TubaOrNotTuba

Today we went puffin hunting. Not successful because it is either too early or too cold. Those night temperatures in single digits are a sign that we are ahead of the flock. We did find other strange birds though. In a local restaurant there was one man who could fill in as a foghorn. How loud? Loud enough that we asked to move to a different table in the far corner of the restaurant to try and get some respite. This was one of those birds that qualifies as an entrepreneur. Find the next dollar at whatever price. Ask everyone you meet who they are and what they do and where they used to live and any other kind of question that might fill up a contact sheet. I find the whole process terrible. But that is why I do not own a company. Our decision to try dry camping in the middle of nowheres is actually sort of a first for us. We can see the ocean and we are here until someone asks us to move along. If the police arrives, I will tell them that I’m here to go to the gift shop when it finally opens. You can be too early from anything. We will forego electricity if necessary. We have some water and we have good spirit. I even have some apple juice in the fridge. Today I stayed behind during the walk and tried to figure out why radios do not always talk to one another. The answer is that I do not know. More expected experimentation required. Waiting now for the sun to go down so I can see if we are out of sight and out of mind for other people.

Finally just before bedtime last evening we had a bit of weather. A few Thunder cells had drifted into our area. And there was some action. Bright lights noise some hailstones. Actually considered that there were a dozen demented drummers all working on the roof at the same time. This RV is a little more then the modified tin can so I could hear every stroke. No matter. No damage done. Within the hour the storm had drifted away. Today we headed east. At least, I think so. With no access to maps or a compass I am guessing here. We did finally go for a meal at a chicken place. The Mary brown chain. And it was quite good. After that we drove on some back roads and then some other back roads until we arrived at our destination which was a provincial park. The only downside apart from being far from everything else in the world is that there is a boil watery water in effect. We will have to ration what we have until at least tomorrow. I can handle that I suppose. Although it strikes me at the last time I had to boil water was 1/2 century ago. I live a very soft life. If we go with our current plan we will be around here for a few days giving us ample time to see what else is at the end of the world. I know, that’s not the name on the road sign but let’s go with that. Outside lots and lots of trees. It has been rumored that moose hang out in such territory. I don’t know that for sure. Other than that things are going swimmingly even if we’re not going swimming. This is what Irving is supposed to be like I think no glam camping. Getting away from the rest of the world and relying upon whatever resources you have brought with you. We have lots of batteries and a long cord for electricity is available. I do not plan to build any campfires because that strikes me as risky behavior in a place with so many trees. But that is my take on things and what do I know. I am a boy from a small island.

Another short day of travel and we find ourselves in the centre of the province. At least that is how they call it. We are in the area around grand falls ambition falls. No idea which is which. There is a lovely municipal campground right by the river and so while she who drives ghost walking I am sitting listening to a concert of pentangle. They were a big name a half century ago and they still sound good. This particular concert was posted to YouTube only four hours ago. A resource that keeps being renewed. We did take the time to see what was available in this area for food. The difference between being in the country and coming to a town is a suddenly you are hit with an overwhelming number of possibilities. So many fast food restaurants. We did the natural thing and ignored them. There was a bag of potato chips and so while I crunched I just relaxed. Supper will come with later. We’re getting better at this whole idea of being level but the Wi-Fi is always a new situation. This park has two feeds, neither them functioning very well. So we have fallen back to the cell phone and hotspot. I have not yet tried my fancy chip in a tablet. Still lots of time. There is also a laundry just in front of us and that seems more important then some of the other possibilities. I have been giving great thought to trying to track down the relatives of my in-laws. I know, that sounds complicated and it is. A father that never knew his children and now he is buried. What I can find out will help his grandchildren to finally figure out who the man might have been. On the highway coming out from last night there was nothing unusual other than passing through the village of Badger. I keep wondering about that name too. One encounter with a small animal so challenged the name are of the village. What happened here long ago. We are after all in a land of moose. Why celebrate a tiny woodland mammal. I wonder, is a badger rodent. Time to check with Google.

My relationship with my eye drops continues to be 1 that is difficult. Even after a couple of decades. And it all comes down to the inexact method of measurement. What is a drop? Have I given enough to the eye or am I hurting myself. The bottles are opaque. The only way of determining the remaining volume is to shake and listen. Not exactly how scientific measurement should be done. I have been fortunate. I have rarely run out. I have learned that even when a bottle seems empty there might be an extra drop or two if I am really patient. Not an ideal role for a patient. Right now we’re planning a road trip and I can calculate if I have enough for one or two days. Turn that into several weeks and I am at a loss. Am I going to dry up and wither away as we visit the tundra. The chances are better than you think. You see the pharmacy does not want me to take multiple bottles. It’s not that they’re rationed but yes, they are. There is a certain amount of government money that goes into the whole thing. Waste not, want not. And so we will visit the pharmacy and try to explain a situation where the bottle seems to have enough for another few days but might not and could I have an extra bottle just in case because I’m going to be away for a few weeks. I cannot wait to see how that will play out. It will depend upon who is in duty in the backroom I guess. Meanwhile I have been adding these drops for better than two decades and I can only assume that they’re doing something worthwhile. The symptoms have not changed and I have not been cured. Maybe I am nothing more then a place for pharmacy to get money. I must not worry about things that I cannot see. I should get that on a T-shirt. A rule of thumb for anyone that wanders around in a constant haze. Mine changes colour from day-to-day. Sometimes 10 sometimes blueish sometimes white. And no two days in a row are the same. Actually I blame it on my eye drops.

Right now as in yesterday today and tomorrow we find ourselves in black sub long. On the Labrador coast to Quebec. And so with those are given we decided to make the best of it and visit what we could. There is a heritage site at red Bay and we made it up there to the east. Just by chance someone from the staff was around and took the time to let us in. Otherwise we would have had to wait a couple of weeks. Once that part was done we headed back to the village. A chance to go for an afternoon breakfast run in a restaurant by an elderly gentleman who did everything. And did it well. I took the time to discuss people that I knew from here who had worked with me in Quebec. It’s funny how small the world really is. Outside there’s water obviously. With tiny bits of floating ice that I think are known as bergy bits. Nothing large but you realize that at any given time that could change. Climate change takes time. As well we have figured out some of the better ways to live in our small box. Such as going for all day breakfast. Something I almost never do at home. The next hurdle will be to make it to the ferry terminal on time tomorrow morning. I’m glad I am not responsible for that part. This time tomorrow we will be back in Newfoundland going to our next campsite. The road continues to wander and we take it as it comes.

Today we took another ferry. The third one actually. For us it puts us in a strange area where there are more than two time zones at play. Very confusing when you want to know what time things are coming and going. We have learned that you can ask those around you they may or may not know but at least you’re doing it as part of the community. The ferry did arrive and we got on board and then set sail. One of our more difficult rides in that it was in swell mode. That’s where the bulk goes up and down and sideways but slowly. Maybe want to stay seated for the afternoon that’s another part of it I have no idea how long we were away from the dock. We arrived in another province and crossed into yet another territory. This time around we decided to go with a campground attached to a motel. Given that the campground is not yet de- winterized we probably should have gone for the motel. We did have a good restaurant meal and now I’m trying to work through the inconstancy’s of a Wi-Fi system that does not know about encryption. It doesn’t matter. This is our vacation time. Not as if I had to work to get here. Yes, it is raining. The first time since we left home. That too shall pass. Better a bit of water than a forest fire what I say. Tonight I will sleep even though I have no idea exactly where I am. One of the little mysteries in my life. Or maybe I’ll try to find a map. We saw nothing out of the ordinary today and all the way along we realized that we are among the fortunate ones. Able to take a vacation on our schedule. And with no need to be back at work next Monday morning. You know that I will not say all the good old days.

There have been some animals on this trip. Not many but there’s a moose and some Caribous and a brown fox that have come across our trail. I have no idea why brown perhaps it’s a seasonal thing, that’s the story. Today we headed northward after checking into a small motel we made it all the way past the ferry dock to the point where the road says turn around go home and so we did. Lot of water in these parts. I salute people in the government who had the money to build such a lovely road. Which seems to go nowhere. I mean, there might be a lot of truck traffic around here in the up season but not right now we were on the road by ourselves for most of the day. There was a lighthouse that caught her attention but we do not have a boat on board all we can do is look in wonder. This is only the first section of our trip here. We have a small detour tomorrow to the other side of the strait. A different one then the one at home. We will be in Labrador for a couple of days. But more on that later. For now we are well fed and warm and ready to continue. Oddly there has been no awful weather yet I have been told not to jinx situation. Seriously though no rain and no wind. We did catch an afternoon on CBC talking about how things are not going well in the world of forest management drought and bad weather in case you’re wondering. I know they do forest fires in this part of the world. I am attentive to that aspect. But so far nothing out of the ordinary just us watching out the windows for new animals. I keep hoping for a polar bear but I’ve been told this is not the season. However we did see icebergs plural. I admit we had gone hunting for them. It would be so tempting for someone who did not know better to get up close to one climb on board and we refer to flip over and roll them into the death steps. You can tell we have no icebergs at home. But they’re so pretty and each is different. There is even an app helping you find which one of the hundreds in this area that you can see. A lot of area for a lot of small bergs.

Our travel habits closely mirror those of the railway passenger service. We wait for a waypoint and we get everything done at once. Last night and today we took care of filling our tanks and emptying our tanks and getting showers and making sure that we are ready for the next few days away from base. So far so good we have continued north along the province’s frontier pulling us close to the ocean and in the arms of the National Park system. After leaving the park it was just a question of driving for hours and hours until we stopped to walk for hours and hours. Well actually not me. Idid not do the walking. But I was involved. Notice how I look for the best word for certain situations. We met a nice man who walked around in his favourite rubber boots because of all the bogs. He did point out that we were going to have wet feet. Also be careful those areas with the funny colours because you might sink to your waist. Good to know before. We are now camped beside the ocean after having gone for a good old fashioned restaurant meal. The kind that involves turkey and turkey soup. The woman on our table love the fact that we also spoke some French because I think that she was a little bit feeling homesick. We asked her why she was even there and she gave the usual blame: her husband. We did visit the site of another disaffected lighthouse. The kind where the light has been taken away and I wonder where it went. Did the government recommission it elsewhere or was this sold by local light thieves. More questions to ask. And now I’m ready to call it another day because the sun is gone down and there is no moon in view and this is the best time to sleep.

Let me open with a few minor modifications. I’ve learned that the name of the shipwreck from yesterday is not fully confirmed. I have learned that the lighthouse is over a century newer than I thought and that the stone was quarried on site. Also the roosters are back. This is a place that is surrounded by a National Park. That means that many of the sites or attractions are those with a historical background. Today we visited an old lighthouse. At least the dwelling. You can no longer enter the light structure. We have been here once before about eleven years ago. Mentioning one of the guides we met at that time was enough to unlock the hospitality mode. Not even a name. Just hair colour. I think that people who work in the public eye like to know that others have been there before them. Not exactly continuity but brotherhood. We learned a lot about the history and the ongoing development of the site. Something that interests me a great deal. Later in the afternoon I skipped the walks in the woods because my ankle is sensitive. Almost as if I kicked something. I am sure that the woods will continue to be without my going through them. As well we had some homemade ice cream kind of small shop and we skipped the obvious tourist attractions. The water here is supposed to be very good so we will fill tanks tomorrow. Before leaving. We had to go on a cash run to satisfy the needs at our next stop. I was under the opinion that everybody had gone electronic but that is not so. There are many smaller companies that carry on with good old cash.

Thank you to the man who stopped by our campsite this morning to tell me the name of the shipwreck. Southern Cross. I would not have known otherwise. Anyhow we picked up around the site and got on the road for the day. Most of the afternoon was spent transiting to our next location. Other than a special stop for fuel which took about two minutes the rest of the day was spent following the yellow line. Sometime long before supper time we arrived at our KOA. The only thing out of the ordinary is a rooster. Just next to us. I will be looking forward to hearing how that plays out. We are on the outskirts of a National Park which brings the usual song and dance about whether or not you need a pass to go to a private facility. We were waved through but I’m sure the question will come back again over the next couple of days. There is also a party facility complete with some sort of jumping pillow toy for children to get on and fall off. I will wait to see if the noise drowns out the bird. Can you hear me talk to the block, I wonder if I talk more loudly if I can include the sounds of a walkie-talkie in the blog. More testing required. We have a couple of days here with a chance to cover ground we saw some years back. More than a decade ago apparently. Time sure does go by fast. I think the big difference this time is that we are here comfortably. Last time we were slumming in hotels and motels. Next up on the list of things to do, try to figure out how the shower works. Either here in the RV or in some building where I do not know the in and the outdoor. One of those little challenges I guess. And with that I I will return to our normal program of trying to decode the rooster.