Canadian Maritimes with Mahoney/Brewers 08

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June 24, 2008 Perce, Quebec,  Camping Du Phare  (418) 782-5588

We left Matane at the  honorable hour of 10:20 this morning as we waited for the fog to lift.  I combed the tour brochure and found an interesting  place to visit less than an hour away, Le Nordais Windmill Park.


On our way we got our  second fuel up of diesel.  It was $5.84 per gallon?.. But we are getting better mileage than Russ because we drive more slowly than he does. He makes rest stops then races to catch up with us.  I practiced my French with the fuel station  attendant and learned that the  windmill park we wanted to visit  was on the right and up a hill.  She said a whole bunch of other things that I hoped meant it was ok to take our big rig up that road!  We spent a delightful 2 hours at Eole Park.  It is in Cap-Chat on the Gaspe Peninsula. Having lived in California we?ve seen the wind turbines in Tehachapi and in  Palm Springs areas but today was the first up close and personal visit we?ve had with the behemoth  size  machines.  The Vertical axis wind turbine in Cap-chat is the tallest in the world ( 110 meters).  It was built as a joint private industry and  Government venture to experiment on the  use of wind to generate electricity.  It started during the 1970 fuel crisis.  Through a series of political and economic reasons, it has not run  for over 20 years but when it did,  it  provide electricity for 400  homes.  The  developer  had an initial contract to receive  25  cents per kilowatt generated and made millions dollars.  It now sits still awaiting parts.  It takes 3 of the smaller wind turbines with 3 blades that are more familiar to us  to generate the equivalent amount of electricity.  Gaspe is the right place for wind turbines as they have lots of wind!! It will soon run again as a private Canadian Company is undertaking a new power venture.  All the companies who service the  windmill park must live in Quebec so it is good for the Province! The experimentation done by the first turbine resulted in changes made with subsequent wind farms.  I?m sure I left out critical details  but this  place was wonderful.  We drove our 40 foot motor home with car attached to the  site .  The turn around radius was wonderful as they had to truck those huge  wind thingys up that road so it was big enough for us.  What a treat!

The rest of the journey around the Gaspe Peninsula today was  very scenic even though it was up and down and very bumpy roads.  I was reminded of frost heaves and Mexican roads.  The road was narrow  but NO traffic.  It is Jean the Baptist Day so locals are at home with celebrations and not on the road.  Par for our travels,  it rained hard in the last part of the trip.  The coastline villages all have pristine white box like houses with colorful shingles on roof.  Every part of the ground is lush green, a testimony to the rain.  The  scenery was that of post cards. Ohhhhh ahhhhhhhh.
We arrived at our Campground after 7 pm, exhausted and ready for supper!  We are tourists? again in morning  but will go by boat.

 

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Betty we have never had the time to stop either.  However, as I said, Donna's Irish are pre-famine and landed in Nova Scotia.  As for ice cream, it may not be chocolate coated, but when you hit PEI you will have to get a COWS Ice Cream, which has won the award for being the best in the world.

Ed
 
Smoky said:
Sharon and Smoky are still wondering when and where the Cousins catch up with the Brewers and the Mahoneys???

Smoky:

Probably in late July or early August either in Newfoundland or Nova Scotia.
 
June 25,  2008  Perce, Quebec    Camping Du Phare at Perce  (418) 782-5588  ( Passport America Park)


Well duhhhh.  This morning Terry shows me that he?d found that the RV Park we are staying in (and have already  paid for two nights )is a Passport Park.  This means we should have had a rate ? of what we paid.  I trot to office to see if my French is good enough to get a refund.  No dice, credit cards are already processed.  Because there is so much to see here, we are staying one more night at the ? rate but lost out  before because  of our lack of attention to our benefits! 

Today was one of the most  gorgeous  days of our trip.  Not only is the scenery around Perce incredible, the weather gods listened to my prayers (Thanks Barb) and we had  crystal clear  blue skies with a warm a nice breeze .  We quickly  made our reservation to go out on a boat ride  around Bonaventure Island and see the Gannet Colony.  Before today I did not know what a Gannet was and now I love them.  Russ  boarded the boat with us a the seas looked so calm.  The boat took us by  Perce rock and then around the cliffs of the  island  where thousands of Gannets make their nests, have babies  and stay until October when they fly south.  I snapped  lots of shots!!! We got off on the  island and Russ took the boat back to Perce. We ate our  picnic lunch when we arrived on the island and  then began the 45 minute hike to the back of the island to see the bird colony.  The first 1/3 of the trip was a gradual grade uphill and I was huffing and puffing wondering if seeing these birds was going to be worth it.  Well let me tell you to see  the thousands of these nesting birds up close and personal was fantastic.  They are beautiful birds.  Ron Maribito will love to  shoot photos of them.  I saw them preening , mating, feeding, nest building and cooing.  The place did smell like a chicken coop and the din of the cawwwing of the birds was a noise that crept up on us as we got closer to the colony.  I saw their golden colored eggs, I saw a few newly hatched babies.  Wow is all I can say.

The topper of the evening was the restaurant where we dined had a guitar playing French singer.  I loved it.  The guys liked their lobster and I liked my French Onion soup.
 

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Oh I'm so glad you got good weather there and that you like it there too.  It's SOOO pretty!  You got some great photos.

ArdraF
 
June 26, 2008 Perse, Quebec      Camping Du Phare Passport America Park (Not in July or August )


Today was not nearly as pretty as yesterday and Terry is fighting off a cold so we slept in and kicked back.  I did get up some energy to go touring on my own.  I went to the Bonaventure Island National Park. I paid the one dollar tariff,   hiked down the steps to get a view of the rocks and sea.  There I  learned you can?t go  out on the beach on your own.  You need to go with a naturalist Parc  guide.  You also need tickets and you purchase them over by the wharf.  It is at 2:15.  I?m learning all of this in French as  no one  speaks English. When I trotted over to the wharf and no one in the Parc Headquarters with all of the maps and displays spoke English and that all of the guided tours are in French exclusively I kinda lost interest.  I bought a poster of the beautiful Gannets and a book telling me all about them.  It is in English and French.  I am discouraged today with my inability to learn things here due to my language.  So I went to the market.  I refused to pay $2.00  for a small head of lettuce, but I did buy one red onion that ended up costing me $2.02.  I  did not see any souvenirs of interest.  My navigators had a meeting and determined our route to New Brunswick in the morning. 

Since it was not so pretty today I am going to include some of my photos from yesterday and a couple from today.  Terry takes better photos with his camera than I do with mine but I got closer to the baby birds than he did.

Here is something ?funny?  I did not tell you about  yesterday.  You know the saying **** Happens?  I?m here to tell you about a true meaning.  While out on our boat ride around Bonaventure Island a bird flew over and did a ?dropping??.right in my ear.  It did not splatter on my face, it did not get on my clothing.  It was a direct hit in the ear.  I was the only one who knew it hit!  It felt wet and waaaaay yucky.  I  used a Kleenex and got most of it out but it left me with a crappy feeling until I could get home and pour Hydrogen peroxide into my ear.  My doctor friend, Russ indicated that fecal matter in the ear is a very uncommon problem.   OK now, Marsha,   Margi and Wendy you can quit laughing.  From now on I am wearing a  wide brimmed hat while out on boats.   
Just enjoy the photos from yesterday and think how excited I was to see these bird colonies even though I was having a bad day!


 

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Betty Brewer said:
 OK now, Marsha,   Margi and Wendy you can quit laughing. 

I'm sorry ... that's just too funny not to laugh.  ;D  I've stepped in a lot of horse stuff, but thankfully never took a direct shot in the ear.  ;)

I have never seen a gannet and they are so interesting looking and quite beautiful.  I really enjoyed your pictures.

Margi
 
I forgot to ask ... what in the world were you holding?  I wondered that with the first set of photos, then saw the "bird on a stick" in the second set, and still ask "what in the world is that?".

Margi
 
Hfx_Cdn said:
Betty, we do consider it a sign of good luck when you take a direct hit


It was certainly good luck for the rest of them that Betty took the direct hit.  ;D

 
Golly that bird must have had an excellent bomb sight.  Now if I can get Sam to quit laughing.  Sounds like your having a great time bird doo and all.
 
Tom and Margi said:
I forgot to ask ... what in the world were you holding?  I wondered that with the first set of photos, then saw the "bird on a stick" in the second set, and still ask "what in the world is that?".
Margi,

Terry says to tell you it is a shis ka bob!  I think it may  be a prop used by  the rangers to explain parts of the bird, but I like the shis ka bob story better.

Lucky Betty
 
Yesterday we called and reserved our Ferry to Newfoundland.  We are traveing  from North Sydney to Port Argentia departing at 7:30 am on June 30.   We will leave Port aux Basque at 4 pm. for our return on 7/31/08.

Does anyone know if we can boondock on or near the ferry terminal?  We will be arriving Argentia late evening and hope to stay there if we can. 

We did not think it bad that we were able to get the dates and times we wanted for this ferry by calling just 4 days before departure.

Betty
 
Betty,
Your welcome.  We all wishing you great weather on your trip.  Thanks for sharing your adventures, I only chuckled. I made a note to self on wide brim hats around the water. Looks like beautiful country.  A speedy recovery on that cold. 

Stay safe, and live life to the fullest.
Barb
 
A direct shot in the ear!!!.....I'm still laughing.  I can just picture you trying to "get it out" discretely.  I would have loved to have been there to see that, and your reaction;of course then there is the chance that I could have taken the hit for you.

I have a friend who is a horse shoer.  He has many stories of being under the back end of a horse while putting new shoes on the back feet and being blessed on the head with "horse apples".  I'm sure Margi can picture that event.... ;D

Marsha~
 
ROFL, Marsha.  It's bad enough when you're brushing the critters and they get so relaxed they "reward" you with a rear blast of air which would set off an LPG detector if one were nearby.  ::)

Margi
 
Betty,

When you were driving the Gaspe did you see any signs like this one, we did?

JerryF
 

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Had computer troubles last night so didn't get to read Betty's Bird Bomb story until this morning. Thanks for the a.m. laugh. I can't stop laughing thinking it. Me, I wouldn't have been discrete at all....I'd have been yelling the word that matches the item that fell in my ear. So, Betty, did you go out and buy a broad-brim hat to cover your ears from future attacks??

BTW, did you know that very few birds poop while flying?

Wendy
still LMAO
 
Thanks for the good laugh, Betty.  I know it's at your expense, but it's still funny.  Glad you got your ear cleaned out....

I remember that set of buildings with the red roofs.  Such a great setting!

Enjoy your ferry ride.  Don't know about the ferry and parking.  All I know is it's not real close to St. John's.  People are so friendly though that I doubt you'll have trouble boondocking if you see a suitable place.  We got off a ferry at night and ended up in a church parking lot.  The next morning the people at the church were so nice we gave them a donation for their restoration fund to say thank you.

ArdraF
 
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