Saturday, June 24, 2006

Morning folks. Well, what a day that was! Up early (d'uh), checked out of the motel, went to the ferry dock and purchased my passage, then went downtown for breakfast and a little walkaround. What a great, and busy, little town. There must be something in the water in the Maritimes, because everyone is so friendly and helpful.

Did my tour of town and decided to check in at the ferry, get assigned a lane, and just walk around and visit with the folk. Turned out to be a good idea, because I had fun conversations with people from all over North America.

Most were pople like myself, going to Newfoundland for vacation. Not a cross word was heard, nor a frown seen. People in RV's, cars, motorcycles, foot passengers, whatever, we were all there because we wanted to go to that special place that is Newfie-land.

The sailing was delayed a bit, but no one cared, just more time for visiting. We finally boarded the MV Caribou, which happens to be the largest in it's Ice class in the North Atlantic. That means that this ship is equipped to handle the ice it encounters during the winter seaon, including ice-bergs, in other words, an ice-breaker.

The nose of the ship, seen below being raised for boarding, when lowered becomes the ice-breaker.



Whereas the day before I got to see the engines on the much smaller ferry from PEI, yesterday I came this close to being taken up to the bridge. I was beside myself with excitement, but about half-way across we hit fog, so that was out. DARN!

Guess what this is. Yep, a lobster boat coming in with what looks like full holds.



Out of order, but here is a shot of one of the local churchs. Does that not speak to the type of life in this wonderful ocean-side village?



There's a chain of Chicken 'n Tater restaurants in Newfoundland called Mary Brown's. They say she has the best looking legs in town, and they stay open till two. I had a picture to go with that but it won't load.

And now for the dorky video of the day.



And because you've been good lately, here's another one. The lighting on this one is horrendous, but I wanted you to hear the Celtic (hard C) music being played in the lounge on board the ferry. This is the type of music popular in this area.



The sailing itself went well, had a nice lunch, did lot's of walking around the ship, and of course, visiting.

Arrived in Port-Aux-Basques, checked into the room I had reserved by phone from North Sydney, and marvelled at the wonderful day it had been.

The weather here this morning is cool, damp, and foggy, but I don't care, because I'M HERE!! With the 4 1/2 hour time difference I'm a little confused, but that's a familiar feeling. heh heh

Will probably drive to Grand Falls today, which is about half-way to St. John's and Cape Spear. I'm sure the weather will lift, because I've got some dorky videos and pictures to take.

Take care guys, and I'll see ya later.

Trucker Bob blogged at 2:30 AM

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