July 6 - 8th - Cutler, Maine and Campabello

The morning of the 6th we arrived in Cutler, Maine to visit friends we met at the RV park in Florida, Norb and Marilyn. Norb is a lobster fisherman and a boatbuilder. He had lots of level area where we could park Marge for a couple of days with electricity and water readily available. Here is a picture of Marge tucked between two of his buildings.

Marilyn's house, where they live, is just down the road toward Norb's wharf. It sits up on top of the hill with a million dollar view. Here are a couple of pictures from her front porch.

Cutler is truly a fishing village with houses scattered on both sides of the road near the fishing wharfs. It has a church but no stores nor any gas stations.  Saturday Norb took us all out on his lobster boat for a ride out to "Seal Island" where hundreds of seals and Puffins hang out. Here are a couple of pictures.

The nearest towns to Cutler with such things as stores, restaurants, and gas stations are sixteen miles in either direction.  One of those towns is Lubec, which is the Easternmost town in the United States. We went there for Mass and then supper on Saturday evening. It was pouring rain when we got there so no pictures that day.

Sunday morning Norb took us out lobster fishing. Here is a picture of Kellen with his boots on ready to go.

As the "stern man" I had to also put on "oil pants" (which were originally oiled pants and are now rubber and are held up with straps over the shoulders like waders), a sweatshirt with rubber sleeves, and rubber gloves. The traps are all tied together a certain distance apart on what is called a "trawl". Norb would reel in the trap in with a winch, pull the trap onto side of the boat, and then I would have to turn the trap around, open it up, pull out the empty bait bag and attach a new bait bag. While I was doing that Norb took out the lobster and threw them into a tub to be measured when all the traps were in and rebaited. Here is a picture of me at work. And I mean work!

I then placed the trap on the table behind me to be pulled back in the water after all traps were aboard, emptied, and rebaited. The trawl Norb pulled in had fifteen traps on it and was about a quarter mile long. When all the traps were emptied and rebaited Norb turned around the boat, threw in the buoy and the boat moved forward under power causing all the traps to be pulled off the table and back out into the sea. Each trap has a little concrete in one end so that it will land on the bottom right side up. I was soaking wet with sweat by the time all fifteen traps had been pulled up, emptied, and rebaited. These guys fish up to 800 traps in one day! I can't imagine. 

Each of the traps we pulled up had some lobster in it and one or two had a crab in it. The lobster are thrown into a catch area until all the traps are rebaited and pulled back overboard. At that point the lobstermen start measuring the catch to make sure they are large enough.  Here is a picture of our catch.

Green rubber bands are put on the lobster claws after they are determined to be large enough. The lobster are measured from their eye socket to the end of their body before the tail. About 80% of what we caught were too small or notched females, all of which had to be thrown back. Norb did all the measuring because even being caught with one undersized lobster would cost him a large fine. The next step was banding the claws of the keepers. Here is Kellen learning how to do that. 

Kellen had never touched a lobster before, or eaten a lobster before, so this was all great fun. Kelly and I banded some lobster as well. On the trip back in Norb let Kellen pilot the boat and showed him how to watch the computer monitor which showed his heading. Here are a couple of pictures.

Here is a picture of Norb's boat anchored in the harbor. I believe he said it is 46 feet long. He said it is fifteen years old and has hours on it equivalent to 1,000,000 miles.

The lobster are unloaded on a platform out in the harbor where Norb has scales to weigh each box of lobster. Each box of lobster must weigh 90 lbs. Here is a picture of Norb with the scales and lobster boxes.

From there the lobster boxes are tied together and pulled with the skiff like a train across the water to the wharf where they are unloaded to be picked up by the buyer. At low tide you have to reach the wharf by a skiff. Here is a picture of Kellen taking it all in next to Norb's skiff.

This area is at the head of the Bay of Fundy so there is a twenty foot difference in the tide twice per day. Here is a picture of the wharf at low tide.

Obviously climbing that ladder up and down and getting the lobster up and down was no picnic so Norb built an elevator. Here is a picture of him on it.

They put a pallet down on the floor of the elevator, load all the lobster crates on it and up it goes. It is really slick and much easier on the help. Norb is quite good at fabricating things. Norb and his son own the wharf so they are able to build things on it to suit their needs. At the street end of the wharf they are currently building a concrete freezer to keep bait. By doing this they can buy larger quantities of bait at a cheaper price. Norb said his bait bill keeps going up and last year it was $80,000. A new lobster boat costs about $500,000, traps are expensive, fishing uses lots of diesel fuel, etc. This is not a business you just get into on a whim. He has been at it for forty years.

Sunday evening we had a lobster feast at Marilyn's house after Norb steamed the lobsters we caught. We ate what we could and he sent the rest with us for later. Here are some pictures. Another first for Kellen. Kelly and I learned the art of getting all the meat out of the lobster.

Monday we took a day trip just twenty miles away to Campobello Island, New Brunswick, where Franklin Roosevelt's summer home is located. When we first got there a "tea" was taking place in another cottage along with a short lecture about Eleanor's life and her work as First Lady.  Here is a picture of us sitting at the tea. Another "first" for Kellen.

We then had a great tour of the Roosevelt cottage.  I cannot believe that I forgot to take an outside picture of it but here are a couple of inside pictures. On the table is FDR's hat and pipe.

This was Eleanor's desk.

The place was heated with wood. Here is one of the seven fireplaces.

This is the sitting area in the living room overlooking the bay. It is where Eleanor had tea every afternoon.

We then drove to one of Norb's favorite restaurants and had a nice fish lunch followed by ice cream. 

After lunch we drove back into the U.S. to Lubec, Maine, to see the West Quoddy Lighthouse. It is on the Easternmost point in the U.S. Here is picture with the Easternmost monument.

For our final evening in the Cutler area we went to a nice restaurant in Lubec overlooking the water. It was a beautiful evening so we had Kellen take a picture of the four of us there.

It was a great ending to a fabulous visit. We cannot thank Norb and Marilyn enough for the great time they showed us. We hope we can return the favor sometime when they venture to the Midwest.

We have lots more pictures we can share in the future with anyone interested. It is a job to pick out just a few for a blog.

Tuesday we drove to Salisbury, Massachusetts, and stayed at the Black Bear Campground and did laundry. A nice campground but a little pricey at $61.00 per night.

 

July 5th - Fredericton, New Brunswick

Yesterday we drove all day to reach our destination of Fredericton, New Brunswick. We could not believe how hot it got during the day. When we arrived in Fredericton it was 95 degrees, about twenty degrees above normal. There are only two campgrounds near Fredericton. One called "Hartt Island", which had a water park and was $75.00 per night Canadian, and another called "The Heritage" further out of town. We didn't need the waterpark so we made reservations at "The Heritage". When we got here they put us in two back-to-back sites due to the length of our rig. The park was obviously built when rigs were much smaller. Due to a tree and fire pits I had to snake the rig into these sites and only then by rubbing against a tree and pulling ahead into another site and backing up to get straight.  To get away from the tree I had to get as close as possible to the utility pedestal on the other side. Here is a picture.

Yes, it is literally four inches from the side of the rig and between the two slide outs. I connected to the electric on the pedestal and this is what we had for electric.

I will not run the AC on 107 volts. It will damage it. It is new AC unit so I really don't want to do that. We had to hope that the outside temperature would cool down soon so we could sleep. Here is a picture of the inside temperature after an hour of having the windows open and fans running. 

Yep, 88 degrees inside. (Don't mind the time, it is still on Missouri time.) It wasn't cooling down outside or inside. I hated to do it but I had no choice. At 8:00 p.m. I unplugged the electric and turned on the generator. It put out a good 120 volts. We ran the generator and AC for an hour and a half until it lowered the inside temperature to 76 degrees. The sun had set by then so we transferred back to the park electric. Mare has two "Fantastic Fans". They are 12 volt and wonderful. A nice feature about them is that they are reversible. I set both of them to pull cooler air in, rather than trying to pull air out. I found in the past this works better because Marge has poor cross-venilation.

Here is a picture of Kelly and Kellen sitting under the tree trying to stay cool. This picture also gives you a good idea of the problem with the tree that was rubbing down the side of Marge when I was trying to park.

We need to dump the tanks before heading on this morning so I walked up to check out the dump station. Of course we will be approaching it from the opposite direction so I will have to drive through the grass to get to it. This place is poorly laid out for travelers but most of the park is filled with permanent rigs, which is becoming more and more common unfortunately. Next to the dump station is the shower house. I checked it out as well and it is pretty dumpy. We will take showers in Marge before dumping this morning then back into the U.S. today.

July 3rd - 4th - Truro, Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg

On July 3rd we stopped in Truro, Nova Scotia, to have lunch with our dear friends from Florida, Chris and Karl Webb.  Chris provided a great lunch and we really enjoyed Karl's homemade blueberry wine. It was so great visiting with them since they can longer come down to Florida for the winters. It was a picture perfect day after days of rain there they said. Here is a picture of the four of us and a picture of the Webbs and their dog, Duke, who wouldn't cooperate for the picture.

Now that Chris no longer comes to Florida I have to find a new rye whiskey drinking buddy down there. (Most men drink beer and most women drink wine.)

We celebrated the 4th of July by taking a road trip to Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg. Peggy's Cove is like nowhere else. We were there at low tide so the waves weren't crashing as high as other times we have been there but it is still magnificent. Here are a couple of pictures.

Here is a picture of Kelly and Kellen walking around on the rocks to get a different view.

Here is a picture of Kellen taking it all in way out way out on the rocks with the lighthouse in the distant background. I think he was impressed but he is twelve years old and it is hard to tell. He did enjoy climbing all over the rocks though.

We left Peggy's Cove, which was getting crowded with people and tour buses, and headed sixty miles away to Lunenburg. Lunenburg is a UNESCO Heritage Site and home of the "Bluenose 2", a sailing ship replica of the "Bluenose", the most famous ship in Canadian history. It was both a fishing and racing vessel in the 1920s and 1930s. A "bluenose" is a nickname for a native or inhabitant of Nova Scotia. I am sure if you are here in the winter you would understand why they got that nickname. 

The town of Lunenburg sits on a hill along the harbor. It had quite a fishing industry at one time. It has retained all of its 18th century charm. All the houses and businesses are brightly colored, all kept as original as possible on the outside with clapboard siding, original facades, etc. The streets are all narrow so it is much easier to walk around than drive through.  Here is a picture of the oldest standing house. It was built around 1760!

It is hard to take pictures of the streets lined with multi-colored houses and buildings because you are right on top of them when walking around. A good view of the town is from across the way. Here is a picture.

We had lunch on the wharf. Kelly ordered mussels for an appetizer so Kellen could taste them. He ate one but declined any more. They were quite good and a treat for us.

Kellen had fish and chips, one of his favorites on this coastal trip. I had grilled Haddock, and Kelly had a bowl of fish chowder that was so large and chunky she couldn't eat it all. We brought what was left back to the RV for a meal for her later. You just can't get seafood like this in Missouri. It was 88 degrees in Lunenburg this afternoon. I was standing in a shady spot waiting for Kelly and Kellen to shop and a local guy said this was a crazy change after days of cool and rain. I don't know but I would think 88 degrees here is above normal.

When we got back to the campground I checked the oil level in the generator and it was full so I ran it for a while to see if I could find any oil leak. I did not. I will have to check into it more when I get home. It ran perfectly putting out better voltage than the campground.  We are at "King Neptune Campground". It is a hole but the only campground near Peggy's Cove. The electric voltage is low, the campsites are helter-skelter, the dump station is inaccessible for a rig our size, etc. When we got here it was quite crowded because an RV caravan was here. They pulled out yesterday so now this is our view.

This morning I broke out my shorts for the first time this trip since leaving the States. We are headed to Fredericton, New Brunswick, for a stop there before we head on to Cutler, Maine, to visit with Norb and Marilyn, another couple we know from Florida.

July 1st-2nd - Ferry Back to Nova Scotia

We checked in early at the ferry terminal because we had to get out of the campground by 1:00 p.m. and it was only and hour drive to the ferry terminal from there. After we drove up to the terminal kiosk and got our tickets we then had to drive through a building. I joked with the young lady outside "We getting a free car wash?" She laughed and asked if we had any fresh vegetables. I said "only lettuce". She said "tat was fine" Then as I drove into the building a car wash is exactly what we got. There were two ladies inside, one on each side, with firehouses washing the truck and trailer down as I slowly drove through. We had never had that experience before on any ferry or border crossing. As we pulled into our assigned lane it started to rain hard and the wind started to blow hard. We headed to the terminal for a cup of coffee in the cafeteria. Upon entering we were told that we could go in but to come back out we needed our passports and tickets. I went back to the truck and got our passports so we could get out! After we drank our coffee I wandered around and found a museum upstairs about the town of Argentia where the ferry terminal is located.

During WWII the Canadian government paid the people in Argentia a pittance for their property, moved them out, and bulldozed the town. They then gave the U.S. a 99 year least to build a Naval base there. The employment was good for the area but the poor people who were displaced suffered terribly. Two Nazi boats were sunk in the area. Roosevelt and Churchill had a historic meeting in Argentia during the war. Here is a picture they had displayed of the meeting.

I had no idea of this history. While "Argentia" is on the Newfoundland map, there is no town. My truck GPS could not find it, which I understood once I read this history. 

This ferry was larger than the one we took on the way over which was the shorter trip. Here is a picture of it I took from the truck window while waiting in line in the rain.

We were loaded on the ferry like clockwork and it took off exactly on time. The whole Newfoundland/Labrador ferry system is outstanding. The workers are extremely friendly and helpful, the ships are nice, and the voyage pleasant. Since this was a seventeen hour ride and we shoved off at 5:00 p.m., we had paid for a cabin with two sets of bunks and our own bathroom. Here is a picture of Kelly relaxing in the cabin as we waited to leave the port. As you can see the cabin with two sets of bunk beds is quite small but it worked out fine.

Here are a couple of pictures of the foggy scenery as we made our way out of the harbor.

The ferry had a very nice restaurant buffet but it was $25.00 per person. We thought that was a little steep and we weren't all that hungry after eating our sandwiches mid-afternoon. We purchased some sandwiches and sodas for supper at the snack bar and ate them in the lounge.

A two-man band was playing in the lounge and people were dancing. Kellen headed to the movie theater on board. We didn't know if a band was routine on this longer voyage or if it was a special event because it was "Canada Day" (their 4th of July). Kelly and I listened until the guys took a break and we then headed down to the movie theater to join Kellen. We watched most of one movie and all of a second before heading to our cabin at 10:00 p.m. to turn in for the night.

Here is a picture of Kellen sleeping like a rock in the top bunk above me this morning.  He had been apprehensive about riding on the ferries. He said he liked to see land but he did fine. His only disappointment was that there was no Wi-fi out at sea.

We were one of the first ones off the ferry. We headed back to the KOA we stayed at before catching the ferry over because we knew it had a laundry. We didn't have reservations this time and they only had two spots for us. The site he gave us I could not get into. KOAs are older and the sites are really small for today's rigs. The guy next to us was pulling out and the owner had told me if that site was better I could take it. It was only slightly better but at least I could get into it. The first one I could not. Even though this site was slightly better situated it took me about twenty manuevers to get the fifth wheel into place. The problem is the road in front of the campsite is not very wide and it drops off. With the length of the truck and trailer I had limited room to bend the rig around. Here is a picture after we unhooked. Before unhooking the truck's front tires were at the edge of the grass giving me only about six feet in front. The trailer is back as far as it can go.

I then gathered the laundry and headed to the laundry area by the office while Kellen got on the Wifi for his games and Kelly took a nap. The laundry area here leaves a lot to be desired. First of all, there is a only very small open area in front of the machines, it is open to the weather, and today it was raining and in the low 60s. Secondly the table to fold clothes on sits outside in the rain. A really goofy set up.  Here is a picture. Even the yellow chairs in the picture were wet so I couldn't even sit down. I sat in the truck.

While sitting in the truck killing time I checked the tire pressure on the truck tires. The back tires were just a little low but the front tires for some reason were down to 65 lbs from 80 lbs. After the laundry was done I got out the air compressor I bought for this trip. I purchased it to air up the trailer tires and had done this at home. The compressor and air chuck worked well for that. I had not tried filling the tires on the truck at home before leaving. Upon trying to put air in the truck tires today I found the air chuck was less than ideal for the 90 degree bent truck valve stems and the cheap rubber extensions on the inside rear tires. It worked "ok" for the front tires but on the rear inside tires I had trouble getting the chuck to stay air tight as I tried to pump air into each tire. I need to add a straight chuck to my tool kit for the future and/or different extensions on the tires. I'll put it on my "to do" list when I get home. 

Kellen is making a pot of chicken soup in the crock pot for supper with Kelly's excellent instructions. It smells good already. Tomorrow we will stop in Truro, Nova Scotia, to visit with friends, Chris and Karl Webb, who we met in Robert's RV Park in Florida several years ago. They were not able to come back this past year so it will be good to see them again and pass on everyone's good wishes.

June 30th-July 1st - Last Day in Newfoundland and Generator Problem

Yesterday was our last full day in Newfoundland. It was a sunny, warm day for here (66 degrees). Kelly told Kellen she would give him $25.00 to get in the river. After much prodding and watching other kids do it, he finally did it.  Here is a picture of him in the water. He said it was freezing but money talks.

Here is a picture of Kellen and Kelly skipping rocks behind our campsite.

Yesterday I checked the oil in the generator and the air in the tires for the trip ahead. The oil was full and the tires were as well. This morning I had been running the generator for about an hour and went outside to put the chairs away to pack up for the trip to the ferry. I noticed this spot of oil under the generator which was running.  Not good.

I opened the compartment door and found that the entire tray under the generator was black with oil. I shut down the generator immediately. Here is a picture of the area where the oil was pooled after I wiped up what I could reach with paper towels. There is still a lot of oil in the back.

I checked the oil dipstick and the oil was now just about empty. I believe there are one of two possibilities that caused this issue. The first is that when checking the oil yesterday I did not completely tighten the dipstick cap, which is next to the green arrow in the following picture, and it was pumping oil out while running this morning. The second possibility is that the oil pan gasket has gone bad. The oil pan gasket is next to the red arrow in the picture. I sincerely hope it is my fault but I can't check it until I get some more oil. If it is the oil pan gasket it will mean removing the generator when I get home and replacing the gasket.  I'm really hope my carelessness is the culprit. Lifting and removing the generator will take two men and a boy. I know because two of us put it in some years ago.

At noon we leave to get checked in for the ferry ride to North Sidney, Nova Scotia. It is a seventeen hour ride overnight so we can sleep in our cabin to kill much of the time. We are sad to leave Newfoundland knowing that we will never be back. The people are extremely nice and the trip has been wonderful.