BLOG.N-MEDIA.NET

San Antonio to Big Bend National Park July 5th

tebgsc — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:39:00 GMT

We left San Antonio about 9:30am We had taken our friends Eric and Pat to the Airport then came back packed up checked out and headed down I-35 to highway 90. We took highway 90 west all the way to Del Rio stopped at Seminole Canyon State park and had lunch. We took a bit longer than needed. I was trying to make a video for my boss who is leaving for a new job and things just weren’t right (the audio had wind noise in it, the dialog was not right and so on, scrap that) so off we went west to Marathon Texas. About 270 miles from San Antonio then a left turn down highway 385 for another 70 miles to Rio Grande Village on the Mexican border. Our cameras were rolling all the way and we have some amazing footage! We pulled in and it was about 7ish.

We had the hardest time trying to park the trailer in a spot, it was like we had never done this before, but we had a hundred times. I tried it about 4 or 5 times, and then Tom tried it and finally got it on the 5th try! We figured our equilibriums were off or something.

Once setup it was still light so we grabbed our cameras and went tooling around the southeastern part of the park down Boquillas Canyon. It was the right thing to do, there was a rainbow to the east the clouds broke to the west and the sun was going down. Soon there was a double rainbow and the sky lit up in oranges and reds the clouds had drifted to one side of the sky and streaking across the sky were bight silver linings of the clouds.

We pulled of the road several times to film and take pictures, we could see the river (the Rio Grande) and Mexican side was majestic oh my, it was right out of some story book, it looked like someone painted the high cliffs and clouds, they went on forever. While at the river overlooking on a high bluff, down below we seen some men and some horses on the Mexican side, on our side tom seen these items (dream catchers and walking sticks and drawings, they had sighs on the ground that read in English, please buy these items to help the children of Mexico) and they had prices next to them all listed on the scrap cardboard, little sales men if you ask me. Soon tom seen this guy swimming across the river ( I was filming something) and next thing you know this Mexican scrambles up the bluff all wet and muddy in his underwear. A red flag went off in my head and I said Tom lets go, the Mexican was say something about buying these things for the children and wanted to deal, I said adios. We hoped in the car and head out of there before who knows what. You know sometimes you can feel in your gut that this is not a good situation and time to run, well that was my feeling.

We headed back to camp, I made some pasta and had some left over venison and made a nice little dinner. We were wore out from the day of travel and called it a night about 11:30, but before we turned in we sat outside and watched the stars come out in the holes of the clouds and in the western part of the sky. It was amazing, I hope we get to see more of that and I hope it fills the whole sky. I drifted off to sleep with my head in the clouds and my eyes on the stars.

Life is good, but the whole day I keep thinking about my aunt Marie, my mom had called early that day to tell me she had died. I was not expecting that, I knew she had just taken ill about a week ago, I had no clue it would end like this so soon. I loved my aunt Marie, she was the one person who always made light of a bad situation and always had a smile for you. You know they never really leave they just walk on by and soon enter into the world of the spirit.

Monday June 28 10:30pm

tebgsc — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:05:00 GMT

Monday June 28 10:30pm

We have arrived after 1550 Miles of hot driving conditions. It was also another great experience for both of us. Have you ever travelled with someone that has four video cameras, one still camera, two large tripods and one monopod along with enough charging equipment to dim the lights of a small city when in use? Oh I forgot the I phone, two laptop PCs and the stick-on holder for the camera in top of the car. The roof window was tested for multi open, closed performance in 95 degree heat. Gary’s glasses had bug marks as well as the camera lens. At night we took the recording equipment into the woods to get good sounds of bugs, bugs and more bugs. Gary is out right now and when he gets back I hope he will allow this blog to be put in place without editing.

Stay tuned for the next time I can get to the keyboard.

I think its quite normal to travel that way! GSC

San Antonio Texas June 28th 6:30pm

tebgsc — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:30:00 GMT

We Made it to San Antonio Texas! It was a hot one today it actually hit 100 degrees a few times in the car. Took some good video along the way, the clouds were spectacular. I think wee in for some weather for the next few days.
I am sick about the oil in the gulf and a hurricane on the way.This looks like a bad situation gone horribly worse.

Will be posting video later tonight or tomorrow!

TEXAS day 3 east of Dallas

tebgsc — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:42:00 GMT

Hi Folks it was a long hot ride from Harrisburg Arkansas to Terell Texas. It was busy along the highway.
Late in the day when we arrived the sun was just right and we snapped a few pictures. shot a bit of video. We tried to get some more sounds but we were too close to the highway.

We think as we leave texas next week were going to travel along the gulf of mexico and document the oil spill. If anyone has any questions the would like us to ask or any video shot and audio, let us know we will be glad to add it to out agenda as we travel along the gulf.

Have a great day!

We will ne in San Antonio in a few hours 5 to be exsact!

Arkansas day 2

tebgsc — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 15:58:03 GMT

We stayed in Harrisburg Arkansas last night way off the path of the
freeway. Nice state park high on a ridge off the praie and farm land.
Nice park, great camp sites and well maintained. The bugs and frogs
were singing up a storm. I capture it on the zoom recorder at. 24/48 kHz
It was hot and humid last night but we slept with the windows and
doors open.
Talked with the ranger and learns lotta about the area and the
agriculture. Mainly how fast the are draining the auquafier and now
how much more minerals are in the water because they have to drill so
much further down to get water.

Heading for little rock then on to Dallas

Sent from my iPhone

Road trip to San Antonio day1

tebgsc — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:14:44 GMT

Were tripping again! Road tripping that is. (we will leave the other
stuff for you folks at home)
We will keep you posted for the next 18 days from Detroit to all
points south.
This morning we were in Gary Indiana, south Chicago, we rolled out of
Kankakee past houses farms and feilds. Champaign is in our sties and
highway 57 is under our wheels.
The sun is up the coffiee is good and were singing to steely dan and
manfred man.

Life is good!

We will post again later..

Gary & Tom

The first 2 days of the new year - last 2 days in Mexico

tebgsc — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:54:00 GMT

Friday January 1 2010

While we sat at the New Years Eve party we discussed the plans for the following day. It was time for a trip to Puerto Vallarta to see all the madness. We ate breakfast at one of the roadside restaurants and packed up for a bus ride to the big town. We transferred once to a City bus that takes us to the town center. We walked along the shore boardwalk that has all of the statues and waterfront eatery’s and hotels. We ended up on the south end where we spent two winter vacations in a rented condo along the shore. It was like memory lane with all of the same beachfront activities and internet cafes scattered along the back street. One of our tour guides in Sayulita grew up in a home along the beach and his mother still owns the place. It is right next to the Blue Chairs Hotel where some of our friends stayed in the past years. She now rents the place to special people and we wanted to see about it for future reference. We have the information for contacts. We had an early dinner at one of our favorite classy restaurants called Brazil. It was much different than our taco stands along the roadway in Sayulita. After dinner we met some of our Puerto Vallarta friends at the new meeting place in downtown area.

It was getting late and Tom was ready to hop the bus and head for our winter retreat. We took the local bus to the pick-up point and waited. After an hour we were told that the bus to Sayulita stopped running after 9:45 PM. We could have gone to another town closer to our destination and then take a cab ride to Sayulita. We decided with Eric paying that we would take a taxi all the way. Gary discussed the price with the driver, bargained, and we got the price down to something respectable. We arrived at the town square and headed up the hill for home.

Saturday January 2, our last day in the sun.

We packed up our belongings and walked down to Rollie,s Restaurant for our last breakfast and to say good bye to Rollie and his wife Jeanne. We arranged a pick-up at 11:00 AM to take the three of us to the Airport, another luxury for the last day. The Airport was packed and the Security was even tighter. Eric was on a different flight leaving at the same time so we were in the same madness together. His flight left on time, bur ours was an hour late leaving. We arrived at Houston and after going through Customs and then back into Security we missed our flight to Detroit by five minutes. No more flights until Sunday at 7:00 AM. Continental gave us a voucher for a hotel, but they were all off site and the madness at Security suggested we stay in the secured area and stick it out. Besides we had no luggage to allow us to change clothes and become civilized. I am sure that some of you world travelers have spent several hours in an Airport waiting, so you can appreciate our 12 hour wait for morning to come. Gary slept on the floor and then rearranged the furniture to make things more comfortable for the long night. He always wants to rearrange the furniture whenever he gets a chance. The seats, the floor and the rearranged chairs did little to make the night acceptable. Our morning flight was on time and we changed our seat assignment to the Exit row, more room for us to stretch out. We were home by noon and the cats showed their madness for us leaving them, but finally crawled into bed with us for our afternoon nap. It’s cold and cloudy, but it is good to be home.

Dec 26th to January 1st 2010

tebgsc — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:57:00 GMT

Happy New year every one…. Oh my a lot has happened over the last few days.

Got some good beach time in, but it’s been a bit cloudy here and there, and has rained a few nights. Not quite the Mexico weather we have been accustomed too over the last 7 or 8 years!

Monday December 28^th – Breakfast at the villa, as you know I made Banana pancakes! It was a beach day. The waves were good and the sun was out, the smoothes were good and the company was fine. We baked in the sun till about 3pm. We had fresh coconut on the beach, the cut the top off so we could drink the milk, then he split it and dug the meat out and we has it with lime, chilli sause and salt.. mmm good stuff. After the beach we went up to the villa cleaned up and went shopping!

Shopping: We had all been eyeing things over the last week or so and it was time to go get em. WE took Eric to a few places he didn’t know were there and he just lit up! Oh I saw another carry-on bag in his future. It was I who ended up buying stuff, a bet for Tom and a belt for me. On the way back to the Villa we stopped and bought chicken from the chicken lady as you go up gringo hill. Man what a dinner, the hot sauce was incredible and the coleslaw was right on and the chicken, well we didn’t talk much through dinner, we just ate and ate and ate. Never seen Tom eat so much, then went out for you guessed it desert something about vacations and desert, they go together well.

On Tuesday the 29^th of December we took a boat trip out to the Marietas islands. And what I trip it was! We were on a tri-maran called Syulita 1, nice boat, cut a crazy crew and company. I must say swimming in the pacific is great, far from shore, out by the islands or by Puta Mita where the waves are a surfers dream.

When we started out the song from Gilligan’s island played in my head, and I started to sing it, and some girl said stop that’s not funny… well it was like the cast and crew of the SS Minnow with way too much pasifico beer and weed! We seen lots of whales, listened to some great radio station out of Guadalajara University ( http://www.radio.udg.mx/portada.html ) Eric worked on his tan and is getting quite dark, and Tom was working the crowd and crew, taking pictures and just being Tom. I was my jovial self very quiet and reserved! NOT..

After a shared taxi ride, we got back to Syulita later that day and had dinner on the street and a nice place called Carmelita’s. It was another night of strolling deserts, ice cream and street tortes, there was a Brazilian band of drummers in the square with fire dancers. Nice show got some OK footage and god sound.

Wednesday December 30^th we kind of took the day off from the beach and lounged around the villa and read, we made breakfast of pancakes and juice. Around 2 in the afternoon, we took a walk to los metros, what a fine walk through the jungle and down to a secluded beach; the waves were crazy and fun. Eric and I swam for about 20 min or so before we headed back. We took the beach back and cut through the grave yard, very cool grave yard. It made me think of my grandmother who recently had passed. (Hi gram!) Tom went to meet some friends about 5 and Eric and I cooked dinner. What a dinner it was. Shrimp fajitas and chicken fajitas, chips and salsa, and chicken from the chicken lady.. burrp

Thursday December 31^st new years eve… it was a beach day, we headed out for breakfast at the crêpe and waffle stand. Tom had a strawberry waffle and bacon, Eric had a pecan waffle and I had crêpes, yep 2! I should have ordered 1 but no I had to have 2 they were only 40 pesos. Nutella on one, and one with peanut butter and plantain, not bad but I couldn’t finish them. After breakfast I went and go a hair cut! Yep a haircut in Syulita Mexico. I think it looks good, but that’s my opinion (view picture below) I met up with the guys on the beach and the waves were rolling in. Eric and I got boogie boards for the day (they wore us out fast) Waves were a good 5ft and slamin, we had some good rides and got tossed a few times too. What fun. In-between riding the waves we bought beach souvenirs. Tom was first, he bought a wooden bowl, then Eric got wooden spoons, then Eric got a blanket, pesos were flying on the beach it was fun. Tom and I took a walk to look at tee shirts on the side streets but were reserved enough not to buy anything. Yet!

Well it was time to go up and get ready to for the evening festivities’!!!! Tom booked us in at Mr. Iguana for dinner and a show. Yea you think syulita can do new years eve over the top! Your right. We knew going in it might be a bit dicey, but I knew the girls in the show (the dirty bitches from blue chairs over in Puerto Vallarta) so it had something going for it. Well there were only 8q1 people who showed up for dinner ( they were expecting 60) dinner was on the lame side, a small salad, Tom aI had the snapper, more like 2 pieces of lake perch, Eric had the stuffed pork, and we had a baked potato and a mixed vegetable medley. After the dinner we had a piece of cake, it was not memorable or very good. The show was about to begin! The show was good, Diva, Jacqueline, Angelica and a new girl.. the new girl was hot.. I forget his name! Oh yea did I say this was a dag show.. it was a hoot and they did them all Cher, Bette Middler, Tina Turner, Pat Benatar and more. After the show we said time to go, the place was vacating fast. We talked to the girls for a bit and headed to the beach. ( I used the girls 2 years ago in a movie short called I Love Toni, soon to be a full length movie) Well the beach was festive, drummers and people and dancers and waves and a full moon with a big ring around it. WOW what a toper for the year. Mid nigh came and went and everyone was partying and then a few fireworks, I say 15 at most and it was all over, we hugged and kissed and went t home…. Not like in Puerto Vallarta it goes on and on all night long.

Happy new year! 2010 from Eric, Tom & Gary

Breakfast Talk Dec 28 2009

tebgsc — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:07:18 GMT

The Breakfast talk from the previous days events, with Eric, Tom and Gary...

dont know about the sound quality.. cheap iPhone app, dose not do the audio justice.

Enjoy!!

Eric at the Zip line Tom and his Ice Cream!

Breakfast Gary on the street

December 26, 2009

tebgsc — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:30:00 GMT

Wow, it has been three days since we sat and told you about our adventures in this part of the world. Gary picked up our friend Eric Wednesday night and we fed him at one of our famous street side stands, and sent him off to bed. It was a long day when you start out at 4:00 AM. Thursday morning we had breakfast at Chocobanana restaurant in the Plaza. Then to the beach for fun in the waves and some sun. Gary was the one that got too much sun since he did not use sunscreen. Part of the day was spent showing off some of the famous eating places and of course the two ice cream stores. It is fun showing our friend the places and things we have enjoyed for these few years. Thursday night Gary did his magic and prepared a super dinner from our limited supply of pots and pans. We even had to share some silverware. The kitchen stove in the patio is a small propane unit that looks like our camping stove, only smaller. After dinner we were down to the plaza for some ice cream and just sitting around the plaza chairs watching the mix of locals and visitors enjoying the weather. Friday was a day away from the sun on the beach with lots of exploring in various parts of the village, what a place. Last night we did movie right in front of the laptop, Cars. This morning it is raining and cool, 70 degrees F. We are off to breakfast.

Oh Boy.. Breakfast was well hmmmm different.. Pancakes with homey, the sausage was a hot dog, but it was really good! it was along the river, Eric saw bananas in the trees and was just marveling at scenery and all the stuff going on around us. It was a good breakfast..
It was cloudy from the mornings rain, and we were heading back up to the villa and i ran into the fish man, well i thought he was the fish man but he was pretty much a shyster

, I went with one of his guys to get shrimp.. yea i thought fresh shrimp from the sea... NOT.., yea he said there were fresh this morning.. sounds like a bad commercial to me. It was quite a non enjoyable experience, but i know now when i see these guys and his friends to just smile and walk on by..

Well the sun came out at about 11 and we wet tot he beach and played in the waves read and baked like pop and fresh biscuits on he beach.. fun fun fun.. oh yea and we had fresh cocnut on the beach, for 30 pesos, he cut the top off and gave us a straw, we drank the milk, then went back and he chopped up the cocnut and scooped out the white fresh meat and we ate it with lime and chilli sause and salt.. yummy.. AHHHHHHH all in a day at the beach..

Wednesday Dec 23, 09 Tom

tebgsc — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:32:00 GMT

Hello Everyone,

Gary is off to pick up a friend at the Airport, so I can sit in front of his machine and talk. After our arrival Sunday evening and 12+ hours in bed we were back among the living. Breakfast in the Villa and we were off to the beach for sun and fun. We rented two chairs, an umbrella and a small snack table for the day. Same thing on Tuesday. We found our taco stands in the evening and just enjoyed the warm weather and the typical smell and excitement of Sayulita. Not much has changed since last year except for a few more potholes in the street. We had breakfast today at Rollies where reservations were made for Christmas Eve dinner with our friend Eric. We just love this place. I walked Gary to the bus stop for his trip to the Airport and we talked about how lucky we were to find this Mexican town that is somewhat primitive, stuck in the past. I am not sure everyone would feel this way. Tomorrow will be another beach day and perhaps some touring of the area with Eric, on foot of course. We have made no serious plan which is the best way to enjoy our stay down here. I have a good book to read and lots of warm weather to enjoy. All for now.

Tom

The Sights of our plce in Syulita

Setteling in to Syulita

tebgsc — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:28:35 GMT

I must say it dose not take long to get into the groove of Mexican way
of life. The first night in after the flight we slept a mear 13 hours,
got up and went to the beach! We met a few new people and some old
friends. Town looks good, a few new shops and resturaunts and the old
stand by stands on the side of the road. The food here is amazing.
The waves are low to medium 2 to 4 ft with a few 5 footers. Seas are
building and I am hoping for some constant 6 foot waves this week.
I am sitting in the aeroporto waitng for our friend Eric to arrive, I
hope he's up for syulita life. It's a bit different, much slower than
Peurto Vallarta, and way way different than Ferndale where he is
coming from. I'll keep ya posted on how he likes it.. or dose not like
it.

It's much greener this year than other years, and not much dust on the
roads, I am thinking el niÃ±o.
It has also been chilly in the evenings, lows in the mid to upper 50s.

As I people watch at the aeroporto I can say how greatfull I am and
how humbbel this place makes me. And how I don't want to be like some
of these obnoxious American and canadians. I am glad I know the world
revolves, and it's nor around me!

Gary

Sent from my iPhone

tebgsc_Oxocotla_IXPAN.flv

tebgsc — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:06:00 GMT

The Apartment in Syulita IXPAN is the name Oxocotla is the Place

Houston we have arrived!

tebgsc — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:35:02 GMT

We left Detroit at 7am this morning. First stop Houston Texas. Next
stop Puerto Vallarta Mexico, the on to Syulita Mexico this evening.

Looking forward to get out of the packed planes and airport maddness!

We packed cheese and crakers some smoked sausage and some chocolates..
The only way to fly!

Ahh yes and we can blog from the phone.....

Sent from my iPhone

Audio of Bay of Fundy

tebgsc — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:38:00 GMT

The Viking trail Newfoundland

tebgsc — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:29:00 GMT

It was Pancakes and plums with ham for breakfast, the wind was light and the sun was out.

We hoped in the car and headed north on route 430 towards Cow head, it was a clear and sunny morning. It was a view to the left was the gulf of St Lawrence and to the right was the Mountain’s across a long expanse of tundra and meadows and brooks, about a mile away. As we passed through small towns such as sally cove, Martins point and Saint Paul’s on up to cow head we would stop and take pictures and video tape the scenery along the way. I must say, you don’t find road kill on the Newfoundland highways, there just isn’t any. What I heard was there are no skunks, no raccoons, no possum. There are things like wolverines, badgers and fox everywhere. One thing we did see in abundance was crows, lots and lots of crows. Kind of eerie at times and there calls a sometimes haunting when you’re hiking. We stopped along the way and picked up some fresh raisin biscuits and some coffee.

Our first stop was Broom point: it is a little fish staging area with a large barn and a few small houses and other small buildings for fishing equipment. Its setting was just out of a book, large rock out copings and the rolling sea behind them a few evergreen trees dotting the landscape. Add a bright blue sky and some wind and you have what we were experiencing. I was filming some tidal pools and the strange rock formations, and Tom was up talking to the keepers of the place. They said we could go into the barn and look at the fishing equipment and boats if we like. We were content to see all the lobster traps and boats on the outside. One thing you will see in our pictures is their out house. Its this tall building with 2 long boards holding up the front of it, it looks as though you can take the front off and do you business in the open breezes! Amazing how that works….

We started into Cow head and drove through the small rural area of town, along side of swallow bay to the island of cow head, where we found the Gros Moran summer theatre. We parked and saw the trail to the light house and to the Cow head geological features. It was a good hike, nice views from the top of the mountain on the island, really cool little grottos in the trees coming down on the ocean side. We found the light house, and it was in bad shape. It was starting to rust really bad and the trees were growing up all around it and covering the view to the ocean. Tom opened the door to look in and saw it was really rusting on the inside and needed painting badly. Looks like this lighthouse might only be a pile of rusted metal and glass in 10 years or so. We were glad we made the hike to see it, on the back side of the island it was nice forest and meadows, we were wondering if maybe we took a wrong turn and then around the corner there was the familiar sight of Swallows Bay. We made it back to the car, and bid the island good by and drove off down the road toward the northern end of Gros Moran National park.

Our next stop was the arches; they were about 20 miles north of the park. We wanted to drive all the way up to the top of the western arm of Newfoundland, but time would not allow us. We heard that they are building a road from Quebec to goose bay and the road should be open soon, some say this year November others say next spring. Any way I would love to drive to Goose Bay and take a ferry across to Newfoundland from the north. Maybe next year.. I have an idea! We should buy some land alongside the new road and open up a travelers rest… You could pull in an RV, a trailer, pop up or we could rent a cottage, have a small store for supplies and wireless internet connection!!! (Ill keep dreaming, but I think it’s a great idea- Michelle P, I think you would be into it!) Any how back to the arches, we see the sign for the road, pull in and the gate was down. That did not stop us or another car, or even a tour bus! We parked and walked in as the tour buss of senior citizens were unloading (Dave kicked into hi gear- Dave’s holiday) We walked down to the beach area and I was totally amazed at what we were looking at, again only in book or magazine do you see things like this. There were these large rocks about as big as a 4 story apartment buildings some had holes/caves all the way though them and the sea was washing into the caves under them, the rock was smooth and shiny, a type of lime stone I would suspect, you could see further down the beach that some had collapsed over time and that new ones were forming. A great site for sure, I could see making a movie here.

After we filmed and took pictures we headed back up to the car talking to the people on the tour to find out they are going to goose bay for the night.. dam, if this tour could do it, I am sure we could too, just not enough time… We drove back to Green Point, packed up and headed south after taking just a few more pictures, like one last E Mail. On the way to our new destination we continued to be amazed the wonderful area we have been travelling in for almost a week. Where did the time go?

Our next campground for three days was in Lomond, 40 miles below Rocky Harbour. We picked our campsite after driving around the campground a few times. We set up camp and headed for Deer Lake to have supper and enjoy the night life for at least 20 minutes, what night life? We did not see any moose on the road coming and going, and the dinner was not worth the trip. We are too use to the great meals prepared by the on site chef. He makes everything taste better each day, rain or shine.

The Bay of Fundy

tebgsc — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:59:57 GMT

Hi folks just fought an Internet connection on my phone from Alma. new
Brunswick Canada. We just seen hi tide at about 30ft beautiful day,
sun is out hight about 65, were going for a hike.. Tomarrow were
heading for Free port Maine! It's LL bean adveture time

Sent from my iPhone

Green Point Newfoundland Gros Moran National Park (lost posting)

tebgsc — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:26:00 GMT

This post was from a day befor the last blog of the Hike to Green Point and Rocky harbor.

Ahh we arrived yesterday afternoon, we were totally amazed by the landscape and topology. We went through large mountain passes, deep fjords, lowlands, and costal planes in about a 3 hours time. It was partly sunny and raining, we seen 2 strange rainbows, one was actually horizontal with no arch. We noticed there are not many cars on the roads; actually I think we passed 4 cars in about 2 hours.

We were not sure if we were going to like Green point due to the fact that it is right on the ocean and it’s been a bit cloudy rainy and windy, but when we arrived it was amazing, the wind was blocked by a barrier of pine trees along the low bluff of the ocean. The camp ground is right out of a magazine, there is actually grass on the sites, there separated by a few rows of trees, and they have a fire pit and a wash basin and picnic table. Out of the 31 sites in the campground there are only 3 others camping in the area? We setup and Tom went for a walk and I went to find some firewood.

I took a drive toward Cow Head ( I was feeling bit crabby and down from the cold) and found a gas station near cow head that had a bundle of wood, I wanted more but the only had 1 bundle, so I went down the road to a campground. To my amazement as I went down the road, I seen my first moose (dam Tom wasn’t with me, he’ll never believe it) off into the woods he went and down to the RV park I went to find wood. Well he guy didn’t want to sell me any wood, it was for his campers only and said the park usually brings wood to the campgrounds. So he ended up giving me some nice scarp wood I could use as kindling and back to the campground I went.

Tom was frittering around the campground and let me know who he talked to and what information he got, like there is a guy who comes around every evening around 7pm selling wood… He also found out that at the end of green point is where there are some spectacular geological formations. Then we napped! As you always try to do on vacation, it’s just part of the deal!

That evening we made a grilled chicken dinner over the fire with lima beans from the garden and a cucumber salad. After dinner we cleaned up and we then went for the evening hike down the shore trail a bit then headed back along the ck coast like in front of the campground. As we came up from the shoe to the campground we met the wood man. We told him where we were camping and we soon met him over at our camp, we bought a bund of wood and talked about. The wood man works for the park for 6 month out of the year and the rest of the time he is a taxidermist in Rocky harbor and that he had a shop and a museum in rocky harbor. Well the evening fire was a fine one, the winds were coming off the ocean, but we were sheltered from the pines all around us. It was getting cold and we heard it was gong down to 0 or 32 degrees. As the sun went down and the stars came out it was a whole new world in the darkness, the waves craing and the wind in the pines and a billion starts in the sky. We walked down to camp road a piece a looked at the moon, it was a half moon in a star lit sky.. you don’t get too many evenings like this and we just soaked it all in. We turned in around 11pm… what a day and what a night.

Green Point hike and Rocky Harbor day Gros Moran national park Newfoundland

tebgsc — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:02:00 GMT

OK this is a long on, but it’s got a good ending! (audio and video to follow)

We woke to a calm morning of a gently sloshing sea no real wind to speak of and about 34 degrees.. mmmm down right chili if you ask me. The sun was coming up and it started to warm up a bit. Well it was a pancakes and ham morning with fresh perked coffee, yea! After breakfast we did the hike to green point and see the geological features we heard and read about. The hike was about mile or so from the campground, wow what a place, as we walked into the open fields on this table bluff overlooking the sea, there were a few houses and buildings along the shore to one side of the table, the a road going down. Of course we took it, I have Dave, I mean Tom with me, and we have to see what’s up. As we walked down we were greeted by this great looking chocolate Labrador retriever, there were a few guys tending to some fishing gear we said hi to as we started taking pictures and filming the area, it was right out of national geographic!

After we looked over the rock strata Gary went off to some very wild rock areas and Tom moved over to the miscellaneous buildings including two small cottages. There were two fishermen working inside one of the sheds next to a small boat pulled up on the shore. One of the men told me they had just come in from fishing and they had 200 pounds of cod waiting o be cleaned and delivered to a processing plant. The small boat and motor reminded Tom of his days on Harsens Island. It was not the type of water craft he would have taken out to sea. The winds were starting to pick up.

Gary and Tom met up again after an hour or so, the Dog was with tom and we all continued to look at the rock formations and take pictures, it was time to head back and we climbed the grassy side of the hill above the formations and just sat and looked out over the sea and rocks. It was a moment, the dog next to tom sitting on a rock we were all content. We stared over the meadow toward our path from the campground and the fisher man can riding over on an ATV we talked abet and he said if we were going to town ( rocky harbor) to stop at the treasure chest for the best fish cakes in town., we said we would and bid him farewell for the day. We made it back to camp had a few plums and a drink and off we went to towards rocky harbor.

Our first stop was Lobster head point, there is a light house there and some interesting rock formation (this is where you can find the rock that has been grinded and churned between two tectonic plates) We flowed the sings to the light house and we pleasantly surprised to see it perched hi on a bluff with rock out cropping and balsam furs. The wind was blowing and the waves were starting to get a bit bigger (3 to 4 footers and building) I started videotaping as soon as we got to the parking lots edge, Tom was talking to few people who had just come from the light house, he seen the license plates in the parking lot and was guessing who was from Québec and who was from Ontario and such. I continued to circle the lighthouse videotaping all around. By the time I was done, tom had already been in the light house 20 minutes or so. I went in and met tom and he showed me where to watch a video on the area. We walked around a bit more and said lets go find the treasure box and get some lunch, it was getting late in the day.

As we wound our way down the road to Rocky harbor we were in awe again it’s just beautiful, right out of a movie or national geographic. The town circles the bay and there are fish staging areas all along the shore, piers and boats and you name it, if it has to do with fishing, it was there. We final found the treasurer box and went in to have lunch.

The lady there was nice and greeted up and we could barely understand her as she spoke, but we made out that there was a special 3 fish cakes Toutons and baked beans for 10 bucks. We both ordered the special and something to drink. We told the lady that the fisher man at green point said they fish cakes were the best in town.. only to find out the fisherman was this woman’s husband.

There was a guitar in the corner just waiting to be played so I picked it up and played a few minutes. The place was full of stuff, statues books wooden ships hats tea shirts and the glass balls hanging from the ceiling in a net. Well to find out they are called with balls, they are hand blown glass balls with glass needles in them. And I found out they are put in the windows of your house and when evil spirits come by, they get mesmerized by the reflections of the shimmering glass needles in the balls and get trapped inside the glass ball.

Our lunches came and there was 3 fish cakes, 2 toutons ( fried dough) and a small cup of baked beans, along with a small cup of molasses an a small cup of mustard relish I must say we tore into them, the fish cakes we better than the ones we got in Shellburne. The fried dough or the toutons were almost like a donut, but not sweet, and the back beans I know we’re going to be some powerful whistle berries in a few hours. The molasses really made them shine. The mustard relish was a nice touch on the fish cakes, not like tartar sauce, but gave the vinegar it needed to bring out the taste.

We bought 2 home made mustard relish 2 home made jelly’s and a Newfoundland syrup from them also.

On down the road we went to find the KOA campground, well we didn’t find the campground right away, but we ended up at the harbor. Nice place to take pictures, so we were out shooting video of the docks and harbor and to our right there was a big building and it said fresh sea food…. I just had to go in and see what it was, and to my amazement it was a huge fish house, that also sold to the public.. I couldn’t pass that up, so I ordered some fresh trout and see they had cod, so I ordered 2 big pieces of that ( a buck a pound) and then ask about scallops ( no scallops) but they has mussels and so I ordered up a couple of pounds of them. As we were talking, we told the man the story of our earlier adventures of talking to the fisherman over at green point, and that he had caught 200 pounds of cod this morning. The man behind the counter said that we were going to be eating his fish, because that is what we just bought. We were floored! All that for 11 bucks ..

We got back in the truck just laughing, how did we end up at the fisherman’s wife’s restaurant, and then end up buying the fisherman’s fish.. All in a day in Newfoundland!

Well we finally found the KOA campground; it was right pass the National park visitor’s center. (We liked the visitor’s center, it had free wireless internet, and some great movies on Gros Moran)

So back at camp, we took out all our goodies and put them up and went for a walk down the coastal trail south. It was a great hike, shot some good video and took some good pictures.

After the hike I started a fire and started to cook dinner I don’t want to tell you folks this, but it was the best fish and mussels I have eaten. I don’t know if because it was fresh, or I’m just a good cook, but it was great. The fish both Tom and I said was out of this world.

After cleanup we settled in to a nice fire with the wind singing through the pines and the wave rolling in blow the bluff. Along came this red pickup truck kind of slowed down and then stopped. It just sat there for a moment, and then the horn tooted. I went to investigate, to my amazement it was the fisherman and his friend from this morning over at green point. He asked how did I like the fish cakes, I said they were the best I ever had, and that we had meet his wife and she did not like his dog, he laughed and I also remarked she didn’t like the little yappy dog ether, he said she has no use for any of them. We were laughing, I told him I just got done cooking some fish and that we heard it was his fish and he said yep that was his fish. I said it was great and we laughed, he invited us over to the fishing area for a beer, but we declined and said we might stop by tomorrow and film some more over in the green Point area. He bid us a good night and thanked us and we thanked him.

We were wondering how he found all this out is such a short time.. News travels fast in Newfoundland. It’s quite amazing how things work in this world. It put a big smile on Tom and I’s face…

Still no cell service and no electricity and very spotty internet around the park….. postings will be slow

Corner Brook Newfoundland

tebgsc — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:12:00 GMT

We drove back down the Trans Canadian highway to Corner Brook just south of Marble mountain, we found the visitor information center and got a map of the area and talked to 2 nice ladies at the center who gave us some extra information on where to find a. place for a haircut and such.

We found our way to down town Corner Brook via a detour, it’s not too big a town, but bigger tan any other town we had been in Newfoundland. It is a major port for fishing and import and export of goods. Large docks in the harbor, fishing vessels and container vessels.

I did find my place to get a haircut, Bobs is the place. I walk in and there is this girl sitting there with spiked red hair lots of earrings and lip rings with a few nose rings too. She said sit down and I did, she said what are we doing today and I said a haircut.. And a haircut is what I got! I call it the Corner Brook nufie doo, it’s quite the doo! Never had a hair cut like this, and probably never will again, but hey I’m willing to try just about anything once. After that I met up with Tom who was chatting at the local church with a few friends of Lois. We headed out of town for Lark Harbor at the end of Humber arm and the bay of islands.

What a drive, we went through Benoits cove, Frenchman’s cove, York Harbor and ended up at bottle cove for a walk in the woods and out to the sea shore. What a place, it’s the place where captain cook was from and hung out. We seen Captain cooks cave and cove from our walk around bottle cove. What a find! We were sure glad we made the trip, never seen anything like this type of sea shore with large cliffs and rock outcroppings. Much different than the USA North West or the east coast shore lines have seen. We were getting hungry and heard of a nice restaurant in lark harbor, so we headed down the road. We drove into Lark harbor and followed the signs to the restaurant and dam they were closed. So we drove around (the town is one street along the harbor) and we didn’t find anything but a gas station convince store…. LUNCH! Well it wasn’t the scallops or fish cakes we were hoping for, but hot dogs and chips were just as good by this time. They had a strange relish, kind of like a mustard relish, it kind of grows on ya. We are our lunch at the closed camp ground down the road a piece. ( video to come)

Well then it was a drive back to Deer Lake and I was not feeling well, I’ve had a cold for the last 4 or 5 days and it was not a good day for me. The camp ground was selling local plums green ones and yellow ones, so we bought a basket of each. There quite good.. Nap time! After a nap I edited some video and we did some camp chores and went to dinner at the truck stop on the Trans Canadian highway. Not bad food, I had soup and fried pork nuggets, strange combo but worked well. Tom had fish chowder and chicken nuggets. We both had pie I had apple pie that was quite different than we are use to, not sweet and a bit of cinnamon, tom had the banana cream, both were home made.

Tomorrow we head for the park and 5 days of rustic camping…