Cape Breton

We drove from PEI to Cape Breton and aside from the main TransCanada Hwy the roads are horrible. They have nasty potholes, cracks and heaves, poor Cougar, our trailer. One cabinet door came unhinged and most of Anne's undies were on the bedroom floor. Spent a few hours tightening and checking screws and bolts after our scenic side road adventure.

Cape Breton is beautiful of course, but not as impressive as I thought it would be. I guess because it is a lot like the west coast, a little different, like the stones on the beaches are a pretty pinkish color, but not much. The drive along the ocean on the bluffs is cool but after doing the Oregon, North California drive it was kinda underwhelming. Guess it would be better in the fall when all the leaves change. There are many little harbors, shops and restaurants to explore, we spent a nice day in a little town called Baddeck located on the large inland sea called Bras D'or Lake. I had more mussels, yum, can't get enough and Anne had a lobster sandwich.

We also stopped at the oddest display some guy named Joe made a scarecrow village perched right near the coastline. Check out the video, weird, hehe.

Currently as I write this post the wind is howling as the remnants of hurricane Irene blow through. Luckily the main part hit well west of us and it's only windy, no torrential rain. Very muggy out though, a very warm wind, you can tell it came from the tropics.

Next we are headed over to the Sidney, Nova Scotia area because that's where the ferry to Newfoundland leaves from. We will spend a week or so there till the Labor Day long weekend is over, before heading across. yyyayyyyyyyhhhhh!,,,,!!!! kids go back to school, peace in the campgrounds again. You would not believe the noise last weekend, whoa. more photos here

PEI here we are

Drove the Confederation bridge across the Northumberland Strait into PEI. Wow what a engineering accomplishment. It's a 8 mile link between New Brunswick and PEI. The longest bridge across ice covered waters in the world. PEI is beauiful!

Most of the Island is rural farm land filled with quaint little villages and marinas. The beaches are terrific. Most are red sand with some white sand and the water is warm for being so far north. Some of the beaches boasts the warmest waters north of South Carolina. The people are as warm and friendly as the beaches. Our favourite campsite was at RED Point near the eastern tip of the island. It offered a spectacular view of the ocean and it's own red sandy beach area. We did many day trips around the Island to take in the sites. The tourist area is called Cavendish where the Anne of Green Gables books were based and has many shops, restaurants and museums to explore. We dined at a local eatery and had our fill of lobster, mussels, oysters and clams, yumm!

THe beagles had a blast as dogs are allowed on most beaches here. Oscar got off leash on a beach for the first time in a while and ran as fast as he could which is quite slow as he is very old now. Angie ran and fetched her jolly ball and even went for a dip in the water. Anne also loved it, she adores the beach and sat out reading her books and soaking up the sun. So basically PEI was heaven for us BUT FOR ONE THING< GRRRRRRRRRRR>>>!!!!! MOSQUITOS, oh my god, the little bastards. There were very few ate REd point but when we moved west across to a campground called John Cabot on the MApleque Bay they were swarming. We all lost a gallon of blood and had to stay in the trailer most of the time. All in all though though it was a great time and would like to come back one day, now off to Nova Scotia. looking forward to spending a week or so in Cape Breton . Rest of the photos here

Borked Tranny

We stayed in New Brunswick a little longer than planned due to a transmission failure on the big blue truck. :( The torque converter started to slip causing the brain to put the tranny into limp mode. Was able to clear the codes by unhooking the batteries but on the next tough pull up a steep grade into wind it would do it again. So rather than have it melt down completely at an inopportune time we decided to get a full rebuild in Fredericton. Found a great shop Jensen transmissions and they put in some upgraded components and a heavy duty towing converter. Now she tows like a dream! Love the truck, everywhere we go people comment on it. They don't see many 1994 trucks in such good shape out east here, where they tend to rust out. On to PEI!

Relaxing on the banks of the St John river, NB

Made it into New Brunswick and snagged a great campsite along the ST John river about 100 miles east of Fredericton. We are going to spend a week camped here to avoid the crowds of long weekend campers invading the more well known tourist areas. Today Anne and I went to Kings Landing Historical Town, It was really neat. It had everyone dressed up in authentic clothes and acting like it was the 1880's . We toured all the recreated houses and shops and checked out all the old history of the place. We have made a local friend , his name is Ron and has live here many years, he is 82. I showed him how to hook up his TV antenna and he paid me in carrots fresh from his garden, we also got a night free camping because I fixed the broken WIFI, so I'm doing well here bartering my services! Meeting many people from BC here, when they see the licence plate they come over for a chat. Last night in this small campground of 12 sites there were 3 other bc'ers , one from Penticton, one from Comox and one from Campbell River. Other things we plan to do are see the biggest axe in the world, tour a potato chip factory and check out the longest covered bridge, Cheers for now ! Ray

Whale watching on the St Lawrence Seaway

Took a nice 3 hour boat cruise today to find whales in the St Lawrence. Was a great day for it sunny and mild and calm waters, boat was great and we saw a bunch of whales. There were a pile of Minke and Fin whales swimming in pods sometimes of 7 or 8 no belugas seen though, they were shy today.uploaded a short video and some pix, check it out.
Across the road from our campground is Santas House, Noel Au Chateau, it's pretty strange to see in July, I'll upload some pix of it. also the other night they had a Santa parade with elfs, Mrs. Santa , etc throughout the campground just like it was Xmas , very strange. it,s something they do here every year for the children.

Gonna relax tonight and head to New Brunswick tomorrow , Atlantic time here we come!

Quebec!

Well we made it across ontario and are into Quebec, yay! Ontario was so hot and humid with bugs that want all your blood, yuck, we drove from Michigan all the way to near Ottawa but got stuck in a little town 50 miles east called Renfrew because the tranny on the big blue ford went into limp mode, basically the computer sensed a problem and put it into a mode of self protection. Only problem was to get the trouble code so it could be troubleshot. It was Saturday and no shops were open, had to wait till monday. I found a way to get the codes using a ohm meter and I pulled code 14 and 62 which meant RPM ssensor and converter slippage, not wanting to drive it and make it worse I waited,,,......

While waitiing a massive thunderstorm hit, with small tornados and took out all the power in the area for 2 days, got the truck towed and to the local ford shop that had the old code reader and a decent mechanic that found it was only the RPM sensor but because of the power outage no computers were working so part ordering was delayed. Decent little shop though, they gave us a free loaner and I got the truck repaired for 100 bucks parts and 120 labour.

Finally we were back on the road just as the hottest day on record was coming, around 110 degrees with the humidex so I told Anne lets drive at night and out run the heat. We left at 8 pm and drove through Ottawa and headed toward Montreal, stopped for gas and food at one side of the city and cruised through it at Midnight still was 80 degrees out.
Found a nice little truck stop near Trois Riverie and crashed for 4 hours. Back up at 5 am and drove straight to Quebec City and got a nice site close to the city and away from the heat in the east.


Quebec City is really cool, we did a walking tour and learn the history of the place, much of it dates back to the 16th century, felt like I was in europe, now we are 150 miles east of there in a little town called Riverie du Loupe.
It is very french here, I know very little french, the west of canada is totally english speaking, so its really interesting.
The town is right on the St Lawrence river and tommorrow we have a boat cruise booked to go whale watching, we have that in Victoria but here they have beluga whales and it will be neat to get out on the river.

Thats the update, having a great time, I highly recommend this no working stuff,

Oh and the stinking beagles got a bath too!

 we are on the shore of Lake Superior, travelled yesterday over to Munising, Michigan still on the shore of Superior. Now crossed 3 times zones! Going on a boat cruise tonight to view the Picture Rocks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictured_Rocks_National_Lakeshore

Crossing over at Sault Ste Marie then heading to visit Ottawa and Quebec before we make it to the Maritimes for the rest of the summer.


Trip Map:
http://www.travellerspoint.com/member_map.cfm?user=Raytronx
Trip photos,blog and videos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/electrontv
http://blog.amckinnell.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Raytronx