Spring and Summer Post #2 - Eastern Canada

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We left you with pictures of our new refrigerator being installed right before we headed for Canada. We left Bethel, ME, immediately and drove across the state to Calais, Maine. (That's not pronounced like Calais, France, but like "callous").

On Thursday morning, we crossed the border at St Stephen's, stopped to get some Canadian money and drove straight to Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, for the 42nd Annual Nova Scotia Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival. It's the oldest continuing bluegrass festival in Canada. The Maritimes seem to have lots of bluegrass and folk music festivals. Everyone was very friendly - many have been coming to this festival for years. A lot of people go to several festivals each summer!

Tom played at the open mic session on Thursday night. The crowd enjoyed his originals (Pretty Package and The Better Half). He also played Slewfoot and Friend of the Devil. One young player sent his dad to get details on Slewfoot, so Tom might have introduced a new song to someone's set!

Tom playing on the hay wagon at the Downeast Bluegrass festival

The rest of the weekend, we relaxed and enjoyed the music - with one quick drive down to Halifax and a successful quest to see the famous bore tide visible in several places along the Bay of Fundy.

Bridge in Halifax in the fog

A bore tide happens when there is a large tide coming into a shallow, constricted area. The surface tension of the water on the sand flats holds back the tide and the water builds up till the pressure is enough to overcome the surface tension. You can get bore tides from 3" to 18" or more in rivers off the Bay of Fundy. There are even outfitters that will arrange for you to surf the tide for miles!

View of bore tide at Truro, NS

After the festival, we stayed the night in Amherst, NS, hoping to take a little day trip to Prince Edward Island. We had found an interesting restaurant right near the location that inspired the Anne of Green Gables books. Unfortunately, while the passage over the bridge to PEI is free, it costs more than $40 to come back. Time for Plan B.....

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs near Amherst. It was fascinating! They have a 30 minute tour that gives a good orientation, then warn you when to come back to avoid getting caught by the tides. From there you can continue exploring as you please, though climbing on the cliffs is not allowed.

Interpreted tour guide next to a fossil tree stump

View of the beach at low tide - not the person in the upper right of the picture

Next stop was Quebec city - after a long and eventful drive through New Brunswick and Quebec. It's pretty countryside. The road signs are all in French, which takes some getting used to, but is easier than I thought. Of course, I wasn't driving....

We only had one minor mishap. At a gas stop, the RV steps didn't retract completely and scraped a small curb next to the gas pump. They were so bent that they then couldn't retract. Tom had to unscrew one of the support arms and force it back up. Bungee cords to the rescue!

We stayed across the St Laurence River from the city and took a ferry across for a quick visit to the old city and the fortifications. That meant a LOT of walking or actually climbing. The ferry lands in the old town Quebec at water level and then you climb up a big hill to the main square and a promenade. And then you climb more up to the old fort. It's a gorgeous spot and Sally wants to go back and spend more time.

View from upper Quebec - we climbed from where the boats are docked to this vantage point

Guard at the Quebec Citadel

View of Old Quebec City from the ferry

The next morning, we left Quebec and drove towards Ottawa. Fortunately, we didn't hit town at rush hour! After a quiet night in Middle of Nowhere, Ontario, we drove the rest of the way to Sault Ste Marie the next day and crossed into Michigan in the rain and fog.

Leaving Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, and arriving in Sault Ste Marie, MI

Spring and Summer 2013 - Post #1

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Hello to those who view this post. We hope you are well and happy. We know we have not posted in a long time, with little or no excuse.

2013 is different for us in many ways. We have chosen to skip volunteering for a long season this summer. We will only spend two weeks on a Habitat for Humanity project in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

Our selection of years to take the summer off worked out very well for us. The arrival of Ryan Murphy Miles in May would have made it difficult on us if we had been on our regular schedule. Grandson number 3 is another beautiful addition to Stephen's family. We spent two weeks down south to be around for his birth. Many thanks to the crowd there for keeping us happy.

Little Ryan - day 1

And on day 2

Outside of welcoming Ryan, we have been concentrating on our personal projects.

Tom likes to consider himself a songwriter. He has written many songs, just nothing recorded and playing on a computer near you. Our first long stop was in Nashville for Tom to take advantage of a group he has joined called the Nashville Songwriters Association International. He experienced two mentoring sessions with successful songwriters and met Michael Conrad. Michael and Tom have written one very good song, which will be posted here if we can.

Ryman Auditorium

View of the auditorium and stage

Tom at the Nashville Songwriters Association for a working session

After spending almost all of June in Nashville, we did a return trip to NOLA for Ryan's Christening. It is always a treat to visit down there.

Sweet family

The 3 little Miles boys

Next, we did a hard and fast drive to Dayton OH to visit M and D over the 4^th of July. Fun and games included NTN (or Buzztime in some circles) national trivia. We scored well on national boards several times. (Sally is so darn smart. And M had a perfect game.) We also got to visit M & D's five doggies (down from seven). On the 4^th, M and D's son-in-law Justin and Tom played a few tunes live for the family. (Justin is a darn good guitar player!)

Two of our doggie friends in Dayton

We also got a quick visit with the Sally's nieces, Whitney & Lauren and their families. Their littles are so cute and fun to play with! Made us wish we could get all the families together for one big party. We were lucky to hear 4^th Day Echo play Margaritaville. Lauren's husband Clark is another great guitarist.

Lauren and Whitney with Meg

Our next adventure took us to Wilkes-Barre PA. Sally has ancestors from there and did some graveyard hunting. We parked the motorhome at the casino and enjoyed the experience. Tom spent his time playing guitar and poker. Between the two of us, we made a profit (in the two figures, to the right the decimal.) 

Gravestone for GrandmaMay and Dad's father

The gravestone on the right is for  GGGrandfather and GGGrandmother Lamoreux

It was between Wilkes-Barre and Bethel, Maine, we discovered our refrigerator had died. An RV refrigerator is not something you can stop by at Lowe's and pick up. We spent 11 days in Bethel waiting on a new one, but we enjoyed the company and activities in the little burg, like Mollyockett Days.

Mollyockett Day festivities in Bethel

The tubing scavenger hunt begins at Bethel Outdoor Adventures

Once we had a new refrigerator, we headed to Canada. We'll cover that in our next post.

Refrigerator replacement project - it only took 2 hours to install.

The new year's resolutions bit the dust!

When I posted at the end of 2011, I had in mind doing at least one post each month, but life got in the way. In order to catch up again,here's a little booklet I wrote for our grandson showing him where we'd been traveling. Here goes!

Look at the blue line and you can see where we went. Can you name the different states we visited?  

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We drove through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and finally got to Oregon. It took us almost two weeks to get here.

Our first stop was Texas.  There was a big storm the day we got there. On TV we saw pictures of trucks blown over, but we were safe.

Then we drove through New Mexico to Arizona.  We were in a desert. Deserts are dry because they don’t get much rain.

We saw birds and lizards.

This lizard looks like a dinosaur, doesn't it? 

This hummingbird is so small you could hold it in your hand!

This is our RV in Tucson. We parked in our friends’ driveway! Do you see Papa Tom?

This is Bisbee. Can you find the church? Do you see a hotel?

Next we went up onto a mountain. It was so cold that there was still snow on the ground. Do you see the snow?

Next we went to Utah. We visited another park. We rode a special bus. It had two cars and windows on top.

Then we walked on a trail. Here’s what we saw.

I think this squirrel is trying to get Grammer to give him some food!

These were very tall mountains. They were different colors.

We drove up a very windy road. It went high up the mountain.

While we were traveling, the RV broke. It wouldn’t drive anymore. Here you can see the RV behind the big tow truck.

We got the RV fixed and now we are in Oregon.

This part of Oregon is also a desert. The plants and animals here don’t need a lot of water.

Here are some of the things you can see at Malheur:

This is a gopher snake. It was over 3 feet long.

A yellow butterfly.

A baby ground squirrel. There are lots of them here.

A cedar waxwing – a pretty bird with a mask on! He likes to eat flowers. Can you find him in the tree?

Bye for now! See you again real soon.

Catching up again

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Can't believe it's been almost 6 months. Tom tries to keep us up to date, but the fault lies with Sally for lack of follow-through. So, in the spirit of the new year, here's a synopsis of the last half of 2011.
Summer
We celebrated our fifteenth anniversary in Boise - we saw Cars 2 the night before and had an excellent lunch at a Leku Ono, a Basque restaurant (while waiting for the RV repairs).
After settling in at Malheur again, we made a quick trip to Washington to see Tom's cousin, Darlene, and Tony, her husband. They have a new home near Shelton, WA. We also go to see Tom's other cousin, Desiree, who flew out with her husband, Curtis.

We took a side trip to Nisqually NWR one day, but mostly spent some time just catching up.






Other special trips in the northwest this year:

Renewal Energy Fair at John Day, OR. While Tom learned about wind power, Sally wondered down the way to help build a cob oven (clay and straw oven). Very interesting. Maybe we could build one down at The River to bake bread for family get-togethers. Google "Cob Oven" for some interesting info about this ancient building material. (I took pictures, but I have mislaid one of my SD cards and these must have been on the missing card).

Later, in August, we went to Crater Lake National Park after (most of) the snow melted. There was still snow left on north-facing slopes (even in August!) and one of the overlooks was still closed.


But most of the roads were open, so we got to make a complete loop.

We visited Winnemucca, NV, the weekend of the Alabama - Penn State game. Tom appreciated the chance to watch a game in a state where gambling on sports is legal.

On the way back, we took a quick trip through Sheldon NWR, just west of Denio, NV.

We saw a herd of antelope and a really old corral made of willow at one of the refuge HQ buildings.

On another of our weekends, we visited Hart Mountain NWR. Saw some gorgeous views of the valley east of the refuge. The roads are pretty rough heading that way, but the visit was worth it. We are hoping to camp out over there at least one night next spring.

We met fellow workampers Jeff and Pat in Bend to attend the Lil Woody Barrel Aged Brew Fest. Wonderful beers - all of them were made just for the fest and you can't buy them anywhere, unfortunately. If you are in the area, it's highly recommended! http://www.hackbend.com/2011/08/31/the-little-woody-barrel-aged-brew-fest.php

We spent August and September at Malheur. Malheur experienced very high water levels in 2011. The snow pack on Steens Mountain was supposedly 300% of normal and the mountains north of Burns also had heavy snow. The result was a very wet year. We had never seen water at the Narrows before, but this year it was very wet. Here you can see the water on both sides of the road to Burns (normally this is ranch land.)

Lots of birds, including many breeding grebes.

Sally got an airboat ride with the fish biologist checking water quality and tracking tagged carp on the lake,

so she got a view of the Narrows from the water side.








Besides the trips already mentioned, we did a lot of local stuff:

Up Steens mountain. This is Kiger Gorge.

Demolition Derby at the Fairgrounds in Burns - lots of fun. One of our friends at the refuge won one of the heats. He had a "zombie" car. It would sit there smoking till I was sure he was out for good and then he would zoom into action again!
We also went to the fair after Labor Day.

On the refuge with biologists. Here they are setting nets to catch a sample of fish in the canal to determine where the carp are already established.







Animal sightings:

 Trumpeter swans at Benson Pond.

 Young bobcat (from the RV steps!)

 Carp - the ugliest fish ever

 Grebe with baby

 Mule deer fawn (from inside RV)

Sage Thrasher on Buena Vista trail

And as fall arrives in eastern Oregon, we leave for the south.














Fall and winter 
We left Malheur at the end of September with a goal of getting back to Mississippi by October 6. 2500 miles in less than a week! We did manage to stop in Dallas one night and visit with friends Carol and Bill Sumner.

The reason for the hurry is that we had promised to be at Ms Sandhill Crane NWR in time to help with the two fall festivals. And we were also on deck to watch our little grandsons while Stephen and Katie had a short visit to Miami the first weekend in October.

First was Gautier's Mullet Fest
Then a visit to see Sally's dad in Florida

Then the refuge Crane fest
And then we rested a bit with a trip up to Anniston to see Tom's family and a trip to Philadelphis MS to the casino with TD and Melanie.

Another trip to New Orleans for Connor's christening

Thanksgiving at Aunt Margene and Uncle Frank's in Tuscaloosa

And more Thanksgiving/Christmas in Georgetown with my brother's inlaws.

Enjoying volunteering at the refuge with some long time friends and some new ones.

Trip to see Beauvoir in Biloxi

The Hall family Christmas - with a special Christmas wish

Christmas in New Orleans with Stephen, Katie, Grady and Connor.

And a post Christmas visit with Roy and family.