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2020 Trip Preparation and Blog Practice

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  We leave next Wednesday for our 2020 road trip.  This year’s itinerary takes us out west and will include: Great Sand Dunes National Park Mesa Verde National Park Deadhorse Point State Park Arches National Park Canyonlands National Park Capital Reef National Park Bryce Canyon National Park Zion National Park Grand Canyon National Park (North Rim) And other places as we go.....  sounds like a lot but we actually have enough time without killing ourselves.  We will be gone about six weeks. We have spent a lot of time making the camper self sufficient to reduce our virus exposure. We took the camper to Florida to a guy that renovates vintage Airstreams and he added a tank for wastewater, the new toilet and made some other repairs.  So, we will not have to use other restrooms if we don’t feel it is safe. I took out the old heater..... it made me nervous and with the help of Paul W., added a modern heater. We did a lot to the electrical system so we could camp off ...

Working our way home via Bar Harbor and Shenandoah National Park

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With the hurricane threatening Nova Scotia, we headed to Bar Harbor, Maine where it pretty much hit anyway.  Our first day there was a total washout, some pretty good wind and a lot of rain. We were surprised just how many visitors were there, would not likely choose to return.  The next day, we went to Acadia National Park and rode in our car around the Loop Road. Cruise ships frequent this place People We took quite a long bike ride, about nine miles around a lake. The next day, we had a horrible drive from Bar Harbor to Schnectady, NY.  We got lost, turned around, stuck on roads to nowhere where a bridge was out.  Bad day, but we got where we needed to go. We were still about 20 or so hours from home and did not want to kill ourselves and decided to spend a few days here at the Shenandoah National Park.  Very nice, private campground, we are close to the town of Luray, VA. Yesterday, we rode and hiked around the ...

Cape Breton, the Hurricane and Bar Harbor

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Word from Edisto is that everything is okay, that is a big relief.  Unfortunately, they chased us of of the Cape Breton National Park early because of..... get this..... hurricane warnings. So yesterday, we made a pretty long drive from Cape Breton to Bar Harbor.  It is raining pretty hard here as well and we are glad we made the decision to park the camper for a few days.  Susan may do some spa stuff. We had a great time in Cape Breton, it is gorgeous and the people are great. After arrival we took a nice hike along the ocean past the ruins of old farms. This was our setup at the campground, not much privacy.  There were a surprising number of people coming and going. I went salmon fishing.  The guide says someone catches one every three or four days so I was not hopeful.  BUT LOOK! One bite all day, luckily, I got it. We spent a good bit of time walking and driving, looking at the great views. We are going to sp...

Brudenell Provincial Park and on to Cape Breton

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We may not have much cell or internet for up to a week so I wanted to give a brief update. As you all are, we are watching the weather.  We discussed coming home before the storm but we would just end up evacuating anyway.  So, we are going to wait and see and then decide the best course of action. There are plenty of generators to be had here :-) Our housesitter, Lucas, is taking care of the house and Shorey is helping as well, thanks. We have had a good few days here.  The park is more like a resort with a couple of golf courses, horses, rentals and the like.  It is the end of the season and although it is a holiday weekend, there are not large crowds. We have continued to ride around and explore and this morning took a great bike ride on the Confederation Trail, a bike trail that crosses the whole island. Yesterday, I went fishing and had a great time although no great fish.  The guide was really feeling awful and I ended up reassuring him that al...

Eastern and Western PEI and a tropical storm

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So, we leave South Carolina during hurricane season and end up in the path of a tropical storm.  This evening and tomorrow, we are going to get a blast of tropical air with rain and wind. Just for perspective, here is an image of Prince Edward Island. We were in the far western portion the past few days and today traveled to another provincial park on the west right outside of Georgetown, a small fishing village.  It was about a three hour drive. We were staying at Cedar Dunes Provincial Park, right on a beach. fishing harbor about 200 yards from us The Beach One of the days, we traveled up the coast to a wind energy center.  There is wind energy everyone and the are so large. Back at the camp site, all we had to do was walk about five minutes to the dock to get live lobsters for 6 bucks.  We did that two of the three nights. The next day, we rode to a First Nation village where the people are struggli...

New River Beach Provincial Park and St. John

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So we have spent few days here at New River Beach, a great park on the Bay of Fundy, the world's highest tides. We have had a few camper issues, I bent the door last week and on the way here, I lost one of the hatches. Replaceable but expensive.  I put a garden kneeling pad in there for now.  Ouch! . Here is the camper at New River Beach. Had an issue with Verizon as I called twice to make sure I had appropriate bandwidth for the trip only to learn Susan and I only get .5 gigs per day.  Not sure how I will much it will take to do the blog. Yesterday, we took at hike and her and went to a fantastic garden.  It so happens they were having a concert there with a folk jazz guy that is fairly well known here, David Myles.  He was really good. Made me feel at home! Today, we headed for St. Johns.  We took a great coastal hike and then ate lunch at the world famous reversing falls.  When the large tide comes it, it cover...