Long May Your Big Jib Draw!

It’s another whole language up here in Newfoundland!  The translation to that is “A good wish for the future!”  More on that later

When we left PEI, we had a 300 mile drive to Baddeck, Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island.  We stayed at the Bras d’or Lake Campground and we even have 50 amp, which is great since it actually got pretty warm. 

 

They purposely put curves on the bridge to help keep drivers alert. 7 miles long!

This is a good jump off point for the Cabot Trail, up to Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  It’s quite enchanting.  We packed a picnic lunch and were off.  You hug the coastline where lush, forested river canyons carve into the rust-colored cliffs. Part of the trail is on the Atlantic while the other side is the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It ended up being a very long day, about a 5-6 hour drive and the last part the roads were horrible with lots of stops for construction.

Can you spot the bird?

McKenzie Valley

Rain coming!

Winding road along the coastline.

The other thing that Baddeck is known for is the Alexander Graham Bell Museum National Historic Park.  The park commemorates the life and work of the man who invented the telephone, as well as many other inventions. 

 

The iconic national park red chairs!

The next day we were up and out by 8:00 a.m. to catch the ferry to Newfoundland.  It leaves at noon, but we have to be there no later than 10:15 and we’re here at 9:00.  Talk about a long day!  The ride took about 6 or so hours.  We got to our campground shortly after 7.  And Newfoundland time is 30 minutes ahead.  Everyone is tired.  Also several folks have come down with Covid. One couple stayed behind. Problem is, there are no more reservations for the summer for RV’s.  So if you ever plan on coming here, you’ve got to make a reservation early.

Campground sunset

 

Our campsite for the next 2 days is at Grand Codroy RV Park, in the Codroy Valley of Newfoundland.  Sweet family that runs it and she was our bus tour driver the next day.  This southwest tip of Newfoundland is absolutely beautiful and it must resemble Ireland. Although I’ve never been there, this is my interpretation.  The mountain range here is called the Long Range Mountains, still a part of the Appalachian Range of mountains. Then there are hanging valleys.  And what are those?  They are often associated with valley glaciers, joining the main valley along it’s sides. So you will see the U-shaped ‘V’ and the lip, which has a small notch eroded by the brook. 

 

Found this interesting

Waterfall

Kept wondering about these boxes.  It's their trash recepticles.

There is lots of Scottish ancestry here.  We made a stop by the Precious Blood Church, which was built in 1912.  It’s all wood construction inside (fir).  Inside where there are now electrical lights hanging, just imagine the lighting used to come from lanterns hanging there.  I would be afraid of a fire hazard.  It’s heated by a pot belly stove.  And if you look closely at the benches, they sure don’t look comfortable.  And how about them youngsters falling through the backs of the pews!

I'd be afraid of losing kiddos through those pews!

The Rose Blanche (White Rock) is a tiny fishing town, but home to the Old Stone Lighthouse.  It is located on The Neck. It was built 1871-73 from a nearby granite quarry.  I’ve never seen a stone lighthouse before.

 

So pretty

In the evening we enjoyed some good local musical talent and we were then “screeched” in and are now honorary Newfoundlanders!  Here’s how the ceremony goes!  You’re called up, given a rain hat to put on, then a sizeable piece of bologna (this stuff is sold very differently than back home).  Next up you take a jigger of Newfoundland’s finest rum, dance a jig. And then you are taught some sayings from Newfoundland.  They have their own special language here.  And then!  You must kiss a fish, which was a cod!  Well how about that!  I agree with everyone that the people here are one of a kind. Just delightful.

 

Some more sayings that I don’t want to forget:

1.      GOOD DAY ON CLOTHES means it’s a good day to put clothes on the line to dry.

2.     TOO BIG FOR YOUR BRITCHES means the person is assuming too much authority or has a big ego.

3.     AWFUL NICE DAY means an exceptionally or remarkably nice weather day.

4.     A FINE KETTLE OF FISH is a difficult situation or a bind, to make a mess of affairs.

5.     BIRCH BROOM IN THE FITS refers to a person’s messy hair.

6.     HOW YA GETTING’ ON? Is a casual greeting meaning “How are things going?”

Next up we continue on the Viking Trail up to St. Anthony, Newfoundland for a few more adventures!

 

The Acadian Trail in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island!

We’re in Atlantic time now!  And a different province!  We spent our first night at Campbellton RV Camping which is a very nice and new RV Park.  Great access to an interesting walking trail.

Interesting things to see on our walk!

Bridge from Quebec into New Brunswick

Such important history

Campfire at our spot!

Meet Oliver!  The therapy dog.

The next day we had an easy drive to Camping Colibri in Caraquat, New Brunswick.  We were ready to get out and do some things so we loaded up a few friends and went to the Fils DuRoy Distillerie for a tasting.  Came out with a bottle of sipping Vodka and some good sipping whiskey.  Stopped for some pizza and came back and enjoyed a little rain.

The next day we enjoyed the historic Acadian Village.  It was super good.  The Docents wore period costumes, cooked, made things, dyed yarn, woodworking…..you name it. 

Garden is in the shape of a star to signify their flag.

They cook lunch on site and the workers get to eat it.

The long thing in back was used to steam the wood for the boats. The cod drying racks are up front.

Our yummy lunch of fish cakes. 

Oven

General store

Pub

Woodworking shop. I had to buy me a bucket!

Look closely and you will see 3 ovens.

Housing goes from the late 1700s to early 1900s.

Working in her garden

Beggar's bench opened up where the beggar could sleep.

Beggar's bench closed up

Yep I feel this way after lunch and a dessert of milk pie!

School house

Modern era garage

Wood spokes

The following day we had a 5 hours drive to Prince Edward Island.  This is Sunday, and man, the traffic coming off the island was backed up for at least 5 miles!  There had been a BIG concert (Luke Combs and Florida Georgia Line).  But, it’s beautiful here!  Miles and miles of farmland, mostly potatoes.  We’re camping at Pine Hills RV Park and we were treated to a wonderful dinner at the Fisherman’s Wharf.

Weird to see this at the end of someone's driveway.

We had a free day and we chose to drive to the south side of the island (red dirt and beaches) to Ft. Amherst National Historical Park.  There are earthworks of the British Fort here that you can still see.  There’s a beautiful marker/monument about the tragic deportation of the French and Acadian population.

Earthworks from the fort.

Shows all the directions the Acadians went.

I will let you read this sad history.

There was a Rangelight Row Trail we walked on.

We enjoyed a great hamburger and PEI French fries, then ice cream from the Cow’s Creamery (Blue Bell is still much better!).

We’re hosting games and snacks this evening.  I brought out the old Bop-it game of my grandkids and we laughed until we cried with those antics around the campfire!

Playing Bop-it

Look it's Anne of Green Gables!

We had a bus tour the next day of the North Shore which included the Anne of Green Gables Heritage Place on the Prince Edward Island National Historical Park.  This is where the original farmhouse is located. There are beautiful red dunes here at the park which is located near Cavendish.  The red is from the iron oxide.  Our guide told us that every year they lose about a foot of the island with the erosion.  The Piping Plover bird, an endangered species, resides here.  We did not see any of them, but the last count said there were 51.  

Those National Park red chairs!

Poor Anne had to mask up!

Nice vegetable garden

Inside the parlor in the house.

Wreath made from hair from the deceased.

You're looking at the front of her house.

Her first typewriter

We also had a lobster fishing demonstration at the North Rustico Harbor.  You can see the muscle buoys, which are farmed using rope and a big sock.  They take 15 months to grow.  You lease the waterway to farm and you farm year round.  PEI has 11,000 acres that can be formed.  They give out 750 licenses to farm oysters.  Cages, with cement attached, get flipped every 5 months.  The oysters encompass 6,400 acres and 530 leases.  They track the cages by GPS.  For the lobsters, it takes 5-7 years to grow. The season is May to June and you are only allowed 300 traps.

PEI is known for potatoes.  They farm 86,000 acres and there are 100 varieties.  They had potato wart last year so they still can’t ship potatoes off of the island.  Cavendish Farms supplies fries for McDonalds and Wendys. 

Yellow fields of either mustard or canola.

Potato fields.

We stopped at Summertown at the Piping Museum.  I had no idea what that was, but it was really quite interesting!  It was bagpipes! So we learned a lot about the Highland bagpipe, which has 9 notes and no sharps or flats.  They are pitched to A and are in octaves.  We also had a demonstration of the Scottish style drumming on a high tension snare drum along with some traditional Scottish Highlands dance demonstrations. 

We were greeted with bagpipes!

Lunch was at the PEI Preserve Company and once again I had visualized an animal preserve, but nope.  This was fruit preserves!  It was good!

The restaurant had a beautiful garden

Our last day on the island, Ron and I drove to the Greenwich Prince Edward Island National Historical Park.  We took a nice 3 mile hike to the shoreline on a floating boardwalk.  We stopped for a great lunch of lobster rolls and haddock fish tacos.  Still just amazed at the beauty here in the fields of potatoes and farmland.  In the evening we took a bus into Charlottetown for dinner and to see the musical “Anne of Greene Gables”.  Ron wisely chose to stay behind as he really isn’t into musicals of this type.

There's the sock!  On the left!

Fireweed

Floating dock

Sand dunes

Those National Park red chairs!

Yummy

So good fish tacos!

Side view of St. Anne's Basilica in Charlottetown

St. Anne's Basilica

I couldn't play this organ......

They had beautiful windows, but this one was interesting.

Floating dock

Anne of Green Gables Musical

Just a fishing!

And that’s a wrap for the north shore of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.  Believe it or not, we have been on the tour for 21 days with 40 more to go.  We’re heading towards Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.