The drive back into Corner Brook was actually not as bad as I thought. The sun was perfect on the Bay of Islands but there was no place to stop and take a picture. Well, one place. This rock is called WeeBall or WeeBald depending who you are talking too. I think you can see why. I just loved the little poof of cloud sitting on his head like an ill fitting toupee. 
Who would believe two sunny days in a row in Newfoundland. Last time I checked the forecast it looked like all week was going to be nice too.
I stopped at Sobeys for some bug spray and fruit. Also scored a BIG jug of water. Think weight for the camper. Then a quick stop at Tim’s and a top up of the old gas tank. Fuel is more expensive here, of course, about $1.33 a litre. Once on the road I made good time. The Trans-Canada is in really good shape. I was really worried what the highway north was going to be like. At Deer Lake I pulled into the visitor centre to check with them what the roads were like. But in the parking lot was a gorgeous little Boler, the same colour as Floyd. I stopped and the family who belonged to it were having a snack at the picnic table adjacent. We looked at each other’s campers and compared notes. This guy also took out his fridge and furnace as they only worked on 110v. He said the furnace was all rusted out anyway and beyond saving. We both agreed a small generator would be just the ticket and they had problems with their camper bouncing around all over too. I’m convinced I just need more weight. I really don’t know what more I can put in there. I also need more weight in the truck so it rides smoother too. Maybe a couple pieces of sheet metal?!? Anyway, no fear on the highway into Gros Morne National Park. It was in better shape than the Trans-Canada. Hopefully it will continue.
I had to choose in Gros Morne whether to see the table lands on the way up or wait for the trip back as I have to backtrack anyway. Gros Morne is split in two and it’s about an hour from the park gate south to the table lands. So I chose to go north to make tomorrow into St Anthony shorter.
I got a lovely campsite just on the edge of the national park and have a fire crackling away. 
Camp pizza for supper tonight. Again there no cell service or wifi in the campsite, only down at the shower house but it’s pretty puny so I’ll have to post some time tomorrow. Night.
Captain Cook is the man around here. I had no idea how much time he spent in Newfoundland before he got really famous in Tahiti (and eaten in Hawaii). But his maps were really first class and helped the British keep control of the fishing grounds off the Grand Banks.
No sea glass. I read outside for a bit but it was just so unpleasant. I came inside. Now it’s getting dark so I think I’ll make one more trip to the outhouse and then bed. Night.
I had the option of taking Marty in her kennel into the ship and leaving her in a pet room (filled with terrified and abandoned dogs, I could hear them crying all over the ship 😩) or leaving her in her own bed for the six hour crossing. I opted to leave her in the camper. This is how she was sleeping this morning. Such a little character. I really love her when she’s not making me insane.
The crossing went smooth and fast actually. First thing I did was get a coffee. Excellent.
Then I found a quiet spot to sit. I ate my lunch, bacon Sammie’s with cherry tomatoes. 
I wound two skeins of yarn into balls. I really even hesitate to mention this because I have so many unfinished projects but I want to make a Newfoundland hat. A sort of watch cap incorporating the anchor and fish and wave motives from the hats I’ve seen. I got a specially dyed skein called “forge fire”, blacks, greys and crimson colours of the forge with a skein of off-white. I charted out the pattern and can’t wait to start.
I think they called it a Luna moth.
Then onto the famous Cabot Trail. It began , as most things do, quite nicely. I arrived at the coast and marvelled at all the pretty cottages on the sand dunes. But I was hungry and ducked into a likely place for another lobster roll. 
Well it was jam packed full of lobster. Big chunks. But it just was only good, not great. I was disappointed. But they all can’t be good.
Then the trail began climbing into the highlands and the clouds lifted. The sun came out. It was gorgeous. 
But the cliff side driving was not the majority of the views. The majority was thru forest. Thick, impenetrable, lush green forest. Many of the views were rolling highlands covered in thick, impenetrable, lush green forest. There was a significant amount of construction and getting a permit to pass thru the park took an ungodly amount of time. I just couldn’t figure out why people sat at the gate for sooo long. My turn came and the chatty Kathy dispensing passes cooed over the dog, asked where I was from, tried to make small talk. Seriously. Give me my pass and deal with the line up behind me!!!
There were lots of folk art places, galleries and do dad shops, kitschy arty dust catchers. I’m so done with that stuff. I don’t dust the stuff I have now, I don’t want more. The stores I was really interested in were closed (thrift shops) where you find the real art that grandpa Joe made for little Susie that she couldn’t wait to turf when she moved out etc. I don’t want a plastic lighthouse made in China. Anyway it was late when I got back to camp. I refilled the cooler with ice, choked down a couple cookies, took Marty on a long walk totally forgot to have a shot of Jager and now it’s too late. So there. Day done. I should have stayed in camp.
Back to camp for lunch. I fried up a pound of bacon, good for a quick snack out of the cooler, and had yummy bacon tomato Sammie’s. It’s such a messy thing to cook I thought I’d just get it all over with rather than spread the misery over a couple days. Then I lounged around and read.
So I’d read a couple chapters, then walk the dog, then read a couple more chapters. I just can’t put it down.
Warm bun, homemade mayo, more than one lobster worth of meat in there and the bonus was excellent PEI potato salad. All washed down with a strawberry rhubarb infused ale. So good. Then across the bridge and back thru New Brunswick into Nova Scotia. I found the drive really hard today and it took forever to get anywhere. I called the ferry outfit to book my passage to Newfoundland but couldn’t get a daytime berth till Thursday. Which is good actually as it will give me time to explore Cape Breton. I was praying for a campsite the last hour of my drive and there just wasn’t one. But finally a provincial park showed up and I stopped. It’s such a lovely little park. Look how far I had to back into my site and I did it!!!
All in one go too!! Anyway glad to stop. A glass of Jager and my book and now it’s lights out. G’night.
I don’t even know what time it stopped raining, maybe 10ish. We went for a walk around the campsite trying to track down a handy man, or someone who had bolt cutters. After the broken window I tried to secure the bike with the lock so that it wouldn’t wriggle around but all I succeeded in doing was to jam the lock mechanism and then I couldn’t open it. I tried everything. We’d had that lock for years. It was a good sturdy friend and I hated to cut it off but I needed that bike off. It was just too unstable back there.
Then I spent the next half hour playing Tetris with the guts of the truck box, stowing the bike and bike carrier inside. My poor knees. In and out and in and out BUT I did it!! Everything fit snuggly and is accessible. All day today the truck just rode better too with that little bit of extra weight. I think Floyd will ride better tomorrow too without that bike throwing him all over the place. I still wish I had more tongue weight but we’ll see how much difference this makes. I just don’t have anything heavy to put in the front of the camper. I did buy four gallon jugs of water and have another 2 gallon jug to fill–that’s sixty pounds. The cooler and picnic basket can sit up front too. Another twenty pounds. So, we’ll see.
They were doing maintenance of the brick work. These bricks were made locally with the red clay of the island. I’d wanted a picture of this front gate but I didn’t take a picture of only the church front. What was I thinking?!? Inside it was beautiful!! But with that very unfortunate smell of old unused buildings in damp climates. You don’t smell this in European churches but they don’t have carpets on the floor which is where I suspect the smell was coming from. 
The marble pillars have quite the back story. They actually are not marble at all, but concrete. The visionary priest knew they could not afford real marble so he hired a team of Italian painters to come in. They locked everyone out of the church to protect the secrets of their techniques and with feathers (and maybe a little help from the Big Guy) created these marvellous marble pillars. 
They look just like the real thing!!!
I carried on around the point and ended up at an Acadien concert. It was quite marvellous!! Lots of fiddle and dancing and tears (the song of Evangeline is quite sad). Heading home I drove thru Summerside, the sadder sister city to Charlottetown–it was quite rubby and even with the lobster festival happening there I just really didn’t want to stop. Back at camp I warmed up a can of beans between showers, met my new neighbors and then jumped into Floyd just as the showers became a real rain. I wrote a few post cards then hopped into bed to start my new book. During a lull in the rain Marty and I made a dash to the bathrooms and now we’re are back, safely ensconced in Floyd while the rain is falling outside. Night all 😊
Quite impressive for little Prince Edward Island. Then I went down to the harbour. Not as nice as Victoria. But the Main Street had tons of shops and NO traffic. Where was everyone? I parked in a shady spot and had a brief look around. But I’d read about the Churchill Arms and their British curries. I had to have one. Oh my it was good. Why couldn’t I find something like this in Britain? It wasn’t for lack of looking. Must have been looking in the wrong spots. 
I hadn’t thought I’d go too far so I headed up to the north coast and drove thru the national park. Very scenic. 
At a round about I just about gave myself whiplash when I saw a sign for thrummed mittens. I stopped and had a great visit with Betty, the lady who made all of these. These were only the mitts. Along each wall of her little shed were tables, one side filled with hats and the other with head bands. But I loved the mitts. 
She told me about a Woolen mill the other side of Charlottetown and I just had to go. I bought myself some yarn of course and with permission, took some pics of patterns in the hats I want to steal, I mean, use. 
Then I meandered home. I passed by Lucy Maud Montgomery’s birth place. It was just a lovely cottage as was the one across the street. Mauds’ was the white one. 
I stopped at the oyster barn down at the harbour for supper but there was no room for me. So I got some pan fried halibut to go. It was delish. I forgot to snap a pic. It was already late when I got back. Marty and I went for a long walk around the campsite and checked out the laundry room. They were out of soap so I’ll pick some up tomorrow. Then we watched a cheeky fox making the rounds of the campsites, looking for abandoned food or small pets no doubt. A spot of reading now then bed. Night.
When I crossed over back in 1982ish , it was on a ferry. The train ferry. I think the train actually rolled onto the ferry. I just tried googling it but it’s not clear. Neither is my memory. I think the rail cars actually rolled onto the ferry. I remember helping a couple older ladies with their luggage and there was just nothing for it but I was invited home and fed tea and tomato sandwiches and urged to go to the legion dance that night with their son. I don’t remember how I got out of it but I’m pretty sure I didn’t go to the dance. Anyway it’s a beautiful province, gently rolling hills, fields of potatoes and ditches full of lupins. Apparently there was a guy who was a bit of a wild man, who went about flinging lupin seeds hither and yon. The lupins we see now are descendants of those original seeds and as they vigorously self seed they are considered an invasive species and are mowed down ruthlessly. But they persist in their perennial beauty. 
I decided on the Cabot Provincial Park just cause I liked the name but it really is a beautiful park on the north shore of the island. I had my pick of campsites and chose one where I could hear and see the the ocean and yet had pine trees all around.
Then down the road was a community hall where they were going to have a ceilidh tonight. And you know, I was going to go. I had every intention of going. But as I got up to walk to dog prior to leaving her in Floyd I said nope, I just want to sit here and listen to the ocean, read my book and drink my wine.
Those are bluefin tuna tails nailed to the shed. 400-1100 pounds. The ones that Japanese are crazy for?? Isn’t that the fish from the Old Man and the Sea?? I have to dig out my Hemingway. But the lobster season is done now, hence all the traps on the wharf and now it’s oysters and mussels. That will be my next meal 😊
i wasn’t sure what I was going to do for supper but I thought I needed some new potatoes. I had purchased some scallops yesterday when shopping and fried them up in butter tonight with garlic and lemon. I fried up a bun in the drippings to go with them and had a glass of wine. Doesn’t get any better than that. 
So now the ceilidh has started. I hope I won’t be sorry I didn’t go but I’m really quite content to just sit and listen to the ocean. Good night 😊