2 Miles and 4 Feet from Home

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Out and about in P.E.I.

Well last night was cold again so we called up Jasper early and all slept pretty good. Tonight is supposed to be about 10 degrees warmer. Fingers crossed. After walking Jasper, I cooked breakfast and we decided to head out and visit a few places. Before we left Lyn gave me a quick haircut. (Looking good!) The first stop would be at the Green Gables Heritage Place. This is the place were Canada’s best selling novel of all time Anne of Green Gables was written. The Author L. M. Montgomery grew up at her grandparent’s house nearby and would often walk to this place and visit family. The grounds have some original buildings that have been restored in great detail. Even though Lyn and I had never read the book it was very interesting. One cool side note is that Jasper was welcome in any of the outside areas so after we toured the buildings we got Jasper and walked the “Haunted Woods” trail. By the time we got done it was time for lunch. We went to a place called “The Beach” and had our first Lobster roll with fries. It was very good and we are looking forward to more lobster as we head into Maine. We decided to visit Charlottetown which was about an hour away. We spent several hours there walking and going in shops and just walking around the harbor. It is very pretty and deserves another trip back in the future. On the way back we drove through another national park and went on the beach and got our feet wet. The water was freezing but several swimmers were swimming so I guess you could get use to it but we decided not to give it a try. Finally we got home about 4:30 and took a nap. I like the idea of the daily nap. We will see how if we can continue this practice in the future. After our nap we fixed dinner partially by me as one item involved boiling a bag for 5 minutes. Yea something I can cook without burning it. After dinner we decided to head up to a pace were I had found good free wifi. Our Campground has wifi but whenever a bunch of campers are on it, it slows down to a stop. We went up to the store parking lot and jumped on their wifi and I finally got the blog loaded up and we got caught up on everything else. At about 9 we headed back and decided to call it a night. It is supposed to rain so we have the car totally packed all we will have to do is pack up the tent and we will be ready to go. We have decided to head for Bar Harbor, Maine. Our original plan was to head up the tip of Nova Scotia but we have decided to save that for another time. We need to be back by August 1^st and that will just be too tight. Anyway we are looking forward to a little warmer temperature at night.

Breakfast

Free Haircut

Green Gables

Charlottestown

Out and about!

Home Sweet Home

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Prince Edward Island

We woke about 6 and let me just say that was the coldest night yet! We actually called Jasper up to sleep between us so we could all share in the warmth. He crawled in and seemed very thankful to be there. He did not move the rest of the night. It was great. Occasionally an arm or leg would pop out of the covers and you would wake up freezing but all in all we made it. At about 6:30 AM I went to get something out of the car and by accident hit the panic button on my key fob. Let me just say that the panic button does create a panic when you are in a campground full of people trying to sleep. Ha Ha ,well I hope they enjoyed their early start to the day. I cooked breakfast and we walked Jasper and really admired this beautiful place. As the sun came up the temperature rose and there was actually no need for a sweatshirt. It was kind of crazy when we remembered how we were freezing just a few hours ago. Anyway we got showers and packed up camp and then headed out. We made a quick stop for a few groceries and filled up on gas. Now we were ready for the 4 hour trip to our campground on Prince Edward Island. Our drive there was uneventful thank goodness. To get on the island you have to cross an 8 mile bridge. It was pretty amazing because it was flat out 8 miles over water. At no point did we touch land the entire way. Now a bridge like this does not come cheap and the price is $45 to cross it. You do not pay until you leave the island. After getting across the bridge our GPS took us on what felt like back roads. We were out in farmland. We passed a lot of bright yellow fields that we later found out were canola fields. Some of the farmers had switched to canola to try to get a better price then their other crops. I am not sure if it was working but it was beautiful. We decide to camp at the KOA again as the campground we were going to did not have electricity and water at the site. We can camp like that but it s just a little too much trouble chasing power so we settled for the KOA. We actually ended up with a nice grassy spot. Jasper was glad to get out and settle into his bed outside of the tent. We decided to go exploring and drove down to Rustico Bay. It had boats for hire as well as fishing boats and a few tourist things. The one thing we noticed is that there were no tourist their. It was a pretty remote area for sure. On the way back we learned that we could go into the National park area and ride back along the coast. What a treat! It was amazing. We stopped at overlook after overlook. We would see nothing but sheer cliffs with very rich red dirt. It was almost haunting. The cliffs reminded e of every movie I had ever seen where a person ran out to the cliff and contemplated jumping. Anyway there were signs everywhere telling you to be careful and not fall and we followed their instructions to perfection. We even found a few places that aloud us to get down to the beach. After about an hour of stopping and taking pictures we ended up back at our campsite. Lyn fixed pork chops, potatoes and salad. Yum yum! We sat around for a while after dinner and felt the temperature dropping. Yikes here we go again. We went to bed around 9:30 and called it a night. It is supposed to get down to the low 50’s tonight. That is much better than last night for sure. Tomorrow we are going to head out and explore this beautiful place.

Finally Cavendish PEI

Coastline

Careful!

Camp Jasper!

Friday, July 17, 2015

New Brunswick

Well the temperature did get down to about 45 last night. We were really not prepared for that in fact I told Lyn to leave one of our blankets at home to create more room in the car. I can still picture it on the couch. We had read about temperatures in the 50’s and thought we were prepared. Anyway it was a cold night. Luckily Lyn had a sleeping bag that allowed her to stay warm while I tossed and turned a bit. Anyway we got up about 7 and walked Jasper. I fixed Lyn some coffee and a kind of make do breakfast. In other words make do with what we had in the cooler. I fixed scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese. This with the coffee hit the spot. It both warmed us up and got us going! Today would be a travel day. We were headed to Prince Edward Island which was over 9 hours away. We decided to stop in New Brunswick along the way and break up the driving a bit. We would follow the Canada Transcontinental Highway the entire way. It was beautiful with lots of warnings about Moose crossings! We never actually saw one and I guess that is a good thing. We stopped at the New Brunswick Visitor center that was nice in just about every way. They had great picnic areas and a great information center complete with Wifi. We hung out there for about 30 minutes and got information on a campground that we could stay at for the night. Finally after several more hours of driving we saw the turn for our campground. We turned off the exit but our GPS said we had 25 minutes left to go. Oh well we decided to follow and see what happened. We took turn after turn after turn and ended up going through a very rural neighborhood that ended at a dead end that turned into our campground. When I pulled up to the little registration house it had a sign on it that said working in the back yard. Finally a lady came out that had the same surprised look that we did. Anyway we were not 100% convinced about this place but she gave us a map and showed us where the tent campers could camp. She told us to go pick a place and come back and we would settle up. Well we went over a hill and saw a beautiful lake and as luck would have it they had several spots available right on the lake. We went back up and told her the spot we wanted and for $29 we could have a little spot of heaven for the night. We drove back down to the site and set up camp. It was about 65 degrees and sunny. In other words about perfect. I went back to get ice and firewood and she reminded me to have Jasper on a leash at all times unless I took him swimming and then no leash was required. Love it!. The firewood was only $5 and came with 14 pieces with kindling and newspaper. They also said they would deliver it to our site. This was a deal for sure. We went back to our site and Lyn fixed a great dinner. When we finished a guy showed up with the wood and we were treated to a nice fire to sit by before we went to bed. Tonight is going to be cold again. May just have to let Jasper join us for the extra warmth. Tomorrow we head for Prince Edward Island and will see whatever it has to offer.

Breakfast!

Some of the best instant coffee!

New Brunswick Visitor center.

Now we are on Atlantic time!

View from our Campsite!

And we had great Wifi!

Dinner time!

Jasper time!

Camp fire!

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Quebec City

We slept really good with the temperature getting down to the upper 50’s. Pretty much perfect! Jasper got me up about 6 and I took him for a walk and then decided to take a shower. The bathrooms at this KOA are especially nice with fancy tile and plenty of room to lay your things out. One odd but great thing is they play music pretty load inside. This morning they were playing a special on the stones and it was really a great way to start the day! Janice and John had invited us to breakfast and were treated to eggs and ham, bacon, fresh fruit and other goodies. Yum Yum! Today we were going to tour Quebec City. I had been for a quick visit one time before and knew we were in for a treat. The great thing today is that Janet and John told us they would keep Jasper while we went. While we love taking Jasper everywhere we usually do not have an opportunity to go in places together as one of us has to stay with him. We could tell he was in good hands as they have two dogs of there own Prissy and Bo. They are beautiful dachshunds. Quebec City was only about 20 minutes away and we arrived there about 9:30. We parked along the river and started to climb into the town. One block in and we were already stunned at its beauty. I kept telling Lyn that it was even better at the top so I kept pressing us onward while telling her we would check out these shops on the way back down. Finally after about a 15 minute climb we were at the top and on the promenade deck looking over the river. The view is spectacular! You really could spend hours just walking in that area but behind us was the town and it is about as charming as it can get. It had great architecture and every side street invited you to come take a look. There were lots of shops and restaurants and historical places. Since we did not have Jasper we were free to go in the shops, churches and restaurants which was a treat. Thanks again Janice and John! We ended up eating at a little place that served ribs. One of Lyn’s favorites. We split the meal which was just the right amount for lunch. I had a local beer with my meal and it was delicious and relaxing. When we came in they asked us if we wanted to sit in the window that faced the street. This was a great way for them to advertise since everyone walking by could see our nice meal and gave us a great view while we ate. We enjoyed every minute and then headed back down to our car taking many detours along the way. The weather was dialed in at 75 and sunny. After we got back to camp we washed clothes caught up on the blog and decided we needed a nap. Sometimes life on the road catches up with you and this was one of those times. We slept for about an hour and a half and then headed down to Janice and Johns for dinner. We brought leftovers from the night before and some local wine and they had steaks, salad and corn on the cob. We put it all together and Voila another great meal. After dinner John built a fire and we sat around having great conversations and roasting marshmallows. What a great way to end the night. We went home around 9:30 and got some extra blankets out of the car. Tonight’s low is expected to be around 48 degrees. Yikes!!! Tomorrow we are headed to Prince Edward Island. It s almost 10 hours of driving. We will probably stop somewhere along the way to keep our driving time down and our relaxing time up.