johnboystravelblog

August 11, 2019

When I was in St. John’s, Newfoundland I posted photos of their famous Jellybean Row houses.  Well this morning, as I prepared to cross the bridge from Shippagan, New Brunswick out onto Lameque Island, I saw this line of colorful boats off to my left.  It is evidently quite a popular spot for photos as there were lots of people there taking pictures both on my way north and, later in the day, back south.

Here is a closer look from right to left:

I’m kind of partial to the dark blue boat on the right in the photo above.  My initials are JAD.

 

August 11, 2019

I stewed about this for about a half hour this afternoon and want to get it out of my system. I went to a popular tourist spot along my route today and as was taking a photo of my target from the parking lot I heard a vehicle next to me start up. I looked over and when I saw what it was I took a photo. The driver saw me take it and as I was preparing to zoom in a little he waved me off, politely (in the Canadian Way), with his hand and arm movement. Yes, he is pointing a finger in the photo but it is his index finger, not his middle finger. I nodded to acknowledge no more photos and walked away.

After I thought about for a few minutes I decided – screw you, pal (in the American Way). It’s just a frickin’ car. Get over it.

You don’t want me to take photos of your kids or post them on my blog if I already did take them – I get that and I will absolutely honor your request. You drive your goofy little car to a popular tourist destination on Sunday afternoon and don’t expect everyone there with cameras to take your picture – no way Jose. If you don’t want someone to take a picture of your goofy little car take it out at night or keep it in your garage.

Are you on the run from the authorities or cheating on your wife and don’t want your picture taken? In witness protection, perhaps? Then don’t drive around in such a conspicuous vehicle.

I think we should do the old chain-letter number on this dude. Everyone right-click on the photo and save it to your computer. Then send it to, oh, say a hundred of your friends – and ask them to send it to a hundred of their friends….

Sheesh….

There, now I feel much better.

August 11, 2019

Sunday was an amazing and very lucrative day for photo ops.  I took over 500 photos (many are duplicates, but still…) and it may take a little time to get them all posted but I think the wait with be worth it.

I left where I had been staying in Miramichi and continued north on the Acadian Coastal Drive which I had driven on Saturday.  I stopped briefly in the town of Tracadie-Sheila (pronounced TRACK-a-dee SHAY-la) to make sure I knew where the house I would be staying in Sunday night is located and then continued north all the way past Shippagan and out to the Acadian Islands.  I then backtracked and went west to Caraquet and Grande-Anse before doubling back to Tracadie-Sheila on back roads.  I may post things a little out of sequence but will try to knock out a few easy posts tonight.

I saw some huge nests on top of utility poles and they were occupied by large birds I presume are osprey.  I briefly thought they might be sharp-shinned hawks based on signage I saw today but the legs and claws on these more closely resemble osprey.

When I drove my car into position and got out with my camera one bird left the nest, flew in a few circles near me, I think checking me out.  I never felt threatened but it finally landed on a nearby tree, away from the nest, probably to draw me away from it.

It was chirping and calling constantly, probably a warning (or a call for reinforcements to come pluck my eyeballs out).

Now that I have the photos uploaded I think the bird that left the nest (above) IS an osprey.  After getting those shots I turned my attention back to the nest and there were now TWO large birds in it.  These, I believe, are sharp-shinned hawks.

When I took the photos the nest was pretty far away and I just pointed the camera, zoomed in on the target and clicked off pictures, one reason I take so many.  I wasn’t even sure what I was seeing.  I find it chilling to look at these photos and see that both birds were staring right at me.

One of the two left the nest again and landed on a utility wire nearby.  I methodically walked closer and closer (on the opposite side of the road) and eventually beyond it.  They were always keeping tabs on me.

I tried hard to get shots of them in flight but I am still struggling with that.  I have the shots but they aren’t all that great.  What was really amazing to watch was when they were ready to land on a tree or in the next and they slow down and extend their legs before touching down.  I never got a shot of that but it is poetry in motion.  I will be heading back the same direction tomorrow morning and may try to get some more photos.  I also want to just watch them with binoculars for a while (maybe from a little further away).

 

August 11, 2019

Like states in the US, each Canadian province has it’s own flag which, in my opinion, are more colorful and interesting than their US counterparts.  I’m going to post them in the order which I have, or will be, visiting the province.

I made an earlier post about Nadal (Civic) Day in Nova Scotia and included a picture I had found online, which showed their flag flapping in the breeze.  I decided to show just straight shots of all these flags so you can see all the detail.

All of these photos I found online at en.wikipedia.org

New Brunswick, where I stopped for two nights after entering the country and to which I have now returned:

My Airbnb hostess told me last night that every child who goes to school in New Brunswick is taught to draw this flag!

Nova Scotia:

Newfoundland and Labrador:

Prince Edward Island:

Quebec:

And finally, Ontario:

As future trips take me to some of the other provinces (the ones which border the United States, I doubt if I’ll ever get to the Northern provinces)  I will make a similar post showing their flags.

August 10, 2019

After I had backtracked and driven my scenic roads north beyond Shediac, Bouctouche and Richibucto Saturday morning, all of which I had stopped in in search of “air and repair “for my tire the day before, I reached the southern edge of this National Park, located south of Miramichi on the east coast of New Brunswick. I had stopped in briefly here as well on Friday to get a map of the Park and get a general idea of things I might do when I returned.

Don’t be afraid of the name, given the area by the indigenous Mi’kmaq people. They called this area Kouchibouguac – the river of long tides. As with Kejimkujik in southwest Nova Scotia, this name is also pronounced just the way it looks: koo-she-boo-GUAC (like the short name for guacamole).

When I stopped at the Visitor Center Thursday I saw that the “red chairs” had a different application than in other Canadian Parks I have been to thus far – placed just outside the Center, with green directional signs below the name pointing, and showing the distance, to Gros Morne National Park and L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic site in Newfoundland. I imagine there is another set in a location I will be telling you about shortly.

I’m almost afraid to mention it but if you look at the window above the chair on the right you’ll see the reflection of me taking the photo. Yikes!! Sloppy camera work there, JohnBoy….

That photo was taken Friday when it was overcast. Saturday at the Park the sun had come back out (briefly) and I stopped at the Visitor Center again to ask a few questions I had formed about the Park.

If you look at the window above the chair on the right you’ll see…. why…. I don’t believe it…. it’s Safety Sam! Wait a minute…. who let that guy in here….

After having my questions thoroughly answered I drove deeper in to the Park. The thing I was most interested in were the sand dunes out near the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This Park is located far enough north along the eastern edge of New Brunswick that it is above the northwest tip of Prince Edward Island so I was no longer looking out towards the Northumberland Strait as I had been down in Boutouche.

The dunes themselves are out just beyond the strip of land you see in the distance and are accessed by the wooden walkway you see on the right side of the photo above. I didn’t go out there as the dunes themselves, while nice, I’m sure, are unremarkable and visitors were told that much of them are closed to public access as it is Piping Plover (a bird) nesting season and they are not to be disturbed. What is distinctive about these dunes it that the water beyond them is the warmest salt water found north of Virginia!

After visiting the Park my original plan was to return to my Airbnb in Miramichi, grab my digital camera which I had inadvertantly left there when I left this morning, and drive west on another scenic road on my list. Well by the time I got into town the sun, which had been out after the morning batch of rain, had boiled up big, nasty looking thunderheads which were clearly dumping large amounts of rain not far off in the distance. Radar showed that the large system was moving towards Miramichi and a severe thunderstorm watch had been issued for the area. I headed home, worked on the blog and spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening visiting with my Airbnb hostess. She and I ate dinner and stayed up drinking wine and talking until the wee hours of the morning. We both had many stories of our travel and life experiences to share and it was nice, for both of us I think, to take a break and just enjoy each other’s company.

August 10, 2019

Saturday I had two choices as to directions to travel to see my primary scenic roads.  I could go south to actually travel on the road I bypassed Friday because of my tire issues or go west to take an inland route towards Fredericton, the provincial capital.  There was rain in the forecast, approaching from the west, and after looking at radar and the sky I opted to head south.

I drove south on Route 11, a two lane, limited access highway (which I drove up on the day before) for about 80 miles and got off at the Shediac exit.  I had stopped there to buy timbits on Friday.  I went through town towards the coast where I picked up the Acadian Coastal Drive, a series of small roads which pretty much hugged the coastline – exactly what I like.

Well, the rain struck down there too.  When I arrived in town I stopped at a grocery store to pickup some things to munch on later in the day and to use their wifi to monitor the weather.  The sky to the west looked extremely threatening and the radar showed a fierce but compact storm system moving west to east, just about to hit town.  When I got out to the scenic road itself the rain let loose and I just pulled off the road and let it go by.  It went out over the Northumberland Strait about as quickly as it arrived and the remainder of the morning was quite pleasant.

It was an absolutely gorgeous drive back up north along the coast.  I didn’t take many pictures for two reasons – 1) the sky was still quite gray and that makes water photos gray and boring, and 2) I left my digital camera back at the house I’m staying in up in Miramichi!  This was due to my new policy of bringing the whole camera in out of the car each night to transfer pictures to my laptop.  I had just been bringing the SD card in and putting it back in the camera the next morning but I ruined the old SD card and had to buy a new one so I thought I’d try this new approach to handle the card a little more securely.  I took some wide shots with my phone but really wished I had the digital with me.

Well, this let me enjoy the ride even more because I didn’t have to stop so many times to take pictures.  Believe me, I will travel this road again next year when I come back to this area.  It was amazing.

I did stop to take pictures of two things in Boutouche, NB.  One was an island off to my left in a body of water just south of downtown.  The other was a view looking east towards the Boutouche Bay from a city park where I had pulled off the road.

This was when I discovered I had left the digital camera at home.  That little island is home to Le Pays de la Sagouine, a theatrical village which has shows and crafts celebrating the town’s Acadian heritage.  The town was gearing up for a bug celebration starting in a few days and was considerably more congested than it was on Friday.

Here are some photos I found of the facility online:

(Photo credit: sagouine.com)

I was outside the frame of that photo to the right, looking directly at the lighthouse at the eastern tip of the little island.

(Photo credit: destinationfamille.ca)

(Photo credit: worldfortravel.com)

Looking the other direction from this vantage point was a city park overlooking the bay and this was the view looking out towards the water:

This is a huge sign which was in the city park as well.  Note that Bontouche is a big Acadian town (blue/white/red color scheme with the yellow star).

And just north of town as I continued my drive was another little lighthouse model in someone’s front yard, painted with the Acadian colors.

Shortly after leaving Bouctouche I saw Dave again (see yesterday’s post about the guy I spoke with on my way north).  Today he was taking the scenic route too, but in the opposite direction as me (again).  Great minds think alike!!  I made an addendum to that post so if you read it already you may want to look at it again.

 

 

 

August 10, 2019

As I posted early yesterday morning, because of my delayed arrival on Prince Edward Island I had to try and make the best of it and cram as much as could in to the short timeframe I had to work with.  My plan for Friday was to drive all the way out to the western tip of the island (the town of Tignish and beyond it to North Cape – the furthest point north).  MapQuest said it would take about an hour and a half just to get to Tignish (not a very big island but small roads, through lots of small towns with traffic lights, to travel on).  There are two arterial roads (smaller versions of the Trans Canada Highway) which cross the central and eastern portions of PEI but only Route 2 (non-TCH) in the west.

Once out at North Cape I would make my back to the Confederation Bridge on a long “primary” scenic road, stop at a venue I wanted to visit, and be able to leave the island no later than 1 o’clock.  Friday was a travel day and I needed to get up to Miramichi, New Brunswick by the end of the day and I had a scenic road I planned to drive on and a National Park to stop at along the way.

That was my plan.

Things changed quickly, literally only about a minute after leaving my Airbnb in little Canoe Cove, PE at 630 am to begin my long day.  My car informed me that my right rear tire had only 9 pounds of air pressure, compared to 31 in each of the other three.  PEI – Day One now became PEI – Day Only.

When the indicator light came on I immediately stopped the car and got out to take a look.  While it was clearly low, it wasn’t like I’d be riding on the rim so I proceeded slowly down Route 19.  I adjusted the setting for my dashboard display to view the tire pressure screen full time and as I drove kept an eagle eye on those numbers.  I had to drive maybe 2 miles on Route 19 just to get to TCH-1, a 2-lane, much more heavily traveled highway. The number never got lower than 9 so I continued, cautiously, west on the TCH in search of a gas station where I could put air in the tire.

I had already made the decision to abandon my plan to drive out to the Cape.  If I was going to have a flat tire or blowout I wanted to stay on more heavily traveled roads and in places where I would hopefully have cell service to call for help.  I had to drive 22 miles just to get to the closest gas station as I approached the bridge.  I put air in the tire, filled the car with gas and was on my way.

My next goal was to find a tire store which could check the tire for leaks and rotate my tires, which I was overdue for anyway.  I had wanted the shop in North Sydney to rotate the tires while they were working on the car Wednesday but by the time the part arrived for the a/c repair and they actually started their work I was “on the clock” to get out to PEI by dark and I told them to skip it.

 

I crossed the bridge into New Brunswick and took Route 15 to Route 11 which would take me up to Miramichi.  I had wanted to take a scenic coastal road but, again, decided to stay on the bigger road.  Hopefully I’d have time to backtrack later.

I had left Canoe Cover very early and assumed there wouldn’t be a tire shop in any of the small towns along this new route which would be open before 9.  I stopped at a Tim Hortons in Shediac to buy a box of timbits – I thought for the week I was having I deserved it.  Still too early for a tire shop, I continued north to the next fairly decent sized town, Bontouche.

I got off Route 11 there and traveled both directions away from the highway hoping I might just stumble on a tire shop.  I did see this cute little ice cream shop which wasn’t open yet but I did stop to take a picture:

I also wanted to refill my water bottles and decided to take advantage of the cloud cover and do it here.  The parking lot was empty but I saw this sign:

If you ever want to impress you friends by saying it in French, there’s your script.  I decided not to go to jail just for filling water bottles in an empty parking lot, where I’d be easily spotted by authorities, so I skipped it.  Back to my search for a tire shop… 

No luck, so I went to another Tim Hortons to use their wifi and look for a shop.  I was very close but would have never have found it on my own.  When I got there I learned it was out of business.

Back on Route 11 north to the town of Richibucto.  Tim Hortons.  Tire shop.  Too busy to get to it for a while.  Back on the road.  At all of these stops I would go to a gas station and put more air in.  Each time I filled the tire it got to 34 psi, which my other tires reached once I drove for a while and got some heat in them.  On my car (a Nissan Altima) you add air until the horn honks once to let you know the tire it full – isn’t technology amazing?  Each time, by the time I had gotten to the next stop it had dropped to the mid 20’s.

At this point I was so close to Miramichi, a much bigger town, that I decided to just go there.  When I was speaking with Dave I told him of my dilemma and he said there was, in fact, a large Canadian Tire (brand) store there which would be right along Route 11.  I got there around 1230 and was given an appointment at 130.

I walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch and then walked around the big parking lot for the shopping complex just to get come exercise.  When I got back to the shop at 130 they were just wrapping things up.  They had removed a nail from the tire, patched it and rotated the tires for me.  On my way at 2 pm.  I stopped at my Airbnb a little ways further north on Route 11 to get the key.  I had been keeping my hostess there apprised of my situation and wanted to let her know it was resolved.

I drove back south to the north end of the scenic road I had planned to take all along and drove south on it until I gotten so far that I’d have to turn around and take Route 11 (a faster road with no lights until I got to Miramichi) back to get home by 6pm.  I hadn’t slept much the night before and was totally exhausted.  I wanted to check in, make a few posts and go to bed (and again, change of plan, I ended up having a very nice conversation with my hostess after making my two posts last night and didn’t get to bed until much later).

As I drove in to Miramichi, which Dave taught me is pronounced mira-mi-SHE (not the literal mira-MICHI as I had been saying),  I saw this water tower:

Hopefully, after my week of car related issues, a wee bit ‘o Irish luck will rub off on me….

 

 

August 9, 2019

Friday, as I was driving north on busy Route 11 in extreme eastern New Brunswick province as I traveled between the Confederation Bridge exiting PEI and my next Airbnb stop in Miramichi, NB this is what I saw heading south along the shoulder of the two-lane highway:

I turned the car around, drove out ahead of this guy and turned around again, parking just off the northbound side of the highway (so he wouldn’t have to navigate around my car).  I threw on my Safety Sam vest, grabbed the smartphone and waited for him to go past me on the other side of the highway.  Unfortunately traffic was approaching from both directions but as I took the shot I yelled “I’m putting you on my blog!”.   Well damned if he didn’t slow down, cross over to my side and come back towards me, taking out his earbuds in the process.

Meet Dave, a VERY personable young man from Newfoundland.  Dave is riding his large unicycle across Canada!  We talked for about 10 or 15 minutes and he was fascinating.

He also asked me to photograph his backpack which has his “handle,” #unicycledave.

I believe he said he posts on Facebook and Instagram but I haven’t had a chance to check out either one yet.  He was wearing a camera (don’t know if it is streaming or time lapse still shots).  I shared my blog information with him and hope we may be able to talk again sometime at greater length.

He said he averages around 100 km (60 miles) per day and is heading back towards Newfoundland after having been up north of the Great Lakes (he actually started much further west according to his website).  He suggested that I budget lots of time north of Lake Superior when I get over to that part if Canada as he says it is amazing.

What incredible luck to have encountered him, and that he actually stopped to chat!

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UPDATE:  I saw Dave again on Saturday!  I had driven back down south on Route 11 as far as Shediac and then went east out to the coast to actually drive the scenic road I had planned to do Friday before having tire problems.  About the time I got to Boutouche, this time of the Acadian Shore Drive, there he was.  It had just rained and he had a blue parka-type coat on over top his riding outfit.  His goal today Saturday was to make it all the way down to Hopewell Rocks to watch the tide go in and out.

I asked about the camera and he said he mainly shoots video but sometimes, if on a tedious, repetitive stretch of road he will do time lapse still shots to save storage.

August 8, 2019

This post contains photos taken on Thursday while on PEI which have not appeared in other posts.  These are pretty much in order and cover a variety of places and topics.

PEI is a long island which kind of slants from northwest to southeast but to make direction references more succinct I will use north/south/east/west.  There are three main sections, west, central and east.  I believe I read that the island is about 175 miles long but I will verify that and may change the number after I post this. CONFIRMED

I had scenic roads plotted all over the island (my primary roads, from the book I am using as a guide, are always highlighted in orange) but since my visit was cut short from four days to effectively one I had to prioritize my to-do list and try to maximize my time there.  I was staying in the southeastern coast of the central section (highlighted in pink).  The roads I decided to focus on were in the western section.  I did not go to the eastern section at all.

I started out fairly early Thursday and drove back towards the Confederation Bridge.  The weather was not conducive to me getting good photos there so I moved on to Summerside, the second largest city on the island which is located at the point where the central section meets the western section.  I spent some time and took some photos there but am not happy with how they turned out.  I then drove along my first scenic road, Route 11, on the southern coast of the western section of the island.  This is where I happened upon the Acadian village where the big celebration is taking place (see separate post).

When I reached the northern end of Route 11 I decided to cross the island to the north coast and go back east on scenic Route 12.  I was planning to have lunch at a restaurant in the central section so that is why I changed direction.

This boat was along one of the small roads I was using to go from south to north.  It is a large fishing boat in someone’s yard.

This is an elementary school playground in little Ellerslie, PE.  Evidently their schools colors are maroon and white, eh?

Just a few hundred feet from that playground I was quite surprised to see this sign on a large metal building.  Ellerslie has a population of less than 500 people and is a good distance from the two largest cities on the island, Charlottetown and Summerside.  While Escape Rooms are all the rage right now I find it hard to believe this was a good location location location….

This is another beautiful church I found in my travels on the north coast.  It is Saint Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church.  It was out in the boonies so I don’t know exactly what town it is in.  I had seen another, almost identical building but white with red stripes on the steeple, which I drove past every day I was on the island as I left home and drove west but when I got close to it I saw that it badly needed a paint job and had fallen somewhat into disrepair.  This one, however, looked very nice.

As I was getting into position to take the church picture I saw this large prop plane taking off from an airfield facing the opposite side of the road.  I was using my digital camera and took quite a few shots with the zoom lens as the plane banked and turned to it’s right.  When I was done with the sequence I realized a woman had stopped her car in the road as she didn’t want to interfere with my shots.  Canadians are so considerate!  I waved to thank her but wish I could have spoken with her briefly as well.

Next I headed to the restaurant in North Rustico Beach on the north coast of the center section.  It was PACKED, with a long line out the door.  I didn’t even bother to park the car (not that I would have found a spot anyway) so I headed off to the Anne of Green Gables house to the west and decided I’d try again later.  I did stop at a waterside boardwalk nearby to take a photo of this tourist fishing boat group going out to sea while avoiding a group of kayakers paddling in the harbor.

After the Anne of Green Gales house (see separate post) I drove back east through a portion of nearby Prince Edward Island National Park, a long, thin Park which is mostly a controlled access scenic drive high above but very close to the water, which is the Gulf of Saint Lawrence looking north from anywhere on the island.  From the south coast of the island one looks out over the Northumberland Strait which is the body of water the Confederation Bridge spans.  I read that nowhere on Prince Edward Island are you more than 10 miles from at least one of those two bodies of water.

PEI is famous for it’s red dirt and red sand beaches.

I will be posting more about PEI in the future.

 

August 9, 2019

Thursday, while driving on some of my “primary” scenic roads on Prince Edward Island, I visited the town of Cavendish, on the northwest coast.  There I found the house which inspired the children’s classic (insert title of post here…) written by Lucy Maud Montgomery is 1908.  Parents of young girls from all over the world bring them here to visit (and I’m sure many adults who enjoyed the book as a child come here as well).  I came here at the request of a friend in Durham (an adult) who badly wanted a photo of the house.  She was ecstatic that I made it here when texted her a photo yesterday afternoon.

And this is Anne:

No, really, that is Anne.  At least that’s what she told me.

Inside the Visitor Center is an area where young girls (and maybe even older girls or adults) can don a red wig with pigtails, a period dress and straw hat and have their photo taken in front of backdrop while holding a sign which says “Green Gables”.  The backdrop isn’t even a painting or enlarged photo of the house, just some artistic scene.  I thought that whole thing was kind of lame considering what their parents had to pay to get them here and get them in to see the house.

So Anne is another photo op and a chance for these little girls to me misled thinking they really met Anne of Green Gables.  I took a photo of one such young girl having their photo taken by her parents and when the girl had removed all the props I asked the parents if it was ok to post the photo on the blog.  They said they preferred not, which I fully understand and is the reason I always ask.  I had a similar situation in a big National Park in the western US and, again, was told no.

So anyway, I see “Anne” (wink, wink) chatting and posing with some young girls near the back of the house and when the visitors moved away and their daughter was out of earshot I said “So you work here?” leading up to the question as to whether or not I could post her photo on the blog.  She replied, in a perky, whimsical voice – “No, I’m Anne…. I live here” and employed the sweeping hand motion I’m sure she has had plenty of practice doing.  Bless her heart, she’ll probably grow up to have psychological issues.  At least the people in the Mickey Mouse costume at Disney World get to wear a mask.

Oops – perhaps I should have warned “Spoiler Alert”…..

This property, while technically not a National Park, is a Canadian Historic Site and, as such, is managed by Parks Canada.  Sounds like a great spot for the “red chairs” and sure enough, I found them tucked away behind a row of hedges near the front yard of the house.

Here is the view the two young ladies seated in the chairs were enjoying:

The open field in the distance is now one of the fairways of a golf course.  Somehow I doubt that was in the book.

Fore!

Seeing as the site was managed by Parks Canada my Discovery Park Pass got me in for free, which was a relief for two reasons.  One, I didn’t have to pay, of course, but more importantly two, I didn’t have to wait in the loooooong line of parents waiting to bring their little girls in.