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Since our visit to Cape Breton in June of 1997, we had been itching to get to Newfoundland. Discovering Great Big Sea, those wonderful musical ambassadors from Newfoundland, only fueled our resolve to make it there sooner. This is a complete account of our trip. I kept a journal - a suggestion from a collegue at work. Thanks, Eileen! Karen is my daughter, Vic is my hubby, Jane Wallace is a GBS friend from Virginia, Jenny is a GBS friend from British Columbia - well, now she is from Newfoundland! Any references to the B'ys means Great Big Sea (Alan, Bob, Darrell, and Sean).
It's long, but makes for some good reading, I think! If you want to skip the verbage and get straight to the pictures, go right ahead!

We were supposed to leave for NFLD on or about the 9th of July so we would miss all the hullabaloo about the Vikings at L’Anse aux Meadows. It was the 1000th anniversary of Leif Erikson's landing in the New World. Well, my car repair bill, Heather’s tuition bill, and Marcus & Danni’s early return home all conspired against us to prevent it from happening then. All is not lost and in fact is better – I get to attend the Folk Festival in St. John’s, see Jenny’s Bed & Breakfast, see Jim Fidler perform at the Festival, maybe meet up with Jane from Virginia and her family, and be in NFLD when the b’ys (Great Big Sea) are, how sweet! And I got to meet Bob Hallet from GBS in Pittsburgh!

July 26,2000 Wednesday

Leave West Chester, Pennsylvania and arrive in Portland, Maine after spending Tuesday night in a parking lot of some restaurant in South Portland. Turns out the Tall Ships arrived in Portland the same time we did and there was not a hotel room to be had for miles. So, knowing that at some point we’d be visited by a cop, we pulled into the parking lot to grab what shuteye we could before getting the ferry the next day. About 45 minutes after we pulled in, just long enough to get comfy and begin to fall asleep in the car, a cop pulls up, shining his light in everyone’s face, waking us.

The first question he asks Vic? "Not may I see your license and registration?" but “Hey, are you a ham radio operator? Can I see your Ham license?” He talks ham radio with Vic a few minutes and THEN asks for his driver’s license. Vic and he talked antennas for a while. (We have 7 of them on the car for different frequencies). So as he is about to leave, he looks on the dashboard and asks, “Is that a GPS?” then talks Global Positioning Systems for another few minutes with Vic. He leaves after assuring us no one would bother us and to have a good sleep.

I couldn’t get comfy so I traded places with Vic who had been in the unreclining seat. At least one of us could get some sleep. Karen had the back to herself and got the most sleep, but woke us at 4:30 AM yelling at the top of her lungs, “Get out of the van. Get out now!” When we bolted up and asked her why, she went right back to sleep mumbling peacefully. So, now awake, we drove over to Denny’s to eat at 5 AM! Had to spend the day in Portland since the ferry didn’t leave till 9 PM.

Called to make a reservation on the Argentia ferry and the lady laughed when I requested a ferry on Friday. There wasn’t a seat to be had for Argentia till August the 4th, so we booked for the Port aux Basques one on Monday. Argh! Waited all this time to leave and we STILL have to wait three more days! Ah, but Cape Breton is a great place to wait.

Rode over on the ferry in a sleeping cabin – we slept, Karen didn’t, because of Vic’s snoring. Serves her right for waking us screaming at 4:30 AM. Met a BU grad class of ’53 on the deck (I was wearing my BU sweatshirt and he yelled, “Hey, BU!” as we walked by) He showed me his class ring. At breakfast on the ferry we met a couple from New York who were going to Peggy’s Cove for a few days. Told them what a treat they were in for. Suggested they visit Cape Breton, too.

July 27, 2000 Thursday

What wonderful memories were dredged up as we pulled into Yarmouth Harbour, Nova Scotia!
Happy days three years ago – bagpiper waking us up on a Sunday morning, breathtaking scenery, moose, eagles, blue herons, Rita’s Tea House, Glace Bay’s Miner’s Museum, Marconi place and MaryJoe’s Fish ‘n’ Chips. Cape Breton Highlands, discovering Great Big Sea and watching them entertain the Queen on Canada Day, thinking they were out of their minds on stage and liking them anyway, 25 years of marriage happily celebrated. It’s nice to be able to share it with Karen. I hope she is as enthralled with Cape Breton as we were. She hasn’t seemed all that interested in planning with us - she says, “This is your trip, your idea, I’m just tagging along. See what you want.”

Drove all day through Nova Scotia to get to Cape Breton by nightfall. Guess what? The Tall Ships are in Sydney Harbour and Louisbourg and there are no hotel rooms again! Rode around for hours looking for a suitable campground. Found several that were not for tents, just motor homes. Went to the Ferry Terminal, not knowing what else to do, and asked to be put on the waiting list for the next couple ferries. The list was already 4 and a half pages long, single-spaced. Decided to make reservations for the return trip there and the closest return date we could get was August 9th! So, it seems that our trip has now been lengthened yet again! Awright! Funny how things work out.

So we rode around some more searching for this one campground. We didn’t know where we were going so we kept pulling off to the side of the rode letting people pass who DID know where they wanted to go. We were all cranky thinking about spending another night in the car. But we pulled over to let a guy pass and he pulls behind us instead. Turns out he’s a cop who addresses us “You guys are lost, right?” Our tale of woe gets told and he points us to a different campground, much nicer and quieter than the one we’d been headed towards. How about that! - God sent us a Cape Breton cop at just the right time! Arranged to stay till the ferry leaves on Sunday and finally everyone in the tent got some much needed sleep.