Back from Vacation and saddle sore

Rob Keeble

Member
Messages
12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Well it’s good to be back home after taking on driving to the Maritimes and back in 10 days. Never again I promised myself. Definitely not with two teenage boys and all those trees. Next time we fly like all sensible people do.

We had a great time but tried as usual to do too much and see too much in too short an amount of time. Drove 5200km round trip.

Saw some real neat things and after all the years away from the sea got to swim in the Atlantic Ocean once again. Boy it reminded me of how cold it was when I used to swim off the beach in Cape Town.

So we have now visited 4 more of Canada’s provinces and are quiet happy with the one we live in.

Got to take a morning cruise on the Bluenose II schooner which for me was the highlight of the trip. What a beautiful boat and it has an equally attractive first mate . Had a hard time taking my eyes off her.

http://museum.gov.ns.ca/bluenose/index.htm

Got to see a Dory shop for those of you into boat building and a few old woodworking machines.

Then on Prince Edwards Island without planning it I stopped at a Craft Gallery that was also called Fine Woodworking. Turned out to be the studio of Jacques Gaudreau. http://www.woodmagic.ca/Site/Welcome.html
He was not in but the very pleasant lady that was in charge allowed me up to his studio workshop to take my own tour of his shop. Boy he has more burls waiting to be turned than i have ever seen in my life.
Does some real nice work which no pictures do any justice to not that we had the camera with us.

Sadly this trip was one of those where we forgot the camera back at our campsite on so many occasions and then on one occasion we thought we had left it behind only to discover on getting back that it was in the car all the time. It drove us crazy.
I used that Donald Sutherland line from Kelly’s Hero’s where he says "Hey man ...he's the mechanic, I'am just the driver" To which love of my life became the wicked witch of the north.

Don’t make the mistake that i did and think go east my boy and you will catch lots of fish. I took all my fishing tackle to end up getting a small amount of fly fishing in Fundy Bay at only one lake. Caught so many brook trout (all catch and release by law) that I stopped counting. Was one of the best evenings I have had watching the little brookies on the evening rise all by myself in a huge lake.
As for fishing in the seas you waste your time off the shore. Only realized why after getting a run down on the grand banks structure at the aquarium in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
You can fish if you like of one of those crowded fishing charters for fish such as mackerel but where I come from mackerel is for pet food. As for Cod they were wiped out nearly 20 years ago through over fishing although you are still allowed to catch them if you can find any.
For those of you that are echo friendly I have to tell you we (as in humans) have done a great deal of damage to our seas and its only when you visit a coastline like the Maritimes you begin to realize just how much damage we are still doing. I am not an extremist but after this trip I could easily become one. I will say no more on the subject lest I offend some commercial fishermen or foresters out there.
Then just while I am on the subject of upsetting some, sorry to all the Idaho potato growers but if you haven’t had a potato from PEI you simply haven’t lived.
We bought some fresh fish one night to cook over the fire and at the same time I had been to a farm stall where the potatoes had just been harvested. Oh man I love fish but ate so many potatoes that night I had no room for the fish. Its so sad what happens to good produce by the time it reaches the grocery shelves in the cities. So to try and offset that i brought back bags of freshly picked potatoes. Figured the worst case I was still ahead of the stores storage times.

One funny thing that happened to us (it was not funny at the time) , we checked into a privately run campsite in Lunenburg, one of those where there are no trees and everyone is adjacent to each other with no privacy. Well shortly after we got our tent up, a young couple from Ontario pitched a tent next door to us. We greeted them and had a chat and every thing seemed fine. Took the family out for a slap up meal that night and upon our return things were quiet. All went to bed. Then the couple arrived back and all hell broke loose between them. Booze and relationships don’t go together. Boy they carried on all night.

So next day we decided that’s it were packing up and moving on and I said to Loml that I would help her recover by putting us all up in a hotel for the night near the ferry crossing to Pei. So we check into this place after driving from one end of the Island to the other, then grab a bite and head for our rooms to catch up on some sleep. 3:40 am pandemonium breaks loose in the corridors and room next door to us. I thought a sports team had arrived and were tearing the place apart. Anyhow being a tolerant guy I thought give them time and it will settle down. Well was I mistaken. We ended up with 2 visits from the local police and I could probably write a book on the episode. So much for the night to recover. Hotel refunded our money and my son and his friend who were in the room on the other side of the raucous room got a sample of what booze does to you again when you cannot control your drinking. Turned out this was a couple of young guys from Ontario down for a wedding and they had picked up a couple of girls and were bring them back to their room.

Its funny to reflect on it but sure was not funny at the time. Hotel Manager was most apologetic.

So that’s me and camping until Thanks Giving weekend which is a tradition with us now.

Seems a lot has happened on the forum while I been gone.

Lots to catch up on. Saw Larry has finished the famous bed and we had another loss in the family at large.

Hope now to get some shop time to finish off my bench and get that Jewelry chest completed and a bunch of other projects on the big old to do list.

Added some pics for the picture police.:thumb::)
 

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Sounds like a fun trip Rob. Thanks for the travelogue. Next time get in touch and I'll give you some local tips :)

I was in Lunenburg last Friday with some Japanese friends - maybe right when you were there (?) Had lunch on the wharf at the Old Fish Factory and watched Bluenose sail into the offing.
Always fun to talk to the guys in the dory shop and see what's lying around (like a 6x12x20 foot oak timber!)

Regards
Peter
 
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