Trip home

I got a shower and then woke Michael up so we could catch some breakfast at a diner we found on Yelp.  They were good of course but gave us huge portions as we both needed boxes so we could eat the rest for lunch.

I dropped him off and hit the road when something happened that I could never have guessed.  I was in Arkansas when I saw the cop leave the shoulder and speed up so I got into the right lane behind a truck.  the truck was going slow but I wanted to hang out there until the cop passed to wherever he was going.  He pulled up next to me, looked in and then fell back to my blind spot and I know I was getting pulled over even though I was not doing anything wrong so I just hung out behind the truck until he flipped his lights on.  When he got up to my passenger window he asked me how things were going and a few basic mental state evaluations questions which made me nervous but I must have answered them OK because after looking at my proof of insurance, license and registration, he said that I hit the white line a few times and that they were looking for drunk drivers.  Drunk drivers, at 2 PM on a Saturday afternoon in a Prius with Virginia plates and a GPS in the windshield?  I don't know how much more "just passing through" I could have looked unless he was expecting a "headed to Imaginaryville, aka DC" bumper sticker.

Anyway, the rest of the trip went smooth except for about 10 miles of traffic on 40 which cost me about 30-45 minutes because when I saw the traffic I was 1/4 of a mile past an exit I could have used to get around it.  I finally pulled into the house at about 6:30 on Sunday and was glad to be off the road for a little while.

Day after buying the car

Michael had some AF stuff to take care of on Friday and since I brought my laptop, I was able to get a few hours of work in.  When he got back, we went to a Hawaiian BBQ restaurant that was in the back of a Korean Grocery store we found on yelp.  Yum, it was really good.  Michael got Bulgogi again and I got a mixed platter.  It was really good.  After that we went to the commissary and got a couple of steaks and other stuff for dinner. and went back to his place to hang out for a bit.

About dinner time we the charcoal grill fired up and had a drink while sitting next to it and enjoying the weather.  An MP stopped by for a smoke break and we talked and shared a few crazy stories.  The steaks were good though while we were almost finished a few of Michael's friends showed up to chat as well as some flies so we did not get to sit out and take out time eating as long as I had hoped.

After we cleaned up we played a couple of games of pool (1-1) and then watched a little TV before heading back to his room when I crashed early so I could get going early the following morning.

Buying the car

I slept horrible last night.  I stayed in Micheal's dorm and while that was great, my air mattress I bought 6 months ago and pump gave up the ghost.  While I was inflating the mattress, the pump I was using quit.  Not a battery dead kind of quit but a broken connection kind of quit.  I inflated it the rest of the way by mouth and over the course of the night, I had to inflate it another 7 times.

After we got moving, my first stop was at Target to get a new mattress and pump.  After looking at reviews, it looked like every mattress has durability issues so I settled on another Coleman because it was cheap and bought a really nice pump with a removable rechargeable battery you could put in a scooter.

After that we went to Panera to talk about cars and then went to the dealership.  I let Michael do most everything and only interjected if I felt I needed to redirect, he asked for help or I just could not help myself.  He did a good job and while it took hours, he got a good deal and made some sound financial decisions.

We went to dinner to celebrate after dropping my car back on base.  We were both starved by that point and just ate at this nearby seafood place where we ate crabs and crayfish and fried oysters.  They were OK but as good as fresh.  After that we eventually made it downtown to see a movie, Gravity.  It was an intense movie though I did not find the helpless girl who finds her inner strength role Sandra Bullock played especially compelling.

Day 2

I woke up at about 7 and hit the road after taking care of a few necessities.  I drove about half the day and then hit a point in Arkansas where traffic just stopped.  It was construction though as near as I could tell, there was nothing going on.  I had the good fortune of hitting the traffic about a mile before an exit where I felt I could get around everything.  Most truckers who were going around were turning left so I turned right to a way that was a little longer but I did not think there would be any traffic.  After about a mile, I figured out why no one was going that was, it is a gravel,dirt road.  I bumped along for about 6 miles turned to parallel 40 and then went about 8 miles back to the road and it turns out I made the best choice because everyone who stayed on the road had to take a detour that went the way everyone else went, a two lane road. When I finally got back to 40, I hopped on and was the ONLY person on 40 for about 10-15 miles and was grateful I had taken the longer road because it saved me SO much time.

I finally arrived at Tinker AFB at about 6 or so and Michael met me at the visitor gate.  It was good to see him.  We walked inside and the person staffing the desk started to ask us questions.  Michael was giving answers like he thought he wanted to drive but since he was not insured so being the busy body I am, I butted in and answered and then apologized later to him hoping I did not mess anything up.  I did not want to have to get him insured and then wind up having to give my info anyway because at least part of the time I would have had to come and go on base without him in the car.

After I got a shower, we went to dinner at this Korean place Michael suggested and I had Bulgogi for the first time, I enjoyed it.

Trip to visit Michael

Michael asked me to come down and help him buy a car so I took some time off to make the trip.  The first day was pretty uneventful except for the fact that when I got to Nashville, I felt I could not pass it without stopping for a beer and to listen to some live music.  The first thing I noted was the coutry music hall of fame which was architecturally, very interesting.  It looked like the whole building had a wave pool for its surface.

It was 4 PM on a Tuesday so I was not expecting much but when I got onto Broadway I was surprised.  If you cannot throw a stone without hitting a musician on a Tuesday afternoon, how much more fun would it be on a Saturday night.  I walked up and then back down the street and finally picked a bar and ordered a drink.  All the musicians were talented and it was fun to see them casually switch instruments between songs.  Like I said, talented.  Anyway, I enjoyed them for about 30 minutes and then the leader handed his guitar to another member and then walked out into the bar to order a drink and glad hand and chat up the 20 or so folks who were listening.

I left after about an hour of goofing off, dropped a tip in their bucket and started looking for a camp site.  My first choice was a KOA but when I got there I discovered I would have to camp less than 100 yards from route 40 and moved onto another one that was about 10 miles off the road and camped at a marina.  it was quiet and nice enough though a little pricey for a campground.

Back to the USA

We had as peaceful a night as a squatter could wish for and woke up early and Rachel took a few pics of the sunrise as I broke down camp.  We caught the first ferry to a small island of Canada’s called Campabello and then hit the US border. The customs guy was real nice and did not make us feel like criminals for not knowing that we could not bring Canadian oranges back to the US which was nice.  We lost the bag of oranges and about 2 minutes chatting about this and that when he turned us loose.  We stopped at a place or two along our way to Acadia NP. 

At Acadia we stopped at an overlook and hiked down to the water for lunch.  After lunch we found the campground set-up and took a nice hike through the woods up Cadillac Mountain to Eagles Crag for some more photos a la Rachel.  After we got back to camp we decided to go out to eat.  We wondered around Bar Harbor for about 30 minutes and I settled on a place that we both really enjoyed.  I had the lobster roll (which was the best I had) while Rachel enjoyed the coup de gras, Lobster Mac and Cheese.  It was creamy, tender and had just enough cheese for a lobster mac.  There were a afew ribbons of parmesan on top and I don’t know how but they managed to keep the lobster consistency tender rather than allowing it to get chewy.  Everything was in just the right proportion and had just the right texture.  I would not have believed it had I not tasted it for myself and we went to be just slightly uncomfortable.

Our final day we woke up at 4:30 because we retired at 7:30 the evening before and just packed to go because we were both ready to come home because we are both out of cloths and don’t want to do laundry for one more day on the road.  I hit the jackpot in NH because they don’t tax liquor and had it at legendary prices.  I bought more than I should have but we have needed to restock on a few staples for a year or more and have been dreading the price.  I estimate I saved about 90 in all and was able to pick some really good Scotch (and two for myself) up for Danh too.

For lunch we ate at Super Duper Weenie, our disappointment from our trip up when we discovered they were closed.

Tidal Bore; Moncton, NB

Meat cove, NS

Meat cove campground, Nova Scotia

Sunrise at Deer Island

I rose early to take pics of the sunrise.  The island in the distance is Camp Campabello, NB.

Tides of Deer Island

This is high tide at the cove.  Water comes up to the beach leaving a small sandy area and the rocks are surrounded by water.

This is low tide, same area.  The area to the far left is were we went beach combing, such fun!

Creatures of Deer Island

We sat on the small peaceful cape and watched dolphins and a whale swim by, and seals feast all day long as we were amazed again by how far the tide actually goes out.  At low tide we walked the water’s edge and saw hundreds of sea urchins, star fish, a sea anemone and of course lots of muscles.  

The first 3 pictures are of a pod of 5 or 6 dolphins or whales (unsure which) that swam by between 1-2 pm.  They were moving fast.  While sitting at the cove you could hear them blowing water before actually seeing them.  A single whale (looked like a pilot whale) swam by about 4:30 pm, he was moving fast.

The next 3 pictures are of the seals that hung out in the cove most of the day.

This was Matt's great find.  So Cool!

starfish

This is what the rocky ground had in the nook and crevices.  There also was sea weed different shades of green.

What is that creature, photo bombing my pic again?

Deer Island, NB

                                                          Thursday, September 19, 2013

We got to the campground at the southern point of the island which also had the whirlpool and the ferry all right there.  We found the campground was closed but since we were willing to be overnight squatters, we just dried out tent and hung out all day.  This was the most relaxing day of the trip.  I would not trade any of the experiences except perhaps the reversible rapids but we were running at a break neck pace and just needed a little bit of break. 

The outhouse at the park.

Another lighthouse.  This one has a red light that blinks slowly at night.  Most have a white light, I don't know why this one is red.

Boat sailing by.

I always thought light houses are tall structures, as you can see they are short and unmanned.

This is the point we spent our entire day on.  Can you see our comfy red camp chairs?  We sat out at the point watching the ferry come and go and other boats cruising by.  Matt is working on our dinner of mussels and zucchini.  

Ferry to Deer Island, NB

                                                             Thursday, September 19, 2013

We took a free ferry to Deer Island for our last night of camping and to hopefully see the western hemisphere’s largest tidal whirlpool.  

Love ferry's!

The captains area is overtop of the vehicles. 

Love this little house on the point.

Covered Bridges

Rachel took a few pics of some covered bridges we stumbled on.  They look like covered bridges but the pics are nice.

Reversible Rapids; Saint John, NB

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Meah, if I could rename this I would rename it the stopping rapids.  At low tide there are some interesting rapids and impressive whirlpools and because we were still on the Fundy Bay, the tide rises and the river reverses.  This makes the rapids reverse but I don’t think you could even call the high tide rapids class 1, it was more like a riffle.  It was interesting to watch the seals play and eat in the rapids but I would not go out of my way to see this again.  I did not realize it until the next day but we accidentally passed the low tide caves I wanted to check out.  Were I to do this section again, I would skip this and would have wanted to check out the caves.

We spent the night in Saint John, NB at Rockwood Park Campground.

Cape Enrage, NB

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Cape enrage was a recommended stop but we both felt that because we spent so much time at Cape Breton that we had seen the same type of thing before.  One interesting tidbit is that the two turn arrows that are pointing toward each other are doing that because the turns to get up there take you all the way to the wheel-lock.  

Which way?

Lighthouse on top

Stairs leading down to the shore, that if it were low tide walking along the shore would be possible.  But it was high tide at the time, if you look the water is lapping the bottom step.

This sign gives high and low tides

The wires across the sky are for the zip line.  Unfortunately they were closed for the season.  :(

That is Cape Enrage point.