Nova Scotia and New Brunswick

/ Travels w/Lisa / 20 Comments

Nova Scotia Visitor Sign

A 2017 movie, Maudie, gives the history of the woman who painted this sign by the Visitor Center in Digby, NS.

I am spending the last nite in Canada at a road’s end on a deserted beach by the Gulf of St. Lawerence. The water goes back and forth on the inlet’s shore, leaving bits of debris and taking bits of sand back into the slate blue liquid. Dried-out washed-ashore sea grass form long stretches of low berms just beyond the water’s reach. Sand, rocks, pebbles and sticks, which crackle when I step on them, litter the forgotten background. Continue reading →

SOUTHERN NEWFOUNDLAND – A PHOTO JOURNEY

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SOUTHERN NEWFOUNDLAND 

 

THE CHANGING SMALL TOWN HARBORS – VACATION BOATERS

Have lost a whole section of photos..sometimes I feel like DESTROYING the i Phone, but I think when those urges strike: breathe deeply and let that go, Lisa. Right. AFTER I throw it through the window, it hits the pavement, and a massively huge truck tire runs over it.  So take THAT Apple.  Ah—feel much better!

Mabel, Alice and I traveled 95% of all the roads in Newfoundland and I loved it. People are wonderful. I think they were all born with a “nice gene” in addition to Scottish, Brit, Welsh and Basque. We visited tiny towns, trendy towns, fishing villages, off the beaten track – like – “Oh Christ, how did we end up here” towns and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Not sure if Mabel did only because some of the roads weren’t that great, but she did get to rest quite a bit since Alice and I walked on trails and through towns. Continue reading →

COASTLINES, COVES AND COD

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“Lisa, I am not real sure where Labrador and Newfoundland are.” Since I have read that more than once–here are some maps!

I entered Labrador via Quebec Province, Hwy. 138, went through two cities, Labrador City, pop. 7,000 and Happy Valley/Goose Bay, pop. 8,000 (USAF base is there), and one hydro-electric company town, Churchill Falls, pop. 650. Continue reading →

JOIN ME FOR A WALK THROUGH THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF LABRADOR

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The going from Base Comeau, Quebec had been slow to Labrador City, Labrador and did not change on the way to Goose Bay, Labrador. (1,115 km or 692 miles)  Potholes, washboard, and muddy roads combined with workers and stop signs and red/green lights constantly caused us to stop or slow down. Patience was becoming a thing of the past, which resulted in pulling over around 2:00pm at a rest stop which had nature walk to Hamilton Falls. Continue reading →

LABRADOR!

/ Travels w/Lisa / 7 Comments

 

LABRADOR

 

I could go back to Alaska and spend May to September exploring, hiking, visiting all the places I missed. Make time for an air tour or learn to kayak so I can access some of the rivers I saw in the distance. So much I missed but what I did see was so beautiful.I forgot so much about BC — the forests with infestations of the bark beetle, the fires, the clear cuts of massive swaths of forestland made some views look like a checkerboard. Old growth forests filled with 9 ft, 12 ft. + diameter trunks gone and now, in our living rooms or cupboards or furniture. In Bella Coola, Western BC, I walked through a protected Cedar old growth grove. It was magical to be among these 300 year old giants the logging industry cannot touch. Helicopters are the new log drivers or heli-logging (getting log to another place) and hover with cables over the forest’s interior. Greed AND human need outpaces the earth’s regeneration. Continue reading →

ANCHORAGE – KENAI PENINISULA

/ Travels w/Lisa / 10 Comments

Anchorage Bass Pro Shop

You have to see this to believe it! Stuffed bears on the walls, birds hanging from the ceiling, animal murals on the walls, guns and power shot bows (had no idea what those were–high powered bow and arrow!). Imagine the Kipling Jungle Book Alaskan style: This is The Bass Pro Shop in Anchorage, Alaska. Continue reading →

No. BC to Anchorage,AK

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“Hi!” says Alice. “I will be giving today’s post.”

We have a few miles to cover here, like a thousand more or less! Mabel has what might be termed kindly as “tunnel vision.”  We are talking “view from the headlights only”; I, on the other hand, am on the passenger seat all the time, so I have a different perspective on this trip. I am not sure exactly where we are sometimes, but, the Navigation System is great and keeps us going in the right direction, except when Lisa doesn’t believe it. Always a bad sign when I hear, “You know, Alice, I don’t think this is the right way.” I wish she would hear me when I say, “Patience, it is coming, hang in there, the turn is almost here….”
Ah-h Northern British Columbia, so absolutely gorgeous. We drove the Cassier Hwy. 37 from BC to Whitehorse, Yukon. It is in big print here so everyone can focus! Follow the red line. Continue reading →