Cape Breton Island.. the Cabot Trail...

It's been about 25 years, or more since I drove the Cabot Trail and I actually forgot how beautiful this drive is.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here's 7000 of the best prose I ever writ!

Life is Gooooooood!

out to the NE corner of the island...

So today was a little day trip out to the NW tip of the island... beautiful beaches.. many areas where the mussel crops were being harvested.. and of course the lighthouse at the end of the road..

Tomorrow we're off to Nova Scotia... on the ferry and looking forward to seeing Bill and Pat soon.

Life is Good....

A big day for the lobster fishermen....

A hub of activity today in the Tignish area.  The lobster fishermen who have been out at sea since May 1st are facing cut off day today.  This means that all lobster traps must be lifted and all lobsters caught have to be declared and weighed in order to be paid for their products.

According to all we talked with, the local boys have had one of their best seasons for many years.  Today they are really scrambling to get everything in on time.  I assume the local fisheries and oceans employees are very "by the book" and will not allow any products to be declared past today's deadline.

We peeked inside one of the Co-op's storage areas and in the picture above, the storage tubs are full of lobsters and this locker area holds thousands of live lobsters ready for shipping.

We feel that we are quite lucky.  We not only fell into a great and friendly place to stay last night but a clear, warm, and sunny day to see the activity at the docks is a once in a year thing.

We're in Charletttown tonite for 2 days.  Hope to see the Canada Day parade tomorrow and just relax a couple of days.  We did drive thru Cavendish today and saw some of the "Our Annie of Green Gables" stuff ... bot a book for my grand-kids and now we are early into the hotel today.

Life is Good...

Across NB and onto PEI... feels like holidays!

Today we drove south from the Gaspe region in Quebec and right thru New Brunswick to PEI.  The scenery in Northern New Brunswick was great.. rugged with lakes and rivers and a gazillion trees.  We followed the Madapedia River where salmon fishing season just opened and took a few photos of fly fishermen fishing beside one of several covered bridges in the region.

We got to PEI and decided to find a hotel in Summerside and found that there was a huge HUGE biker rally there this weekend... no problem... we'll just drive to the next town and find something.  Well, I did manage to get a great pic of the Confederation Bridge with a huge potatoe field in the foreground.. and we did manage to find the nicest little hotel,.. we're the only guests in a convent hotel in Tignish which is almost at the end of the world in NW PEI... 

Had a great supper of wings and beer at the local legion and now enjoying the huge common room watching CFL football and downloading pics..

No...  haven't done any golfing yet but.... Yeah.... Life is Good!

more miles... nice miles...

We hit the trail this morning.  Took a ferry across the St Lawrence and of course the Chateau Frontenac was the predominant landmark so one more photo of the Chateau.

The drive today followed closely with the St Lawrence where we saw several "salties" probably bound for duluth as well as more beautiful green fields and huge farms.  The last pic above is our hotel for tonite.. a very nice little place and our dinner of fresh seafood and (Julie had meat pie).. was great!

We made it to a town called St Flavie in the Gaspe area and tomorrow we hit south thru New Brunswick and probably onto PEI by tomorrow afternoon... although we lose another hour to ADT but that's no big deal.  We will probably stay on the island for 3-4 days before our planned ferry to Nova Scotia and up the Cabot Trail.

In spite of the rain, our spirits are high and dry and....

Life is Good!

Beautiful Quebec City...

So Jewels and I headed out early today to take in the sights of old Quebec.  It was raining and wet when we started but we had a very nice sunny day to enjoy the many beautiful sights of this city.

From the boardwalk at the Chateau Frontenac to the street scenes in the old city, all was wonderful.  Even caught a mixed relationship happening between a couple of wet and zealous leaves!!

Quiet dinner tonite.. four sore and tired feet when we got back to our hotel..

Life is Good!

OK.. here we go with the Jim signs...

In my travels I have noticed a lot of businesses that are "Jim's" whatever.  I have decided to take as many pics as I can of the businesses that have been named after me.

I don't intend to post the all.  I'll just keep them in a separate file and post the really interesting ones.

Like todays.  Number one pic is a very appropriate photo.  Those who know me well know I have developed a habit of stopping along my trail to make a deposit at my favorite ...uhhhhh... place of rest.

So, here's number one... more to follow.

Life is Good!