TubaOrNotTuba

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.

This morning I woke to the sound of a boat horn. Not at all like my usual cuckoo. We’re just kilometers away from the ferry terminal at PAB. In a small campground which is beside a beach. One with a shipwreck according to the person who works here. An old shipwreck. I stayed around while this morning wild birds were hunted. At least I assume that’s the right word to use none were ever killed but photographed. We decided to seek out something else on my tiny bucket list. I wanted to visit the site of a disaffected lighthouse. The Rose Blanche. Brought here by boat about 300 years ago from granite quarries in Scotland. The light is at the top of a high cliff which requires quite a climb. Especially when you can’t see where to place your feet. But we made it and I had pictures taken of me. Enough to confuse the children. After we came down we realized that supper was soon so we found a nearby restaurant that served a delicious halibut steak. The kind of food that would have been on a table at home during my childhood. The lighthouse was never put back into service when repaired. No longer important in a day where we have satellites in space. Around here construction is difficult and I can only imagine what was required to get all those granite blocks up the cliff facing a good wind, sure those lass needed a strong back. We see e there’s a lot of water around here. Around every corner it seems. Constructing roads is not for the light of heart or faint of heart or any other kind.

Today we made another move from 1 province to another. This one was a big move. It started with us finding our way to the ferry terminal and into their parking area. With large fairies, nothing happens quickly. We were there for hours. The best moment was when a crew member kinda convinced a trailer being told by an RV to go up a steep ramp and then realized immediately that I was not where he wanted to go. Trying to convince a timid RV to backup with no visibility it’s hilarious. Also nothing that I ever want to do myself. But all things come to those who wait and we were finally on a moving vessel. Off to more adventures. This cruise was long enough that we rented a cabin. A very small cabin but one they had a bed and a TV in the bathroom and all the other comforts that you would call homey. In fact I stayed there for most of the afternoon until we decide to go for the last call for supper. Someone had realized that I was trying to navigate a very large vessel deck and gave us the assurance that when time came to leave the vessel someone would come and find us. And they did. This went well except that I would not want to do it without assistance. Too many tripping hazards. We came on land in the new land sometime before dark. We use the GPS to navigate away from the Wharf area and get us to a small provincial park where we already had reservations. All has gone well and this is the third Word May 4th province of our trip. Actually I’m starting to lose count. But with Wi-Fi running and darkness coming I will settle down for the evening and get a good night’s sleep. Stress relief after a day with a certain amount of uncertainty. Vacations are sometimes like that. I did watch a movie I had not seen before which is sort of a plus the third in a series. Good music. Unfortunately i did not see any of the actors involved. But that is my problem. Now I am settling down for the night, in a new place with a new time.

Can we be on the level here? No I mean in the most mechanical sense. We have left home and today is day one of our trip and we’re parked and there is a variation from corner to corner in our level. Something that you can correct with a couple of plastic blocks. I wish that other things were so simple. You may ask yourself about why that could be important and if you have never slept away from home I invite you to try being on a platform that is slightly out of trim. You will find yourself quickly on the wrong side of the bed. I will say no more right now. Anyhow we have taken our first boat trip and I’ve riding in an elevator period. On the boat period. It made more sense than trying to navigate those multiple flights of stairs that seemed to go absolutely no worse. The goal is to get down to the right level. And there’s that word again. The real trick is to be back in your vehicle before they finished docking and lift the gate in front. There are many people depending upon you when you’re at the front of the line. And they do not understand why they should have to wait even a few seconds longer. Now the boat does its best. An alarm horn blows and they have a bright flashing light that tells you that we’re getting close. Hold your horses. I know there were no horses there. We have so many expressions that go back to the past. And with that we are ready to spend the night and then leave early to catch another boat. This could be the theme of our lives for the next few weeks. Probably better then simply staying in bed. Stay with us we are the intrepid voyagers and allow we may not know where we’re going you can come along with us.

I may have deciphered one of the reasons behind my reluctance to travel far from home. It can be summarized in a single sentence. You can’t take it with you period. At home I have most of the things I need to get me through the day happily. Going some results requires a lot of forethought. What happens if I go into a public shower? Will my feet be covered? And what is the wind comes up? Do I have a toque? What about fighting off monsters in the forest. I just because I do not intend to enter the forest at least not on my own will. We’re in the froze of packing right now so many tiny articles to remember. Any one of them could sentence turns us to an unhappy time. What if I don’t have the correct charging cable for all of my toys? Is my pocket knife sharp enough? Should I pack a wet stone? And what about a water bottle? How much is enough? That same line can be applied to my packing? How much is enough? We will make it I am sure. One of us is driving. Actually two of us will be driven but one of them is not me. I am a passenger and that’s why I have so much time to worry about things that really aren’t important. Be glad I’m not trying to solve world hunger or global peace. Too many variables. Do I miss math class? Not for college minute, I tried that bit. Failed miserably. And my ability to travel is probably rooted in something that happened back in grade 12. In those days I had to make sure that all the junk from the percussion cabinet was at hand. If I left it behind I would have to improvise. I hate improvisation. Probably why I gave up on the whole idea of being a jazz musician. Right now I’m just trying to wrap my head around how many coats are needed for a single trip. Remember that I do not go into fashion statements. This is just making sure I can face the inclement weather. I had forgotten that I even owned green pants. Learned a long time ago that at home I did not need a coat in the rain. Stay with me for more worry. I am sure I have more, deep in my soul.

I have found a new way to exercise my imagination. I have been listening to a series of old documentaries going back to my childhood about the days when people fished for a living. In particular on the Labrador coast. Not a place that people around here paid much attention to because it was too far away but over the years you get a sense of what was going on. A small ship with a crew of maybe two dozen people they would go for the whole season in the hopes of finding enough fish to fill their holds. And they had it rough. Today, hours with people who are stuck in the ice. Not because they wanted to be there but because that was the only way to get close enough to the shore to actually get into the fishing grounds. I do not have an accurate date for the documentary but I can tell from the radio equipment and the mentions of aircraft that this had to be sometime in the early 60s. A time when there were still fish in the waters. The documentaries also give a foundation for later hard time. When the fish came no more. That is something that is well within the lifetime and memory of the older people. Even me. For an area that was known worldwide for its fish stocks to suddenly find that there were no fish in the water must have come as a true revelation. After all if all you know is fish and there are no fish what do you do. No chance of going home and transitioning into a life on the land. I have been up there and they have a lot of rock. I’m going to use what I’m learning from listening to these documentaries to embellish my vacation time. I will be looking for more than signs that a road went this way. If we go down to a harbor I will try to analyze what still remains of an industry that was all important at that time. Like anyone who goes fishing it’s an act of faith. You cannot see below the surface and you can only guess based on past experience where the fish might be. Blind faith. For those of us who grew up on fish once a week we now realize that we too were part of the solution and part of the problem. Fish were cheap to catch and yet there was money to be made in the sales. We pushed the stocks to the brink. And as for going out in the ice? Again something that you had to be both brave and foolish to do. In one shot, they showed someone’s anchor that had been chewed up by an ice pan. Something that had required two or three people to move was now nothing more than scrap at the end of a rope.

I overhear a lot of conversations. This morning, one coming from Australia. I should paraphrase the conversations were between two or more birds. I understand them no more or less than birdseye here on my front step. But one was a kookaburra and that touches me personally. You see during my first year of teaching I had the responsibility to showcase music for children. Including the hit Laugh Kookaburra Laugh. I had almost forgotten the song. Life gets away from you. And no, I have never met or seen a kookaburra although life goes on. Why are there no songs about Blue Jays in conversations? A missed opportunity if you ask me. We have several that sit aside and shout all day long. I can usually tell when a hawk is in the area because they up the volume. I wonder do hawks and jays understand one another. Actually we hear a lot of life outside. There are those three foxes that showed up and are sleeping next to each other. Why can’t they whisper? Actually most of the other livestock around here, excuse me life wildlife around here, is fairly quiet. Well behaved. I do notice that when I hear wildlife on TV I pay more attention. Birds chirp everywhere. Foxes not so much. As for dogs they just bark that’s all they do. I should go looking for wilder conversations. An afternoon of elephants could be interesting or maybe, the chatter from home coming fishing boats. I have a radio.

We are just days away from a short trip. Or a long trip depending upon your way of looking at the world. And in the planning procedure trip we have to consider having the comforts of home. In particular sanitary comforts. Water and the toilet. We have both but we have learned that you have to plan your use. Nothing is unlimited. Nothing last forever. If you fill your water tank up with water you will then have to plan for where that water is going to go after you have made it dirty. And you can’t dump just anywhere. A good thing. And also water is heavy. I’m not going to bore you with the math it’s all available online. But the weight that you carry with you either clean or dirty must be considered. If you carry several 100 kilograms of liquid you must then plan for how much it will cost you to pay for the extra fuel. We have been lucky over the years we are two people with minimal needs we have never actually filled our tanks to overflow. But, it could happen. We have to read the gauges and plan ahead. There are apps for this sort of thing that will allow you to locate places that accept water exchange. I know, that’s a nice term for it. We also must plan to filter our own water supply and know when we need to find more. Again more than just a question of gauges. Your needs will depend upon your diet and the temperature and a host of other issues. At least we no longer have to plan for a dog. So as we head out, I will try to keep track of what we do, with the where and the when being important. If we find that someone wants a lot of money to help us out I will note that along with the location. I will not be adding to my maps but you’ll be able to reverse engineer things. That’s where the fun comes in. Maybe later in time I will start adding videos but not this year I am not ready for that responsibility. I can barely tell night time from daytime.