The long road home

We said our goodbyes to Gail & Pat, and the two kitties Sasha & Allie, and once again headed east. The day before we left Medicine Hat the Prairies had been hit with an early Spring winter storm. It dumped a lot of snow, and closed many roads and highways. By the time we got going things had been mostly cleared out, but we saw the after effects, with lots of snow, and more than a few car & truck crashes along the way.

Leaving from Medicine Hat put us out of sync with our normal driving patterns. This meant we stayed at a couple of different places, before making our way to Thunder Bay. Our first rest stop was Moose Jaw, SK. We found a simple, and relatively inexpensive motel in Moosomin, SK. And then we drove to a place in Vermilion Bay, ON, before making the final hop to our friends’ place at the Lakehead.

Paul and Julie once again opened their home and their hearts to us wayward vagabonds — we truly are blessed with such good friends. We got to spend nearly a week, hanging out, talking sailing and boats, and being entertained by their two cats: Kylo and Cedric.

It’s always wonderful to hang out with P&J. We ate and drank, and caught up on their adventures, which usually include doing way more work and projects than we could ever accomplish. But we also discussed their pending visit to the Caribbean, where they had put an offer on a new sailboat! Unfortunately that deal fell through, but as I type, their quest for another boat continues. We shall see…

During our time in Thunder Bay we also managed to connect with our younger friends who live in a rural area north of Kakebeka Falls, ON (which is west of Thunder Bay). These kind folks continue to house our storage trailer that contains the remains of our land life. It also houses our second set of tires (winter or summer, depending on the season), which we were able to swap out, before arriving for a wonderful visit.

Ben & Sherilyn are always fun to visit. They are living off the beaten path, but in a very different way than us, so it’s always great to catch up on how things are going out on ‘the farm.’ But most of all, it’s a great excuse to hang out with their Oh-Too-Cute girls: Olivia & Molly.

After a week of Thunder Bay (and area) visits we loaded up the little car and headed east once again. But we only had to go a few hours before reaching our next stop in Selim (the burbs of Rossport, ON). We always love to visit our dear friends Cathie & Joe. In fact, all this friends and family visiting is one of the great attractions of our current lifestyle. Traversing the country each year means we get to stop in on all these wonderful people!

While Joe & Cathie are the main attraction in Selim, they were somewhat upstaged by the newest member of the family: Piper!!

We spent five days “refugin” in the bosom of C&J’s Lake Superior sanctuary. We spent a little time on chores, and a lot of time eating, drinking, talking, and playing with Piper.

It’s always hard to say goodbye, but the road beckoned, and we know we’ll be back in the Fall (this time, for an extended period), so we packed Lil’ Red and headed off once again. We had a quick overnight in Thessalon , and then we washed up once again to the warm embrace of Mom and Sis in Ottawa.

We spent a few relaxing weeks just hanging out. We did a few odd jobs around the place, including Ann doing some body work — on Kathy’s car, not herself 😄. And I did some bread baking (of course). One night we went to a Jill Barber concert at the National Arts Centre , and we spent a little time with Colleen and Connor, which is always great .

Oh, and Hammi is once again an outdoor cat. He now gets to go outside — under supervision, of course. Apparently he’s become a bit of a demanding monster … good for him, I say 😼👍.

Time ticked away. Various health checks were made, renewed licenses arrived, vaccines were got. So we held our final pub night, and headed off once again. Instead of our normal Edmundston, NB stop, Ann found another even better, and cheaper, place just a little east in the Quebec town of Cabano. It’s a simple little motel, but overlooks Lake Témiscouata. It was great — this is likely our new normal.

Another new normal, at least for this trip, was fixing the car along the way. Sadly, our little car is nearing its end, and is literally falling apart. Before leaving Ottawa, part of the exhaust piping broke apart. I fixed it using the wizardry of scissors and glue (actually it was epoxy putty and high temperature amalgam tape), but we had to keep repairing it all the way along.

One great thing about this vagabond lifestyle is that it lets us visit our far-flung friends all across the country. Chet & Margie are now Nova Scotia folks, so we pulled into their yard to spend a couple more days, relaxing 😁, and fixing the car again ☹️. It was a great time. We stayed at their new house, visited an old grist mill, met all their cute cats.

With our car repaired (once again), we said our goodbyes and headed off towards the ferry. We’d been getting used to the unseasonably hot weather throughout our travels in the Maritimes so far, but this came to a freezing end once we got out of the car at the ferry terminal at the end of the road in Cape Breton. On the plus side, the forest fires that were raging in around Halifax were nowhere to be seen.

So we stopped for supper, boarded the ferry, and went up to our luxury cabin for the overnight crossing. This was the first time we’d taken an actual berth; normally we just stick it out in oversized chairs. But this boat had none of those, so we had to upgrade to a full cabin. It was very nice…

We drove off the boat, into the pouring, cold rain, and headed off towards Corner Brook. A short way down the road, while dodging all the potholes, we were greeted by Newfoundland’s unofficial land ambassador: Moose!

Lewisporte is across the island, on the NE side. But instead of driving directly there, we were warmly greeted by our friends from Corner Brook. Byron and Paula have been grand friends since we met them during our time at the Bay of Islands Marina in Corner Brook. We hadn’t been able to visit them since before pandemic days, so it was great to be back in their company. In so many ways, it felt like no time had passed. The beer and the yarnin’, poured easily. It was so great to catch up on their adventures, and swap stories about all our future plans.

Our final goodbyes given (for this season), we jumped back into our noisy, rattle car, and drove the final few hundred km of the long road, back to our floating home. We found her looking pretty good, with cover fully intact, and Fred and our treasures still guarding Pachina Mia.

So now comes the hard times — on the hard. The cold and damp weather that greeted us in North Sydney has stuck around, making it hard to get a lot of work done. And unfortunately we’ve discovered a keel problem which is taking a bit longer to solve. But we hope to be in the water soon. All we need is a few days of sun and warmth.