Archive for the ‘Vacation’ Category

Once again I have been far too lax about posting to this blog.  Maybe I can beg off with the excuse that I’ve been out gathering new material.  Anybody buy that?

Well it’s partly true.  Marilyn and I decided that in order to afford a holiday this year and spend some time together we would have to combine business with pleasure.  So on the 21st of June she threw her kit bag in the truck with mine and we headed off on our great summer getaway.

Hartland Covered Bridge

First stop Florenceville, NB where Marilyn met some of the Fastrax office staff for the first time, including the lady who was in charge of my orientation, and my dispatcher.  From there we went to Grand Falls where we picked up a load of frozen pizzas destined for Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. (Marilyn says “Don’t forget the garlic fingers”).

Northern Ontario

Marilyn kept the camera clicking all across New Brunswick, Quebec, and Northern Ontario into Manitoba.  Sure glad we got the 16 GB memory stick.  Of course, the wildlife I’ve seen on previous trips decided not to appear this time, but she did manage to snag a lot of scenery and at least one deer.

After delivering our load in Portage we had time to visit the Fort la Reine Museum, and she was able to get many interesting photos.  It just so happened that they were holding  Heritage Day celebrations and we had the opportunity to sample cinnamon rolls baked in an authentic outdoor clay oven.  A little burnt on top but tasty nonetheless.

Covered Wagon Fort la Reine Museum

After spending the morning at the museum we picked up our load at McCain’s and headed west for Edmonton.  With a bit of time to spare we stopped in at Ste. Rose du Lac, Manitoba for a visit with my aunt and uncle.  We enjoyed a delicious supper and a nice visit which included a couple of cousins of mine and their families.

We arrived in Edmonton Sunday evening and met up with a whole herd of family at the Yellowhead Truckstop.  My brother and his wife and one of their sons, two cousins and their husbands, and a nephew with his wife and children whom we had never met before as they came on the scene after we last left Alberta 23 years ago.  Sure doesn’t seem that long.

We delivered our load in Edmonton early Monday morning then dropped the trailer in the yard, and with the companies kind permission headed off bobtail for the north country.  First stop Grande Prairie where we had a nice visit with an old family friend and his recent bride and adopted son.

Come and get it!

Then, on to Spirit River to spend a few days on the farm with my sister and her husband.  First on the agenda was supper at a niece’s home in Wanham where we met her family for the first time, as well as another niece and her family and a nephew now 19 whom we had never met due to our move back to Nova Scotia.  A total of 13 of us at table including three grand nephews and one grand niece.

On Wednesday we accepted an invitation to the home of another cousin of mine on their farm near Woking.  Her husband had build an outdoor brick oven and we enjoyed a feast of home made pizza cooked to perfection in five minutes flat.  Since he had built it some distance from the house and at the bottom of a hill, he also got his exercise between pizzas.  It’s not every day one gets pizza delivered by scoop shovel, but it was delicious nonetheless.

Pizza on a shovel

Thursday morning, Canada Day, saw us bidding a sad farewell and starting on our return to Edmonton to go back to work.  A short visit in Wanham to allow the young ones a visit inside the truck and get a couple of treats to remember us by and then on the road again.  We stopped for a visit and supper with a cousin and her husband in Spruce Grove then on to the truck stop in Edmonton to await a load assignment in the morning.

More of our working holiday adventures to come ,and more details of our farm visit for you animal lovers out there.

The following morning,  Tuesday 25th of August, as I said in the last post, we breakfasted with Evan then bade him adieu and headed into Yarmouth to see what trouble we could get into.  First we stopped into Canadian Tire where Helen was already hard at work.  I love work, could just watch it for hours, but when Helen spotted us, she stopped working.  So, we had to buy some batteries for one of our cameras to keep her from getting in trouble with the boss.  Not exactly true, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Saying goodbye to Helen once more we descended on beautiful downtown Yarmouth and immediately discovered the Fire Fighters Museum of Nova Scotia.  Well I guess we didn’t exactly discover it as it’s been there for a number of years and the information lady in Kingston had given us a pamphlet.

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Entrance to the Yarmouth Fire Fighters Museum.

Firebell near the entrance.

One of many lovely restored fire engines on the site.

Speaking of restorations. Some were steam driven like us.....

.......And many were of the horse drawn variety.

Before that, man power was the way to go.

The museum boasts hundreds of fire brigade badges from all over the world.

Of particular interest to us was our own local volunteer brigade where we live now........

.......and where we used to live.

You wouldn't think they'd allow vagrants in the museum would you?

This was as close as we wanted to get to the flames.

The museum also has a collection of antique toy fire engines, uniforms, and a huge collection of shoulder crests, patches, and badges from fire departments around the world.  There are also many photographs from fires around the area, including the Circus Ship Fire of 1963.

By the time Marilyn and I had toured the entire museum (both floors) and taken numerous pictures, we were beginning to get hungry again.  I don’t know what it is about vacations that makes one so hungry but that seemed to be a common problem for us throughout the week.

In the next installment I’ll tell you about the pleasant afternoon we spent at the very scenic, and  Helen recommended, Yarmouth Lighthouse on Cape Fochu.  Don’t miss this exciting adventure.

Leaving Digby, Marilyn and I motored on to Yarmouth. The trip was uneventful, and all in all, a pleasant drive.  Arriving in the town of Yarmouth we went directly to the restaurant where we had arranged to meet Marilyn’s school chum Helen and her son Evan for supper.  We figured it would be best to be sure of parking nearby and then we could kill the time we had with a bit of local sight seeing.

The ferry from Portland Maine, known as the CAT, which is short for catamaran, was in dock, so the traffic was quite heavy on the local streets.  However, we found a parking spot directly across the street from Rudder’s Seafood Restaurant and Brew Pub.  We later found out they had a large customer parking lot of their own with plenty of room, so parking wasn’t a problem.

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The CAT in dock in Yarmouth, NS

We walked around the local streets, investigating a couple of art galleries and some craft shops.  The prices seemed a bit high on most things but then that’s typical in an area with a relatively high tourist traffic.

Mural on a local coal shed.

An example of local stone construction.

A fishing boat next to the ice loader.

Lots of boats but this one seemed especially tough.

Getting close to time for our supper date we wandered into a small shop selling leather items.  It turned out to be run by a young fellow who had taken over the shop from his mother, who still supplied some of the leather items that were on display.

The outside view of the leather shop. Owner told us all these works of art were created with rope.

I bought a small leather sheath to hold my utility knife on my belt when doing renovation projects around the house.  Having just spent several days shingling the roof at home this item would certainly have come in handy a few days earlier.  Oh well, I’ll have it for next time.

By now it was nearing 5:00 so we decided to head on in to Rudder’s Restaurant and find ourselves a table.  Rudder’s Seafood Restaurant & Brew Pub is located in the former Parker-Eakin’s Building which was built in 1867 as part of Young’s Wharf for John Young. The building was used as offices and a store for the firm of Young, Kinney & Corning until 1874 when it was leased to Parker, Eakins & Company who purchased the property in 1877.

Rudder's also has a seafood outlet in an old streetcar on the waterfront in case you want to walk around and eat.

Helen and Evan soon arrived,  having spent the day at their jobs with the local Canadian Tire store.  The prices weren’t too bad and the food was excellent.  Service was a bit slow but it was supper hour after all.  Our waiter, Cliff, was new on the job I think, or not very knowledgeable about his place of employment.  At one point I asked him if they had any ales on the menu as I can’t drink lager. Don’t ask me why, it has something to do with the brew process.  Lager gives me a headache, ale doesn’t,  Go figger. I know I’m weird.

Anyway, Cliff was pretty sure they had no ales, and went on his merry way.  I proceeded to read the menu, which I should have done in the first place.  It turns out that Rudder’s brews 5 different types of beer on premises, all of them ales.   Of course I couldn’t help rubbing it in a bit when Cliff came back.  He took it good naturedly.

After an enjoyable meal Helen invited us out to their place for a visit and to camp in their driveway if we so desired. We graciously accepted as it meant not having to search out a camping site.  Helen and Evan live in the community of  Arcadia, a few miles south east of Yarmouth.

Evan and Helen and Marilyn just before the mosquitoes carried us away.

Well in the next few hours Helen and Marilyn discussed every fellow student, teacher, and principal they had both known during their school years.  Evan and I stood by and kept track of the casualties.  Yearbooks came out of nowhere, and brain cells got quite a workout, stretching back over the almost 40 years since these school chums had last layed eyes on one another.  We indulged ourselves in the coconut cream pie we’d brought from the restaurant, since we hadn’t had room to eat it there.  The coffee flowed and the memories started piling up in drifts on the carpet.

All too soon we had to call it a night, as Helen had to work at Canadian Tire in the morning.  Evan was the lucky one who could sleep in, as his shift didn’t start till noon.  We said our goodnights and packed ourselves off to our caravan in the driveway with warnings to Helen not to wake us when she left for work.  No point in all of us being miserable.

Somehow we managed not to get any of those giant starving mosquitoes in the van with us. Thank heaven for small favors.  The next morning we went in for breakfast with Evan and then headed back into Yarmouth to see what we could see.  More about what we saw in the next installment.

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After leaving Whale Cove we wended our way back along the picturesque drive back into the town of Digby. First settled in 1783 by United Empire Loyalists the town is named for Rear Admiral, Sir Robert Digby, who was Captain of the HMS Atalanta, a 24 gun Brigantine, leading the North American Squadron.

I first visited Digby on my first weekend pass from CFB Cornwallis a few miles up the road, where I took my basic training for the Canadian Armed Forces way back in 1971.  Seems like ancient history now but I have lots of memories of that time in my life and will be telling more about that in another episode of this vacation narrative.

In the meantime Marilyn and I did a bit of sight seeing on Water Street along the waterfront. I bet most of the waterfront towns in the Maritimes have a Water Street.  On the way to Water Street we found a store with a fine example of mural painting on the side.  We couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures of the mural.

Mural of the settling of Digby in 1783

Part 2 of the mural.

Down on Water Street we found a lovely little bake shop cafe for lunch, spent an hour or so browsing a dandy little used book store, and spent some time soaking up the ambiance on the water front.

The Lady Vanessa. A Fisheries Exhibit on board.

Some of the local scallop dragger fleet.

A great spot for lunch.

I have a hard job passing up a used book store.

Our visit to Digby was rather short but definitely high caliber.

Having made a date for supper in Yarmouth Marilyn and I soon headed for the edge of town and got back out on the highway.  Next episode we’ll cover our explorations of the Yarmouth water front and you guessed it, Water Street.  Our supper with friends at Rudder’s Seafood Restaurant and Brew Pub, and how we spent the evening.

By now we knew we wanted to be in Yarmouth for Tuesday evening to meet up with Marilyn’s old school chum Hellen and her son Evan.  That meant slightly accelerating our progress along the shore, so we decided instead of returning home along the South Shore as originally planned we would return along the Fundy Shore in order to visit some of the locations we still wanted to see.

Another search on the internet (man that wireless card on the laptop comes in handy) and a phone call helped us to decide on Whale Cove as the place to spend our second night.  That made Whale Cove Campground our immediate destination.

Out past Digby there is a long narrow strip of land called Digby Neck.  Quite a surprising number of people live on Digby Neck, which, in addition to the long part attached to the mainland, also consists of two islands, each reachable by ferry.  The first island is Long Island, the second Brier Island.  We knew we didn’t have time to travel to the end with the accompanying four ferry rides required for the return trip, but Whale Cove is situated just before the first of the ferries.

The Whale Cove Campground is owned and operated by Vaughn and Gloria Tidd.  Very fitting since the nearest community is Tiddville.  The Campground mascot is LobsterMan, a character fashioned entirely from lobster parts by Vaughn. (See photo below) This character adorns the signs along the way, guiding the first time visitor to the site.

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Whale Cove Campground. Lobsterman and a couple of mere humans.

Because the weather was still rather inclement we decided to rent the cottage offered by the proprietor, which turned out to be an older motor home, but actually also turned out to be quite comfortable.  By the time we got our stuff moved in for the night dusk was falling rapidly.

Whale Cove Campground's Honeymoon Suite complete with honeymooner.

The campground included several unique features including these mobile fire pits. I was tempted to light ours up and take it for a stroll down the road but somebody talked me out of it.

If you like good old fashioned guitar and banjo music visit Vaughn and Gloria’s website.  It features a different tune on each page.  http://www.angelfire.com/country/campers/Welcome.html

The Whale Cove Campground museum. There were some old things in here. Marilyn said I was one of them. Can you imagine that?

After we had visited the museum and social room in the basement of the main building we packed up the van, turned in our key and paid a visit to the actual cove.  While Whale Cove is a very serene and picturesque little place we couldn’t see too much of it that morning due to the heavy fog.

We did however, manage to pick up some shells and interesting rocks and take a few photos before heading back toward Digby.

Look what washed up on shore in Whale Cove.

A very rocky shoreline at Whale Cove.

Somebody snuck up behind me while I was picking up shells.

See what I found?

Luckily there was a fuel stop out there on Digby Neck because somebody forgot to put gas in the van on our way through Digby.  While we were at it we replenished the ice in the cooler.

Another chance to try out the new siphon hose. Worked like a charm.

In the next episode we spend a few pleasant hours in Digby, a town I hadn’t spent much time in since my weekend leaves from basic training in nearby Cornwallis.  Don’t miss it.