Monday morning BLUES (Monday, June 26th)

This morning the truck is a no go.  None of the little tricks that have previously worked are doing the trick.  We call back the tow truck company.  I'm pretty upset that they charge us 58$ to tow us 4kms when I am certain they made a killing yesterday from the roadside assistance coming back empty.

 The dealership takes the truck right away so that is nice and a good sign.   Justin stays there all morning.  At around 11 he asks if they would have a courtesy car to lend us given the situation and they don't have one so they shuttle him back to the campsite.  Meanwhile me and the kids walked to the waterfront.  We hiked a trail that runs along the water.  It was very beautiful but it may have been too much for Gaby this time.  Actually, I think it's because of the heat.  It's very warm and we have to acclimatize I guess.   We spend a good part of the afternoon playing games.  On s'amuse à jouer 'Ou est Charlie? (Where's Waldo) et quelques parties d'Uno.  At 4:45 we have not heard anything so Justin calls the dealership and they come pick him up.  They would not have called if we didn't.  They tell Justin that they THINK he needs a 2600$ part - main injection pump.  To add to that, he can't even give him a labor estimate.  Justin tells him he surely can look it up on his computer but he won't turn it back on.  The report for the 7 hours of labor to diagnose at at Dodge dealership (important to mention!) doesn't even include any readings that would need to be verified to conclude that the part is needed!  Ok...breaking down sucks but you get the repairs done and you move on.  What we don't understand is the 'they THINK' we need that part.  If the dealership orders the part, it won't be in till sometime next week.   They make Justin pay the near 700$ bill and leave him out in the rain.  No ride back.  He walks back (he managed to pickup a few strongbow on the way)  We are pretty much at the dealership's mercy.... what are we to do.... the fastest they can get the pump in is next Monday.  Justin takes the truck to fill it with up with diesel and sees how it runs as they didn't even do that when our first guess is that there has been water in the fuel.  Yesterday the engine light came on with the water in fuel indicator.    No  changes, so he parks the truck at the dealership and walks back to the trailer as we don't want to pay for another tow.  Justin talks with Kevin, Pat and Anthony.  The part from dodge included both the actuator and the pump.  We decide to order a fuel control actuator from NAPA which will be here on Wednesday.  We also order the main injector pump from Kevin's garage and they will ship it purolator and we will get it on Thursday (2 days instead of the 10 days from the dealership oh and more than half the price - THANK YOU ACTIVE GREEN & ROSS!)  With everything up in the air we cross our fingers that things will look up.  To be honest, not much faith in the dealership after today's events.

Westport HIGHs and LOWs (Saturday, Sunday, June 24-25th)

Saturday
We have to decide what to do.  Justin gets the truck going once again and heads into Baie Verte to research online what the problem with the truck could be.  He thinks that the pump wasn't primed properly.  All seems to be working fine now so we head into town to grab some groceries and call Sherry to tell her that we will prepare them supper tonight.  She is heading into town so we will head over and park the trailer beside the house.  Once again Rob is finished fishing early, he pulls in about 30 mins after we have arrived.  We get the trailer setup and all the food ready and head over to get cooking on the BBQ.  Maple Carrots, potatoes and some venison!  They all seemed to enjoy it!  Out of all nights, James is really hard to put down but he finally goes down and with the kids in bed in the trailer, we can spend our first adult night! We spent a nice evening learning more about each other! Justin loves everything about Rob.  He lives off the land.  Fisherman, hunter, trapper, lumberjack, can fix anything kind of guy!  A little facetime with Will and Liane during 'lunch'.  One of the things we learnt is that the Newfies have breakfast, dinner, supper and  lunch.  They actually set the table at 10ish to have what they call lunch.  This conversation came about when we were asking about Jiggs dinner.  There are many restaurants who advertise to come in for their Jiggs dinner and we told them we wanted to try it out one night for supper.  That's when we learnt that if we went in for supper we would have been too late - dinner in Newfoundland is lunch!  Tonight they made crab and surprise dip!  Great snacks to accompany our beer, wine and coolers!!! We also learned a little bit more about the fishing industry and how it works.  Rob for example has a fishing permit for crab.  He has a licence for 9000lbs.  On retirement, he can sell that permit to someone and it is a form of a retirement plan I guess.  A licence came up last year for example and sold for two hundred thousand plus. We don't know the details but that's an example.  We spent a super evening and are super happy that we bumped back our departure to spend more time here.

Sunday
Justin is outside with Bones and Rob tells him that they will have Jiggs dinner for us at 1130.  Wow! How kind!  Almost everyone in Newfoundland has Jiggs dinner on Sundays.  It's a one pot meal consisting of salt beef, potatoes, turnip, cabbage, peas pudding and bread pudding.  They have special bags for the peas and bread pudding that is added to the pot and everything cooks together.  Justin LOVED it.  I had a bit of a harder time because they also served Turr.  Turr is a type of duck they eat here in Newfoundland.  The gravy was made with the drippings of the turr.  It was pretty fishy tasting for me.  Very happy to have tried out this traditional meal.  After lunch, or should I say 'dinner', we pack up the trailer.  We don't want to over extend our stay.  Here we go AGAIN.  Truck won't start.  Foolish of us, we also pulled in the driveway because we wanted the doors to the trailer facing their house.  We soon decide that this is enough and we need to call Good Sams Roadside to get towed to Grand-Falls Windsor.  It's 2 hours away but it's the closest town with a dealership.  Not many people on the island fix diesel trucks.  Justin is on the phone for almost an hour trying to explain that a tow to Baie Verte will accomplish nothing.  That is after trying to explain that the tow truck does not have to come by boat to get us (for some reason, even in this day and age with google and everything, the B%!!! dispatcher thinks that we have to be towed to PEI???!!!).  Long story short, we finally get approval for a tow truck - it will arrive at 1813 - that is exactly what the lovely (insert sarcasm) dispatcher tells us.  By this time, Sherry has called everyone in town she knows that could help out.  After a couple of hours, the truck now starts.  The tow truck arrives.  Oh boy! We know right away that he can't take us.  It's a 3 seater.  Second of all, he doesn't have the right ball to tow the trailer.  Justin takes control and tells the guy that we will drive our truck and trailer and that he will follow us in case something happens.  We are 2 hours away from our destination and no reception for 90% of the way.  Well, what do you know - the truck runs smoothly the entire way.  We call a campsite in Grand-Falls Windsor and setup for the night.  Justin gets the info off of the tow truck driver 'in case' we need him in the morning.  Fingers crossed!  The dealership is less than 4kms away so this is a perfect spot for us.  Once we are settled in, I tell Justin to go and relax and check out the Legion in town.  The Legion here has a War museum and it is opened from 2pm to 12am daily.  What better de-stresser for Justin. Not so much.  He gets there at 1040 and on Sundays they close at 11!  The nice gentlemen still serves him a drink and lets him look around.  Then, of course to top off the day, the truck once again won't start.  Justin does his magic and gets it going to come back to the campsite.  Here we go again......

At least we have beautiful memories of Westport!

Freedom! Off to Westport! (Friday, June 23rd)

The part is supposed to be at NAPA for 11am.  I let Justin sleep in this morning and at 1045, Greg, comes over to the site.  Someone has already been in town and has the part for us.  Time for the boys to get to work.  A few hours later we are sooooo happy to hear the loud engine of our truck making its way back to our campsite.  Me and Gaby greet him with hauler and applause.  We pack up a diaper bag for James and head towards Westport.  I guess we aren't very smart because in the excitement we forget that we don't even have an address for Rob & Sherry.  They are Will and Liane's family friends that we are going to visit.  Oh well, small town, we will figure it out.  We drive all the way down to the wharf and the first person we ask tells us they live by the gas station.  We both remember seeing a closed down gas station at the beginning of town.  Head back that way but now which house is it? We stop at another house where two men are building a shed, they tell us just up the road.  Stop for another hint and this man nails it by telling us it's the house with the pink brick! Bingo!!  I knock at the door and I am greeted by Shania, their daughter.  I didn't know but they have 2 daughters.  It's weird because we have never met and only stopped in because we wanted to see where Will is from. Will and Liane usually come to this village every fall.  Pops passed away at Christmas last year.  We are terribly sad that we didn't get to meet him.  Everyone has great things to say about Pop.  We feel bad arriving at around supper time and tell them that we would like to go to the lighthouse if they can tell us how to get there.  They offer to walk there with us.  So Sherry and Shania join us and we leave their house to walk to the lighthouse.  You have to know it's there because you can't see it from the harbour.  Beautiful!!! I understand why Liane loves this spot so much.  We head back down towards the wharf and Rob is just getting off his boat!  We are lucky because he could have been on the boat till passed 11 but they got their quota for the day so they are back on shore.  Gab got to hold a lobster...not much from the sea she won't have touched!  Back at their house we plan on heading back to the campsite but they won't hear of it and have us over for a FEAST!!! Fresh Lobster and Crab from todays catch! And TONS of it!!! On top of that, Rob is gracious enough to do all the hard work and break the meat out of the shells for us!  James loves the crab legs, it keeps him busy while we feast.  Rob and Sherry thought we would be here for a few days.  With our truck problems, the plan was to leave tomorrow and be in Twillingate for Sunday night but we figure that maybe we can change our plans. We will call them tomorrow and let them know.  On our way home in the middle of nowhere again, the truck stalls.  Oh MY!!! Somehow, Justin gets her going and we make to the
campsite.  Hard to get a good night sleep after that!!!

Excited the truck is fixed!

Gab in front of Pop's house

Crab lovers!

FEAST!!!

Westport's lighthouse!!!  xox

The waiting game (Wednesday - Thursday, June 21-22)

Wednesday
First thing first.  Let's look at the truck and see what is going on.  It doesn't start.  Justin plays around with it and somehow gets it to start.  Greg, the owner of the campsite, deduce that we need a new lift pump.  Figure out the best way to get it.  Kevin's garage back home can get it for us but it would only arrive on Friday.  We order the part from NAPA and it should be here by 11ish Friday morning.  It is beautiful outside but I have spent the day inside with the kids.  The black flies are unbelievable.  Me and Gab brave it and walk to the beach to try and find the bouncy castle.  We found it but we just can't stay outside...the bugs will soon carry us alive!!  It's too bad that we can't enjoy the nice weather as it would make our waiting game more enjoyable.  At least we have some great MOOSE burgers for supper.  We have a theme song for the day! If you get a chance, look it up, or Gab will be able to sing it for you when we return - Lisa Leblanc 'Aujourd'hui, ma vie c'est d'la marde!'

Our lovely view (surprised we can see it through the MILLIONS of black flies)

Moose Burgers!

Thursday
Bonne Fête Dad!!!  We walk to the front of the campsite to brave the outside and call dad for his bday.  The only spot you can get a smidge of reception is in front of the owners house.  We are being eaten alive trying to talk to Mami & Pépère on the phone.  Me and Gab bought dad a singing card but forgot to drop it off at their house before we left.  Mom was supposed to go pick it up and she hasn't yet so we will come back and call in a bit so that Gab can have a dance party with Pépère.  We bought Pépère a dancing card when we were in California with them and it is still a hit today so we thought it would be a good idea to get him another dancing/singing card.  Take advantage of being stranded to get the laundry done and I finish my book - 13 reasons (the Netflix hit - good book!) Our drawers in the kitchen broke when we drove in Labrador, so Justin fixes that along with puts a hook on our screen door to prevent James from falling out of the trailer!  Can't wait for the part to be here tomorrow!  We have still so much to see of the island!

Bonne Fête au meilleur papa et pépère au MONDE!

Nothing else to do but to fix all the <little problems<

Black Skies, Black Flies, Black Dodge! (Tuesday, June 20th)

We are in a thick fog this morning.  I wanted to go to Port aux Choix to visit the area but the weather
is really not favorable so the unanimous decision is to pack up and try to get to Deer Lake.  If it's nice we want to stop in Gros Morne and do another hike.  Fuel up, Foodland and we are on our way.  The fog doesn't lift so we just keep driving instead of doing a hike. The kids are being champions in the car so we take advantage of it.  Quick stop after getting through Gros Morne and another fuel stop in Deer Lake.  We decide to keep going east on HWY 1.  We spoke to Will and our plan is to go visit his pop's village.  They have family friends there and we will stop in.  We said we would be there either tomorrow or the next day.  The driving is going well so we keep going and even head north towards Westport off HWY 1.  We pull off the road in what could be a good spot for the night but we decide to scope out a better spot and we know there is a campsite in Baie Verte if we don't find anything.  We reach the campsite so campsite it is.  They gave us a beautiful lot by the water.  It's seasonal lot but the campers will not be here before July 1st.  Boy! We are no longer in Western/Newfoundland.  They had the air conditioning going in the office and the lady told us it was 33 today! It will be hard for us to adjust seeing as we have been wearing our tuques for the last 3 weeks.  Justin does a beauty job backing in (she was only giving us the lot if Justin was a good driver).  BLACK FLIES everywhere! This is what they were talking about!  We are levelling the trailer and the truck stops all by itself.  Not good.  Justin tries to restart it.  It turns over but won't start.  I am super relieved that we stopped at a campsite because this would be even worst on the side of a nowhere HWY with no reception.  Call up Kevin and see what he thinks.  Not much else we can do for tonight so we have to wait till morning.  The good thing about today is that we got much further than anticipated so that is great! Now fingers crossed for tomorrow.  Oh Moose sighting today so we can add to our count!

Baby James taking his bath last night

Moose count = 19 caribou = 6 whales= 2 Black Bears =  2

To the top of the LIGHTHOUSE! (Monday, 19 June)

We, or more like I, am slow this morning.  Our beautiful spot by the ocean is thick with fog and there's a little mist. We call the ferry to book and all we can get is tomorrow at 3:30.  They leave 25% occupancy for last minute walk ons.  We decide to book the 3:30 and at worst if we get on early tomorrow morning we loose 10$. We finally get our butts going and walk to the lighthouse.  Much simpler to walk there than to try and manoeuvre the trailer there just to come right back this way.  No doubt, Justin could do it but a little walk will do us all some good this morning.  The lighthouse is the tallest in the Atlantic (second tallest in Canada).  Gab has been really excited to be able to climb to the top of the lighthouse. Our tour guide is fantastic.  When we get there we decide to go up and let James in the foyer.  He is sleeping in his stroller and we know he will be out for some time.  I think the tour guide thought we were a bit weird but there is no way we could have done the climb with James.  The climb to the top is nice.  She gives us little trivia after each level.  A fun way to make the climb easy for the kids (just kidding - for us too!) The view up top is beautiful.  It's too bad that there is thick fog but kind of cool to see it rolling.  At some points we can see our trailer at a distance and then it rolls and we can spot an iceberg.  Downstairs, they have very nice displays and they have a station where Gaby makes a bracelet spelling out her name in Morse code.  Head back to our trailer.  The walk there and back is nice by the ocean.  In the early 1900's the Raleigh went aground and her pieces are still scattered along the coast.  Pretty cool.  We decide that we will head south towards Blanc Sablon and see if we can catch the 6pm ferry.  If not then we will go down into Quebec and
visit around there.  Stop at the grocery store to restock on 'double blueberry' ice cream Justin picked up the other day. He is in LOVE with it.  C'est de la crème glacée de Coaticook.  We drive down to the ferry and I pop into the ticket office. They are all business there and not the friendliest.  She gets all my info (size of unit, full name of all of us) and then charges my credit card.  So I ask "We made it on the ferry?"  Her answer is "You should be ok".  Another lady tells us to line up outside in lanes 1 & 2 with the trucks.  We are the first in line no2 so we don't really know how they would pull us off
if we didn't make it on.  We have a good 1.5hrs to waste in the truck waiting in line so we pull out UNO and have fun.  James sleeps for the most part of the waiting.  We are set to make this an easy ferry.  We only bring one extra bag and decide that we don't need James' stroller.  Super smooth.  We stop at the gift shop to grab a sticker and head up to the cafeteria.  Gaby met a little girl and they had fun for the length of the crossing.  The girl is travelling with her mom to St Anthony to go to the dentist!!! Small things we take for granted.  They live in Forteau and the one dentist is on holidays for 2 weeks and this is an emergency. We chit chatted with her mom.  She has 3 kids.  For her last 2 pregnancies, she had to spend 7 weeks in St Anthony's as she can't deliver in Labrador.  They also have to go to the island for a pediatrician.  We saw a couple get on the ferry with their BMW GS.  Justin's dream is to cross the country on his.  Maybe one day we can do that together.  As we are going down to the car deck we spoke to them.  They are from Georgia and have pretty much done all the states and most of Canada.  We decide on going back to Port aux Choix to the campsite by the ocean. Wind is blowing but at least there it's not the crazy rain/hail we encountered last time we setup there.

Point Amour Lighthouse

moose count = 18 caribou = 6 = whales = 2  bears = 2

Mary's Harbour (Sunday, June 18th)

Bonne fête des PAPAS!!!  On réveille papa ce matin avec un bol de crème glacée et un petit cadeau.  On lui offre un beau t shirt BMW pour aller avec sa moto.  We are scheduled to take the boat to Battle Harbour at 11 this morning.  We are very close but we leave well in advance and arrive at 10ish.  The cost for going just for the day was a big saving.  It was 270$ as opposed to well over 700$.  Yesterday, a couple from Brockville came and said 'hello' while I was waiting for Justin who was inside on a landline making arrangements for today .  They saw the we were from Cornwall when they signed the guest book! As it turns out, they will be going to the island with us this morning.  They have the luxury of spending a few nights.  They travelled here aboard the Bella Desgagnés.  You can board in Rimouski or even Sept Iles and she stops in 6 remote villages along the Lower North shore.  I thought it was a ferry but it's more a cruise than anything.  You can bring your car along as well (it was put on the ferry by crane!) That would be another cool Canadian trip to take one day.

We load up on a small boat and take the 1hr boat ride to Battle Harbour.  Battle Harbour is perfectly preserved in the history of bygone era. Here, houses, stores, fishery buildings and churches have been restored and filled with historical original items.  It is made to soak up the atmosphere and fully experience the sounds of the ocean and the simple pleasures of times past.  On our arrival, we are greeted by very kind and genuine people.  They give us a little talk inside the General store and tell us that dinner (lunch) will be served at 1230 in the dining hall.  We headed upstairs to change James.  The room upstairs is a little bar/sitting area where guests can come and spend the evening. It is spectacular. We have just arrived on the island and are very impressed.  We walk towards one end of the island.  There are several houses and buildings.  No roads, just small trails.  Some are privately owned, there is a church, a cemetery, and guest houses that we could have rented if we had chosen an overnight stay.  Time for lunch so we head in for the most delicious meal.  The hall is again beautiful and we share our table with a couple from Connecticut.  They have one more night to spend on the island and they really loved their stay.  There is one other couple staying on the island but they were out doing a hike on an island nearby.  After lunch, we are given a tour of the main buildings from a man who lived on the island until he was 9 before they relocated everyone to Mary's Harbour.  Life on the island would have been tough but he thinks it would have been really tough for his ancestors.  He had the luxury of motor boats and snowmobiles.  There is no wood on the island so it needs to be brought over somehow.  Can't imagine transporting wood in a human powered boat at sea.  The tour is well worth it and even Miss Gab is following along.  Gaby really took a liking to the couple that was with us. She held her hand for nearly the entire tour.  Mister James on the other hand was interrupting us with his loud snores! Poor little guy was passed out in the backpack.  Once we were done the tour, we had a little time before our boat left.  Our intentions were to do a hike around the island.  On the other side, there is a small plane wreckage visible but the wind has gotten so intense and cold that we take refuge in the dining hall with the super nice ladies who run the kitchen.  Many of the employees have their own home on the island or used to live in Battle Harbour at some point.  What a great community.  We say our goodbyes to our hosts and the wonderful Brockville couple and head back to Mary's Harbour on the boat.  There are 2 employees coming back with us.  They have a 10 on 4 off rotation therefore they are excited to get back home for a few days.

Back on the dirt road we go.  On our way we spot more wildlife! Now this one is amazing.  A black bear with her baby cub.  We are even able to get a good picture - fun!  We would like to get to L'Anse Amour.  That is a 'must' stop for us because the highest lighthouse in Eastern Canada is there and we can climb to the top.  Gaby is really looking forward to that.  The drive is ok minus the one truck driver who has no care in the world.  We were warned that the worst part of the highway was the big rigs.  He flies by us and the truck got hit by some pretty good stones.  We will have to get a chip repaired on the windshield.  We make it to L'Anse Amour and find a great spot by the Ocean.  Very unfortunate that the weather is not great.  We are not sure if we can turn around in that spot so Justin backs the trailer into position.  In honor of his dad - he backs it up  a good 100 feet in one shot, perfect position!  Again the trailer is full of dirt but we are now finished with the dirt roads!