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.
