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Prince Edward Island
This morning we woke up at almost 7AM (Atlantic Time) way late for us usually. I lost whatever unspoken contest we had, and got out of bed to turn on the heater! We like keeping the heat off overnight and sleeping in the cold rather than having the heat kick on and off.
We decided to drive to the beach to see if we could see more than last night, and we ended up finding a very nice board walk with some great views
From there it was only a 3 hour drive to our campground on Prince Edward Island. I can’t imaging what a zoo this place must be during the summer but at this time of the year it was very quiet. They had assigned us a pretty lousy campsite but the nice person checking us in just said to drive around and pick whatever spot we liked, and give her a call on the off chance that someone else was going to be here and had booked that site. Even with all of that it took us more than an hour to get situated. The sites were so uneven and once we got the camper in a decent position the steps would not go down far enough! In and out, up and down… Usually it takes us about 10 minutes to back in and level up. It took us almost an hour!
We had hoped to bike, but it was very cloudy and windy today so we didn’t have any desire to bike. So we drove the coastline, and around the area. Here’s a very attractive photo of the shoreline with a not so attractive picture of my shirt blowing in the wind.
A more interesting picture of the beach.
The National Park closed last week, and things have shut down very quickly. So most of the shops and attractions were closed for the season. Thankfully our dinner place for the evening was not one of them!
It was a four course dinner experience. You got a 1 pound lobster plus unlimited chowder and mussels and salad and desert. it was all very good and we had the nicest server who talked with us and answered all of our questions about the area. This place goes through 20,000 pounds of lobster and 90,000 pounds of mussels every year. They have a huge lobster holding area that they feed with fresh and salt water to keep them happy/slightly sedated before they are cooked for us. The mussels are also locally “cultivated” and were delicous.
Here I am diligently working on my Lobster!
Bless the Broken Road
No I haven’t suddenly become a Rascal Flatts fan! But 40km into the 120km stretch of NB 108 (New Brunswick 108 East) that phrase came into my mind. Why? Because it is quite possibly the worst stretch of highway we have ever been directed to drive by any maps application ever. Not counting the horrible dike road incident at Lake Chilcot Arkansas in 2021. That was clearly not a highway. The first warning was that there was no gas or service for 120km. The next bad sign was that the speed limit was 80km/h but we couldn’t drive more than about 50! The road was broken! When Jane posted on the RV group about our experience this was the reply.
Who or what gave you the option of taking the 108? When it was called the Renous shortcut way back when, that road was take at your own risk, things have not changed.
The road was broken for miles and miles.
But God bless it!! it was beautiful. And totally devoid of cell service!
Our stomachs (and bladders) were churning from the bumps so badly that we stopped at the first gas station 1.7 km from the end of the road. But their network was down. So gas was cash only. Ummm we have some US$ but very few loonies. Thankfully gas (at least petrol) was not the point of the stop. So we moved on. Never have we been so happy to get on a smooth highway!
And we arrived at the Kouchibouguac campground on Saint-Louis Lagoon on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Eight hours after our six hour drive started. But… this is why we call it an adventure! You never know what you are going to encounter…
Our first order of business after getting the camper settled, by which I mean picking up everything that was strewn all over the floor. Everything from an entire box of frozen meat from the freezer to cans of soda and ice trays. What a mess. After getting it all cleaned up we decided to walk down the trail toward Kelly’s beach… Unfortunately we discovered that the bridge to the beach had been removed for the season! Grrrr 2.2 km of constant mosquitos for nothing! Adventure! We turned around and headed back to the camper.
Life is not so bad! Bless the Broken Road.
Catching Up
I’ve missed a couple of days along the way, so with today being a “day of rest” I thought I could catch us up.
Corning
This is going way back, but I did forget to write about our trip to the Corning Museum of Glass. Very very cool. We are not “museum people” but this was fun, educational, interesting, interactive, … Who knew there was so much different science and engineering behind “glass!” We started with a glass etching experience and then went to the hot shop to see them blow a huge glass light fixture. If you have never seen a glass blowing demonstration you really should. Mathematics, Physics, Art, Engineering, it’s all there.
Here is Jane etching her glass. I made a Runestone glass!
Montreal
We drove from Stowe to Montreal, beautiful scenery but we are still too early for the change in color. We knew that going in that we were likely too early for some places and would be too late for others by the time we were finished. But it was pretty. Kind of funny crossing the border. I know it’s no joke, But kind of odd to the average tourist. Do you have any firearms? No. Do you own any firearms? No. Do you have any defensive weapons… like pepper spray or a hunting knife? Ummm no. Does the hatchet for splitting wood count? What about my chef’s knife? We are towing a camper after all. Then there were the questions about alcohol… Of course we have some wine in the camper. Are you visiting anyone? No. Do you know anyone? No. Will you meet anyone? Ummm, I imagine we might meet people while we are camping or eating out… it’s hard to not meet people.
My vision of Montreal was influenced way to much by the Canada pavilion at EPCOT. It was nice, but felt more big city than anything, even in old town. It was cool to see the city at sunset, especially the Olympic stadium in the distance.
In the morning we took a short bike ride, and got an even better view. A very cool structure.
Maybe the oddest thing we saw was a driver missing the corner and plowing into the retaining wall right on the edge of a restaurant. People pulled out their phones and started filming, then the driver and the passenger tried to switch places. It was hard to tell what was going on, and we had to catch our ferry so we didn’t wait until the police came.
Just before we fell asleep Jane said âI smell skunkâ. Yes, there it was the distinct smell of skunk. Was there a skunk under the camper? Did one of the stray cats around the campground get into it with a skunk and was now lurking around our campsite? Should I go out into the dark and try to figure it out? In the words of Marlin Perkins âIâll stay safely in the camperâ We will never know, the smell was gone in the morning.
Quebec City
Quebec city definitely had more of an old European vibe to it! We enjoyed our walk, even if it did involve over 310 stairs! We walked and wandered and then enjoyed a wonderful Italian dinner in the upper town. After dinner we made our way back through the streets toward the ferry.
And enjoyed the view of Château Frontenac as we headed across the river.
Today is mostly a day of rest, doing laundry and catching up on some work… But we did get in a 26 mile ride along the river this afternoon.
You can see Château Frontenac in the daylight along with a couple of cruise ships. We also saw the last bridge across the river as we head toward the ocean.
The plan for tonight is to relax, have a some burgers at our campsite, and prepare for a long (8 hour) drive tomorrow to New Brunswick. We will be happy to get back to a province where English is the dominant language! It has been so long since we have visited a country where we do not speak the accepted/dominant language. Of course the Canadians are very welcoming, friendly, nice, and do their best to understand us. Especially if we try to greet them in French or say a few words. TIL that when you are biking in Quebec you can’t expect people to understand “on your left” instead one should say “Ă ta gauche” I’m not sure “on your left” is a universal bike thing, or whether I’m just really bad ad saying it, but it did not get the normal response!
Waterfalls
Today our goal was to explore some of the other state parks and hikes near Watkins Glen, verifying whether Ithaca really is âGorgesâ, and try out a few wineries on the shores of Cayuga lake. It was a good day!
We started out with the Gorge Hike at Robert Treman State Park. We were there early enough to get some beautiful morning light.
The hike takes you to the top of Lucifer Falls, and then you descend The view looking back and up is also amazing, but then you realize you have a lot of climbing to do to get back where you started. But it was such a beautiful morning and we almost had the trail to ourselves.
After this hike we made a quick stop at Buttermilk Falls just on the edge of Ithaca.
We were noticing that the falls were a bit dry compared to the descriptions and other pictures we have seen.
Both Jane and I have been to Ithaca before, back when Kaia was doing her college search. But, that was in much cooler weather. It was nice to be able to explore. The motto of Ithaca is âIthaca is gorges,â and it is a very pretty town, very hilly, but areas and paths along the waterfalls leading right to campus.
We headed over to the shore of Cayuga lake at Taughannock Falls state park. We at our sandwiches and enjoyed the lake, and I answered a couple of emails on my iPad. Our post lunch hike was to the falls. It was a nice flat hike leading back to the falls, where we also saw a group of Perigrine Falcons circling. These falcons can dive at speeds of 200mph to knock out their prey!
Although high, the water flow at these falls was very low. So after our hike we continued north along the lake to check out some wineries: Sheldrake Point, the Thirsty Owl, and Buttonwood grove. All had great views of the lake so we could sip and enjoy the view. We thought that the Thirsty Owl should be introduced to the Thirsty Otter in Balsam Lake. We are learning that there are lots of good wines in the region if not what we are used to. Most are more of a German style like a dry Riesling or even a dry Gewurstraminer on the white side. While the reds tend to be a little more traditional, but with Cab Franck being a bit more prevalent. We definitely found something to like everywhere.
We finished our wine tasting a little too early to head back to town for a dinner out. So we stopped at a the Finger Lakes Distillery along the way to enjoy the waning sun and more lake views, and a cocktail.
Next stop Stowe Vermont!
Two Hikes: Letchworth and Watkins Glen
We started this morning with a hike from the upper to middle to lower falls at Letchworth State Park, and ended with the Gorge hike at Watkins Glenn. What a great day of waterfalls!
I have already had to rethink my opinion of New York State, which is totally based on my experience with New York City and âNew Yorkersâ. The rural parts of New York are amazing!
We spent last night at Letchworth state park, which claims to be the number one state park in the USA. I donât know how you can possibly back up such a claim, but as the pundits say, Letchworth belongs in the conversation! Beautiful, well kept, great hiking options …
I donât think our neighbors would vote for it… When we pulled into our loop and saw the water station we pulled over… Before we got out of the truck a guy on a bike pulled up to tell us âsome guy just jack-knifed his camper, and is blocking the road. You might want to take your time! So we did, and even then the poor couple was no closer to a solution. They had unhooked their truck from the camper but were trying to reconnect in completely the wrong way! Husband and wife were barely talking to each other. But they did offer to move so that we could try to get around. We did, and we were all settled before they got into their site.
We had not thought to take anything out of the freezer for dinner, so we took out a couple of stakes and I put them in the sous vide while we headed to Eddyâs to watch the sunset! It was very nice with a great view of the river gorge and the sun disappearing behind the bluffs!
The morning was quite cool, we had to turn on the heat for a few minutes to take the chill out of the air. We dressed in layers and headed out towards middle and upper falls. Our plan was to hike from there down to the lower falls and back, about a 4 mile hike.
It was a great morning for a hike. There was almost nobody else on the trail. We did meet a couple from Ohio who had just come from Watkins Glen, so they had good advice for us on how to do the gorge hike.
After showers and some tacos for lunch we packed up camp and headed for Watkins Glen. It was just a two hour drive, and on much better roads than the route we took to Letchworth!!
The campground sits high above the village of Watkins Glen, and the gorge hike starts way down low. So we descended and then started the long trek back upwards. But it was spectacular.
After all of that hiking and climbing we were definitely hungry and sleepy campers. We hooked up our fire pit, and sat around the fire with some warmed up pasta and wine and just relaxed. By bedtime a light rain had started so we had that sound to put us to sleep for the night.
Day One Cabin to Indiana Dunes NP
Mostly just a travel day, but with a short hike at the end. Going through Chicago is never fun, but gave us the quote of the day from Jane: âOh my gosh we are getting passed by an Oscar Meyer Weiner!â
The Indiana Dunes National Park is the newest National Park. It is located right along the shore of Lake Michigan, with plenty of beaches and sand dunes to explore. Here we are on the beach, Jane is pointing at downtown Chicago, which we could just make out through the haze.
It was a very nice campground, but no electricity so we decided to cook over an open fire. We had bought a bundle of wood at the gas station but it was very wet, so it was a struggle but we eventually had enough coals for some turkey burgers. It was a very nice night to enjoy the fire, but we have a long day of driving to get to New York so it was an early night.
Where does all our stuff come from? Going through the Canal.
I grew up in farm country so I’m pretty familiar with how food gets to the grocery store. But what about all the other stuff we buy at all the other stores? Well here is a clue for you…
One thing this trip through the panama canal has made me realize is just how amazing, complex, and expensive the global shipping system is. Have you ever wondered how much it costs for a ship to go through the Panama canal? Take a guess? Our cruise ship cost about $370,000 and larger ships can cost over a million!
I can’t even begin to guess the value of everything in those containers but just think about it. Cars, wood, electronics, furniture, carpet, gas, oil, grain, it all makes its way around the world in giant ships. In Colon there is a huge duty free area where buyers go and order containers of various things. Oh, I like these shorts I’ll take 2 containers of medium 1 of large, etc…
Going through the Panama canal you really see where this all comes together, literally, to fit through a bunch of locks that are a thousand feet long and 160 feet wide. Plus the new locks for the even bigger ships.
Our route through the canal started at the Gatun locks. These take you up 85 feet to lake Gatun. You can see our ship the Celebrity Millenium in the background just entering the first lock. The white and blue ship is a car carrier heading the opposite direction.
Here we are in the lock looking backward you can see a tanker heading out.
We then travelled across the lake (formed by damming the Chagres river) to the Pedro Miguel locks which stepped us down about 50 feet and then on the the Miraflores locks which took us down to the Pacific Ocean.
This sequence just shows us at the Miraflores locks dropping down the final step before we head out.
Panama City in the background.
The whole thing is such an engineering marvel. And not done with new technology! Much of the canal has not changed since it was built over 100 years ago. No pumps are used, it is all gravity fed. Which means that in order for the locks to work they are draining the lake. Of course it is refilled by the river, but each ship uses about 52 million gallons of water to traverse the locks. The rainy season has not been very rainy this year so the lake level is down which means some ships can’t go through, or they have to unload some cargo before they go. One interesting addition that helps conserve water is that now we can use water from the side going down to halfway fill the side going up. This is a nice bit of recycling that saves about 50% of the water.
A Day in Panama
After docking in Colon we joined our tour group for the day to see some of the sites in Panama. This tour included stops at the new locks – Wide enough for the “neo” class ships that do not fit in the original canal. It also included a stop and boat ride on Lake Gatun where we visited the village of some indigenous people and looked for wildlife along the shore.
I had this idea (probably from childhood) that the Panama canal was one long canal. Which is not true at all. The canal is actually a series of locks that bring the ship up into lake Gatun then you cross lake Gatun and go down some more locks to bring you back to the ocean. So, the constraints on the ships are really the size of the locks. In 2016 they opened a new set of locks at each end to support the really large ships. Now the main constraint is really on the depth of the water in the lake.
Here is a view of both sets of locks on the Atlantic side:
The left side is the new lock which runs one way, They go one way for half the day and then the other way the other half of the day. the right side is the old locks which run both ways most of the time, but they can shut it down and switch to one way traffic if they have maintenance to do.
Here is a view of the village we stopped at.
Greenskeeper's Revenge!
Today the mens club event was very fun. The obstacles on the course were a great mid season reminder that I just play for fun.
The first hole there was a tractor parked right next to what we locally refer to as Gilligan’s Island. The tractor was right where I like to hit it, so of course I started out with a bang!
Number 11 we had to tee off in the trees and shoot over another tree to get on the green.
Number 15 the tractor was parked in front of the green. Its hard enough to chip onto that hole without the obstacle.
On the first hole we had to putt with a hockey stick! Happy Gilmore!!It was hilarious nobody knew how hard to hit it with a stick.
Some of the other holes had hose or rakes or other obstructions laid out in front of the green. Not to mention that the pin placements were diabolical! Right on the edge of the green by the water, right on top of a hill. A couple of the tee boxes were moved into the waste bunker areas near the tees.
My partner and I ended up tied for 2nd, so we even won a couple of bucks in pro shop cash.