Nova Scotia and Driving Across Canada

As promised, here are a few pics from our visit to Nova Scotia and our cross Canada drive. Rani had met most of my friends in Nova Scotia on her last 2 visits. This time it was my turn to meet her many friends in Ontario and beyond.

We visited with my parents near Bridgewater and even got a brief sail in one day. Dad's boat is the yellow one in the background. I helped Dad put in the wharf and launch the boat.

Dad is expanding the vegetable garden this year.

Mum is working in the 1/3 acre vineyard - certainly the neatest vineyard we saw in our travels.

Patricia and Lucy Traves show us what they have planned for the garden this year. Mike picked us up at the airport after we rolled into Dartmouth after our 1.5 day flight from Phoenix (Thankyou, Thankyou!).




We also visited with Fraser and Jean Howell. The maple trees were productive this year and they gave us a jar of syrup from their own sugar shack to take home with us.

And with Curtis McIntyre - my old buddy from Unisys.

Next, we drove through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, stopping to visit friends along the way before entering Maine. We stopped in the seaside towns of Camden and Rockport, where I got my fill of wooden boats and introduced Rani to this part of the world.

We also stopped at L.L. Bean to buy a new fleece for Rani and to drool over all the lovely camping and outdoors gear and clothing.

The camping part of this trip was not ideal. Heavy rain the first night showed us that my little 2 man tent is far from waterproof and we woke up floating on our thermarest mattresses. The next day, we did get a hike in and dried out in a hotel in New Hampshire.

We left the motel with all our gear dry and restowed and headed for Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Presidential range at about 6200 feet. Pictured here are a group of snow boarders headed for the cabins at the base of a bowl where there is still spring skiing.


Near the peak, the trail is marked by cairns and the flora is alpine.

It was very windy on the top of Mount Washington - nearly 60 mph and cold.

Rani makes sure the hut does not blow away.

From New Hampshire we drove through Vermont and up to Montreal, where we visited my friend Bruce McNab, with whom I played trumpet at McGill University 25 years ago. We headed to a cottage in the Laurentians where Bruce kept me out of trouble scrubbing algae off rocks and painting the boat house.

Dinner at the cottage with Olga, little Catherine, and Bruce.



" You missed a spot!" Bruce puts his MBA to good use.

Next we drove into Ontario where we stayed with Roxy and Patrick and their daughter Natasha at their lovely home in Unionville just outside of Toronto.

We visited Niagara Falls on our (somewhat convoluted) way to Hamilton, Sarnia, and Windsor.

The Maid of the Mist gives perspective to the falls.

There was a lovely display of hydrangeas at the botanical gardens at Niagara Falls.

We had little time to stop along the way, but managed to fit in a short hike or two, in this case around some wetlands along Lake Erie.

In London, we visited with Neeta and Nikita, friends from when Rani lived in Windsor in the 90's

In Sarnia we visited with Karen, another pharmacy friend.

And in Windsor we visited several friends, including Joy, Terry, and Terry's daughter Sarah. Rani lived in Windsor for several years, so on some days we visited up to 20 people!

In Windsor, we stayed with Rani's old friend Raj, whose wife, Kash was away on a course unfortunately.

After we left Ontario, it was back to camping. We drove through Detroit and across the US on the I-80n and I-90, enjoying less expensive gas, good highways, and great scenery. I finally waterproofed the floor of our little tent after another wet night.

Rani inspects the comfortable interior of a pioneer covered wagon in Wyoming.

We visited Angelita, another Ontario friend, in Sheridan,Wyoming.

Then a few more nights camping and we were back in BC! Note the triple tarp approach - one over the tent, one under, and one inside. Of course it did not rain that hard after we did all this, but at least we were bone dry!

Back in BC

Well, we have made it back to BC from Nova Scotia after a few days in the eastern states, a whirlwind tour visiting Rani's friends in Ontario, and then a quick drive across the mid and north western states, camping along the way. Some rain in Maine, which did not fall mainly on the plain, but ended up in our tent making Rani a bit unhappy. There were a few dry days of camping, thankfully, and we enjoyed some side-trips for sightseeing and hiking trails. More details and pics to follow.

Don't fly Delta

We made it back to Nova Scotia, despite Delta's best attempts to prevent this. Here is a little email I wrote to Delta during our return flight from Phoenix via Detroit and Delta's 'helpful' boilerplate response:

Dear Delta,

We were booked on flight 3564 from Detroit to Halifax last night at 5:25 pm. After two hours on the tarmac, we were told to disembark and scan our boarding passes. Your system then erroneously re-booked us on an Air Canada flight that was set to leave within one (1) minute from the scanning time! We saw an agent who supposedly corrected this and put us back on the original but now delayed flight. When we showed up this morning at 5 am to catch the delayed flight 3564, we showed our original boarding passes, the agents boarded us and our luggage was placed on board. After a delay of an hour we were told to leave the plane and our luggage was removed because our boarding passes were not showing up in the system. The flight was delayed and we are now delayed another day, waiting for an evening flight out. All this because of a foolish system error and an even more foolish inability to correct the mistake using common sense!

While Delta was kind enough to provide a hotel and meal voucher plus compensation for today's foul up, surely this could have been handled more sanely if common sense was used rather than slavish adherence to an obviously flawed 'automated' system? The plane flew with three empty seats that should have been occupied by three people who were obviously legitimate customers - each of us having valid printed boarding passes for the original flight. More than a hundred people were directly inconvenienced by this delay!

I request that you investigate why, following the delay of 3564, the scanning of our boarding passes resulted in an impossible re-booking for us and another passenger. Also, why was it not possible to correct this mistake when we notified an agent of it last night? Finally, why was common sense thrown to the winds this morning when it was clear from our boarding passes that we should have been on the delayed flight 3564?

If we do not receive some sort of assurance that you are doing something to address these problems, I will hesitate to fly Delta again or to recommend your airline to anyone.

Regards,
Chris Bennett

And Delta's response:

Dear Mr. Bennett,

Thank you for contacting us.

Our goal is to provide the highest possible standard of service in all areas of our operation, and we regret that we did not meet your expectations on this occasion. We monitor performance throughout our company, and your comments will be very helpful.

Thank you for giving Delta the opportunity to serve your travel needs.

Sincerely,

Mark Johnson
Online Customer Support Desk
http://www.delta.com

Haul out and home to Nova Scotia

We have now been in the Singlar marina in Guaymas for 3 days, making Ladybug ready for the summer. The summer here is very hot, particularly when your boat is pulled out on the hard. We put away everything that we can to protect from the sun, including the sails, dinghy (in our case the kayak), and even the various ropes, which get stored inside the mast and boom or bundled up in cloth bags with light sacrificial 'messenger' lines left to handle the UV. Inside, we make sure every locker is left open to allow circulation and we tape foil lined insulation on all the port lights. The head is flushed with fresh water and olive oil to keep the rubber seals lubricated, and the diesel engine is put to bed with fresh oil.

It has not all been work. The marina is very close to downtown and we visited the local market where Rani picked up 5 delicious canteloupe melons and 10 green peppers for less than two dollars in total. We have an open air disco in the marina, which lulls us to sleep each night and we watched some local lovelies preparing their runway walk for the Miss Guaymas pageant that was also hosted at the marina. Before supper tonight we wandered over to a stage on the malecon where dance troupes from all over Mexico were performing traditional and avant garde numbers. We recognized some mariachi favorites from our New Year's stay in Tlaxcala and I was particularly impressed by a bevy of beauties doing Tahitian style dancing and a young and incredibly flexible couple who acted out a story in dance involving copious draughts of tequila. In one traditional dance troupe, the men each wielded two machetes, clashing them together between their legs and behind their backs, at one point while blindfolded! They also crossed 'swords' with each other sometimes with one of their lovely partners in the middle of the fray. I found myself subconsciously ducking as they swung their blades around and around at head level, all the while performing complicated choreography. Another group balanced glasses of water on their heads while doing numbers that got progressively more animated – only a few glasses went tumbling and the ladies did better than the men in keeping their heads dry.

We haul out the day after tomorrow across the bay. The harbour is very shallow – less than 6 feet in places – so we will sail over tomorrow night at high tide. We take a bus to Phoenix after we haul out and after a night in a hotel, fly to Nova Scotia. From there we will drive Rani's Nissan back to BC.

Ontario to NS

I made it to NS where I have spent the last few days visiting my parents. I plan to clear a trail and camping spot at the cottage lot and then head into Halifax to see some friends. Rani will join me here near the end of August.

Here are some pics from the remainder of the trip. I visited Ottawa where I finally saw the inside of the parliament buildings. 26 years ago I was in the band that marched every day onto Parliament hill for the changing of the guard, so watching the performance as a spectator had special meaning. It only seems like yesterday that I was wearing a bearskin hat and hot red wool tunic.

Ceremonial Guard band marching toward parliament hill.

Ceiling of lobby outside the legislature. Note Nova Scotia light house.

Lester Pearson's (or at least his statue's) shoe.

Next I visisted Bruce and Olga in Montreal and spent the weekend at their cottage with a number of their friends. The cottage is on Bark Lake and can only be reached by boat. Their daughter Catherine is a delight and has grown so much since I saw her last Winter. Bruce and I went to McGill university in the mid-80's and played trumpet together. I was last at the cottage 25 years ago and not much had changed - we still stayed up too late and drank too much :)

Bruce MacNab


Olga

Catherine

From Montreal, I drove through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine where I ran across a wonderful sculpture garden (all welded by the proprietor).


Dinosaur on the loose.

Alien and ship

Frog band

The following was a view on my last morning in Maine near where I camped for the night:

Sunrise in Maine

It's good to be back in Nova Scotia, but I look forward to continuing this blog in September/October when we return to Mexico and Ladybug II.

Alberta to Ontario

I left my lovely camping spot behind the general store on July 22 and headed for Saskatchewan. My first stop was Cardston, where one of Brigham Young's daughters and her husband formed the first Mormon settlement in Canada. This town is also the birthplace of Fay Wray of Hong Kong fame and home of the Remington Carriage Museum. This fascinating museum was formed around approx. 50 superbly restored carriages, sleighs, and wagons donated to the province of Alberta by Don Remington. I spent 4 hours here and it was well worth the price of admission ($9). The carriage building industry was massive in the late 19th century, using assembly line techniques and automation that formed the foundation for the 20th century automobile industry. I learned where such car terms as dashboard and trunk come from (dashboard was literally a board at the front of the carriage to protect the passengers from whatever the horses stirred up). Another interesting (to me anyway) fact was that some people welcomed the coming of the automobile as it would reduce polution from horse manure that filled the streets in many towns.


Dump wagon - ancestor of the dump truck - used in road building.


Sleighs and wagons.

Next I visited Writing on Stone provincial park and hiked the Hoo Doo trail to look at the battle scene petroglyph. This and the other drawings in the park were quite hard to see and some idiots had writen their names over the pictographs (red pigment paintings). I was too late for the tour to the restricted area, where there are supposed to be better scenes.


Battle scene pictograph with increased contrast.


Hoo doos.

I camped at the side of a dead-end farmer's road (in a ditch) near Medicine Hat that night. It is much harder in farming areas to find good free campsites. I was now reduced to finding a place near dusk and cooking my suppers and breakfasts at picnic parks along the way.

The next day I spent in Eastend – a charming small town with a very good little museum. The museum had the obligatory dinosaur bones and several restored buildings including a marvelous 1950's/60's bungalow that reminded me of where I grew up. The main difference was that they had an armadillo in their living room... Strangely, I met up with and had coffee with 2 sailors in this very landlocked town. They live on board a large ferro cement boat in North Carolina and were interested in sailing the Pacific coast, so I told them about our adventures there.


Armadillo on classic 70's carpet.

Because driving across the highways of the prairies can be a bit sleep inducing, I took to stopping in all the towns along the way. Some were quite lively and clearly a going concern, but most were faded remnants of their former selves (see picture of Aneroid's sign). I found it very sad to see churches and businesses closed up and houses collapsing into the high grasses. The amalgamation of so many farms and the resulting increase in farm size has depopulated many centers.


What's wrong with this sign?


Abandoned house.

My next night's camp was much more pleasant, with deer grazing nearby and a nice view out over a farmer's pond. Thinking of Rani, I concocted a one pot Indian 'biriyani' of rice, mexican peas, red pepper, soy protein, and Patak's vindaloo curry paste. It actually tasted quite decent :)

The next day I visited the excellent Cherniak gallery in Assiniboia. This privately created gallery is free to the public and has an excellent collection of recent Canadian paintings, Australian art, Chinese antiques and even a room full of group of seven paintings. It is the gift of a local banker to the community. The gallery was superior to many public galleries I have seen. That night in my farmer's field campground, I heard two coyotes howling very close to the tent.

The following day I reached Winnipeg and enjoyed a walk along the trails near the Forks historic site, followed by an afternoon at the Musuem of Man, etc. The museum had some superb dioramas and the Hudsons Bay company exhibit was particularly good. They also had a complete – and I mean complete – replica of the Hudsons Bay Company's Nonsuch ketch housed in a massive room that was built around her when she retired from her sailing voyages. The legislature here reminds me of the one in Victoria, complete with statue of Victoria in front and fountain at the rear. The Manitoba version is strict neo-Classical with massive doric columns.


Buffalo hunt diorama


Nonsuch transom - I plan to redo Ladybug II to look like this.


Manitoba Legislature
The next day I crossed into Ontario, stopping to make breakfast in the lovely town of Kenora. In Vermillion Bay I had a refreshing swim in a lake and a much needed wash (the only main downsides to this nomadic lifestyle is having to carry your own water and limited access to showers). I bought some water treatment for the tent as it looked like rain was threatening. The night's camp was up a lumber road and I went for a nice hike through the woods here after waterproofing the tent fly.

In Thunder Bay, i spent most of the day at Fort William – an extensive and well presented reconstruction of the North West Company's main fort and trading post. There were dozens of re-enactments and I had a chance to paddle a voyageur canoe. The North West company was based out of Montreal and competed head on with the Hudsons Bay Company until they amalgamated around 1820. In downtown Thunder Bay I visited the marina (of course!) and chatted with a sailor on a boat the same size as Ladybug. He had paddled around lake Superior last year in a kayak (an 8 week trip) and hoped to sail the same route. My camp that night was by a peaceful gravel quarry.


Furs at Fort William.


Birch bark and wood canoes.


Terry Fox tribute near Thunder Bay.

I finally had a good hike the next day in Lake Superior Provincial park. They have a Coastal trail here similar to the Juan de Fuca trail near Victoria. I met two large groups of teenagers on this trail. I almost ended up camping here, but decided to drive a little outside the park and camped on a lovely sand beach overlooking Lake Superior. The driving here is through lovely mixed forests and the hiking trail was in great shape and looked lightly used.

From here I drove into St Sault Marie and visited the locks (broken) and art gallery (not great). It was somewhat depressing to learn that the Canadian locks fell down in 1985 and were rebuilt on a much smaller scale in 95, leaving the only way for commercial shipping to reach Lake Superior via the 3 sets of American locks. The reason we built our own locks in the first place was because in 1870, the Americans denied access to a ship load of our soldiers en route to quell a rebellion. It strikes me as ridiculous that we did not maintain this important shipping link from the Atlantic. From Sault St Marie, I began to see farms again amongst the woods. I camped that night beside a microwave tower with the sound of cows lowing in the distance. Today I am off to see the big nickel in Sudbury.


Video of oil pump in Saskatchewan - there were hundreds of these in farmer's fields in this province and Manitoba.