Kona Beach and Icebergs!

Last night was spent in Deer Lake at the Royal Canadian Lodge, where we saw a family of ducks waddle in formation across the grass. They turned left to go down the walkway toward the memorial, then turned right to go across the other side of the grass. Wonder who was calling cadence?

It rained off and on during the afternoon, evening and night, but dawned sunny and pretty this morning.

Today we had a short drive of about 80 miles in our rigs to South Brook, and are staying a few nights at Kona Beach Campground. It’s very different from the Kona Coast in Hawaii, of course, but I suspect that’s where it got its name. As we drove in, the manager met us and said they were full, but then he said wait and he’d see if he had two sites. Hurray, he did! Denny & Susie are parked facing a small lake, with 20 amps and water.

Our site is bigger, with 30 amps and water, and we have lots of shade. So we get to enjoy each other’s sites by visiting back and forth.

We arrived early enough to get parked and set up, then have a day’s touring adventure. We drove about 20 miles to King’s Point for lunch at By The Sea Inn & Café. We chatted with a couple who flew up from South Carolina for a 2-week vacation on Newfoundland. They used to own a motorhome, so they understood our lifestyle. She took this picture of us on the deck.

After lunch a brief stop to shop was in order with this pottery store across the street. In addition to beautiful locally-made pottery, they have a large variety of wood and fabric craft items. What an interesting place! You can look for their website as they do mail order as well. (Sorry I can’t give you the URL as I’m not online right now. Just Google King’s Point Pottery.)

The biggest excitement of the day was when we reached Harry’s Harbour and saw this big iceberg.

We retraced our path in the car and drove out to Beachside and saw several more further out in the ocean, but my zoom focus didn’t bring them in very clearly.

But on the way back we spotted this large berg. It’s also a little blurry, but it was farther out than the first one.

We’re very lucky that the icebergs are still around this late in the season. It may be due to the extremely harsh winter they had here. We couldn’t have asked for better weather today, and our tour was delightful!

We have no Internet access at our current campsite, and it has been limited for the past several days, so I’m skipping some of our adventures. This blog post is being sent from Eddy’s Restaurant down the street. Tomorrow we’re driving to a location where we hope to spot a whale or two, and maybe some more icebergs. I’ll post again when I can.

Newfoundland!

Our 6-hour ferry ride went well today, and we met some nice Escapees, Helen and Drake, when we were in line to board the ferry. Here you can see our rig and Denny & Susie’s.

We’re now at a boondocking site near Port aux Basques, with water and dump station.

We’ll stay here overnight, then get more info and details from the visitor center tomorrow to help firm up our plans for travels the next week or so.

Sorry this blog post is short, but will try to do more soon. I also skipped several days, so take a look at Susie & Denny’s blog for her great reports.

St. Croix, Tidal Bore and More Friends

We left St. Margaret’s Bay on Wednesday to move about 55 miles to St. Croix, near Windsor, NS. It was a little foggy that morning.

By the time we arrived at the St. Croix off-ramp, the fog had lifted and we were met by Gary Hunter to lead us to his house.

Denny & Susie parked next to the Hunters’ motorhome in the driveway, but we had to wait for a tow truck to come move it out because of mechanical problems, and to make space for ours.

There was plenty of room to park in front, as there’s a pull-out on the road in front of their house and the entrance to a church next door.

Everything seems to take longer than expected when you’re waiting, but the tow truck finally arrived (about 3 hours late) to pull the Dutch Star out.

I’m sure the tow truck operator appreciated all the expert advice from Don, Denny and Gary! Actually, he was very friendly and chatted with us like he was having a great day. Never saw such a cheerful tow truck driver!

The motorhome had to be pulled out of the driveway, but they couldn’t get the drive train disconnected. So they pulled it out with a cable, with Gary controlling the speed going downhill.

Then they attached the tow truck to the rear and away they went!

When Don pulled our coach in, he stayed close to the passenger side and there was plenty of room for both motorhomes’ slides. We even had separate 15 amp service for both.

It was time for relaxing on the deck and beginning to solve the world’s problems. During our 3-day visit, we spent lots of time on this deck.

While in this area, we saw a Tidal Bore. If you’ve never heard of a tidal bore, Wikipedia says it is “a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave (or waves) of water that travels up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the river or bay's current.” We didn’t see a dramatic one, but it was still interesting. Here are some pictures showing the wave.

Wish I knew how to insert an arrow in the picture…Look across the middle of the first one.

Look at right side middle here.

Note the wave coming through the arc of mud on the left bank.

We drove a couple of miles further up the river and watched from a bridge.

As the bore approached us, the wave was a little more evident because it was in a narrower space.

Our lunch at this colorful restaurant on the Atlantic coast east of Halifax was a lot more exciting.

When we first arrived the power was off all over the area. Gary left his phone number in case it came back on soon, and we left to find another place. He got a call as soon as we were a few miles away, so we returned, and we had the place to ourselves. Pam is on the left with their granddaughter Nevayeh, and Gary is on the right. I’m sure you recognize the other faces.

After lunch we did a little tourist shop browsing. I should be saving all our lobster shells.

I now know two more things to do with leftover yarn.

This might be a good RV Christmas tree.

Now we’ve been warned…good to know!

Gary & Pam were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed our time with them and their family. Thanks, Friends! See you in Arizona next Spring.