New Roadtrip Coming Up!

Hello!

In 3 weeks time (leaving June 4, 2015) my husband Lynn and I will be on our next big adventure - a 5-6 week motorcycle trip through northern BC, Yukon and Alaska. I will be writing another blog for that trip and you can follow us at yukonalaskamotorcycletrip.blogspot.com

Hope you'll come along! As we plan for and then head out on this trip, please comment on the blog entries if you have suggestions/ideas of where we should go or what we should see!

If you'd like to support and stay up to date with my art, please "Like" and follow my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kathy-Lauriente-Bonner-Art/364386487009841

MANY THANKS!

:)

Kathy Lauriente-Bonner
Riske Creek, BC

Canadian Roadtrip Art Exhibition

I know it's been yonks since I updated this blog but I wanted to provide a bit of an epilogue...

In October, 2014, my solo exhibition called "Canadian Roadtrip" ran for a month at the Station House Gallery in Williams Lake, BC. The exhibition consisted of 16 acrylic paintings, 1 mixed media work, our "camp" set up in situ in the gallery which consisted of my 2006 Harley Davidson Heritage Softail and our Lees-ure Lite tent trailer and the "Motorcycle Chair" installation - a cool chair visitors were invited to sit on that my husband made out of random motorcycle parts which was situated in front of a TV screen that played a 45 minute looping video of GoPro footage from our Cross Canada trip.

I'm particularly grateful to the Station House Gallery and their selection committee, CBC Radio Kamloops and the Daybreak Show (with host Shelley Joyce) for their two awesome radio interviews and Kane's Harley Davidson dealership in Kelowna, BC for sponsoring the exhibition and providing a Harley Davidson jacket for a Gallery fundraiser draw.

Following is a selection of paintings from the show. Hope you enjoy them!

If you would like to follow my art, please "Like" my Facebook page - Kathy Lauriente-Bonner Art which you can find at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kathy-Lauriente-Bonner-Art/364386487009841
OR you can follow me on my website: www.klbart.com
If you are interested in purchasing a piece or my work or are interested in having a commission done, please contact me by email at kathy@klbart.com

THANK YOU! :)

"Chevrolet" - 20"x24" acrylic on canvas
Based on a photo I took at the Mennonite Heritage Village, Steinbach, Manitoba
SOLD

"Trinity, Newfoundland" - 24"x36" acrylic on canvas
SOLD

"Athabasca Falls" 18"x18" acrylic on canvas
Just outside Jasper, Alberta
SOLD

"Long Lac" - 12"x24" acrylic on canvas
SOLD

"PEI Potato Field" 16"x20" acrylic on canvas
SOLD

"Canadian Pacific Rail" 16"x20" acrylic on canvas
Banff National Park
SOLD

"Hodgeville Grain Elevator" - 20"x20" acrylic on canvas
Hodgeville, Saskatchewan
SOLD

"Flower Pots"  20"x20" acrylic on canvas
Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick
SOLD

Manitoba and the Rest of the West...

July 31
After our great breakfast at Upsala, we carried on to Ignace to fuel up and then we headed for Dryden which is a fairly big city. Onwards along the Trans-Canada through Kenora and then we crossed into Manitoba. It's kind of funny but almost as soon as you cross into Manitoba, the terrain changes - not sure if this was by design when they were drawing the provincial boundaries or not but as soon as we were in Manitoba, the ground became much more arable and cultivated. It also starts to open up and very quickly, you leave the hilly country and come down into the beginning of the Canadian prairies.
One of the things we really wanted to do was go to Steinbach, Manitoba. My husband is a blacksmith and he was very interested in seeing what some of the Mennonite folks are doing. Steinbach has their "Mennonite Heritage Village Museum" which makes the grade as one of the top destinations in the province. Boy are we glad we went!
From Route 1, we headed south for only about 20 kms and by now, we were in wide open prairie. It had been a beautiful day today, sunny and warm and easy riding. We snagged a motel room (YAY!), had dinner and CRASHED. Turned out neither of us had much sleep the night before and we were beat. Who says money can't buy you happiness? Guaranteed, I was one VERY happy camper in our comfy, bug-free motel room, complete with an awesome shower! Ha ha ha...

August 1
We spent some time this morning taking care of planning details - booking appointments with the Harley dealership in Calgary for some maintenance when we get there in a few days, getting in touch with my sister to see them for awhile there as well, calling our kids to say hello, doing some online banking etc. We had a quick breakfast and then headed across the road to the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum.
When we arrived, Nita met us at the desk and gave us a great primer on the Mennonite community, some of their history and a bit of an orientation of what we would see in the park. Given that we aren't Mennonite and really don't know the first thing about them, I'm sure we asked some pretty uninformed questions but Nita was great! She really took the time to educate us both on the history and on her own personal experience growing up in a very traditional Mennonite community.
First we wandered through their fantastic museum which explains the history of the Mennonites and how it came to be that they separated from the Catholic church back in the early 1500s, following the initial protestant reformation. Menno Simons was, in fact, a catholic priest who was disillusioned with many aspects of the Catholic church and he, and his followers, established what would become the Mennonite community. Jacob Hutter split off with some of his followers a short time later and established the Hutterite community. Later, in the late 1600s, Jakob Ammann split off and established the Amish Community and by the early 1700s, another offshoot group established themselves as The Brethren. Interesting stuff. Boy, a sad history of persecution leading many of these folks to flee to all points on the globe, all because they spoke out against the Catholic church and wanted to lead a quiet life of their own choosing. We sure learned a lot about some of our Canadian neighbours... it was VERY interesting. I LAUGHED in the museum at the little station where you can push a button and hear different phrases spoken in the low German dialect most of the Mennonite people speak. The recording played in German and then they gave the English translation and one of them was, "Don't let your heart slip too quickly into your pants."!!! HA HA HA... Great sense of humour! There was another funny one too but I can't recall it at the moment... (Nita, if you read this and remember it, email me and I'll add it!)
The park itself is basically a re-creation of a typical Mennonite village that they would build because the village design was very efficient for largely communal living. They have a main street with a post office, shops and stores as well as a blacksmith shop etc. There are homes, barns, a sawmill, a windmill, big shops for farm equipment etc., communal gardens and livestock pens and paddocks. They also have a "worship house" (not called a church) and schools. This particular park is very well done and they have interpreters throughout the park as well as about 40 stores and services. Lots to see. Plan on staying for a day.
The windmill is particularly awesome. It's a reproduction built in 2001 to replace the one that was burned down by arsonists in 2000. It's a fully functioning windmill and the community grinds their grain into flour there which you can buy and which they bake their bread with in the restaurant.
A MUST DO in the park is having lunch at the Livery Barn Restaurant. For $12, you can get the "Traditional" - a feast of homemade bread, a bowl of borscht, a plate of homemade perogies with a cheese sauce, a homemade pork sausage, cabbage salad and a lovely rhubarb cake for dessert. One of the best meals we had. We thoroughly enjoyed our day here and would highly recommend this great place to visit.
We hung out in Steinbach until about 3pm and then headed out again with the intent of getting into Saskatchewan but we packed it in in Elkhorn, a small town just 20kms before the border. We found a municipal campsite there, beside the graveyard and fairgrounds. A nice, clean campsite with free showers, all for $15.


Mennonite Heritage Village Museum

 Just South of Moose Jaw

August 2
We crossed into Saskatchewan and had breakfast in Moosomin. From there, we skirted Regina to Moose Jaw and then took Route 2 down to Gravelbourg. Some of my mother's family were homesteaders here back in the 1800s and were one of the founding families in the town of Gravelbourg. I wanted to come back here as the last time I was here was for a L'Heureux family reunion and, as luck would have it, it was 30 years ago almost to the day... weird in a synchronistic sort of way...
We arrived and went straight to the cathedral because it's the building Gravelbourg is most famous for. Inside this particular church are beautiful murals reminiscent of the big European churches. Imagine our disappointment to arrive only to find signs stapled to the locked doors indicating that entrance could only be obtained by taking a guided tour which was organized through their local museum.
Huh? The museum? This is still a church... right?
We wandered around and ended up chatting with a local person who explained the situation. The church is now locked all the time except if you're on a guided tour which you have to pay $10 for or if you come for mass on Sunday, "and you get dinged then too when they pass the basket around" they said wryly. This person said that a lot of local people are really upset by this and many are attending different churches as a result. It seems, they said, to always be about the money and we noted the new roof going up. We were also warned that the person who did the tours is notoriously rude and inflexible. There have already been several complaints made to both the city and the church about the matter by people who've come to visit like we had.
We went back to our bikes and were about to leave when another tourist we'd been talking to swung by and said, sotto voce, that the side door was unlocked. Hot dog! I really wanted to show my husband this church because of it's significance to my family history. We'd just come into the church when all of a sudden, the "tour guy" showed up. He came up to us and immediately told us the church should have been locked and that you can't be in here if you're not on a tour. Fortunately, I'd been primed for him so I said, "Well, what time is the next tour?" to which he just shrugged. So then I said, "This is a church. It should always be open, shouldn't it?" and I proceeded in to look around. That's when he stomped off (and I do mean stomp) and slammed a door somewhere and you could hear him speaking very loudly to someone on the phone, no doubt railing on the poor summer student who had inadvertently left the door open. Pity that person!
By the time he came back, he was worked right up into a good old huff. Another couple had come into the church and he was telling them they needed to leave as well. I approached and told him that this was categorically wrong and that I was going to write to the Archdiocese office. I said that this is a house of God, not a tourist attraction like Disneyland (for heaven's sake!) and that people should be able to come into the church without having to pay and should be able to be here without getting major attitude from the likes of him! We've been all over Italy and not one church was ever been locked (unless closed for renos) nor do you have to pay to come in, including St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican! You can pay for a guided tour but anyone can enter for free. Anyway, the other couple looked as confounded as I was. The "tour guy" was unspeakably arrogant, rude, loud and attempting to be intimidating (which didn't work).
We left the church and I called my mother because I couldn't believe what had happened. She was equally blown away buy such utter codswallop... we're both writing letters to the church and the Gravelbourg newspaper. Unbelievable. My recommendation? Skip Gravelbourg's church. It's lovely but I am vehemently opposed to having to pay to go into a church and certainly to being treated with staggering disrespect. There are a lot of other lovely churches to see in this world and you won't get dinged $10 and have to deal with their gem of a "tour guide". To the decision-makers for the Gravelbourg cathedral I say, "Poor show! You're driving people AWAY in disgust. Kind of anathema to the teachings of the church, isn't it??" I'm sure my ancestors who helped build the church are rolling in their Gravelbourg graves right now...
So, we headed over to see them. We went to the Gravelbourg cemetery and found our family plots. It was particularly moving to see my Great Grandparent's grave (Napoleon and Marie-Anne L'Heureux) and my Great Great Grandfather Alexander L'Heureux's grave. We had intended on staying the night in a B&B in Gravelbourg but after the utterly crappy event at the church, we just wanted to get out of town.... too bad.
What struck me was the incredibly diametrically opposed experiences we'd had in the past 2 days. In Steinbach, we were met with incredibly warm, open arms at the Mennonite village by people so happy we would take an interest in their faith, culture and history. They generously shared their time and knowledge with us and we're not even part of their community - just visiting tourists. Then, today, I arrive in a town my own family helped establish almost 150 years ago and I'm literally "shooed" out of the church my family helped build which you now have to PAY to go into (!!) by an incredibly rude "tour guide".
I'm not a religious person by a long stretch but the irony was not lost on me that good old Father Menno Simons left the Catholic church (for a lot of really good reasons) over 500 years ago and my experience today in Gravelbourg would probably just make him raise his eyebrows all over again and say, "See? That's EXACTLY what I've been talking about!"
Gotta say, I'm definitely with the Mennonites on this one.

August 3
We stayed in Swift Current last night - we got in late and, as we came into town, I noticed a campsite right off the highway. We doubled back and took the turn off and were immediately enshrouded in a dense cloud of mosquitoes!!! I looked at my husband in panic and mouthed the word "Mosquitos!!" and he shook his head. He pulled up beside me and said, "No - those aren't mosquitos - they're different bugs. We have them at home and they don't bite..." "The hell they don't!" I said as we pulled into the campsite office area. A woman came out and I asked her if these were mosquitos (because the dense cloud had now risen up about 15 feet into the air above me and were a little harder to see) and she looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Yeeeesss..." at which point I said, "I'm sorry, I can't stay here..." and then she made a really yucky face at me and shooed me off!!! I was shooed off twice today!!! Can you believe that???
What the hell??? We only met two rude people on our ENTIRE trip and one was in Gravelbourg and one was in Swift Current (sorry to the friendly folks in Saskatchewan!) and both were on the same day! And for the record, it wasn't me... I even asked my husband, "Am I bringing this on in some way??" Nope.
Anyway, I looked at my husband and said, "No freaking way!" and we pulled out and immediately checked into the Comfort Inn...
This morning, we headed out into a beautiful day. I was determined to leave the crappiness of rude people behind us. I have to say, we REALLY enjoyed our ride through the prairies. All of the canola is in bloom here and the smell is HEAVENLY!! Vast carpets of lemon yellow in between fields of ripening wheat. Gorgeous. There were also a few big fields of alfalfa in bloom which were carpets of bluey-purple. Stunning. Lots of little towns along the way and LOTS of wide open sky. I had great opportunity to study the sky and the clouds in particular and how I would paint them. My spirits were lifted...
We crossed into Alberta and came through Medicine  Hat, Brooks, Bassano, Strathmore, Chestermere and into Calgary, arriving at my sister's place around 5:00. A GREAT day. Alberta was equally stunning as we made our way into the Badlands and the terrain became more hilly. Beautiful coulees and rolling farm and ranch land as far as the eye can see. We also saw some more oil rigs bobbing up and down like birds in the fields which we haven't seen since we came across Montana and North Dakota 6 weeks ago...
It was so great to see my sister, my brother-in-law and my niece! We had dinner at the restaurant my niece works at  - "4th Spot" - which was really good.
We also called my grandson, Wee Owen Henry, who isn't so Wee anymore - it was his 2nd birthday today. Happy Birthday Owen! XXOO from Grandma and Papa!

August 4
How lucky are we? My sister and her family spent the the entire day touring us around Calgary. We went and saw a number of different places in the city where the flooding had been so bad - some of the neighbourhoods, the Stampede grounds, parts of downtown and along the river. On the one hand, I can't believe how much work they've done in such a short time to get this city back on it's feet. It's incredible. On the other hand, I can't believe how much there still is to be done in some areas. We went up to the Olympic Park and saw where you can zipline down the ski jump... CRAZY! We went to a GREAT place called the Mercato - a deli and restaurant owned by an Italian family who've been in the business for over 50 years. My sister and I were looking at their olive oil dispenser when the lady behind the counter spotted us and said hello. She was Mama Catarina - the owner. We had a great conversation in Italian (I don't get to use it much so it's always fun to have the chance) and we traded stories about Italy and what parts of the country our respective families are from (they're from Calabrese, we're from just outside Rome and Venice). We had an instant rapport and Mama Catarina gave us big hugs and double cheek-kisses and sent us on our way with a gift of free doughnuts she made. I sure wish their place was closer by! She told us they'd opened up a second store in the North end of the city so we drove up there and had lunch. It was awesome - the real deal. As good as any of the food we had in Italy. This is a BIG recommend.
Ciao, Mama Catarina! Grazie Mille!
After our city tour, we went home and had a fantastic BBQ. Great day with family... Thanks Vicky, Chris and Maddie!
Calgary, Alberta

August 5
Drove downtown to the Harley dealership only to find out they'd booked us appointments for 8:30 on a long weekend Monday and they're not open until 10:00. Oops. Luckily, they have a little cafe that opened at 9:00 so we had breakfast and waited until they opened. They got us in and out by 11:00 so that was good and then we met up with some good friends (and old business partners of my husbands) the Harvies. Tim brought us on a tour of part of the Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park that his family established. Incredibly beautiful and if you live in the Calgary/Cochrane area, you really must spend some time there. What a legacy the Harvie family has created for the people of, and the visitors to, Alberta. We met up in Cochrane with some more of the Harvie family and friends after our tour and had a great visit. Sigh... too many miles to go and not enough time. We tore ourselves away at 5:00 with lots of promises to come back soon when we can stay for awhile... Cochrane is an incredibly beautiful area with a pretty little town center and then rolling farms and ranchland in the surrounding hills.
From there we headed towards Banff and found a decent campsite.

August 6
General thoughts this morning - I'm a little on the fence about the whole idea of having to pay to get into our National Parks. Part of me seriously feels like we pay enough, as citizens of our provinces and citizens of this country, in our taxes that we shouldn't have to pay to see parts of our own country. On the other hand, I realize that everyone needs funding these days to keep things running, especially with a federal government that has utter disregard for the legacy it will leave for our future generations by way of parks, arts culture etc. Sigh...
We've paid a pile of dough to get into Parks Canada sites across this country. You CAN get a season's pass but they don't come cheap and on our trip, we weren't sure how many we'd see because we were on such a loose itinerary. Anyway, we made our final payment to "The Man" heading into Banff and then we went to the village to have breakfast. Boy were we glad to get there on the Tuesday of the long weekend and not the day before. The detritus from the holiday shenanigans was all over the streets and cleaners were diligently out there getting everything in tip top shape. We spoke with one shop owner and he said they set record numbers in the park this past weekend. Good for them - especially after the losses everyone incurred from the flooding in June.
Banff village is lovely - it's pretty much another Whistler although Banff came first. Lots of kitschy little shops selling made-in-China souvenirs with bears and wolves and beavers on them. No end of that stuff, actually... and then lots of top end shops including a Hudson's Bay company outlet with all the classic striped stuff going for a king's ransom. The town is nestled deep in the valley between staggeringly big and beautiful mountain peaks that dropped the jaw of even this Kootenay girl... I guess this is why I feel ambivalent about having to pay to get in here. This shouldn't become an elitist experience... As Canadians, we should all be able to come and see these sights and I can't help but think of the thousands of low-income families who wouldn't be able to afford even the park fees.
Anyway, part of me was spellbound by the spectacular magnificence and part of me wept somewhere inside at how cliche and fabricated for tourism it's become. ..
We carried on down the road to Lake Louise and Lord A'mighty... we were in for a shock. We started to head up the road and the traffic became all backed up to a full stop. Hmmm, we thought. Must be an accident or something up ahead. Nope... that's just the slammin' high season rush hour that lasts all day on a Tuesday to get in there. A sign of things to come...
We get into Lake Louise and you can hardly move for the people. The parking lots are full already (by 10:00) and the overflow lots are starting to fill up too. The GINORMOUS Lake Louise Fairmont Hotel is massive and packed to the rafters. Tour buses are filing in in line ups and tourists (including us) are milling around like ants at a picnic. We made our way to the actual lake which you can't see until you get in front of the hotel because it takes up the entire view of that end of the valley.
Truly, the view is spectacular. The lake is that milky aquamarine blue of glacier fed lakes and on either side is a stunning mountain. On the other far end of the lake is another dazzling mountain cradling a roiling glacier like an offering to those of us who have made the trek. Wow. On the lake were a flock of red canoes - you can rent them to paddle around in - and about 6000 people along the shoreline, posing for pictures. Again, another ambivalent experience for me - part of me is truly in awe of the beauty and part of me is sad that the remote wilderness experience will never be had again in this area.
We continued up the Icefields Road - just past Lake Louise, you take Route 93 heading towards Jasper. What a truly magnificent ride. We've seen a lot of this country in the past 7 weeks including the Gaspe Peninsula and the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton, two of the most popular driving routes in Canada and I have to say, they don't compare to this road for sheer mind-boggling beauty. Every turn in the road is a postcard vista with stunning mountain ranges and peaks that reach for the sky. As we head north, we start to see more glaciers hugging the sides and tops of mountains like weather beaten blue-white hide...
NOTE TO TRAVELERS - DO NOT buy gas at Saskatchewan River Crossing if you can at all avoid it. Fuel up in Lake Louise and bring a gerry can if you need it. We paid $1.72/liter. Hands down the most expensive gas on our entire trip. Before this, the highest was in Quebec at $1.54. The cheapest in Canada was Calgary at $1.14 and the cheapest on the whole trip was in the States (on average, about 1/3 less than in Canada). Anyway, Saskatchewan River Crossing is a total gouge... another sign of things to come...
Just past here, you leave Banff National Park and enter Jasper National Park (no, you don't have to pay again - your park permit is good for both Banff and Jasper) and shortly after coming into Jasper National Park, you arrive at the Columbia Ice Fields. I was pretty excited to see them. I've seen photos and I'm aware of how incredible they are so I was stoked. We got there and yes, it is stop-in-your-tracks unbelievable. The famous Athabasca Glacier sits like a God-like monument, gently sloping down towards the highway and the tourism building. On the glacier, microscopic-sized people are hiking on the ice and further up, specially built monster tour buses take people out on a road onto the glacier.
We went in to inquire. Fifty bucks a person to take the monster bus out onto the ice for a look around on a one hour tour. That seemed steep to us so we decided to just go for a coffee and sit out on the deck that looks out over the glaciers. $9.71 for a watered down coffee, an equally watery hot chocolate and a chocolate bar and the mugs were those tiny little 8 ounce jobbies! I was surprised they didn't charge us to sit out on their picnic tables! So we sat in the glorious sunshine and got at least $9.71 worth of enjoyment out of the view and left.
 Proof!! About double what it should have been... :(

Holy gouge, batman. Don't tell me the sky high prices for everything here are because of remote location. The access is close and easy to Calgary and the roads are fantastic. The answer is short and simple - they gouge because they can.
Our recommendation? Pack a lunch. The drive is fantastic and the tourism building is free to get into to sit on their magnificent deck. They also have picnic tables alongside the parking lots with good views too. Visit the restaurant on pain of death to your pocketbook. As for the glacier tours? Well, if you've never walked on one, you might decide to because my guess is, within another 100 years or less, these will all be gone. They have a photo of what it looked like in 1844 and back then, the ice field was twice as big as it is now... so if that's worth $50 to you, go for it... (we were on glaciers in Alaska so we didn't feel the need.)
After leaving the Icefields, we stopped at one of our favorite sites on this stretch of road, the Athabasca River waterfalls. THIS site is free and they've done a fantastic job of putting in walking trails with secure retaining walls right alongside the best part of the falls so you can REALLY experience the power and beauty of them. We love love loved this! We walked all the trails and I took piles of pictures - I know at least one painting (if not more) will come out of this site. Totally awesome and worth taking the time to stop here.
By the time we left the Falls, it was starting to rain and not just any rain but the kind of rain you would expect in the middle of such huge mountainous country. It wasn't a downpour, it was an onslaught. We hustled as best we could down the last 30 kms into Jasper and as we rode, we saw signs for campsites and they were all full. By the time we got into Jasper, about half of the hotels were full (this was about 4:30pm) so we drove the strip and stopped at the Amethyst Hotel. They had 3 rooms left and the other two went in the time it took us to book ours. We were tired, soaked to the skin and there was nowhere to camp. I was so grateful for our room and we got upgraded to a suite! Nice!
Jasper seemed less overtly touristy than Banff and is smaller too. It's still a "town" and the main street still has nice "town" kinds of shops in among the more obvious tourist chachki stores. By the time we got settled, the rain had slowed so we wandered down the main street and found Jasper Pizzeria. It smelled great so we went in and low and behold, a wood-fired pizza oven. Things were definitely looking up. Every since we were in Italy, we've been on the hunt for the "real deal" kind of pizza in Canada as we found in Tuscany. So far, we've found only 3 that come close - Cupola's in San Francisco, Flatbread in Paia, Maui (neither of which are in Canada) but now we found Jasper Pizzeria!! And it's so much closer than San Fran or Maui!
Maybe it was because we were tired. Maybe it was because we were ravenous. Maybe it was because we were finally warm and dry... who knows but all I can tell you is the pizza and the lasagna we shared was absolutely heaven. They even have gluten-free! Put 5 stars beside this one - and it was very reasonably priced to boot considering we were right on the main street. Awesome.

August 7
Wow. Today's the day. By tonight, we'll be home and in our own beds. We can't believe it, actually. In some ways, it seems like the time has flown by at break-neck speed and in other ways, it seems like a year ago we left (Montana seems like a distant dream from some other trip...) It's been 50 days. Crazy.
We woke up to heavy fog but the weather report called for a fine day. We headed out to find the Jasper cemetery where my husband's father is buried with many of his family members (they were a big railway family in Jasper for years before his father moved out here to central BC to ranch). We found the gravesite and took some pictures and then headed out on the home stretch.
The ride out of the mountains, through Valemount and into Blue River is incredible... the mountains started to fan out, creating wider valley bottoms and more farms started to appear. The fog lifted and revealed a gloriously sunny day and almost instantly, it warmed up into the 80s. We stopped in Valemount for a break and peeled of layers of gear, it had warmed up so dramatically. Hard to believe I left Jasper in thermal underwear! (Underneath the rest of my clothes that is...)
This whole stretch of road follows the Thompson River which was big and swollen and it's typical silty brown. Fertile riverland offered up lots of hay fields and the smell of fresh cut hay was wonderful. We stopped for lunch at a little place we discovered last year called Rivermount Campsite and Cafe about 5 kms north of Little Fort. It's changed hands this year but the food is still just a great. After lunch we headed up Highway 24 into 100 Mile House and then home into Williams Lake and then Riske Creek. It was weird, after all of those miles, to be back in your own back yard. Hard to believe we'd gone all the way across the country to it's Eastern most point (Cape Spear) and then back again. We pulled into our yard and we could see our three dogs looking out towards us as we came down the drive, not believing (I'm sure) that it was really us. Suddenly, I could see their tails slowly start to wag and they exploded in a burst of jumping and running, wiggling and bumping their way down the drive to meet us. What a brilliant welcome home reception party! Lots of yowling, licking, barking and snorkeling...
We had finally arrived, 17,600 kms and 50 days later, safe and sound. A truly incredible trip of a lifetime...

Stay tuned... I will be continuing to update all of the blog posts with good photos from my big camera as I get them downloaded and organized so check the different posts for better pictures over the next few weeks. I will also be writing a couple "epilogue" entries on thoughts about our trip now that we're home and I've had a chance to mentally process it all - things like what we'd do again, what we'd do differently next time, things we learned (both the easy and the hard way!), some stats (gas consumption, costs, etc.) and some overall general thoughts. I hope to start the painting series this Fall and as I complete the paintings, I will post photos of the them here as well.

Thanks to all of you who have followed this blog! It's our first time blogging and it's been really fun for us to watch our blob stats and see how many people from all over the world have been following our journey. FYI, we've had people from Canada, the US, Russia, Germany, Netherlands, Mexico, China, Serbia, Poland, Iran, Spain, Morocco, Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand, Italy, England, France, Isreal, S. Korea, Ireland and Chile check us out regularly. We hope this blog helps you if you decide to come to this country and ride a motorcycle across it!

Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefields

Lake Louise, Alberta

Athabasca Falls

To give you perspective, those little dots of color on the ledge are people... :)

Gaspesie

July 24
We were sad to leave Rejean and Francine at the wonderful Navigateur but off we went. The day had cleared somewhat and we headed out.
Real conversation:
My husband Lynn: So - I guess we're heading over to the German town...
Me: German town?
Lynn: Yah, you know, the town that sounds German.
Me: What town sounds German?
Lynn: The town that sounds like the sausage...
Me: The sausage.... Bratwurst?
Lynn: Yah! Bratwurst!
Me: (After a second to process this) Yes.. we're going through Bathurst...

Good grief... The thing is, we have these kinds of exchanges often. I'm fairly convinced my husband does this on purpose for two reasons: #1 - Because he knows it makes me a little bit crazy and #2 - Because I think half the time it takes too much effort to remember things properly and he'd rather just make it up as he goes... but he sure does make me laugh. :)

So, we headed through "The German Town" and started up the Gaspesie. The weather had turned rainy and then sunny and then rainy. Lots of on and off with the rain gear but finally we dodged the clouds and we found nice blue sky. We had heard that the Gaspesie was the "Cabot Trail" of Quebec and we were certainly impressed. Along the southern shore, there were a lot of cute little towns with lots of tourist oriented cafes, shopping, beaches, motels, camping etc. Very nicely done. We made our way to Le Roche Perce - "THE" Gaspe spot where the big rock with the keyhole is that one thinks of when you think of The Gaspe Peninsula. We ended up staying at the Lighthouse campsite that has a panoramic view of the Perce Bay and, from the lighthouse, a gorgeous view of the Rock. It was lovely. We noticed the campsites are more expensive here in Quebec than in the Maritimes... but worth the price for the incredible view and the GREAT bathrooms/showers here.

July 25
We woke up to a nice sunny day and from Perce northwards, we started to head into more mountainous terrain. In fact, the road becomes A LOT like the best part of the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton and certainly rivals it for GREAT twisty roads, stunning views of the water, beautiful mountains and picturesque little villages along the way. We loved the Gaspesie as much as we loved the Cabot Trail. It really is one of the highlights of the trip and a "Must Do" in any cross-Canada route. We got as far as Matane where, incidentally, one can take ferries across the St. Lawrence to Baie Comeau and Baie-Trinite. We looked for a campsite but couldn't find one but, as we came through town, we noticed a bunch of RVs parked behind a shopping mall. We drove around to the backside of the mall and, would you believe, it's right on the water??? What city planner, in their right mind, would put the back end of a shopping mall on prime waterfront real estate? They should be fired is all I can say. BUT - their lunacy was our delight because you can also park there for free overnight and use the very clean and brand new bathrooms in the mall. Also, there is a little coffee shop in the mall that opens at 6:30 that serves a killer breakfast for $5. Go figure. We spend a lovely evening watching the sun go down over the water, sitting in our camp chairs and BBQing steaks out behind Sears!

July 26
Woke up this morning and it was FREAKING COLD!!! BRR!!! Only 45 degrees! We spent a lovely night in the Mall parking lot and greatly enjoyed our breakfast in the little Mall cafe and then packed up quick and hit the road because it was so cold. We actually hauled out our electric vests, it was that cold. Overcast and looking like rain, we wanted to get some miles behind us as quickly as possible. We rolled through Rimouski - what a beautiful area this part of the Gaspesie is. Lots of farmland now, tons of corn and soya bean in particular as well as hay. The farms are gorgeous and the hillsides look like patchwork quilts of varying shades of green. The houses are all old - as are the barns - and well looked after, we noticed. Lots of manicured yards, freshly painted buildings and everything neat and tidy. We puttered along the 132 which goes along the water and through all the small towns but there was increasingly more frequent road work and finally, when we hit a detour that took us 20 minutes off track, we decided to make some better time and we hopped over to the faster Route 20. We took the Route 20 over the bridge at Quebec City. We made a last minute decision to bypass Quebec City because really, we would need at least 2 days to really see any of the city and we just don't have the time. Rather than battle traffic just to get in there, find a place to stay and leave again, we decided to make it a "Must Return and See" place - along with Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. With motorbikes, and pulling a trailer, we're not keen on big city traffic this trip.
SO - we waved to Quebec City as we drove through it and headed SW on the 138. We went as far as Port Neuf and found the one campsite there is for miles in that area - the Campground Panoramique.
The Panoramique is, really, a small RV city. There must be 500 sites and most of the RVs are permanent - they've all got built on decks, porches, gardens etc. and pretty much everyone has a golf cart they cruise around in. They're all squished in there like sardines and it's kind of like what we imagine some of the RV parks down in Arizona must be like, where the Snowbirds go for the winter. And NOSEY!! Good grief - we weren't even off our bikes yet and a couple showed up in their golf cart, wanting to know who we were, where we were from and where we are going. Very friendly and nice but a little bit much - and those golf carts are a bit creepy because people can sneak up on you in them because they don't make any noise. You turn around and jump our of your skin because folks are sitting right behind you, checking you out. I guess we were something of a novelty on our motorbikes because there was no end to the string of golf carts that cruised by, ogling at us. It was kind of funny but a little weird too... 
The other thing that irked us a bit was that they charged us $40/night for an unserviced site which was really in the middle of an undeveloped strip of grass which was littered with garbage here and there and was where the kids blow up dolphin waterslide was. We headed out for dinner so missed all of the watersliding but it was pretty noisy (we don't mind the sound of kids, it was the infernal fan they had running to keep the apparatus blown up that was loud and seriously annoying) and THEN - insult heaped upon injury, they had the audacity to charge for showers on top of it all. A word to the wise - bypass Port Neuf, especially the Campground Panoramique. Spend the extra few bucks and get a cheap motel instead...

July 27
We bolted out of the Panoramique as soon as we got up - we were packed and on the road in record time (by 7:30 I think!) and we headed on down the road. We went through Trois-Rivieres and stayed on the 138 until we could hook up with the 158 at Berthierville. VERY gorgeous country roads that take you through all the little towns and villages and through absolutely STUNNING farmland. Honestly, this stretch of Quebec is unbelievably beautiful. We oohing and ahhhing all the way along the shoreline. We skirted Montreal and headed into Lachute - a beautiful little town where our friends Yvan and Carole live. We met them a few weeks ago up in L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland and ran into them a few times along the way and then spent the 17 hour ferry ride from Argentia Newfoundland to North Sydney, Nova Scotia with them and had a great time. We promised to stop in and see them on our way through so we did and they hosted us like royalty. They have a gorgeous little 5 acre farm and we stayed the night with them, wine-ing and dining the evening away. What a great visit and what great people.

July 28
Woke up this morning to overcast skies. Yvan and Carole decided they'd ride with us for awhile and, in fact, they rode with us all the way through Ottawa and up to Arnprior which was sure nice of them. We had a great ride and had some lunch together and then said our goodbyes. It was so hard to leave them, they've become good friends and already we're scheming to get them out to BC for a visit some time soon.
A bit of a set back today - at one point, the sky opened up and torrential rain forced us to seek refuge under an overpass. While we waited it out, I took my helmet off and when I put it back on, the Scala transmitter slipped off it's clip (which never was very secure to begin with) and it was lost. There was way too much traffic, roadwork, merging vehicles and no place to pull over to try to go back and get it. LAME!!! So - it means no intercoms for the rest of the trip. Oh well.
After we left Yvan and Carole, we continued on Route 17 just past Mattawa to the Champlain Provincial campsite. We tried to stay in Mattawa but there was a big festival there this weekend and everything was booked out. The Champlain was nice, though, and we scored a spot right on the lake. Beautiful and very peaceful.

July 29
It rained last night and this morning, we woke up to cloudy skies and it was cold again - about 50 degrees. Honestly - this is July, right?? It feels more like early April, and a cold, wet one at that. We donned all our warm gear and headed out towards Sault Ste. Marie. The drive was good but soon, we had to pull over to put our rain gear on and within minutes, it POURED. We hauled into North Bay and found a Tim Hortons, had some breakfast and waited the worst of it out. One thing we've noticed, the rain showers are fierce but short lived so they seem to clear up quickly. We carried on and hit a couple more showers but by the time we hit "The Soo'', the sky cleared right up and we had clear blue skies!! AWESOME. The whole drive today was great, even with the rain. The road was great and the countryside is beautiful - all wilderness and lakes until the scenery opens up and you come to gorgeous Lake Superior. WOW. By the time we fueled up and took a small break, we were inspired by the scenery and the great weather and we decided to carry on another 150 kms. We made it up to Montreal River, just past Pancake Bay and found a fantastic little campsite, right on the lake - Twilight Resort. The weather had cleared and warmed up so we made a fire and sat and watched the sun go down over Lake Superior. It was gorgeous. A VERY lovely evening...

July 30
We headed to Thunder Bay - it was a good driving day through miles and miles and miles of Ontario bushland. There are a million little lakes in this area and trees and rocks as far as the eye can see. No wonder Europeans come to this country and can't believe the sheer size of it and how much of it is unoccupied. It just goes on forever. We're born and raised in this country and we couldn't believe it either! The Trans-Canada in Ontario is really great - the pavement is in good condition which really makes a huge difference on bikes. The only downside to this stretch of highway is that a lot of it is single lane and there a million transport trucks so, at times, you poke along. The other frustrating thing is that the speed limit is only 90kms/hour! Anywhere else we've been, this road would have been at least 100km/hour if not 110 (most of it is quite straight)... the traffic averages about 110 kms/hour and we saw A LOT of police cars who weren't bothering with tickets so we just stayed with the flow for the most part BUT, every now and again, you get someone who does the speed limit and then traffic backs up for MILES!! One poor guy in a gold minivan did this for what seemed like FOREVER and when he finally pulled into a gas station, I thought a bunch of traffic would follow him to punch him out.
NOTE TO SELF PEOPLE!!! (My pet peeve for the week...) HAVE A LOOK BEHIND YOU ONCE IN AWHILE! If you notice you have a string of vehicles - oh, say, A MILE LONG! - behind you, pull over for heaven's sake and let people pass!! Good grief...
We skirted Thunder Bay and started to head up north. It was getting to be a long day (about 700 kms) and we were ready to make camp. There was nothing for miles past Thunder Bay! We were just about contemplating camping on a side road when we found a little fishing lodge, about 100 kms south of Ignace, at Lac Des Mille Lacs (Lake of a Thousand Lakes)... if you look on a map, you'll see it's a HUGE lake!
Anyway, we set up camp and had a look around. It's a bit run down but the property was beautiful and right on the water. We were bagged so we hit the rack around 8pm and THAT'S when our long dark journey through HELL began.
Around 8pm, the mosquitos and no-see-ums came out in force and by force, I mean in clouds so thick you can hardly see through them. The mosquitos are about the size of your thumbnail and they're HUNGRY!!!! Suffice it to say, we were at Thousand Lakes and each lake has about 10 Billion mosquitos so you do the math and them multiply it by a factor of about another 1000 for the number of equally hungry no-see-ums.
We  woke up to about 1000 of the little bastards in our tent - somehow they were getting in. In a great flurry of activity, we tried to batten down the hatches and fill in every little nook and cranny they could possibly get in through and then I ruthlessly hunted down the ones in the tent armed with a head lamp and a dirty sock. The inside of the tent looked like a murder scene with streaks of blood all over the place as I was killing the ones who had already feasted on us. This went on for over an hour and we tried to sleep for awhile. At one point, I woke up because it sounded like rain and then I realized - THAT'S THE SOUND OF MILLIONS OF MOSQUITOS FLYING INTO OUR TENT, TRYING TO GET IN!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGGGG!!!!! I'm not even joking or exaggerating!! And somehow, they were still getting in, despite our best efforts so we were chewed on all night. I thought I was going to lose my mind. We tried to cover our heads but then you couldn't breathe and it got so hot under the covers, you damn near sweated to death. It truly and honestly was a night from HELL and will go down in history as Le Grande Torment - The GREAT TORMENT!!!  Unbelievable. We held out only because to try to leave in the middle of the night meant going out into the clouds of bugs to pack up camp. We suffered through until 6am and then we RAN - we've never struck camp faster in our lives and even after we left, when we pulled over for gas down the road, Lynn took off his helmet and huge mosquitos came out!!
Seriously - it was the worst and longest night of my life. No wonder there are so many roadkills in Ontario of moose etc. I'm convinced the poor beasts are actually committing suicide to end their suffering from the torment from the damned BUGS!!!
As luck would have it, we stopped to get gas at Upsala and there's a little mom and pop shop restaurant that served FANTASTIC breakfast. Thank God. Tonight, I don't care if it costs $1000, we're getting a motel room.

New Brunswick

July 22
As much as we loved PEI, we feel the pressure of our time running out as well as a building longing to start heading for home. We miss our grandkids, our kids, our home, our dogs... We've been on the road for 5 weeks and if I'm being honest, we're beginning to feel a little road weary. We decided to cut our PEI stay a day short for the only reason that the Western Tip of the Island is much the same as what we've seen in the past 2 days - stunning beauty - but we wanted to continue on. We came across the Confederation Bridge which is an incredible work of engineering. It's 13 kms long and connects PEI with New Brunswick. It's free to come onto PEI but it costs a toll to leave (I think they want you to stay! Not a hard twist of the arm I might add...) but a hint to travelers, it's cheaper to leave by the bridge than by the ferry.
Given that we suddenly had an extra day on our hands and a little bit of leeway, we decided to make a run through Moncton and head down the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy to Hopewell Rocks. If you don't know about this place, look it up on YouTube. There are great quick time videos of the tide coming in and out there at what they call The Flowerpots. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world. On average, where we were, the tides are about 40 feet but the tide has peaked at around 55 feet  at different times. This means the water gains or loses 7-8 vertical feet every hour. Crazy. It's hard to imagine all that water moving so quickly. The Tidal Bore is when the water comes in and, as it back fills the rivers and streams, people actually go out and surf the waves upstream! We didn't see that but apparently it's a sight to see!
The Flower Pots are really cool and, when the tide is out (which it was when we went) you can go down and walk on the ocean floor! I don't have a picture to post here because I only brought my big camera down there but when I get home, I will post photos off of it. Suffice it to say, it was really neat to see.
We camped down the road from here at the Chocolate River Motel and Campsite. This is a BIG MISS!!! We didn't see the Motel rooms - that wing of the building looked fairly new and they might have been OK but the campsite was a total dump. The only reason we stayed was that we were so tired, we just needed a place to flop our camper up, sleep and leave again. The washhouse was beyond disgusting - I wouldn't let my dog pee in there it was so gross... falling apart, FILTHY and looking like it should be shut down by a health inspector. Honestly. As an owner, how could you look at that and not be embarrassed for others to see that? There was another campsite down past Hopewell Rocks which may have been better but didn't have a view of the Bay. The only redeeming qualities of Chocolate River were that the food was all homemade and very good in their little run down cafe and the campsites were right on the edge of the Bay with great views through the trees. That said, we would not stay there again.

July 23
We were up and gone by 7am, we were so wanting to get away from this crappy campsite. We headed up the main highway to Miramichi and then, from here, we headed up the Acadien Peninsula. We decided to go right up to the very tip, where the road runs out. It was a nice drive and there were little villages along the way with many houses flying the Acadien flag and/or displaying Acadien red, white and blue paraphernalia in their yards. Clearly, the cultural identity is strong and displayed with great pride here. Shippagan is quite a big town and they have all the ammenities you might need plus a well regarded aquarium with touch pools filled with local sealife. We drove out to the lighthouse at the tip of Miscou Island and it was a surprisingly warm, overcast afternoon with almost no wind which we couldn't believe, given how exposed it is out there. Great icecream there too... As we headed back, we intended to go to Caraquet where they have an Acadien village with interpreters in costumes recreating daily life back in the 1800s. We put the address for a recommended campsite in our GPS and that's when things ran amok. Our beloved Zumo doesn't know about road quality. All it will do is tell you your route possibilities and will, by default, give you the quickest way to get to your destination. Well, suffice it to say, we ended up on small back roads, one of which was so pot-holey, Lynn couldn't navigate it at all with his trike pulling the trailer. Plus it had gotten cold and was no raining quite heavily. We were somewhere near Maltampec. Good grief! Anyway, we managed to find our way to the 135 and made it out to the coast and Route 11 again, on the North shore. By now it was getting dark and we were cold, wet and tired - a triple threat on motorbikes - so we were anxious to just get off the road and find a place to hunker down. We passed one campsite because it looked too exposed. Not one tree to sidle up to. What luck we gave it a miss because just down the road, we came across the best place ever - the place which has become our favourite we've stayed at this whole trip - the Navigateur Cafe-Bistro Campsite.
How to describe this place. Well, probably the best thing is for you to look up their facebook page. Do a facebook search for campnavigateur (all one word) and it's the first part of the facebook page name. You can't miss it. It was like manna from heaven in the cold, wet afternoon.
The building is actually a bunch of smaller buildings squished together in a most delightful way - buildings built onto other buildings until it's become a patchwork of nooks and crannies, balconies and bedroom, sheds and decks in a wonderful way. Rejean Gosselin (the owner) and his partner Francine are warm and friendly hosts. Of course, when we pulled up, Rejean's beautiful reproduction Indian motorcycle was sitting in the front yard so we knew we were with kindred hearts right off the bat. The Navigateur is brilliant it a zany, totally hippy kind of way (in fact, Rejean's nickname is Hippy) - like something right out of Burning Man. The back property is right on the cliff, overlooking the ocean with a magnificent view of the shoreline and, perhaps the most brilliant of all, he's put old fishing boats up on props and turned them into little cabins you can stay in, complete with a table and chairs on the deck. They've been strung with white lights so at night, they're all lit up. Seriously - if you ever go to New Brunswick and do the Acadien Peninsula, this is a 12/10 for an awesome, fun, quirky, delightful, unique and beautiful experience. We could have been quite happy to squirrel in for a couple of days...
Inside the place, Rejean and Francine have a bar, a sitting area and really, it's an extension of their living space which they're happy to share. They have a lovely little black dog, Drifter (same name as his motorcycle) - full of beans and very friendly. He took to us for some reason so I had my doggie fix as I'm missing my fat little sausage dog, our pug Stella. And our big dogs too, Dooley and Libby.
The Navigateur was used in a French movie called La Vraie Belle Baie and Rejean showed us some clips from it which was fun to see. They were so good to us - they invited us to use their deck and covered in porch to BBQ and eat our meal in and invited us in for a beer afterwards. Francine presented us with a gift of a tray laden with coffee and fresh out of the oven cookies after our dinner and in the morning, she had breakfast all laid out. All of this and our snug little cabin for $50. Camping is only $15. The best spot we've been to in all our travels and by far the least expensive.
The Navigateur is on the North Shore of the Acadien Peninsula and is just East of the wee town of Stonehaven and West of Pokeshaw. Fantastic. We REALLY hope to come back here again some day.

PEI

July 20
I don't even know where to begin when it comes to describing PEI other than to say, it's perhaps one of the most beautiful places on earth that we've ever seen. Honestly. My friend Susan D. told me this before we left on this trip and I remember thinking to myself, "Well, I'm sure we'll see many beautiful places all across Canada" - which was (and is) true but there is something undeniably different and consistently mind-blowingly incredible about PEI that sets it apart from everything else we've seen (and we've seen some stunning places along the way to be sure!)
I think part of what is incredible about PEI is that the entire Island is one giant garden. If you're not right downtown in some town or city, it's all rolling green farmland that has been farmed to perfection and cared for with great love and attention. The entire Island is one giant hunk of red red sandstone. There isn't any gravel on the island at all - no rocks at all! Imagine THAT! All gravel (for cement etc. ) has to be hauled in from Nova Scotia. The dirt is red red red you can't imagine the crops they grown here - potatoes like you've never seen but also a lot of wheat, corn and hay. Every turn in the road, every crest of a hill reveals another postcard vista and I could honestly spend 3 months here just taking photos. There are little lakes, rivers and, of course, miles of coastline and coves to be explored. Throughout PEI is a network of paved roads which are in GREAT shape for motorcycles. One fellow told us there are more paved miles of road per capita in PEI than anywhere else in Canada. We can believe it. And there are also TONS of motorcycles here which makes sense given this is incredible motorcycling country.
Today, we took the #1 through Stratford and into Georgetown. We got held up because of a small town parade that was happening today so we chatted with a Bell Mobility van driver who gave us some tips on what to see. We followed the coastal road north to Cardigan but decided to hoof it on the main road to Rollo Bay because the "Coastal Route" wasn't so coastal after all - lots of lovely country roads through trees but we wanted to "Make A Mile" (as Lynn would say). There was a Fiddle Festival in Rollo Bay this weekend but honestly, by the time we got there, it was over 100 degrees and the farmers field the festival was being held in had NO TREES. Not one shred of shade to be found. There was just no way we could tolerate an entire afternoon in the sweltering heat with no relief in sight - fiddles or no fiddles. Next time. Off we went, back on the coastal road from there which was along the shoreline for the most part and was lovely. We went through Souris (where you can catch the 5 hour ferry to Isle de la Madeleine - sorry Mom - we just didn't' have enough time this trip!!!) and to the East Point light house. From there we followed the North Coast road over to a place called St. Peters. It you haven't heard of the TV show (and book) called "You've Got To Eat Here" - it's all about the best hidden restaurant/cafe gems in Canada. In St. Peters is a place called Rick's Fish and Chips which made it into the TV show and book. We had heard about it from our neighbour at the campsite, Rhonda, who told us it was the best fish and chips in the world. Well, we've heard that a few times on our trip so we take those kinds of comments with a grain of salt (and a little tartar sauce on the side) but we saw it so we thought we'd check it out. At first, we weren't sure we had the right place - it's small and out of the way and just a non-descript mom and pop shop looking fish and chip joint like we'd seen about 1000 times in the past 2 weeks in the Maritimes... but boy did we get schooled in the art of fish and chips!! Un-Be-Freaking-Leavable. Seriously. Truly, the best in the world. We're not sure what they put in that batter but it's light and crispy and melts in your mouth like ambrosia de la mer... topped by PEI's own Iron Horse beer which was fantastic. Incredible. 10/10.
Leaving St. Peters he hoofed through spectacular farmland back into downtown Charlottetown and went straight to the Confederation Arts Center. Alas, the Anne of Green Gables musical only shows on Mon/Tues/Wed nights (why, we can't figure) BUT - they had just mounted a brand new show this season called Evangeline - a musical historical fiction piece about he expulsion of the Acadiens from Grand Pre, Nova Scotia based on the epic poem of the same name written by the American iconic poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This show was 10 years in the writing by Ted Dykstra (who also wrote Two Pianos, Four Hands) who originally teamed up with Mirvish Productions but was dropped due to financial constraints. Along came the Charlottetown Festival who saved the day and they finally mounted the production this year. We went and saw it and it was fabulous. What a show. The talent were all Broadway veterans so you can imagine the quality of the singing/acting/dancing and the music and dancing was a wonderful mix of traditional Acadien and Cajun. The story follows Evangeline and her husband Gabriel who, on their wedding night, were separated by the Grand Derangement - the expulsion of the Acadiens by the British government. True story - over 10,000 Acadiens were put on ships and sent off in all directions, separating families and friends to the 4 corners of the New World without any knowledge of where each other went. Imagine THAT back then, with no phones, internet etc. Many people never did find their family members again and more than half of them died in the process from starvation, disease, exposure etc. Hard to imagine. All because the British felt they were a threat to their plans for colonization. ANYWAY - the show was brilliant. Another 10/10. We're at the point now where we can't believe how each day just brings more amazing experiences our way. We're so grateful...

July 21
Up early and off we went up North on route 2 through Bedford, Grand Tracadie and into PEI National Park - a strip of stunning beaches along the north shore. We stopped a few times along the beach and took pictures and walked along the red sand - so beautiful!! We headed over to Cavendish which is the now very famous "Anne of Green Gables" part of PEI. You can't come to PEI and NOT do Anne of Green Gables even though yes, it's very touristy BUT - for those of us who have grown up with this story and have watched the Mini Series 100 times, it's a bit of a pilgrimage. The Green Gables house is now a National Historic Site and, contrary to what many expect, is NOT the house the miniseries was filmed in. Shocking news! The miniseries was shot in Ontario!! OY!! Sacrilege! The historic site is, in fact, the farm house that belonged to Lucy Maud Montgomery's cousins and Aunt and Uncle who she used to visit frequently (as she lived just down the road with very austere grandparents after her mother died and her father buggered off). This was the house the inspired her to write Anne of Green Gables and, in fact, she was a great lover of the outdoors and she had two walking trails on the property, one through the haunted woods and one called Lover's Lane, both of which appear in her Anne books. So - this is where she roamed as a young child and into adulthood and where she imagined all of her Anne books. As a side note, she married a minister and they eventually moved to Ontario and she never lived in her beloved PEI again which greatly saddened her but it was nice that, when she died, she was buried in the Cavendish graveyard so she did, finally, come home...
Our last stop in this area was the Cavendish beach itself. It, too, is part of the PEI National Park so a day pass will get you into all of the beach areas. It was perfect. The day was perfect. A sunny, warm day with puffy clouds scudding across the sky as the seagulls hovered on the seabreeze. Whitecap waves hammered onto the red sandy beach and the wind blew drifts of sand up and over the miles of grassy sand dunes. The sand is so fine, it's like sugar and the water was very warm - people were swimming and I walked for a couple of kilometers, soaking it all in. It wouldn't be hard to spend a summer vacation here...
After we Green Gabled ourselves out, we noodled on down yet another spectacularly stunning country road to a wee township called New Glasgow. Remember that TV show/Book I told you about yesterday - "You've Gotta Eat Here"? Well another PEI establishment made it on the show and it was none other than the New Glasgow Lobster Dinner (that's the name of it).
I'd heard of this place before, when I was researching the top things to see and do in PEI before we left on our trip. Again, our lovely KOA neighbour, Rhonda, told us about this place and, in fact, her son Alex works there. Well, gosh - it was right handy by the time we were getting peckish after all the Anne-ing we did. It opened at 4:00 so we got there around 3:45 and there was already a line up outside the door. When the door opened, we went inside to a till where you buy your dinner and they give you a ticket for the dinner you bought. They seat you and the server comes around and starts to bring the grub - you see, THIS lobster dinner is all you can eat seafood chowder, fresh steamed muscles from the local bay, homemade buns, 8 different kinds of dessert, tea and coffee. Oh yes, and then you get your whole lobster too. My God. That's all I can say.
The New Glasgow is to PEI what the Collander is to Italians in Trail as far as Italian food goes. The story is that back in the 1950s(ish) there was a farmer's coop and they jointly purchased an old community hall for a couple hundred bucks. They started to have fundraiser lobster dinners for the community and before you know it, it took off and is still going strong all these years later, still owned and operated by descendants of two of the original coop families. So awesome... It's still a huge big dining hall that seats about 350 people (and 150 more downstairs) and is noisy and loud and full of locals and tourists alike. Our server said that on a busy night, they can serve 800-1000 people. Hard to imagine. And so freaking good.... Seriously, this is the best traditional lobster dinner experience we found.
After dinner, we headed down yet another spectacularly gorgeous rural farmland road back to Charlottetown in time to catch another musical theatre production called Anne and Gilbert - this one focussing on the second part of the mini-series when Anne becomes a teacher and she and Gilbert circle around one another until they finally get together at the end and get married. A lovely, light musical with great music, excellent talent and a dearly beloved old plotline... a much smaller theatre this time - only 150 people and we ended up in the front row with only 3 feet between us and the actors. Great fun.

Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg

July 18
After really enjoying our day and evening in Halifax, we left to go to Peggy's Cove - arguably the most photographed cove in the Maritimes (according to those in the know)... we went right through Halifax and once again, our beloved Zumo GPS didn't let us down - we effortlessly cruised through the city, even enjoying the scenery and popped out the South side through Hatchet Lake, Shad Bay, Bayside, West Dover and into Peggy's Cove. This drive, I should mention, is gorgeous all by itself. The little villages along the way are lovely with beautiful coastal homes and picture perfect little coves with marinas etc.
We'd heard that today there were two big cruise ships coming into Halifax - in fact, we were told we were lucky yesterday to be at the Halifax docks when we were, before the ships arrived. Well, arrive they did and today, hundreds of the cruiseship folk  hopped onto huge, accordion tour buses that made the journey to Peggy's Cove today. It was quite bizarre, actually, although it did make for a certain brand of entertainment. Peggy's Cove, as you drive out, seems quite off the beaten path so it was very weird to pull in and see tour buses everywhere and tourists all over the town and on the lighthouse rocks like ants. I can't imagine what it must be like for the people that live there - a bit of a mixed blessing, I assume, as tourists are their bread and butter but on the other hand, no end of ogling people peering in your front room windows.
The cove really does meet the built up expectations. The lighthouse is on a huge expanse of sea worn rock which goes for miles in each direction and you can walk on. There are great walking paths all over the place. There is a very touristy restaurant there, right beside the lighthouse, called the Sou'Wester which was started back in the mid-50s and, yes, it's touristy as all get out BUT (and it's a big BUT) the kitchen cranks out quality food like you can't believe. In fact, we decided their seafood chowder was the best we'd had in all our trip. It really was incredible and worth it to stop in, if you can wade your way through the touristy knick-knacks and doo-dads in the gift shop to get there.
What is really great about Peggy's Cove is the little fishing village itself - the wharves and buildings are exactly as they've been for all these years and are still in use. Nothing has been "cleaned up" for tourism - and it's perfect exactly the way it is: old anchors, chain, piles of rope and bouys all over the place along with stacks of lobster traps and old boats. There was a famous painter from Finland who moved to Peggy's Cove - his name was William deGarthe and his old studio is now a museum of sorts. His paintings of the area are very well known and in his later years, he carved a huge mural into a wall of granite in his back yard which is still there today. He died before it was finished but what a legacy he left to the people of Peggy's Cove. Apparently, he did two murals in the local Catholic church as well but the church was closed when we tired to visit. Despite the mounds of tourists there (like we weren't two of them! ha ha ha...) Peggy's Cove really is a must see.
Just south of Peggy's Cove is the memorial to the SwissAir flight which crashed off shore in the late 1990s. The people from the Cove and from Bayswater all responded quickly to the crash but alas, 229 people died. The memorial is very well done and is just off the road.
We continued along the smaller coastal road south into Lunenburg this afternoon and arrived around 4:00. What a GREAT town!!! Then entire downtown core (about 100 square blocks) has been deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site and wowsers, if you're into architecture, this is the town for you. I think my mother will spend her time in Heaven in Lunenburg! Pretty much all of the buildings in this area were built in the early half of the 1800s and, for the most part, are all well preserved and/or restored. Lunenburg has a permanent population of about 2300 but it swells greatly in the summer. We didn't have nearly enough time here (like so many places on our trip) but this is definitely a place we will return to when we come back this way again. There is so much to see and do here and just wandering the town and appreciating the buildings and the life of the town can fill several days. We camped at the municipal campsite just at the top of town which was perfect - you can walk down town if you want although Lunenburg is built on a hill so coming back up is a bit more challenging.
The waterfront is awesome and many of the old commercial fishing buildings and wharves are still in use today. Not much cod fishing but lots of lobster and crab fishing still. We had dinner at the Old Fish Factory right on the waterfront - quite a touristy looking place and, indeed it is, but the food was GREAT (we had the crab/lobster pizza!) and the prices were very reasonable. After dinner, we went upstairs and they have a fantastic little fishing museum and a little theatre. For a donation of your choice, the amateur theatre company puts on an incredible show. The show is called "Glimpses" and all the music is original and written and performed by local musicians and actors.  It's a combination of story telling, songs, dances and projected photos and film clips which cover the key pieces of Lunenburg's history. We didn't know what to expect but I have to say, it was brilliant - it was so well written, the music was fantastic, the quality of the performances were great and some of it smacked a wee bit of Monty Python (the Oxen song in particular) which had the whole audience roaring. What a brilliant night. In the street above the waterfront, all the little shops have a great selection of things to browse along with lovely cafes, icecream houses and inns. Perfect. We were sad to leave and certainly plan to return here. One of our favourite spots on our trip so far.

July 19
We didn't quite see everything we wanted to catch in Lunenburg yesterday so we spent this morning there, cruising up and down the streets taking photos and having some breakfast. We went down to the wharves again and saw the Blue Nose II, the reproduction of the original Blue Nose which is the ship on the Canadian 10 cent coin. A very famous ship whose home was Lunenburg. Can't remember what happened to the original Blue Nose (will have to research it and update this blog) but the Blue Nose II was built and, today, was up in dry dock getting some repairs done. Still - it was pretty cool to see her. She is a schooner and, at the time she was originally built, was the fastest in the world and won many international races.
As we were touring about this morning, the sky opened up and delivered a torrential downpour rain. We ducked into a cafe and had breakfast, trying to wait it out, and left when it had calmed to a dull roar. Donning our trusty rain gear, we were ready for anything the East Coast could deliver and we set out for PEI. The entire trip back across Nova Scotia was heavy rain but it was quite warm (mid-70s) so actually, not too bad at all! From Enfield to Truro, we took Route 2, a smaller secondary highway that runs parallel to the big and fast Route 102. At Brookfield, we stopped at a small bakery called Hurricane Heidi's. Great baking and quite possibly the best Mulligatawny Soup I've ever had...
Onwards and guess what? The rain slowed to a spit as we headed back up to our beloved Pictou although we didn't have time to stop - we carried right through to the PEI ferry terminal  at Caribou. By the time we arrived there, the rain had stopped and we caught the ferry over to PEI. We decided to find a campsite near Charlottetown so we could do day trips from there and catch some of the nightlife. We checked it out and the closest campsite was in a small town just outside Charlottetown called Cornwall. A bit of a trek to get there but the Cornwall KOA was like a fantastic resort with clean everything - bathrooms, laundry, a pool, an incredible playground area, beaches... the list goes on. It was exactly what we needed so we could get caught up with our laundry etc. and enjoy a few luxuries which we haven't had for the past 4 weeks (like TV in the laundry room! We haven't had any news since we left!). This was truly a 5 Star campsite. It was awesome. We registered for 3 nights...