Picadilly, Newfoundland

Just a short 7 hour ferry ride from the northern tip of Nova Scotia, we arrived at our northern destination, Newfoundland!  Coming off the ferry, it was dark and foggy, the marine layer was thick and rolling over the mountains like some kinda Lord of the Rings movie.  Our friends Fred and Loretta Welsh met us on the highway about an hour off the boat to lead us into their friendly little town of Piccadilly.  On the map of Newfoundland, look for the town of Stephenville on the southwest corner, site of the former Harmon Air Force Base.  We were running around the peninsula west of town.  Interesting geographical note, when you're driving across the isthmus, the water on the north side is held back by a levy, and it's a few feet higher than the water on the south side, though yes, both at "sea level."  The road is actually below the level of the sea on the north side.  Saw it with my own 2 eyes.

We met the Welshes at the Hanscom AFB campground outside of Boston in 2012.  Fred retired the next year and they started snowbirding to Florida every winter.  I blogged about them and their friends Danny and Marlene back in April when the 6 of us took a cruise together.  Danny owns a construction company, a restaurant, and is building a campground.  That's where we stayed in Picadilly.  Here are some pictures of our first week in Newfoundland:

Sitting in the parking lot at the ferry terminal in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, waiting for our turn to load up. 

About to drive into the belly of the ship.  There are 3 car decks, this thing is huge.  The iron works at the top of the picture are the car loading gangway for the deck above the one I'm parking on.

We made it!  That's our rig to the left of the sign.  We disconnected to load into the ferry.  They say it's cheaper, and in Alaska we had to do some backing up to get parked straight.  We can't back up with the car attached.

Butte du Cap on a very calm day.

Beautiful, rugged and sparsely populated.  Newfoundland.

Okay, so my Dad taught me to measure twice and cut once.  We were driving along and Fred pointed out this fellow who built a garage and didn't measure twice for the roof line where it approaches a telephone pole.  Oh well, just cut ahnudder two or tree feet outa dare and she's good...

The front gate of the former Harmon AFB.  The runway is still in use for commercial flights, and all the buildings are pretty much intact, though turned over for civilian use.

Missy is about fully grown now, 8 months old in this picture.

Danny at frame left, Fred concentrating on a bite of lobster and Marlene.

Fresh steamed lobster heads.  We ate the claws and tails.  If you called heads, you win!

Nova Scotia

After PEI, we headed into Nova Scotia where we stayed in 4 different places, all on the water.  On the way into Nova Scotia, we stopped for fuel on the outskirts of a little town called Springhill.  Fred, the fellow we're going to see in Newfoundland, was a town constable there until 2012.  I asked the woman behind the counter if she'd lived there long, yes, and do you know a retired constable named Fred Welsh.  "Oh, you missed him my dear, he moved back to Newfoundland!"  Small world.  I talk to one person in Springhill and sure enough, she knows Fred.  Our first stop was in a Town called Truro.  It's at the very end of the Bay of Fundy, where the tides are so strong.  The rising tide pushes a small wave called a bore up the Salmon River, and it looked like a good place to see central Nova Scotia.  We took a few nice country drives and went for a really beautiful walk with Missy in the city park.  Three nights and we're outa there.

Next stop was land's end on the southwest coast, Yarmouth.  There's not much in Yarmouth at all, but we had a beautiful camping spot with a fire ring.  It seemed like we had the place all to ourselves, Castle Lake Campground and Cabins.  It's pretty new, so still some road work and such going on.  We found a manicured 1/2 mile path going down to the ocean, so of course Missy got a lot of exercise.  Three nights, and we're outa there.  Next top: Halifax.

Halifax is the provincial capital, and a pretty good sized metropolitan area.  We stayed at a park called Woodhaven, not too bad, but we spent most of our time running around the countryside seeing the sights.  There's a touristy place about an hour outside of town called "Peggy's Cove."  We had to stop there, otherwise we'd never be able to face our friend Peggy again.  It's just a lighthouse and interesting rock formations, but it made for a nice drive in the country.  Time flies though, and after a couple trips to the downtown waterfront, it was time to move on.  Four nights and we're outa there.  Next stop: Cape Breton Island.

The northern third of Nova Scotia is an island attached to the rest via a causeway and bridge, not much at all separates them though.  This is one of those "we need to come back" areas.  We spent 3 nights at the northern tip waiting on the ferry to Newfoundland.  It's beautiful, with the Bras d'or Lakes pretty much everywhere you turn.  They're like an interconnect inland sea of large saltwater bays, but they call them lakes because they're so protected.  Really pretty.  We intend to stop for a few more days in a different area of Cape Breton Island when we get back from Newfoundland, 3 weeks from today.  We get on the ferry in a few hours.  Here are some Nova Scotia pictures:

Maybe it's called a tidal "bore" for a reason.  You have to be here, pictures aren't clear enough to see the wave coming.  This is low tide.

Same spot a few minutes after the tide starts rising.  Hard to see it in the pictures, but this is the bore coming in, the tide rises about a foot a minute.  These folks are on a zodiac raft trip up the river at high tide.

This is the bulk barn.  Everything from candy to dried rice, beans, flour of all sorts, spices, all available "by the pinch or by the pound."  They had pretty much everything you can scoop or spoon into a bag or container.  Everything's sold by weight, even shortening and pie filling.

Our spot at Castle Lake campground.  They're not always this secluded.

The actual cove..Peggy's Cove.  It's tiny.

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse and the marked up boulders left over when the last glacier retreated.

Intrepid travelers.  I told the fellow to get the whole lighthouse.  Sigh.

Hey Peggy, nice cove!

Driving around Cape Breton Island, Google Maps didn't tell us there was a $7 ferry crossing.  Cool!

Bras d'or Lake.  Pronounced "broader lake"

The view from our roof and windshield while waiting for the ferry to Newfoundland at Arm of Gold campground.  We had an unobstructed 180 degree view of the water.  This is a panorama, so it's a little hard to make out.

Prince Edward Island

Well, we found another beautiful place that we'll just have to come back to.  Prince Edward Island is it's own tiny province, just 140,000 residents, connected to the mainland by the 8 mile Confederation Bridge.  The toll was $64.50CD, but much more convenient than hopping the ferry across.  It's hard to describe how pretty it is.  It's not like there's majestic rock formations or giant trees like we've seen in our travels.  It's man-made beauty.  Everyone's house is painted and kept up, even the 200 year old farmhouses, and the fields all seem to be manicured.  It looks like some of the prettier farm country I've seen in pictures of the British Isles.  Not surprising, really, pretty much everybody on PEI is from there.  We spent 4 nights at the New Glasgow Highlands campground, which was not enough.  We had a little work done on the rig, new fuel filters, but that only took one morning.  We drove around a pretty significant portion of the island and never saw anything trashy.  Really cool.  Come to find out, my maternal roots are from here, a few generations back.  I was able to find a distant ancestor's grave.  Having a familial link here made it even more special.  We'll be back.

The first evening we went for a drive toward Cavendish along the sea shore.  There were a couple foxes hanging out by the road, not scared of anything.  This one was looking at Missy like she'd make a nice snack.  She was going buh zerk.

The whole island is red dirt/rocks.  I didn't see a chunk of good old granite or anything the whole time, just red.

The book Anne of Greene Gables was inspired by this house in Cavendish, it belonged to the author's cousin

Daniel Vessey, R.I.P.  My great great grandfather.

It was hard to capture the rolling hills and farm fields.  Beautiful and green, everywhere you look.

Saint John, New Brunswick

We only spent 3 days in New Brunswick, at least on the way north.  Beautiful countryside and more forest than I guess they know what to do with.  I hear our President is upset because Canada is "dumping" cheap lumber on our market, but, really, it's because the place is covered in trees.  Anyway, we stayed at a beautiful municipal park in the port town of Saint John called Rockwood Park.  It rained and was super foggy the first day, Canada Day, so we didn't do much.  However, the front moved on and we got one really good, clear day to drive around and see some sights.  It's definitely a working waterfront city, no Newport Rhode Island here, but still full of wonderful people and scenic countryside.

I took this with my phone, so, pretty close.  I was walking Missy in Rockwood Park and this deer was just staring at us.  I couldn't believe the dog didn't bark and scare it off, but she just looked at it with her little paw pointed like a retriever or something.

Lepreau Falls, just outside Saint John

The Beach.  It ain't Florida folks, but few places are.  This is in the Bay of Fundy, which is between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  The tide change is crazy, like over 30 feet.  It's low tide, and where we're standing will be under 20 feet of water in 8 hours.

Outbound tide and river current at Reversing Falls

Not quite high tide.  The tide is still pushing upstream, bringing in tons of fish and attracting hundreds of sea birds