder which had just about everything from the sea in it including haddock, clams, mussels, lobster, shrimp and scallops along with some potatoes and corn - it was a delicious chowder. Our main courses fit the bill as well and we left full and satisfied. We caught up on some videos and turned in, and me without typing a single word.
Louie’s Cozy Corner, St Peters, Nova Scotia
This morning we only had a drive of a bit less than two hours to make the ferry which doesn't leave until 11:30 PM. We had some time to kill so we wandered and explored and revisited places we had been on a prior trip. Our breakfast stop today was in St. Peter, a diner called Louie's Cozy Corner. Another great breakfast, followed by some exploring along Main Street. Carol found a gift shop to duck into while I tried to encourage Harper to have a poo. An elderly guy came up to me and asked if I had seen a set of keys. He had lost his keys somewhere between his car and over there he said, pointing to a spot about 20 feet away. I said well I bet they are either under your car or still in it. He looked into his car and they were on the front seat. He said he would call his wife and she would bring another set of keys. As we chatted we discovered a lot of common threads and his last name was Grimes, the same as Carol's cousin's married name..maybe a link somewhere in the past. . . who knows. We found the hardware store, a grocer and general store. The hardware store is where we filled our propane tank on our Vistibule teardrop trailer five years ago. The times filled with memories of days gone by are almost always heartwarming, enjoyable and always ignite the memory banks into real action to bring up even more memories from the depths. This is actually the main reason for this blog. As I get older memories dim but the blog rekindles the flame of the past each time I read it. I will certainly remember this evening aboard the MV Highlanders typing away in the wee hours as we pull out of North Sydney.
Lobster boat sketch
Back to the story, we drove into Battery Provincial Park and settled in along the canal that connects Bras d'Or Lake with St. Peters Bay in the Atlantic Ocean. We snacked, I painted, Carol and Harper explored and watched a sailboat lock through. It was good to stop and just let the day move on around us.
Me sketching at the canal
The remaining drive was relative short, maybe an hour or so, but the road hugged the shore of the Bras d'Or Lake. A beautiful drive, and soon we were in Sydney. Our first task was of course to find ice cream, which we did. We found a great little shop right on the waterfront near a cruise ship dock. Harper loves vanilla and I love to share with her. The three of us sat on a wall on the side of the bay eating ice cream, watching the activity. I got in another sketch, this time of the distant cruise ship and 'the largest fiddle in the world'. We walked the waterfront and as we made our way down to the cruise ship (and the fiddle) we discovered that they were getting ready to cast off lines and get underway. We stayed and watched.
The big fiddle
Then other chores were in order, gas and a few last provisions. I just can’t get over spending over $100 ($108 Canadian, $79 US this time) per tank of gas. We made it to the grocery store, and even a Walmart We stopped and had an afternoon snack in a park. Carol had bought small salads (we were both craving salads) and I discovered a completely empty park where Harper could run free and get some exercise. And she did the ever entertaining zoom zoom dog run around . As we settled into the swing set to eat our salads, another car pulled and a couple of kids got out. We thought nothing of it but then there was another car with a couple of kids. I noticed these young ladies had numbers on their backs. Ten minutes later there was a dozen cars in the lot and bags of soccer balls were being dragged out onto the field. It was soccer-mom hell! Mini-vans and soccer-moms...who would have guessed?
A view of the ferry dock from the park, where we listened to a folk concert.
We wandered back into town and found a park down by the ferry, watched the sunset over the hills and listened to a free folk concert that was going on in the park. Realizing that we forgot ice we headed out again. (Did I mentioned that we had HOURS to kill) Carol also wanted to pick up a bottle of wine so we hunted down a provincial run liquor store which was next to a grocery store that sold ice. One last tour around town and we went and got in line at the ferry terminal.
In line at the ferry terminal.
Check-in was simple and efficient and only took a couple of minutes. "Line up in row 10" she said, and we did, and waited. And waited. Waiting is an evil cast upon humanity, not because it is difficult but because it always seems like you could be doing so much more but you are trapped, waiting. We made the best of our trap and got Harper out to the exclusive Marine Atlantique Dog Park for one last pee.. gotta hold it now until we dock in Newfoundland.
Dog park complete with fire hydrant
Update on the Update: it is now 1:04 AM, Carol and Harper are sound asleep and I am finishing up this post, at least the typing part. There is no internet aboard so who know when I will actually get this posted. I haven't edited the photos yet either so it may be another day. The ship left the dock late, apparently someone named Victoria Lake was holding up our forward motion somehow. The ship has little or no noticeable motion tonight. I can hear the engines faintly and from time to time there is a slight vibration that informs my feet that we are aboard. I think it is time for me to turn out the lights.
Carol and Harper in our little pet friendly cabin.
AFTERNOON UPDATE: After a reasonable night's sleep the ship pulled into Port aux Basque at 7:30 this morning. It took a while before we could go to our car, five floors of stairs, and going down the stairs is a lot better than climbing them. We left the boat without a hitch and found that we were still on the TransCanada Highway.
Driving out of the ferry
We were looking for breakfast but at the same time we wanted to get out of town as the other thousand passengers from the MV Highlanders were also looking for breakfast. We stopped at a Provincial Welcome Center and the young lady there, told us that 'up the road' there is a restaurant at an Irving gas station. We drove on. The scenery was pretty spectacular as soon as we drove off the boat and only got better. We were amazed with the tabletop mountains and the sea in the distance and were graced with a day of puffy white clouds. We drove on.
Back on the Trans Canada Highway!
After an hour or so we figured we must have passed the restaurant somewhere and this is pretty sparsely populated country. No more had we discussed this and an Irving gas station appeared and we skipped right into the parking lot. There was indeed a restaurant, which was open and had open tables. Score one for the lady at the visitor center. So we had breakfast somewhere, in a restaurant with no name, at a gas station in no particular town. It was wonderful, really great coffee, that was much needed at this point - we had already been up for three hours, without coffee.
Breakfast at the no name diner
This kid at breakfast needs a Red Rider BB gun. . . .
The scenery continued to surprise and awe our senses. We wandered, stopped at overlooks, and made another final provision at a town called Corner Brook. This was about the only town of any size around, and at this point we made the turn a bit to the west and entered Gros Morne National Park. We chatted with the park ranger who was in the booth at the park entrance who fell in love with Harper. The park is spectacular, forget all that beautiful scenery on the way here, this is special....
Amazing scenery at every turn.
We arrived in Rocky Harbor (our home for the next three days) and got checked into our bright blue cabin that sits right on the water, overlooking the harbor. This is nice, we are making some hiking plans right now so I am going to wrap this up and get it posted and get back out in the sunshine.
We are in the bright blue one
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