Across the water again

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007
Doyles, NewfundLAND to Little Bras d’Or, Nova Scotia

30 miles, sort of
Darkness to sunshine!

Up a little after 5 a.m. so I could be sure to get to the ferry by 6:30. I had unhooked everything but power yesterday evening when the rain let up for a few moments, so I wouldn’t have to go through the entire routine this morning, assuming it would still be raining!

I definitely do not like driving in the dark, especially when it’s also wet and cold. Especially knowing that the big creatures are out at that hour, and from the looks of the highway and all the tire marks where someone had slammed on their brakes, I was not comfortable driving at all.

There was quite a bit of graffiti on the blasted rock walls lining the highway in spots. Sorry to see that graffiti happens everywhere. But one in particular made me think a little – a task in itself at this hour of the morning while anticipating a moose jumping out in front of me. Petroglyphs have fascinated man for a long time, and we assume that the ancients weren’t just writing their names, right? I saw one piece of “art” today that might at least make someone think, down the road of time – a Molson beer bottle and a date!

I made it to the ferry in one piece! And had just enough time to brew a cuppa tea and walk Penny one last time before boarding.

Different ship than my previous crossing. And I don’t know if it was the weather, or the ship, or simply the direction, but the crossing was considerably rougher than before. (That’s said, remembering the Alinuihaha Channel in Hawaii, smooth going east and rough as can be going west! or was it north and south? I don't really remember!) I don’t walk well on shipboard anymore, and I certainly bounced off the walls today! Challenging when carrying a purse, a computer bag (to take advantage of the wi-fi on board) and a tray with breakfast. The cashier took pity on me and carried the tray for me to the closest table! And was then shocked when I left a tip! I guess that isn’t done!

The crossing took longer than usual – over seven and a half hours (supposedly usually about 5 hours) – because a freighter was in “our dock” and was delayed in departing. Thankfully he finally got out of there, or who knows how long we would have been kept on board. Penny was crossing her legs by the time I could let her out!
Drove up the road just a short distance upon arrival, in sunshine mind you!! to the park we had visited on the tour – the Arm of Gold.

I learned something interesting by returning to the park – the owner remembered me and showed me to a very nice site. Which was almost level, unlike when the tour was there. I don’t recall mentioning it here in the blog, but I was extremely disappointed with the parks that Good Sam picked for the tour. We had to go through contortions to level our coaches at each of the sites (except one – the St. John, NB site, after the tiny ferry ride, was very nice). For those who don’t know, these big boxes must be as close to level as possible for the refrigerator/freezers to function properly. And too long at a less than level position will kill the refrigerator. As in kill it dead. So we really had to work at getting some semblance of level at most of the tour RV parks. Arriving back at this park showed me that they do have good sites – they must give their worst sites to the lower paying tour groups. I blame the groups for that, rather than the parks.

These two pictures are samples of the view from where I parked tonight!

By the way, all my teasing about how to pronounce NewfundLAND reminds me I need to tell you how to pronounce another province name too - LabraDOOR - not like the dog breed, but accenting the DOOR (door as in closet door) like LAND. There, lesson complete.

Slept like a baby after seeing the sun again!