East to Newfoundland

Barko1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2008
Messages
1,635
Location
Southern Appalachians
I'll be getting a report up but so far all I have been doing it traveling, covering a few miles between Las Cruces, NM and right now, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Sitting at a picnic table soaking up wifi but needing a computer recharge. So far wandering the East has had plenty of rain, plenty of cars, $4 petrol here in Canada, nice campsites but of course everything is developed. Just got bit by a skeeter, not many so far. Pics will have to wait.
 
Barko, we need pics!


OK, a preview, I'm in NF, uploaded some of the pics last night before a storm knocked out the wireless. I'm 7000k in to the journey. This is from another lousy campsite, Nova Scotia :D
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7k and one teaser pic. What gives Barko?



On the road and limited connectivity, or time at this point. I'm actually working tonight and tomorrow, doing some higher education evaluation that pays my travel $$ :D :D And then Saturday it is back heading West, today hit Cape Spear, furthest East on the continent.
 
Barko1, what a trip to country we have never seen. Can hardly wait for more photos!


Now I'm in Gros Morne National Park camping above the Gulf of St Lawrence. As far as campgrounds go this is pretty good, no electricity, keeps the big rigs away, but wifi! Hurricane Igor is heading this way but I thing we are now farther West than where it'll really dump. This is a great area, trees, brooks, rocks, and water everywhere. Still need to move some pictures but this one is from a lunch spot in Nova Scotia on the way here.
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OK, one more preview and I'll get to work on uploading pics and sharing my experience. A month in the FWC teaches you some things :D Do FWC's walk on water or is this what is meant by "off road" capable :eek:
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Barko,

Looks like you got the pontoon option with your camper. :p


OK, one more preview and I'll get to work on uploading pics and sharing my experience. A month in the FWC teaches you some things :D Do FWC's walk on water or is this what is meant by "off road" capable :eek:
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Some pics :)
I had the opportunity to visit Memorial University in Newfoundland as a part of an accreditation visit, they pay normal travel expenses, the visit takes a day, and an 8000 mile drive :LOL: I've always been into road trips and I was probably going to drive as far as Chicago anyway so a few more weeks and my daughter and I get to see some different territory. Of course I took my three dogs along for the ride. I posted about the truck and camper in the FWC Forum so this will be a few pictures and the highlights.
Home is Las Cruces, NM hot and dry. My initial destination was the Chicago area to visit friends and family. I wasn't in any hurry and had an idea of a route but nothing absolute. It may be a surprise to some but there are some interesting sites in the Texas panhandle. We had stayed at Copper Breaks before but this time we opted for Caprock Canyon State Park.
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Wasn't too hot given it was Texas in August. Decent campsite, A Buffalo herd, and some nice trails along the canyon edge.
Next day was getting across Oklahoma which was a lot of interstate and some rain but just before Missouri we headed North into SE Kansas and Crawford State Park. We were heading towards Labor Day when campgrounds get filled in advance in the Midwest. This was Wednesday and there weren't many people there but all the electric sites were reserved and had trailers sitting there. Our site was described as "primitive" but not the primitive we are used to out West, just no electric or sewer!
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We were backed up to the lake and had lots of room, a good thing with three dogs.
Next day we took the back roads across Missouri including a stretch on the Lewis and Clark trail
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And from there into Western Illinois. We stayed at Siloam Springs State Park, nice forest and lake with some rain and hardly anyone around.
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From there a short trip into the West suburbs of Chicago on a Friday of a holiday weekend :eek: I planned to get there before the biggest rush but an hour South on I55 my right rear caught a nasty piece of metal and I had to pull to the side.
The usual jack isn't worth much so I pulled out the farm jack and planned to do a quick change but the viscous winds exaggerated by the trucks and buses wizzing by a few feet away made the farm jack pretty unstable so I remembered I had a road service plan I had never used. Made the call and not too long later help arrived with a big lift and the spare was slapped on. The tires are pretty new and had a road hazard plan so I called them and they located a tire dealer just a mile up the road. I am running Firestone 285/75/16s E rated, not a tire you expect to find in rural Pontiac, Illinois. But this place was a Firestone dealer, he initially didn't imagine he had my size, everyone agreed the hole was too big for a safe extended use patch but lo and behold they had an exact match :) Not too long and I was back on the road, cost me $100 but for a service call and a new $200 tire I wasn't complaining. Traffic sucked but kept moving and I got to where I had to go. "Camped" in the driveway in the burbs with the dogs. Fell asleep to the sounds of I294 and a few planes approaching O'Hare.
More later.
 
Leaving South Bend on Labor Day heading to Lake Erie State Park in Western NY, pretty standard campsite but with Lake Erie behind the trees but separated by some loud and fast train tracks. Cooked some dinner and headed East the next morning.
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Arrived at Lake Champlain and a site of the 1st Naval battle in the revolution. Nice park, few guests, plenty of squirrels to irritate the dogs, and no bridge so had to take the ferry the next AM.
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This is where the GPS showed me off course.
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Not many pics it seems or can't find them. Rainy in New England and there is no direct easy way across NH, VT, and Maine. Nice hills, I guess they call them mountains, but pretty. Just before pulling into our camp at Lamoine State Park across the water from Acadia National Park we trippeed over an LL Bean outlet :LOL: Kayla had forgotten a certain jacket so we picked up a few items and headed to camp. This is starting to look pretty nice and a lot different from the Chihuahuan desert, heard some loons that night.
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Next day would take us in Canada, need to have papers from the Vet showing everyone is vaccinated and healthy and one paper was missing but the border person wasn't very interested and we passed through quickly and headed towards the Bay of Fundy. Lunch spot:
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St. John, NB
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Dogs liked it
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Fundy is the home to some of the highest tides in the world causing rivers to run backwards and boats to be left hight and dry. Wish I had spent some more time there although the camping was nothing special and I wanted to had to be sure I got to my destination on time.
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Tomorrow Nova Scotia.
 
Got distracted servicing the truck and cleaning the camper. I got my tires balanced and rotated just before I left, part of the deal when I bought the tires. I think they were suprised when I showed up 6 weeks and 7000 miles later.
In New Brunswick, little diner next to the road, and on the Bay of Fundy.
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Tide is out, dogs are in
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You can get a sense of the power of the tides here
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Border Collie eye
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In Nova Scotia, Cabot Trail
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Not the best weather but not unusual
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Cape Breton Highlands, right behind the campsite
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Next morning have to line up for the ferry, reservations important, be there early, a 7 hour trip
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Drive right in
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Lots of vehicles, semi's down a level, got to realize that most good get to NF on this or the other ferries.
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Here is the sister ship heading the other way
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Seemed like it took forever, poor dogs in the truck, one sick, a small mess. Good fortune was that were we #1 in line to get off :D Headed for the 1st spot of grass in sight, then towards Cheeseman Provincial Park a few miles, no kilo's, from the ferry. You meet others on the ferry and this is where the campers head, just getting dark but again great start to NF, this is behind our campsite.
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More coming....
 
Newfoundland was scraped clean by the glaciers only 18,000 years ago so it is very new geologically (but also has some of the oldest rocks on earth, the mantle). What is left behind is rock, water, trees. This is a typical "pond' just off the Trans Canadian highway, Notre Dame Provincial Park. All the people and park staff we met were always friendly and laid back.
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Of course Newfoundland and Labrador are proud of their dogs.
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Cape Spear, can't get any further East in North America! Fog horn was amazing :eek:
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St. John's from Signal Hill, beautiful little harbor.
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Titanic went down off the coast, the distress signal came in here. Surprised me to discover that Ireland was only 1800 miles away, our home was 3x that!
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We stayed in "Pippy Park" right in St. John's. We got a spot, no electric needed but we had wifi!. I bit noisy in the city but you could find spots in the trees.
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I had a day of business, did some laudry, had some rain, poured coming in and going out. From St. John's we headed back across NF to Gros Morne National Park. Spent three nights there, this was the 1st:
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More of Gros Morne later :)
 
Barko - Are you home yet? Looks like a great trip. Keep the pictures coming. We communicated last spring when you had asked if anyone on the board had been to NF. We went in 2003 and I passed a few ideas to you. I also asked for your comments and tips on a trip we were planning to Canada and Alaska. We did incorporate some of your hints and all went really well. Thanks. Do you work for a university or an accrediting body?
- Richard
 
I've been home over a week and have got the vehicle and camper all serviced and am starting to think about what's next (except for some probable pesky back surgery). I retired from New Mex State a year+ ago and have been doing site visit for well over a decade, everything from California and Oregon to NY and RI. Even did Perth AU earlier this year. I was in charge of assigning visits, may have something to do with AU and NF being on my agenda :D I liked NF a lot, nicely remote. Got a bit worn out and so we skipped Labrador which means I have a reason to head back that way some day. If I do it again I'd probably go from Quebec to Lab and then NF. Obviously different from wondering around the West. We hit a lot of rain but luckily it usually stopped shortly before we did or before we packed up in the morning.
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Barko - Are you home yet? Looks like a great trip. Keep the pictures coming. We communicated last spring when you had asked if anyone on the board had been to NF. We went in 2003 and I passed a few ideas to you. I also asked for your comments and tips on a trip we were planning to Canada and Alaska. We did incorporate some of your hints and all went really well. Thanks. Do you work for a university or an accrediting body?
- Richard
 
I've been home over a week and have got the vehicle and camper all serviced and am starting to think about what's next (except for some probable pesky back surgery). I retired from New Mex State a year+ ago and have been doing site visit for well over a decade, everything from California and Oregon to NY and RI. Even did Perth AU earlier this year. I was in charge of assigning visits, may have something to do with AU and NF being on my agenda :D I liked NF a lot, nicely remote. Got a bit worn out and so we skipped Labrador which means I have a reason to head back that way some day. If I do it again I'd probably go from Quebec to Lab and then NF. Obviously different from wondering around the West. We hit a lot of rain but luckily it usually stopped shortly before we did or before we packed up in the morning.

Welcome back! We too plan to return to that area. In a year or two, we will be living in the northeastern US for a spell and intend to hit the Maritimes again during that period. Might take the route you mention for a change of scenery. I asked about the accreditation team thing because I work at a small community college and have passed up numerous opportunities to go on site visits (within the state). I always refused. They did not hold any interest until I saw your trip report. I am close to retiring, so will likely not go on any, but what a great idea to incorporate your own mini vacation into the site visit. Wish I had been thinking more creatively, as you did. Oh well!
-Richard
 
I have made accreditation visits my passport to adventure :D After a visit to U of Utah and a miserable 15hour plane trip back I rarely flew, almost always took a motorcycle, a couple trips to the East coast, all over CA, etc. The site has no clue unless I let them in on it, first task when arriving is to iron out the wrinkles. And professionally I could always steal a good idea to implement back home.
 

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