Day 15 - Ottawa to Scranton

After checking out of the hotel this morning, we left for downtown Ottawa to do a little sightseeing. Since it was a Sunday, we were able to get around easily and saw quite a bit.

Then we headed of south towards the border. Before crossing over, we made another stop in the town of Brockville on the banks of the St Lawrence River. Here Hannah is enjoying the boating activities on the river.

Passing through customs was relatively painless for us. Show our passports, answer a few questions, and we were on our way.

After entering the states, we were looking for a cache in New York to drop off a geocoin. We stopped at "I-81 S. Parking Area" (GCTQPQ) and, although we couldn't drop the coin here, we did meet another cacher and a caching couple at the cache. Hannah got this shot of us returning from the cache.

As we moved south, we got off the main roads in Pennsylvania and stopped at a really great cache location - "Lost In The Fifties" (GC126KM) which appears to be a Shell service station from the 1950's. All of the items are authentic and most are in working order. It is a privately owned collection and the owner was good enough to come out and talk to us and show us more of his collection that was inside. It was a one of a kind and we thoroughly enjoyed the stop.

We continued south on the secondary roads and were amazed to find a very large concrete structure near the road that looked like a Roman aquaduct. It turned out that it was the Tunkhannock Viaduct, a railroad bridge built in 1915 that is over a quarter-mile long and 240 feet high.

We continued on down the back roads, ending the day on the south side of Scranton, PA.

Today's travel - 367 miles

Cumulative distance - 5778.44 miles

Day 14 - Edmundston to Ottawa

When we left Edmundston this morning it was damp but not yet raining. We were back on the Trans Canada Highway headed northwest and soon were out of New Brunswick and into Quebec and the rain started. We immediately noticed a difference when we stopped at the Quebec welcome station just over the border. Hannah went in and asked for a Quebec map: She was surprised when she was charged $3.50 for the "Official Road Map - Ministere des Transports". Maybe it was because it was in English.

We soon reached the Fleuve Saint-Laurent (St Lawrence River). We left the TCH for a while to drive the local roads along the bank of the river. We had noticed that occasionally there would be what appeared the be shrines along the road. We stopped at one of the more elaborate ones and took this picture.

After returning to the highway, we stopped at a rest area that had a geocache nearby - "Autoroute 85 – Halte routière" (GC158VF). This rest area had a long walking trail behind it with picnic tables along it. Following the GPS, I was led to a hiking trailhead.

After following the trail a few hundred feet, we located the cache after a short bushwhack.

We wanted to make a short visit to Quebec City so we crossed the river bridge into the city and started driving towards Vieux-Quebec. We got within six-tenths of a mile and stopped. From that point, we moved one short block in fifteen minutes. We weren't sure what was going on but it is the 400th anniversary of the city so we guessed that given 400 years worth of days to choose from, we picked exactly the wrong one to visit. Reluctantly, we turned around and continued our drive.

Driving through Montreal is always a challenge and today was no different. Eventually we made it to the west side of the island and made a short detour to Point Clair on the southwestern edge of the island. Here we found the house that Hannah lived in many years ago. This was a manse owed by the Anglican Church of Canada, located across the street.

Back on the TCH, we were soon out of Quebec and into Ontario. There was another pause in the rain as we saw a geocache come into range - "Towering Over the 417" - (GC1BNZB). We were lead down a dirt track until the GPS pointed here:

Beautiful spot but once inside, the cache was a tough find and the mosquitoes were huge.

After finding the geocache, the drive to the hotel was easy.

Today's drive - 499 miles

Cumulative mileage - 5410.95 miles

Day 13 - Charlottetown to Edmundston

We started the day in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in dismal weather. The showers that greeted our arrival last night had turned to a steady downpour. And we needed to find a geocache before we left the island. We did a quick scan of all the caches around our hotel location, found some candidates, loaded the car, and started out. The first one we tried was perfect. We drove right up to the location, the cache was slightly visible, and we signed the log in the car and were on the way.

We had arrived on P. E. I. from the east by ferry and we were continuing west on our departure. The route off the island was by the Confederation Bridge over the Northumberland Strait. We were surprised by the amount of the toll - $41.50.

Traveling northwest along the coast, we were in the rain until we got a break around the small town of Cap-Pele. There were several caches in this small town and we were able to snag our first New Brunswick cache here, a tradition micro in a small park. As we left the town, the rain started again.

We continued on east on the Trans Canada Highway with rain off and on all day. At Edmundston, on the western edge of the province, we decided to stop for the day. Throughout our journey so far, the areas we drove through were predominately English speaking. In New Brunswick, we started seeing more areas that are predominately French speaking. Surprisingly, Edmundston is a is 98 per cent francophone.

As usual, we had not made hotel reservations for the night so the first order of business was to locate a place to stay. We spotted a few from the highway and turned off to take a closer look.

There was a brand new major brand hotel that we noticed so we stopped to check on room availability. Here is what greeted us in the lobby.

The hotel had just recently opened and the price was OK so we booked the room.

Tomorrow, we continue west into Quebec.

Today's travel - 387 miles

Cumulative mileage - 4911.58

Day 12 - Sydney to Charlottetown

Today we left Cape Breton Island and made our way along the northern coast of Nova Scotia. We left the heavily traveled roads and drove along the coast to Cape George. Along the way, as we were taking some photos, the camera announced that the memory was full. It turned out that I failed to reinstall the SD card in the camera after I downloaded the card the night before. Unfortunately, the laptop we are travelling with will not download the camera's built in memory so those photos are trapped until we return home and can rescue them. So photos for today's travels will be added to the blog after our return home.

As we drove, we noticed one familiar sight with a little different twist.

When we reached the town of St. Peter's, we stopped to see the canal and locks that connect Bras d'Or Lake with the Atlantic Ocean. The locks canal and locks are unusual in that they are tidal locks which either raise or lower boats depending on the tidal differences at the lock location.

We stopped at a point of land above St. George's bay and took this shot of a fishing village harbor.

There was a display at this overlook with a pair of lobster traps and a description of how they worked.

Our route to Charlottetown took us to Caribou, NS where we waited to board another ferry. This ferry connects the northern coast of Nova Scotia to the southeastern coast of Prince Edward Island. The crossing takes about 1 1/2 hours and today the weather was warm and clear and the waters of the Northumberland Strait were perfectly smooth.

We met our ferry's sister ship going the other way about halfway across the strait.

It was a very pleasant trip across. Unfortunately, just as we reached the far shore, the rain started.

We made our way across the island, checked into our hotel in Charlottetown, and then went out for dinner.

Tomorrow, we will attempt to find a geocache on PEI and then cross back to the mainland over the Confederation bridge and continue our travels eastward through New Brunswick.

Today's mileage - 269 miles
Cumulative mileage - 4524.36 miles

Day 11 - Cape Breton Island

After breakfast at the hotel we were on the road to explore the Cabot Trail. Cape Breton Island is the northeastern section of Nova Scotia and a large portion of the island is part of Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada. The Cabot Trail encircles the park and much of the route is along the coast.

Along the way to the trail, we noticed a pull-off along the road that looked like a good spot for a photo. We parked, got out of the car, and used the guardrail to brace the camera. We got the photo below and also found a cache at the same spot - "Hey...Is That a Bridge Down There?" (GCM450).

A short distance later we saw a sign for the "Englishtown Ferry". Turning off the main road we found it; a cable ferry that crosses St. Anns Bay.

From the ferry, we joined the Cabot Trail and saw spectacular sights such as mountain landscapes;

Seacoasts;

And fishing villages.

Photos do not do justice to this area. After a long day of touring, we headed back to the hotel, stopping for a dinner of local seafood on the way back.

Tomorrow, we are off to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

Touring today - 255 Miles
Cumulative mileage - 4255.22 miles

Day 10 - Deer Lake to North Sydney

We were on the road as early as possible, headed for Port-Aux-Basques and the ferry. It was a raining most of the day today so it wasn't surprising when we had to stop on the TCH for this.

This part of Newfoundland is mountainous and the scenery is spectacular even in the rain and fog.

We stopped at a spot not too far from where the above photo was taken and hunted for a cache. Because we were unable to do any caching yesterday, we still had two geocoins and a travel bug that needed to be in a Newfoundland cache. We found a suitable traditional cache in the woods not too far off the highway and dropped them there.

Finally we arrived at the ferry terminal but there was no ferry there. We lined up for boarding and waited. Finally, the ferry appeared out of the fog.

We weren't too late loading and the ferry finally departed. We were sitting near a window and the GPS was locked on for the entire crossing. After it was totally dark, we noticed that the ferry started slowing down. After a few minutes, we noticed that the track started to change direction. Eventually, the ship traced a a very nice circle that measured about one mile in diameter. The GPS recorded it all and here is what it look like:




Eventually the ferry made it into port after turning a 5 1/2 hour crossing into one more like 7 1/2. We checked into a motel room well after midnight. We decided that tomorrow we would stay in the Sydney, NS area and see the Cabot Trail.

Traveled today - 312 miles
Cumulative mileage - 3999.59 miles

Day 9 - St. Johns to Deer Lake

We had planned to spend the full day today around St. Johns and then drive to Argentia tonight to catch the ferry back to North Sydney. Since the ferry crossing was canceled, we had to drive at least most of the way back to Port-Aux-Basques. That limited our sight-seeing in St. Johns.

We were not able to hunt any geocaches today. Because we modified our route for the day, I had not downloaded caches for the area around Harbour Grace and Heart's Content. After we were on the road, I discovered that the PDA batteries had died so we were left without much information.

The first stop was Signal Hill National Historic Site

This high ground has a commanding view of the entire area around St. Johns. In addition to its history as military position, it is also the location where Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal. We stumbled on Harbour Grace as we were driving up towards the north end of the Avalon Peninsula. What first caught our attention was a ship aground in the harbor (or harbour).

When we stopped to look at the boat, we noticed a small park with a DC-3 sitting in it. This town has a notable aeronautical history. For instance, it is the location of the airfield that Amelia Earhart used to began her flight to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in her Lockheed Vega.

The park has a larger than life bronze statue of Earhart.

Leaving the park, we went north up and across the peninsula to Heart's Content. This is the spot where the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable came ashore.

The building contains a museum covering early transatlantic telegraph service. Much of the equipment installed in the building is still in place.

After leaving the museum we started the drive back across the island to get as close as possible to the ferry terminal at Port-Aux-Basque. We ended the day at Deer Lake, northeast of Corner Brook.

Travels today - 487 miles
Cumulative mileage - 3688.02

Day 8 - Corner Brook to Extreme East

Our plans for Newfoundland had to be changed. We had scheduled our return on a ferry from Argentia, NL to North Sydney, NS on Tuesday morning, just after midnight. That would give us all day Monday to explore St. Johns before making the short drive to Argentia to board the ferry for a 13 hour crossing. But that ferry crossing was cancelled and we were booked on a ferry from Port-Aux-Basques to North Sydney on Tuesday afternoon. That meant that we essentially lost one day because it is a 571 mile drive from St Johns to Port-Aux-Basque.

With all that in mind, we left our hotel in Corner Brook and drove directly to Cape Spear, a distance of about 440 miles along the Trans Canada Highway. The scenery is spectacular along the route with mountains in the early part, changing to large fresh water lakes and then salt water inlets and coastlines.

We stopped along the way to hunt one geocache, a traditional one hidden in a thicket of birch trees along the Trans Canada Highway named "Birchy's Bathroom" (GC13HJC).We ran into rain showers along the way but decided that if at all possible, we would go directly to Point Spear and attempt to find the cache. We made better time than we expected and arrived there around 4:30. A sign pointed us in the direction of the cache.

In a short time, Hannah said I see it! What she saw turned out to be litter but soon we had the cache in hand. After signing the log, we found the eastern most point in North America sign and here is what the GPS was reading there.

After finding the cache, we made a visit to the current Cape Spear light. We were lucky enough to be there after the light was operating but with enough light to get photos.

Then we visited the old lighthouse. It is a typical Canadian lighthouse with a masonry tower and a frame house built around it for the keeper.

We left after exploring the park thoroughly and found a hotel in St. Johns.

Progress today - 459 miles
Cumulative mileage - 3200.98 miles

Day 7 -North Sydney to Corner Brook

At the conclusion of our last log, we were waiting in the North Sydney ferry terminal. We were finally told to go to the car and expect to depart at 2:00 am. Finally, we drove on board, collected our cabin keys from the purser, and found our cabin.

Because we expected the ferry to get underway soon, decided to get what sleep we could. Before retiring, I turned on the GPS and placed it next to the porthole to record the track for this leg of the quest. Much later, I woke up and checked the GPS; according to it, we had just left port and it was daylight. It turned out that a service truck had broken down on board the ferry. The ferry didn't leave the dock until a tow service was found and the truck removed. The end result was, we got a full eight hours of sleep on a 5 1/2 hour crossing and had time left over for morning coffee and a walk around the deck.

It was around noon when we drove off the ferry. Here is a shot of the Caribou at the dock in Port-Aux-Basques.

Soon we were on our way, heading northward from Port-Aux-Basques on the Trans Canada Highway. We were treated to some spectacular scenery.

Along the way we stopped and found our first cache in Newfoundland, "Bottom Brook Arboretum" (GCR10P). It is a traditional cache located not too far off the main road.

We stopped for the night at the town of Corner Brook, near the west coast of Newfoundland. Tomorrow, we plan to drive the last leg of the quest and arrive in St. Johns.

Progress today - 268 miles

Cumulative distance - 2742 miles

Tonight's longitude - W057 56.634

Day 6 - Halifax to North Sydney

We left Halifax, NS fairly late in the morning today. Our plan was to drive the marine route along Nova Scotia south shore and end the day in North Sydney, NS. We had reservations for ferry to Newfoundland leaving around midnight.

The drive east was leisurely, and we made several stops along the way. This photo was taken a short distance from the main road.




A little more eastward, we stopped and successfully hunted a cache along the shore. It turned out to be a film canister with a wet log but it provided a good excuse to get out of the car and stretch our leg a little. A shot taken from the cache site is shown below.




We will be returning from Newfoundland this way so we drove around a Sydney a bit to check out prospective lodging. At our first stop, the clerk we talked to said that he had heard that our ferry crossing had been canceled. After a call to the ferry operator, Marine Atlantic, it turned out that our ferry had just returned from refitting but had not been released for service because of issues with inspections. We were told that the ferry would probably operate that night but the sailing would be delayed by about two hours.

After receiving that information, we decided that the best plan was first find a good spot for dinner. After a delicious meal of local seafood, we went to the ferry terminal where we saw this sight:

As the day ended, we were sitting in the North Sydney ferry terminal, waiting to be told to return to the car to move it on to the ferry. We were expecting a 2:00 am departure.


Progress today - 311 miles

Cumulative mileage - 2474 miles

Tonight's Longitude - W060 14.582

Day 5 - Bar Harbor to Halifax

This morning before 7:00, we were packed and had the car in line at the Bar Harbor ferry terminal, ready to load the "Cat". There was a light load today so the loading went quickly. The shot below was taken through the windshield as we drove onto the rear.



Shortly, we were on our way. The "rooster-tails" produced by this ferry is impressive.

The GPS was on and recording our track for the whole crossing and the speed that it indicated averaged about 39 MPH. Pretty impressive for a ferry boat. We had breakfast and watched a movie during the crossing. Since there was fog all morning, there was little to see outside.

After about 3 1/2 hours, we arrived at the dock in Yarmouth, NS. Most folks just drove off after a brief stop at customs. However, after the custom agent asked where we started from, where we were going, and why we weren't making a round-trip on the ferry, he apparently decided that our trip didn't make sense and we were pulled out of line. After a brief, but very through, search of the car we were on our way. Here's a shot of the "Cat" as we left the dock.

We traveled around the southern side of Nova Scotia today, "the lighthouse route". We did See a number of lighthouses on the drive, including the modern automated one. Unfortunately, there was no cache around to log.

Our first cache found in Canada was a traditional - "S.A.R. Church Cemetery" (GC18E4K). The church, pictured below, has an interesting past and what we thought was a pretty unique interior.

We ended the day in Halifax, NS. Tomorrow we head even more eastward.

Today's progress - 352 miles

Cumulative mileage - 2163 miles

Tonight's longitude - W063 34.616