Nova Scotia

In a word, is  beautiful! In our travels through Nova Scotia, we  have not been out of sight of water for very long.  En route to Glenholme,  we visited the Anne Murray Museum in Springhill, NS.  Yes, one of Nashville's favorite country singers hails from Nova Scotia.  One of our group saw her in the museum gift shop and had their picture taken with her.

We also watched a 'tidal bore', which is a natural phenomenon seen in very few parts of the world.  At the Tidal Bore Park, we gathered as the tide was changing and watched as the high tide rolled in over the low tide going out...it was as if the river changed it's direction of flow right before our eyes.  You could hear the incoming tide roaring in the distance before you could see it...it was a 2 foot wave ushering in tons of  water which filled the river to overflowing in about 10  minutes.  Amazing!!

Lumberjack carving from a tree destroyed by Dutch Elm disease.  Truro, NS

We traveled to North Sydney, NS today.  On our way we stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck.  It held a comprehensive collection of exhibits depicting Bell's work and life.  Bell and his family spent 8 - 9 months a year in Baddeck and much of his work was done at this site.  It was interesting to me to learn that Bell's true passion was working with the deaf.  His experience with visible speech therapy, in combination with his understanding of how the ear functions in hearing sound, contributed to the knowledge he needed to invent the telephone.  He invented the telephone at the age of 29, became extremely wealthy and was then able to spend the rest of life working on his inventions.  Baddeck is also Canada's 'home of flight'.  Bell's aircraft flew at this location in 1909, taking off with power provided by it's engine...unlike the Wright Bros. whose early crafts were catapulted.   Ah...the details :)

We are now in N. Sydney waiting to load on the Ferry that will take us to Newfoundland tomorrow.  We are very excited to see how 32 Airstream travel trailers and tow vehicles are going to fit with all the tractor trailers and cars.  And, it is time to dig out the Ugg boots and stocking hats.  It was 45 degrees in Gander, NL today.  We are anticipating very cool temps for the remaining part of our trip. 

correction....

that was 15,000 + bikers in St. Andrews.  You all know we well, I don't do numbers!!!

Bay of Fundy...

West Quaddy Lighthouse  Lubec, ME

Supervising morning coffee

We arrived in St Andrews, NB on a bright sunny afternoon and backed our rig into a lovely ocean front spot!  We're adapting to the longer daylight hours - it's light before 5 a.m. and doesn't get dark until around 10 p.m.  And, we're loving the cool, breezy nights and warm days.  No humidity!!!

An added bonus to this stop is that we're sharing the little town of St. Andrews with 1500+ bikers!  It's one of Canada's bigger 'bike weeks' and we have had an impromptu lesson on motorcycles.  While I'm partial to the HUGE Harley Davidsons, we saw all sorts of bikes, Decadi's (?), Hondas, Yamaha's, BMWs, and others.  We watched a 'light' parade and learned that there are many beautiful ways to light up a motorcycle!  Just beautiful!  Some of us even joined in and voted on the 'Best in the Show' bike.  I voted for a foxy pink Harley that had a gal older than me riding it!!  I figure we grandmothers must stick together :)

Yesterday we went on a whale watch and had two sitings....the rule of thumb for whales is that they weigh a ton for each foot of length.  So, the Minke's we saw were maybe 18 feet long....that's 18 tons!  We also had an education on whale behavior and habits.  A large whale population will feed in the Bay of Fundy until around Feb. when they migrate to the Caribbean to breed.  We saw eagle habitats on the small islands in the bay and viewed a salmon farm.  The newsflash for me was that farm raised salmon is done in large cages made of net, in salt water.  Each net cage will raise approx. 50,000 fish and there are 24 cages in a farm.  And, 40 farms in the Bay of Fundy.  That is a lot of salmon!!  We also saw herring wiers, where they net hundreds of tons of herring.  Herring is important to the area... the whales feed on herring, it is used for baiting lobster pots, it is dried and made into fish food for the salmon farms and it's smoked, pickled and canned for humans.   By the time our guide finished her spiel, I was ready to go buy a case of New Brunswick sardines!!!

On our next day, we visited Minister's Island; a location that is only accessible by road (this is actually the ocean floor) when the tide is low.   Minister's Island was the summer home of William Van Horne, Canada's railroad baron.  And, while it doesn't quite  compare to the 'Biltmore House' (our US railroad baron's place) it is quite impressive, as it was his island & just a summer home.  Interestingly, both Van Horne and Vanderbilt were of Dutch ancestry.  Our day ended with a lobster dinner at the campground and our driver's meeting, which lays out the plan for tomorrow's travel day to Glenholme, NS.

en route to the Viking Trail - - -

We have been gone almost a week & it's has been wonderful to be back in our home on wheels.  We had one wrong turn (the gps was at fault here) and we had an unplanned trip through the Bronx in NYC.  Glenn had white knuckles driving those narrow, crowded streets, but we managed to find our way back to the interstate without incident.  Our first stop was in CT at the Mohegan Sun Casino.  We spent 2 nights there ~ what a beautiful place!!!  Did not win, but didn't lose...breaking even is good!!!

Ansley, AG, Steph & Me Brewster, Mass

From CT, we traveled to Cape Cod and set up in a campground close to where our son, AG, his girlfriend, Steph and granddaughter, Ansley were vacationing with Steph's family.  The family had rented a beautiful, historic cape cod estate and 25+ extended family members were there.  We toured Brewster and Chatham during the day, had steamed lobster at the our picnic table & spent a leisurely day at the estate.  AG grilled a perfect prime rib roast for the entire lot.  After a tearful good bye we set off for ME.


We arrived in Bar Harbor, ME on the evening of July 4th and met up with 5 other Airstream rigs going on our caravan.  We know these folks from other trips, so it was like old home week.  On the next day another couple arrived & we had steamed lobster dinners delivered to the campground and again ate lobster at picnic tables.  I could get used to that!!!
We drove around Acadia National Park -  the Maine coast is wild & rugged and there was a magnificent view from all directions.  We walked to the top of Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak on the eastern coast.  It is where the sun first rises on US soil...pretty cool!

We left Bar Harbor for Lubec, ME on Wed. getting in place for a quick trip over the border into Canada on Friday.  It is nice now to be traveling with other Airstreams.  We're connected on CB channel 14 and that makes our drive more interesting as folks share what they are seeing, doing or planning along the way.   Lubec is home of the South Quaddy lighthouse which marks the easternmost point of the US.   Three summers ago, we were at the farthermost Northwestern point in Neah Bay, WA.  Today we visited the lighthouse and then drove to Campobello Island which is across the bridge and in New Brunswick.  We walked out to a lighthouse there that is only accessible by foot when the tide is low.  You have to walk fast...the Bay of Fundy is notable for fast rising incoming tides.  We then had the very best seafood chowder I've ever tasted in a small cafe on the Island.  It was like our oyster stew, but with scallops, fish, shrimp, lobster and clams.

We're lounging now, enjoying a little down time before we connect with 25 more Airstream rigs tomorrow in St. Andrews, NB.   We're in a lovely waterfront campground now....our St. Andrews campground is ocean front.  I try to remind myself that it's our same Atlantic, but it presents so differently...very cold, clear, rough and very little sand.

My pictures are still falling in this all over the place.  Hopefully, they'll be someone in our group who can help me figure out how to place them where I want them.

'Our Great Gadsby' Estate  Chatham, Mass

Summer 2011 - The Viking Trail....

Tin can on the move in AK (2010)

We are off to a wonderful beginning!  We actually had time this year to clean and pack our Airstream properly.  I don't think that we have forgotten anything ~ we have everything we need for all types of weather, emergencies and entertainment!  I'm trying to figure exactly how this blog thing works.  During other caravans I sent a variety of emails to different folks and probably repeated myself as I couldn't remember who was sent what!!!   Seems this will be easier; but I haven't accessed it since last summer when a friend helped me set it up.  I'm struggling here :)  

Bedroom

Ok, I'm going to try to include some photos....these aren't recent, but it will give those of you, who haven't been in our 'second home' a birdseye view of how we live for 8 - 10 weeks at a time.

Christmas in FL

Our kitchen with the cook in place!

Oh good grief, the pictures landed all over the place.    No matter, this is a practice.  Now I'm going to see who ends up getting it :)  Wish me luck on this!!!!  Here goes ~ ~ ~

Winding down!

It's true, our caravan is winding down!  But, see what I have in place for the next one - a BLOG!  It's titled aluminum adventures and this is where I'll post our Airstream adventures.  Kathy, a fellow caravaner, has helped a few of us to get our Blogs up and going and we're so excited.  I apologize for all the lengthy emails that I've sent during this trip....they could have just been posted here and you would have had a choice of whether or not to 'keep up' with us without having your mailbox filled.    Better later than never :)

I'll try to add more when we find ourselves with a strong internet signal.  But, for now, here we are setting up our Blogs....fun, fun, fun!