Big

Newfoundland is a rather large island.

It's not quite as big as I initially thought when I was inadvertently comparing square kilometers to square miles (oops!) - but it's still big. Newfoundland is 43,008 square miles. For comparison purposes, Maine + New Hampshire + Massachusetts is 47,669 square miles. Maine by itself is 30,861 square miles.

I'll only see a small chunk of the island - from Port aux Basques on the southwest tip, to Gros Morne National Park, which appears to be a little less than half-way up the west coast.

You know I'm addicted to maps, don't you? I just had to include a couple here to try to show where I'll be wandering. The first map should give you a sense of the island. The little yellow square "dots" indicate the general location of the parks I'll be visiting in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

I like the second map because it gives a sense of the northern placement of Newfoundland and Labrador in comparison with the northeastern edge of the United States. (Looking for a color hint? The province is painted lavendar.) Yes, I did think about driving home through Labrador & Quebec, but as you already know I re-thought and rejected that idea. I do enjoy traveling alone, but somehow the thought of traveling on dirt roads, through forests, far from civilization - well, I thought better of it. Yes, I'll be reversing part of my wanderings. The only road I'll do twice is the road from Port aux Basques to Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland. Oh, and a section of road on Nova Scotia, and the road between Portland, Maine and home.

That big body of water to the west of Newfoundland? That's the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Follow it inland, up the St. Lawrence Seaway, and you'll find the Great Lakes.


Map courtesy of Google.com


Map courtesy of The Atlas of Canada

Meeting friends

I've been exchanging emails with Gromit for what seems like a long time now. I think he emailed me after I started painting pictures with words in Denise's travel journals, and we've been talking ever since.

Gromit lives in Nebraska with Marilyn & John, and I've always tried to wave to him when Denise & I fly to the west coast. When I heard he was going to be flying into an airport close to us, I asked if he might have time to meet. And oh! This morning Denise & I headed up to Manchester to meet Gromit, his pal Hutch, Marilyn & John too. This is a visiting trip, but Gromit joins in on bike trips too. You can read about his latest adventure in Marilyn's blog, Mudge's Musings. He was lucky enough to see Lake Superior on his latest wander. I have only seen Lake Ontario & Lake Erie. Denise has seen all of the Great Lakes except for Superior. I wonder if the photos that we saw today of Gromit's visit there will convince her to head to the center of the country sometime soon.



Oh! I guess I'd better set my dreaming mind direction back to the east. Our trip to Newfoundland is getting closer...

--- Rover

Rover's ramblings... almost time to travel!

Oh! Look at the calendar! There are only 3 weeks until Denise and I head far to the northeast, slightly off the coast of North America to the very large island of Newfoundland.

My name is Rover, and I'm the little red dog who travels with Denise. Sometimes I write our tales, and sometimes Denise does. I always use slanty type, so if you see that you'll know that it's my turn to write. For any of you who haven't met me before, here's a photo of me on top of Gorham Mountain in Acadia National Park from our trip to Acadia National Park last month.



But back to this trip...

Denise kept telling me that she was going to bring a bike with her even though she was planning to focus on playing with her camera and hiking. I finally convinced her that if she had the bike with her that she would feel guilty if she didn't use it. And really? She wants to get off the road to capture images, to walk along the water, to hike, to climb up hills. So this is going to be a rambling by foot trip. And as you've already seen from her earlier posts, there will be a lot of driving, and three 5+ hour boat rides. I think I'd better pack a lot of Dramamine for Denise (yes, in bad conditions she still suffers from motion sickness). Oh, and I'm putting in an order for quiet seas too.

Denise spent a couple of hours (!) at REI a few weeks back, tromping around the store in hiking shoes. She finally decided on a pair, and last weekend I reminded her that she'd better start breaking them in before we leave. We hiked to the top of Holt Hill in Andover. We could see the tall buildings of Boston off in the distance. There was tall waving grass, and a beautiful sky. This is what we saw:



Beautiful, isn't it? Oh yes, the shoes made her happy.

Let's see, plans... Denise was initially planning to make B&B reservations for the first half of the trip - through our stay in Newfoundland - and wander at will for the second half. It's still August though, and there are a lot of folks traveling. I convinced her that it would be a good idea to make reservations for our return to Nova Scotia too, and she's really glad that she listened to me. There were two B&Bs in Sydney that jumped out at her - one was full, and she got the last room at the other one. And the B&B she chose for her time in Cape Breton National Park only had one night available, not the two that she wanted. Not a problem - she took the available night and slightly changed her plans for the other night. Phew! The only night left to cover is when we arrive in Newfoundland. She's still trying to figure out is we should stay in Port aux Basques - the place where the ferry lands - or if we should drive 2 1/2 hours to Stephenville. There's not much in between those two towns...

We have places to stay, but our plans for each place are fluid. Denise has some ideas of where she wants to wander, nothing cast in stone. I think that's the right approach for this trip.

Ah... I'm off to dream a bit.

Must see scarecrows

I've been perusing tourism publications from both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland as I continue to dream of my not-too-far-off vacation. And oh! I found a place in Nova Scotia that is just calling out for a visit.

Where? A place called Joe's Scarecrows, in Cap Le Moine (near Cheticamp).