Final statistics

The total on our odometer was about 6600 miles.  This includes all the miles sightseeing as well as the travel from place to place.  The rv again behaved very well.

We stayed thirty-four nights in private campgrounds, eight nights in state or municipal campgrounds, one night sleeping on a ferry
 ( fortunately in a cabin), one night in Walmart.  There were three nights in campgrounds attached to motels, three in Lion's club/Kiwanis campgrounds, one night on a parking lot in a small town and one night in a house with a relative.  The cost of most campgrounds was in the $30- $35 range.  In Canada, diesel fuel was always quite a bit lower in price than regular gas.  Probably about 75 cents a gallon lower.  We have no idea what we paid for fuel in Canada as they sell it by the liter and then there is the exchange rate.

We ate a lot of foods foreign to us as we wanted to try to local fare. Some of these dishes were: fish and brewis, cod tongues, pea soup with dumplings, Jiggs Dinner, and puddings that were not like anything we have ever called a pudding. We met lots of folks in campgrounds, restaurants, social events and in stores.  For those we met, who asked about the blog address:  it was lovely being with you and sharing.  Safe travels to all the campers and especially to the young lady we met at Neil's in Bonavista who is traveling by herself from Vancouver and plans to cover all the coast of Newfoundland.

Newfoundland is a special place.  The people are the greatest asset of the province.  They were wonderful to us.  Life is modest: modest homes, modest cars and modest lives.  It is like the US in the 50s.... a very good time.  The province is quite beautiful in a rustic and rocky way.  The coastline is very craggy. There are many inlets and coves.  It seems that at the inside of almost every cove is a small village and of course, it is a fishing village.  The history of the province is most interesting.  We learned that Newfoundland was an independent country until it joined the Canadian Confederation in 1949.  We learned the effect the Cod Moratorium had on over 80% of the  population, when it took affect in 1992.  It was supposed to last a few years at most, but is still in effect.

There were three movies that we decided we must see.  One is Shipping News.  We both read the book while we were in the province and are anxious to see how the movie compares.  Another is Random Passage.  This was a Canadian television series from the book of the same name.  And the third one, The Great Seduction, can now be checked off our list as we saw it this week.  The story takes place in Newfoundland though that is not stressed in the film.  It was a cute movie, but, if not filmed in Newfoundland, it certainly got the flavor of the area.

We had a wonderful adventure.  I would recommend a trip there.  It is not easy to get there, but if flying, it is like flying to anywhere else.  The difference would be that you have to do a lot of driving to know the province.  And that takes time.  We felt that four weeks was a good amount of time.  Only St. John had large hotels and only a few other larger  towns had  motels.  Most stays would be in cottages or B & Bs ( unless you are rv-ing).

 And we are still talking to one another and are willing to continue traveling in our little button.

Across many states in the northeast

It has been several weeks since my last post.  As I mentioned, we were heading back in the US and it would mostly be just a trip home.  It was a bit more than that, but only a bit.  After four nights in Acadia, we drove through Maine, New Hampshire ( all twelve miles of it on route 95), and Massachusetts.  We were going to stay overnight at the Connecticut Welcome Center.  But it wasn't very welcoming to us as it was closed for renovation.  There were a few campgrounds along route 84 in Connecticut.  We found one, though it was not very inviting.  We see again why Walmart is popular for just an overnight stop near the highway.

The next morning it was through Connecticut, New Jersey and on to our daughter's house for a visit and overnight.  The RV slept on the street and we slept inside.  The next morning we left early, stopped to visit a granddaughter in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  We got a chance to see her lovely new house, walk around her special places in town and have lunch together.  Thanks to everyone for the nice visits.

Then it was along route 81 which exits Pennsylvania and goes through about ten miles of West Virginia and about the same of Maryland and we entered Virginia.  We stayed at a lovely campground connected with Endless Caverns.  We arrived too late to visit the caverns.

Next morning had us back on route 81 and we ended the day at another favorite place, Hendersonville, North Carolina.  This is a nice campground that is a haven for Floridians in the summer.  We stayed for three nights.  Then it was Sunday, August 2 and we drove to home.  Our radio/GPS system developed a memory loss just as we were leaving for that final drive to South Carolina.  Fortunately, we knew the routes very well.  The system is now back at the factory for tests and repair.

Not so very exciting, eh?  But we got back safely, relatively healthy and ready to face the rest of South Carolina summer.