Ogunquit ~ The Fryeburg Fair ~ Buddy Holly Story

This week was busy as usual running around doing "odds and ends". Bringing the grand kids to soccer practice and games, I finally had a few minutes on Wednesday to load the camper onto the truck. I did have a problem with the camper jack remote. Moister created a bad connection between the batteries and terminals. I cleaned the remote and the camper was sitting high on the big Ford F-250. Everything was ready for a Friday morning take off. Our day would be at the Fryeburg Fair. For those of you who don't know about this Fair, it is the largest in the State of Maine. I'm told that an average of 300,000 people attend during the course of the week long events. The Fair is only about a hour drive from Berlin, New Hampshire. I should say that is the average driving time when there is no Fair going on. It can take five hours if one takes the south entrance route. We've been going there many years running, but we know better and take a short cut on the Northern approach to the Fairgrounds. This route is up and over Evans Notch, a very picturesque narrow mountain road. There is little traffic to deal with. On the Fryeburg side of the Notch the landscape changes from rocky ledges and cliffs to back wood farms. It is always a joy to travel this road to the Fair.
The North entrance to the Fair is the RV entrance and grounds have thousands of RVs parked for the week. We were not planning to stay there tonight and just got a $5 day parking pass. A convenient shuttle carried us to the main ticket booth. From here, we  had a routine to cover the areas of interest. We walk the exhibits along the race track, check out new items in the RV dealers and camping stuff. There are so many places to eat, but we always windup at this fresh seafood place and have a yummy lunch. Next comes all the craft barns followed by sitting and watching a few musical artist do there thing. The afternoon was spent walking into the show animal barns and viewing those little and big critters. There was a huge draft horse that weighed in at 2,600 lbs.! His horse shoe was as big as a basket ball is wide. The horse was from a farm in Quebec, Province, Canada.


Greek Orthodox Church ~ AKA our Campground

Time to leave and head south east into Maine's back roads. Remember above, I said it could take five hours to reach the fairgrounds. Well, I was right and there heading in the opposite direction the traffic was grid locked. It took us maybe 20 minutes to get out of there and take a left onto route 113 and 5. This would bring us eventually to Saco, Maine, our destination for the night. If you ever have driven through the back roads of Maine, you know how confusing it can be. Even with a very reliable GPS, one can easily get confused and find yourself on another route heading to one of those little towns with a five way intersection. There are plenty of road signs, but they don't necessarily direct you on your original route 113 and 5 destination. We finally made it to Saco. The Buddy Holly Story at the Ogunquit Playhouse would be tomorrow's target destination. You may ask what are we doing in Saco several miles up the coast from Ogunquit? There is always an answer. Jumping back to our home town in Berlin, there is a Russian Orthodox Church in our neighborhood. Here in Saco, Maine  a Greek Orthodox Church exist in a secluded section of town. We had been here before to a festival featuring traditional foods. Father Sergious Gherken of Berlin called and we had a place to stay. It was secure, quiet and next to a wooded area. We would have stayed at a campground, but it is foliage season. Everything was booked and also at a prime rate.

I am getting good holding the camera in my right hand!

Where we going?

The next morning, the sun was breaking over the horizon. A good reason to grab a picture of the church. We had all day to get to the Ogunquit Playhouse, a perfect excuse to explore the Maine coast! We have been to Maine many, many times, but it always seemed that we were on a mission to get to some other place. A good local map is essential to get to those places that are beautiful, but not on the main tourist list. Biddeford Pool is what I'm talking about. Route 208 took us pass many estates that are owned by the Catholic Church. I can only imagine that this prime property was given by very rich industrialists. In any event, it was a joy to drive around and view these properties. Heading south on route 9, we stopped at a few beaches to stretch our legs and look for sea shells. A couple of old timers had their rubber boots, clam rakes, buckets and were headed for the mud flats across the road. I watched them to see if they would get all muddy, but surprisingly they did not. We got back into the truck camper and headed for Goose Rocks Beach. The locals were out jogging, riding bikes and setting up yard sales. You have to remember that the main tourist season is over and the locals are getting ready to close down their rental properties for the season. We walked and drove around these little side streets looking at everyone and everything that caught our eye. Speaking of catching one's eye, I got a some interesting photos of  locals doing their chores.

Coastal Tide coming in 

Kennebunkport was still bustling with tourist. We joined the crowd and toured the shops, grabbed a cup of coffee, peered out of the back window of the coffee shop and watched the tide coming in. The town of Wells was next. It seemed that the further south we went, the more tourists appeared on the street and the harder it got to find a parking spot. We kept going until the Ogunquit town line sign was to our right. We had plenty of time to read the sign as the traffic was at a stand still. I said to Helen, "we'd better find the Playhouse first and then explore and eat". Ah! the Playhouse on our left with a Visitor Center next door. A stop here was a must and we asked all the too familiar questions "what to do and see in this town until the play starts?" The lady gave us a lot of options and short cut directions to must visit spots. OK, we were off to the docks with all of the restaurants. The problem here was no available parking. We back tracked up the road and every parking lot was full even with a $12 parking fee! They did have a trolley shuttle, but just too crowded for our liking. As luck would have it, a Catholic Church parking lot had a parking spot. Their wasn't any "No Parking" sign in site. We were now hungry and I didn't want to wait in a restaurant. We walked to the back of the truck, opened the camper door and sat at our reserved table. You just can't beat a truck camper! Having finished lunch you probably figured that I would want a nap. "Yup!" two steps up to the queen size bed and I was in heaven.

Fall foliage and Maine!

We spent the early part of the afternoon walking around both shops and the "Marginal Way" (a paved walkway along the shore). The play start time was 3:30pm and we arrived in the parking lot around 2:45pm. The lady parking lot attendant gave us a good spot for our departure after the play. (North bound

"The Ogunquit Playhouse has an unbelievable history of attracting actors to preform on it's stage. The atrium is full of pictures. We spent a considerable amount of time looking and reading the captions."

The Buddy Holly Story was one of the best plays I've ever witness. Not only were the actors great, but they all played musical instruments to perfection. "Bravo, Well Done"
We left the Playhouse with our spirits up.

Dinner was next on the agenda and soon we located an Italian restaurant. The line extended to the outside. It was worth the wait, I was really full and I knew that if I parked for the night I would have a hard time digesting the meal. If I drove an hour maybe we could find a place to park for the night in North Conway, NH. We were not so lucky and decided to drive home. Forty-five minutes later we were in our driveway. It was a good weekend!

That is what we saw and did

Ogunquit, ME ~ Buddy Holly Story!

The Pre-journey post...

The weather up here in Northern New Hampshire is already turning very Fall-sh! The foliage is nearly at 50%. The reds, yellows and greens are spectacular. When the sun does shine it is the ultimate in photographic splendor. I said "when" the sun does shine. Most days are now partially overcast with fog and or rain. It is the best time of the year and also the saddest. It means that the days are getting shorter (3 hrs less of daylight) so far.The temperature is going down into the mid-thirties. It is a time to reflect on this past summer activities, a time to think of the upcoming winter. A time to drain the irrigation system, a time to install grade stakes around the property to prevent the snow plow from digging up the lawn and flower beds. I have done most of these chores. Oh ya, I still have to get on the roof and clean the chimneys. While up there, I'll check the gutters for leaves and debris.

It is time to enjoy the fall! Next weekend seems to be 'weather wise" a good weekend. We purchased tickets online for the "Buddy Holly Story" at the Ogunquit Playhouse for next Saturday. We are planning a long weekend and I will load the Truck Camper and we will tour a little bit of the southern Maine area. The foliage should be at near peak around here and hopefully well started in the southern parts of New Hampshire and Maine.

Colors nearly at peak!

As I sit here writing this blog my mind is already thinking, or I should say drifting towards warmer climates. Quartzsite, Arizona seems to always creep in. More on this later on a follow up post.

Mount Desert Island ~ The Rocky Coast!

 

This morning, I expected to be socked in to a thick blanket of fog. It was dead quiet outside. I peeked around the blinds and did see a couple of tent campers moving around their tents. One guy held his hand face up and sort of looked up to see if it was raining. It wasn’t from what I could tell. I’m glad we have a truck camper. It isn’t too pleasant to pack everything when it is in a soggy state.

We got out of bed and had breakfast. Headed for the dump station to empty our holding tanks and fill-up with fresh water. Next stop was to the registration office to checkout. Before entering, I noticed a sign with today’s weather forecast. “Severe weather warning for later in the day, 90% chance of thunder storms with heavy wind”. It wasn’t raining or extremely foggy and we decided to explore the quiet side of the Island as long as the weather wasn’t a problem.

Bass Harbor Head Light

Sieur de Monts was our first stop after leaving Blackwoods Campground. Here we walked the Wild Gardens of Acadia at the Nature Center. Abbe Museum was here also, but we wanted to explore the outside as long as the weather held up and we bypassed this attraction. The Hull Visitor Center was next. We tried last night, but we missed the five o’clock closing. I wanted to get an Acadia National Park hiking stick pin. My collection of these pins is coming along very well. My hiking stick has about 16 inches of these pins on two sides. The stick was given to me by my grandson Sawyer a couple of years ago, when he was around nine years old. It isn’t an exotic species of wood. It’s plain old dog wood that came from our property. At the time, we were trying to make whistles with the dog wood. I started carving and first thing you know it was my prize walking stick.

Back to the quiet side of Mount Desert Island, the Bar Harbor side is full of tourists but the South West part of the Island is dotted with little towns, and coves. One gets to see the real coast of Down east Maine. I would say once you cross Somes Sound you are on the so called quiet side. Route 102 brought us down to South West Harbor. We stopped to get a few pictures of the boats anchored in the harbor. We walk up the highway a short distance to a pickup truck with fresh fish for sale. Helen bought some haddock. This vender did a good business this morning. He had several people stop for his products.

Sailing in the fog!

I turned off on RTE 102A which followed the coast line. A place called Seawall Picnic Area caught our attention and we walked the rocky shore line looking at rock shapes for our collection. The fog was still heavy off shore and we could hear boats moving up and down but we couldn’t actually see them. I managed to shoot a couple of pictures and still wound up with two souvenir rocks.

Seawall Campground came up and I drove in just to see if it was better than Blackwoods. I would say it’s about the same (heavily wooded sites with paved roads and the same type of restrooms). It would be an option, if we ever come this way again.

So far this weekend was working as I was hoping. The long adventure trip to Alaska wasn’t an isolated adventure. We were experiencing the same feelings of discovering new places, meeting people, sharing our experiences and generally having a good time.

Navigating the Rocky Coast

When you see pictures of the Maine coast, you are nearly always brought to this next spot that we discovered. It’s called “Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse”. It is not a well-marked road. What you do see is several signs that have (No RV’s). The road is very narrow and at the end is a parking lot that is small and hard to navigate. Our truck camper did very well, I backed into a spot and we were off… down the trail to the most scenic view of the “Rocky Coast of Maine”

Do You Think She Is Practicing Surfing?

The trail ends at a long set of wooden stairs down to the rocky ledge. The ledge is a little intimidating at first (at least for this baby boomer). It was best for me to shoulder my camera and have both hands available to maneuver over, around and up onto the beautifully colored rocks. Once I was out there, I felt safe and started to take those pictures I craved for. I was panning around with the camera and there I spotted Helen making her way out to take a look for herself. I couldn’t help take a few shots of her climbing the rocks. It gave scale to the outcroppings.  “Oh” I forgot to mention that the main reason for walking out here was also to shoot the Bass Harbor Headlight. This was not to be as I hoped. The light house was completely covered with construction staging and a green safety mesh. (Not the perfect ambiance for a light house). The pictures of the rocky coast will suffice. That’s what adventure is all about…the unpredictable!

The rest of the Island had a few more scenic coves, such as Duck Cove, Goose Cove and Seal Cove Pond. We passed Hall Quarry on this quiet side of Mount Desert Island. The quarry had samples of the polished Granite in several colors. The slabs were in the five by ten foot size. Priceless!

The Green Fence?

The weather was still holding up for us and we were back on the mainland heading for home. Most of the trip home was uneventful. We stopped in South Paris, Maine to check out the new Casino. It was only a mile out of our way. To our surprise the parking lot was full to capacity. I did manage to find a spot and we dashed into the Casino. Every slot machine was taken except for six or so. We donated a few coins and left. The first thing we heard on the radio was that emergency warning sound with the following automated voice saying…severe thunder storm warning with heavy winds and possible down trees and power lines for Lancaster, Lunenburg, Colebrook and Pittsburg, NH…  Take cover! It was just starting to drizzle and it was now night time and dark. I drove with caution and made it to Bethel, Maine before it really started to rain heavily. You know when your wipers are on high and you still can’t see anything. I slowed down to 20 miles per hour. The camper was still rock steady. It was windy, but not severe…yet! The New Hampshire border came up fairly fast and now we were only 20 miles or so from home. The lighting started. At first it seemed to be at a distance and then it was all around us. Down to 10 miles per hour, the traffic was light, but when a car did drive by it was hard to, or I should say impossible to see the road. The next twenty minutes was rough!  The town of Gorham soon was before us and the worst of the storm was behind us. We both had a sigh of relief. Our home town six miles up the road was the end of this adventure full weekend. The truck camper had lived up to its reputation of giving us adventure and fun for the weekend. I can’t wait to see where “Boomers on the move” will take us next.

That is what we saw and did

Acadia National Park ~ Bar Harbor, Maine

Several weeks have passed since our arrival from our summer travels to the North West. We had such a wonderful experience on this journey that I had to either pinch myself, or go on another small road trip to prove to myself that it actually happened. I elected to take a long weekend trip.

We had gone to Acadia National Park in the early seventies, but at that time it wasn’t a wonderful experience. On that trip we were pulling a travel trailer with my two year old Super Cheyenne Chevy pickup. About halfway across the state of Maine, the truck started to surge and loose power on the hills. To make a long story a little shorter, the fore and aft rocking motion of pulling the trailer dislodged some rust from the gas tank and plugged the carburetor gas filter. I had to get help from a garage, but in the end it sort of ruined the vacation.

This trip across Maine byways was completely different. The big Super Duty F-250 ran superbly, as it did on the North West trip to Alaska. We left Berlin around 8:30 AM, with the sun shining and the temperature around 72 degrees. In about a half hour, the New Hampshire border was behind us and route 2 had little traffic to contend with. When traveling west to east in Maine, there are several small towns that route 2 bisects. It is always fun to see the changes in these towns, or lack of changes from previous trips. In the Bethel area, for instance, one can see many old specialties saw mills that produced everything from grade stakes, dowels and even wooden clothespins.  Many of these businesses have seen better days, but a few have survived in these changing times.

Impressive Bridge!

Lewiston is the first metropolis on our destination to the rocky coast. This city along with its twin city of Auburn across the Androscoggin River always seems to be bustling with activities, whether it is shoppers, construction of new buildings, malls or roads. This town has come a long way from being a textile manufacturing city along the river. Our journey would briefly send us across town to head North on the Interstate to Augusta. From the bypass ramp around Augusta, Rte 3  slowly changed into more of a coastal and farm land topography. It wasn’t until we actually reached Belfast that we saw salt water. From Belfast, heading North on Route 3 is now Siamese with the famous route US One. You really get the down east feeling from here onto the National Park. In Bucksport, you come around the corner and see these massive concrete columns very similar to the National Monument in Washington, DC. These columns are capped in a pyramid shaped silver metal cover that reflects light. It looks just like the “eye” on a dollar bill in your wallet. The columns actually are the support for the new bridge, which brings you unto Turners Island and onward towards Ellsworth. The bridge is located next to the historical “Fort Knox”. We didn’t stop to visit on this day, but we will surely return for a future blog post someday.

Cadillac Mountain ~ Spectacular! 

Ellsworth was a little confusing to me. The GPS did give me a direction, but it was easy to miss a turn and be heading askew from our destination. Soon we were in Trenton, the final stop at the visitor center for locations and availability to some campgrounds. Most had availability, but we wanted to stay in the Acadia NP. The lady called Blackwood’s Campground and they had what we wanted.

A short ride over the bridge and we were on Mount Desert Island (the home of Acadia National Park and the only National Park on the East Coast).

Once you enter the park, you immediately notice everything prim and proper as with nearly all National Parks. There is a loop road that we would have loved to take to Blackwoods, but there were height restrictions and they did not meet our truck camper height. We followed route 3 to the campground and checked in. Here again our senior pass saved us money. (Entrance fees to the park, 50% savings at the campground we welcomed).

Fog Drifting Over Bald Porcupine Island 

The weather was perfect for this day and with the prediction of possible stormy weather and fog for tomorrow we made a decision to head for Cadillac Mountain. What a view! The road wines around from the west side to east side around a spruce-fir forest. The road rises; tree roots underfoot give way to lichen-splotched granite. Here one sees several types of outcropping rocks. The predominant being pink granite. The granite rock begins as molten magma that intruded into older, overlying rock. As it cooled, it hardened and crystallized. It is peppered with flecks of black hornblende and quartz crystal. Pink feldspar gives this granite its pink hue. The above description of Cadillac Mountain Granite comes from the National Park Service.

Pink Granite Texture! 

Once we arrived at the top of Cadillac, we parked and hiked the perimeter of the mountain to take in the vistas. To the East, "Bald Porcupine Island" with its breakwater jetty was visible. The fog started to roll in over the Island and made a dramatic picture opportunity. To the north, Bar Island was visible. It was high tide and they say that one can walk over the Island at low tide. We wouldn’t be here long enough to try this hike. To the West, we could see Eagle Lake and Bubble Pond with the haze starting to gain hold of the area. The sun was still strong enough, that we thought we might get sun burned, with the slight cool breeze coming off of the ocean. To the South, we could see the Park Loop Road Causeway crossing Otter Cove. To the North, we saw Bar Harbor with a four mast Schooner anchored in the harbor along with several other ships and boats of every kind.

Sunset at Bar Harbor Looking West

Our stay on top of Cadillac was a star for today’s activities. We slowly descended the mountain and stopped at every overlook to shoot those memorable pictures that we so often look at during the long winter months.

Bar Harbor was next on the agenda. The town was built with horses and buggies in mind. The streets are narrow and parking is at a premium. They do have RV parking with bus shuttles around the island. Being in our truck camper, we found a regular parking spot on the street. Another advantage for truck campers! Parking on the corner of Ledgelawn Ave. and Mt Desert St., we had only a couple of blocks to be in the thick of the downtown district. Walking towards to town pier hoping to get a view of the sunset, yes, I know the sun sets in the west. I still might get an unusual shot of Bar Harbor. I did! While there on the pier, an old timer said to us “you know hundreds of people come down here every night and never notice the sunsets. I come here nearly every night to watch the sunset.” We headed up towards the restaurants and shops only to watch him ride by on his big red Harley!

Four Mast Schooner

Stomachs were now telling us to find a place to eat. There are dozens of good eateries to choose from. A couple of streets over, we found a restaurant and had dinner. If I remember, it was sometime after 8 pm when we headed for Blackwoods Campground. It was very dark as we reached our B12 campsite. It would be our first time to energize our rear docking lights to back in to the spot. I gave Helen a white led flashlight and a red headband light. I shutoff the headlights not blind the rest of the campsites and carefully followed Helen’s direction. It was a tight spot, but the docking lights and Helen made our first dark night encampment a breeze.

We settled in and were in bed sometimes after nine pm.

That is what we did and saw

Comment Question regarding 6-29-12 post

Amazing Detail in the structural support!

Anonymous Comment on 8-29-2012 wrote: Would love to see more pictures of the Cedar Tree that supports the Info Center on "Cache Creek to Prince George" post of 6-28-2012

The top part of the main cedar tree

Four Stories High!

Balcony Detail ~ Amazing!

In answering Anonymous (from here on who will be referred to as "CP") here are a few more pictures. The Visitor Center was built by a Premier Log Home builder and also a Premier Architectural firm, together they wanted a signature building and design. I think they accomplished their goal very well!

Stats ~ Update

Hello everyone! I've been checking my blog stats and even with no new blogs I now have 2193 page views with a better breakdown of my audience. I have 93 views from the US, 36 from Canada, 6 from Russia, 1 from South Korea, 1 from Germany, 1 from the Netherlands. Maybe I should continue bloging about my travels!

Thats what I saw today

The Adventure ~ My Reflections ~ The Facts!

 

One of the most remarkable things that I have seen on this 14,800 mile journey is the amount of people doing exactly the same thing. For some people, this is there trip of a life time. For some others it’s just another road trip down the endless highway to adventure. I’ve met some that have sold their houses and are traveling around the continent. What drives these people to pedal their bikes from Inuvik, North West Territories to the tip of South America?  Adventure? Challenge? What possesses one to bring a full size six wheeler, all-wheel drive truck, converted to an RV and cross the ocean from Europe to North America?  To answer these questions I must look inward into one self to see why I traveled these thousands of miles across the United States and Canada. I believe it’s the urge to see and feel what it was like to travel across this land somewhat like when the original pioneers did there thing in search of having a better life. I am not looking for a better life, as I feel very fortunate with what I have.

I travel for a sense of seeing what is on the other side of the hill. How I can learn from watching and talking to people both local and fellow travelers. For example, I have a better understanding of First Nation people after talking to and watching them at the World Eskimo Olympics. I now understand, a little better, their tribal dance movements. Their Olympic competition events are nearly all related to arctic survival skills.

I travel to see nature. Whether it be a Wolf howling, a Bald Eagle perched, watching for the Salmon run along with the Coastal Brown Bears…who are tired of eating grass and just pacing up and down the rivers, also waiting for the Salmon.

I travel to see America and Canada move it’s GNP (Gross National Product) East and West along their mighty railroads. They are alive and in my opinion doing well.

Reflecting and Planning the next Adventure!

I travel to see the mighty Rivers of this continent. the Yukon, the Frazer, the Columbia, the McKenzie. I travel to see these mighty rivers at their birth place when they are only a trickle.

I travel to see the giant trees in the coastal planes of Washington State and British Columbia. To see the dwarf 200 year old trees up in the tundra of Alaska fight for their existence when no other trees can survive with ice just 18 inches below the surface.

Finally, I travel to converse with strangers on the trail and share stories and experiences. I have made long lasting friendships. When I say “I”, I mean “We” as my wife, Helen has made all these experiences possible. From the early days back in the 80’s when I had the opportunity to get free flights up to Alaska, ten years in a row, for a week or so, she would support my dreams. She was the best companion on our adventures to Europe, Australia, New Zealand and of course, most of the United States.

The Facts and Stats:

Days in Canada 32                                                                Days in Alaska 20

Days crossing Northern US 25                                              Miles traveled: 14,800

Days Traveling: 77                                                                 Number of Campground stays 28

Number of cracked windshields: One                                   Number of oil changes: Two

Number of tire rotations: Two                                                Number of time changes: Over Ten

Lowest price for gas: $3.45 Berlin, NH           Highest price for gas $ 7.20 Watson Lake, Yukon

Projected gas cost $6,500                              Actual gas cost $6,006.95

Furthest North: Inuvik, NWT (207miles North of Arctic Circle)

State/Province most viewed wildlife: British Columbia

Highest price for beer: Canada $23.95 for 12 pack (did not buy didn’t want to support their Health Care System)

Any Surprises: None

Do It Again? When do we leave

That is what we saw and did ~ See Ya Later!           Page Views to date 2,135 (Great!)

Blind River to Casselman, Ontario ~ I Can Nearly Taste Home

The original target for today was Ottawa, Ontario. If you’ve ever driven in this area you probably know how congested this place can be on a late Friday afternoon. We decided to move pass this large Metropolitan area. Casselman is small, but does have many stores for us to select a place for the night and a place to eat. We did eat at a place called Brian’s and it was excellent. They had a Canadian Tire Store which had an RV Dump Station and that was our parking spot for this night. During the course of the evening, another pickup truck pulled up alongside and also stayed overnight.

Boomers On The Move ~ Home Safe in Our Back Yard!

They next morning, on the 18^th of August we looked at our last ride for home. My Street Atlas said 265 miles to Berlin. This was a short hop compared to the 445 miles we did from Blind River to here.

This will not be my final blog for this trip. I hope to have a few facts and post thoughts of our adventure. So far to date, which is Sunday Aug 19, 2012 We have had 2029 page views which I am very happy about.

That is what we did and saw

                                   

Marathon to Blind River Ontario ~ Rainout

 

Wawa!

No “Tim Horton’s, McDonalds” only a “Robin’s,” for coffee this morning before our departure for Blind River. It was a heavy rain day, with a lot of concentration on my driving. The sun did appear for a short time when we stopped in Wawa. That’s right; “Wawa” is not the First Nation name for water. It is the name for a Goose! The information Center was quick to point that out with a giant Goose statue on the front lawn. Took a few pictures and off to the east again. There is not much to report on this day for the driving. It started to rain again and rained heavily most of the way to Blind River. I would imagine that following the Great Lakes the rain or snow would be greater because of the so called “lake effect” phenomena.

Blind River sits on the edge of Lake Huron. We drove down to the docks and there were four boats tied up. The boats, I think, were fishing boats, but they looked odd to me. They were built very low and fully enclosed. They just didn’t look like fishing boats you see back on the east coast.

Fishing Boat?

We couldn’t see going to a campground and not being able to take advantage of their amenities. We stayed in a good spot under a giant tree close to the fishing boat dock area.

Low Profile Boat!

In the morning, the storm was gone and the sun rose filling the camper. This would be a more enjoyable day to travel. We now felt the drive to get home. Maybe, two more days?

That is what we did and saw

                                   

Thunder Bay to Marathon ~ The Meeting & Lake Superior

Helen amongst the Eggs!

Nature at its best!

Two Keepers!

The Sunset before the Storm!

No early take off this morning… Had to wait for my Berlin Water Works Board Meeting at 12pm. It went off ok. I finished up around 12:45 and we left the campground a little after 1:15pm. Our target today was Marathon about 180 miles away. The sun was shining again and the road was heading North East with the sun to our backs by midday. We stopped along the road a few times to admire Lake Superior and its coast line. Here on the North Shore of Superior the water color turquoise and clear. It is a far cry from our encounter on the south side, when we found the water dark and cold. In Marathon, which I was assuming a bigger town, it didn’t take long to drive all the main streets and avenues. The cashier at the grocery store told us to check out Pebble Beach. There a big sign that explains the geology of the beach. There are thousands of round rocks of various colors that have been worn down by the lakes wave action. It made for interesting picture taking after supper. The locals, many of them, can down here after dinner to watch the sun set. The prediction for the weather later tonight and all day tomorrow was 80% rain with thunder showers tonight. We talked to several people here, one being a native of Newfoundland… He had an Irish or Scottish accent. He has been here in Marathon since 1978, working in the mines. He certainly gave me more information on Newfoundland and Labrador. We talked to a woman, who is a school teacher on vacation. She was from Winnipeg, Manitoba. The overlook was some 50 feet above the beach, a large parking lot with one picnic table and grass at one end. A trail led us down to the beach. The sign had warned us about having sneakers instead of flip flops. The rock beach, with several drift wood trees, made walking possible, but care was needed not to lose ones balance. I collected a couple of souvenir rocks, again against local policy, and slowly walked up the hill to the camper to stow the gems away. The evening went by before we knew it. This beach overlook area was beautiful and there were no signs that said no overnight parking! Another guy, in a van, had the same idea and parked at the opposite end of the parking lot. I decided to back into a dead end road… a little more discrete than the van guy. “Night, night I said to myself!” I fell asleep in no time. (Not the end of this story) Remember the forecast? (Thunder storms, lighting, heavy rains) About one AM the gentle surf that put me to sleep was now a continuous roar. The best way to describe this is to listen to the sound of a huge water fall, the sound doesn’t subside, it just continues to roar. Oh, yes, remember me backing into that abandoned road? I had not noticed a tree branch that was close to the camper. “Yup”, the wind kept pushing it against the camper creating a screeching sound. I got to a point, I put my pants on a moved the truck three feet away from the branch. Problem solved! (Not done yet) Remember our luck with trains? Yeah, that’s right the tracks just 300 hundred feet away. Need I say more?  (Not done yet) Remember the heavy rain? “Yup” it really poured down the hill, into the parking area and over to the grassy area where I was parked. I looked out a couple of times and when the lighting flash illuminated the road ahead, I could see it was filling up with water! Time to move up to the paved parking lot. I faced the truck towards Lake Superior hoping that she would forgive me for taking a couple of souvenir rocks from here beach.

All of this night time adventure is part of discovering this planets intricacies and I didn’t mind losing a good night’s sleep (at least once in a while)

That is what we did and saw

Kenora to Thunder Bay, Ontario ~ The Terrain Change

Before I start today’s blog, I need to update information I just learned from a fellow camper. Remember the Seagulls in yesterday blog? She is from Manitoba and tells me that they are called Field gulls, exactly the same as seagulls but native to the prairie states. (End of mystery)



The Rock Formations!

The Cloud Formations!

 We left Kenora early and headed east on PH17 toward Thunder Bay, ON. I noticed the terrain changes abruptly into small hills and curves for the first hundred miles or so. What is unusual is the rock formations. The land doesn’t have much soil over the ledge outcroppings. Some of the ledge and rocks are smooth in nature, while some are shattered and piled like slabs vertically and horizontally. The colors range from grey to pink to rust colored. I guess I wasn’t the only person who noticed this, because we came to a huge plant that processed this stone. They had four to five hundred feet of tailings of these beautiful rock slabs. I would have loved to have my dump truck here for a free load. The terrain here is also laced with ponds and lakes. Every corner has a sign with the name of the lakes. One that I recognized was “Lake Wabigone” mentioned on PBS radio show “Home on the Prairie”

The other item worth mentioning were  the clouds here in this part of Ontario. They were fairly low with dark grey below and very silvery around the edge. It was sunny all day except for a rain shower at 5pm here in Thunder Bay. It is an odd thing to think and look at clouds as you’re driving, but it makes the journeys interesting. After all, discovering new things about places is what I came here for.

We pulled into Thunder Bay around 2:30, went to the Terry Cox Scenic Outlook & Visitor Center for info and a remembrance of Terry Cox who jogged across Canada with one leg. Terry had cancer and passed away in this town. He was jogging across Canada for a cure for Cancer. In 2005, Helen and I had stopped here and the memorial statue of Terry Cox had impressed us enough that we needed to visit this place again.

The Terry Cox Memorial Over Look!

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring around Thunder Bay. It is a city of over 100,000 people. I must say the traffic was heavy, but we managed to get around. I did check on "Gas Buddy" for the best gas prices. $1.19 a litre was  the bottom with $1.35 tops. I set the GPS to the so called "Gas Bar". The price was indeed $1.19 a litre, but we had to cross a railroad bridge with loose steel plates and as wide as a normal sidewalk. It was a adventure!



Driving on the Sidewalk for Cheep Gas!

Tonight, we are staying in a KOA campground, because I needed to have excellent WiFi and a quiet location for the Berlin Water Works monthly board meeting tomorrow at noon. The camp ground owners said they would set me up in the game room with hardwired DSL. They would also shut the game room down from 11:30 to 1:30 for my meeting. I hope everything goes according to plan.

That is what we did and saw             

Portage La Prairie to Kenora, Ontario ~ Lake of the Woods

Lost Seagulls in Portage La Prairie!

 

My love of trains continued again last night. I swear to God, a dozen freight trains went by as we tried to sleep. These trains are each a mile long and you can hear them for a mile each way up and down the track. Morning finally came and the sun was shining as we looked outside. A footnote here…we must be an equal distance from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Getting back to looking outside, what do you think I saw? A row of Seagulls! What are Seagulls doing in the middle of the continent? Maybe they hitched hike on one of those freight trains!

Entrance to Anicabe Campground!

The promotion for free coffee at McDonalds ended yesterday, but we still went for our morning wakeup coffee. I fueled up and asked if there was a RV Dump Station close by. The attendant sent us to a municipal site and we took care of the campers needs.

It is a fairly quick ride to the Ontario border and to Kenora, Ontario which sits on the northern edge of “The Lake of the Woods”. This is a tourist destination and we decided to get a camp site near the water. We spent the afternoon walking around the town and watching float planes land in the lake.



Float Plane Base!

We took showers at the campground facilities…excellent new building with plenty of hot water. We had dinner and then did  laundry and got caught up on email and the blog.

That is what we did and saw

Moosomin, SK to Portage La Prairie, MB ~ A Haven in a Storm



Our Friend for 75 Miles!

A good night sleep in the church parking lot always helps. It also helps to have a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Station across the street. It is sort of odd to have a police station in a residential neighborhood, but who cares, they are there to protect and serve. The priest last night gave us his blessing on staying in the church parking lot. Of course, it wasn’t perfectly quiet as the CN, one mile long, freight train comes barreling through town at 55 mph and blows the whistle a half dozen times. We did feel very secure in more ways than one.

Helen Signing the Geocache Log!

German Panzer Tank on Canadian Base Shilo!

How a 50 Cal Casing is formed!

The sun was shining as we drove the last few miles out of Saskachuwan (SK). In Manitoba, the Visitor Center was closed, but the restrooms (they call them washrooms) were open. I flipped my computer cover open and I noticed that I had WiFi…great! I needed to download a series of geocaches along the route to get our Manitoba Souvenir. By the time I was done the center was open and I got a map. I love maps! The more detailed the better. Off we drove into the east with the sun in our faces. The one thing about the Trans-Canadian Highway is that it parallels the railroad tracks. On our first geocache stop, the tracks were very close. I took a picture of the engines pulling the long freight behind. The engineer waved and that was the beginning of a 75 mile partnership between the train and us. The train was traveling at 55 mph. I set my cruise control at 60 miles per hour. It took me 75 miles to pass the engines. What a way to pass the day! That is what prairie driving is all about.

The Passing Time on the Prairie with the Train!

In Brandon, there was a sign which said National Military Artillery Museum. Actually, many more of the museum signs sparked our interest, seeing that I am retired military and of Artillery background. The museum is located on Canadian Force Base Shilo, about 7 miles south of PH1 East highway. It was time for a diversion and the canoe took us to the base. What a surprise! The museum has 65,000 artifacts from first nation warriors to Desert Storm in Iraq. Artillery weapons of every war, from small arms to rare artillery pieces. Excellent museum! I could have stayed a week reading all the history. We started to leave and I was reading the pamphlet they gave us and noticed a line that said a geocache was on base. Very rare, at least, on US bases. I went back in to inquire and the attendant said it is located on the German Panzer tank a mile away from here. The German Army from 1973 to 2000 trained here on the base. They gave the base a full size Panzer Tank. We went looking for the cache, found the tank, but couldn’t find the cache. Maybe, if we would have had coordinates, we would have been successful.

Back on PH 1 East, the sun soon disappeared as the clouds darkened and the wind picked up to the point that I was feeling the truck rocking side to side. I was getting a little nervous and pulled off into a small community to wait it out. It looked like it subsided and we took off again. No, this wasn’t the end! It started to rain very heavily. I was trying to reach Portage La Prairie, a larger town, for the night. We pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot next to the building for shelter. We took a nap and the storm subsided for good.

That is what we did and saw