Brown's Christmas Letter

Dear Friends,

Well here we are back in Comox, but only for a short time. Ron & I having been traveling in our 5th wheel since Apr. 28th. We traveled across Canada as far as Saskatoon, visiting friends & relatives along the way, then headed south. We motored our way through North & South Dakota, then into Nebraska to visit some friends in Fremont. We left our RV at our friend's place for a couple of weeks at the end of June & flew home for Mum B's 90th birthday, then were back in Nebraska in time for the July 4th celebrations.
We left Fremont & drove through Minnesota & Wisconsin & back into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie. We made our way through Ont. stopping to visit friends along the way in Sudbury, Lakefield & Ottawa, then we headed for Newfoundland where we spent 5 wonderful weeks. What an absolutely amazing province! While in Nfld., we met two lovely couples from California, Rob & Diane & Larry & Ellen. We did a bit of traveling around with Larry & Ellen & came back to NS. with them where we parted company at Truro.
Ron & I stayed in Halifax for the month of Sept. & while there, our friends, Judy & Bruce from Campbell River flew out & we toured around NS, Cape Breton Island & PEI for 2 weeks, staying at B&Bs. We had a lot of fun with them & were sad to see them go.
While in Halifax, we met the couple parked next to us, Doug & Louise from Cranbrook. We were heading down to the states a bit before them, but had agreed to meet up in Bangor, Maine. We traveled together through NH & VT, where we parted company once again. Ron & I proceeded through NY into PA where we joined up with Doug & Louise again. While in Gettysburg, we decided to have a Canadian Thanksgiving complete with turkey & all the trimmings. We cooked the turkey on the barbeque, put Canadian flags up all over & invited a couple from Victoria, Ed & Diane, who Doug & Louise had met somewhere & happened to be in Gettysburg too. We then traveled with Doug & Louise over the Blue Ridge Mtns. to Cherokee, NC where some friends of ours, Brad & Sheri, from Florida joined us.
We said goodbye to Doug & Louise & proceeded through North & South Carolina to Charleston with Brad & Sheri. They had to head home then, so Ron & I made our way to Florida stopping to visit Savannah, GA along the way. We arrived in Sarasota, FL Nov 1st & we will be there until the end of Jan. Doug & Louise & Ed & Diane arrived in Sarasota a few days before we left to fly home for Christmas. We will see them when we get back & probably do some traveling around FL with them, then I think they are going to come with us when we leave FL at the end of Jan. We will be heading up to the FL panhandle & will stop to visit Brad & Sheri, then we are going to make our way to TX & will visit some friends in San Antonio & do some traveling around TX, before we start for home up the west coast. Hopefully we will see our new CA friends & also visit Ron's aunt & uncle. So far we have had quite an adventure & hopefully the second half of our adventure will be as eventful & carefree as the first half.
We are now home for Christmas & staying with Mum B as we rented our house out to a friend while we are gone. We will be going over to Vancouver on Dec. 23 to spend Christmas with Alan, Kazuko, Amy & Hanna. We will have a little Christmas celebration with Lesley Anne & Brendan on the 23rd, then they are going to bring my car back to Comox. They are hoping to go skiing with friends (no snow on the mountains yet) & tour around the island a bit.
Jennifer & Dave are in NZ. Dave has finished university & has his teaching degree & will be starting his job in Christchurch & Jennifer has one more semester. The school has hired her for the last 6 months of the school season & they have said that if she has the time, she can do some substitute teaching for them while she finishes her degree. We are planning to visit the in NZ next fall & while there, will probably make a trip to Australia to visit Brendan's parents.
My mum is in a nursing home now, but is doing well. She seems to have settled in & seems quite content & is well looked after.
Ron & I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

Love, Ron & Gail Brown



PS: If any of you have computers & wish to follow our adventures & see our pictures just go to:

http://69janeplace.blogspot.com/

Returning to Canada

Thursday, November 20 we get on a plane at Tampa for a flight home to Comox. We are of course happy to be heading home to see Mom and all our friends but sad to leave our home ( and sunshine),
and friends we have made in Florida. Since October 28 we have been at Windward Isle RV Park and will leave the rig here till February 1-09. It has been a restful 3 weeks. I have been able to get out on the beach and bike ride every day. Gail gets up early and goes to the exercise room in our Park. Our friends Don & Norma Bays arrived a week ago and stayed in their new home in Lakewood Ranch. It is a mansion in a large development about a mile from here. VERY NICE !!! It was great to see them again and had a wonderful meal at their house. Don’s brother-in-law , Rob was down from Ontario to help with the finishing touches of the house. Gail & I went to the Ringling Museum and Art Gallery which is a huge complex in Sarasota. Very Nice and impressive even for a couple of Comox. Most of our days are spent around the pool and off exploring in the truck. Thursday our plane will touch down in Comox at 5:30 PM and Graham is picking us up. Dinner at Mom’s who has been counting the days for the past month!! We will be staying at her house (339-6082) until December 23 when we go to Alan’s in New Westminster for Christmas. We look forward to seeing everyone prior to our return flight on December 27.

Florida Pictures

Ron & Gail

We made it to Sarasota- Florida

We made it to Florida !!!!

It has been 6 months of traveling, 29564 km (18370 miles), $6900 in gas, countless bottles of wine and we made it to Sarasota Florida. As we pause to reflect on what we have done, it is by far the greatest adventure we have taken in our life and we are only half way there. We left Luray North Virginia and traveled to the south end of the Great Smoky Mountains and stayed at a KOA Campground in Cherokee. The Perry’s were still traveling with us and this is where we rendezvoused with the Whitman’s who were coming up from Atlanta. It was great to see Brad and Sheri again who live in Crestview Florida. They had come up to Atlanta for a band competition so we arranged a weeks camping with them and came to Charlotte and Charleston with us. Our next stop was one night at Camp Wilderness Resort in Charlotte NC before arriving at Charleston SC in the James Island Country Park. The Perry’s left us at Cherokee and will see them again in Florida. James Island is a huge Park like Stanley Park in Vancouver with a large RV park in the center. A city tour along with a boat ride out to Fort Sumter ( The shot that started the civil war) gave us a overview of the area. Great seafood dinner at the world famous Hymens along Meeting Street. Brad and Sheri left after 3 days but we stayed 5 before traveling south to the Hardeeville RV park just next to Savannah. Sherman’s army didn’t burn Savannah so the historical area is intact and best seen by their Trolley Bus Tour. We only spend two days there as we were anxious to get to our final destination. It was a long day driving to reach the Breezy Oaks Campground in Busnell just south of Ocala. This was a great spot to overnight as we only had a two hour drive to Sarasota. In February of this year we had been to the Windward Isle RV park and arranged for a 3-month site so it was like coming home. When we made a right turn off of I-75 into the RV resort I had a big sigh of relief !!!!! WE MADE IT. We traveled 30,000 km safely and in good health. A perfect adventure that is told on the many previous posts on this Blog. The picture you see is our RV permanently set up on out site. We have bought some patio and Christmas lights as we want to make this feel like our home. We are glad to be in one place for 3 months and look forward to returning to Comox on November 20 for Christmas.

Thanks for everyone's email. We really appreciate hearing from you.

Pictures

Gettysburg

Washington DC

North Carolina

Luray Caverns

Luray Virginia

The Whitman's Visit - Cherokee-Charlotte NC- Charleston SC

Savannah

Florida

Our Mailing address is:

Ron & Gail Brown

1 Catamaran Dr,
Sarasota, Florida
USA, 34233

Vermont to North Carolina

It is a cool morning with fog over the trees and the sun coming up at the Fort Chiswell RV park in Max Meadows, Virginia which nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. It has been a busy two weeks as you can see by the updated destinations on our trip itinerary. We left Vermont on a sunny day and had a spectacular but long drive through the rolling hills of New York to the Nittany – KOA Campground just outside Williamsport Pennsylvania. After rainy Vermont the warmth of the sun and the beautiful campground made our two day stay a wonderful stop. We visited the bustling town of Williamsport and took pictures of my Aunt’s old house and had a good lunch at RedLobster. We were anxious to get to Gettysburg where we were going to meet up with our travelng friends Doug and Louise Perry who went to Boston. It was a short drive to the Drummer Boy Campground in Gettysburg where we had prepaid $70/night for 5 days in a campground that was supposed to be #10th in North America. It was difficult to get a reservation because it was Apple Festival and Columbus Day Long Week-end. When we arrived and found out campsite it was 10 feet from a busy Interstate Freeway. The noise was horrible and made sleeping and conversation difficult. It was otherwise a great 5 days in a area steeped with so much history. We found another Canadian couple from Victoria and decided to have a Canadian Thanksgiving. I got out the large Canadian flags and draped them over the RV’s as we cooked a Turkey on the barbeque with cranberry sauce and pumpkin pies. The six of us talked “ Canadian “
and thought about our families in Canada. What a Feast !!!! BUT.. The next day we had to catch a bus at 5:15 to Washington DC for a tour of the Nation’s capital. We had two hours to look at the Smithsonian Institute but could only scratch the surface. The place is HUGE. Dinner was included before we arrived back at 7 PM. The next day was a tour of Amish country with lunch in a small town called Intercourse just beside another small town called Bird in Hand. We had a great 5 days in Gettysburg under sunny skies but the noise of the freeway was horrible. We decided to use a site called RVParkReviews to better evaluate sites before prepaying for a reservation. I now do evaluations for the site and would highly recommend it plus it is FREE.

From Gettysburg with the help of RVParkReviews we found an outstanding park in Luray Virginia. This is at the beginning of the famous 500 mile Skyline/Blue Ridge Mountain trail. It starts in the Shenandoah National Park at a town called Front Royal and traverses the Blue Ridge Mountains like the Banff-Jasper highway. We started the trail which was approved for RV’s but quickly became uncomfortable with the narrow roads and big inclines. At about mile 40 we got off and drove down to Luray RV Park which has easy access from Interstate 81. We decided to use the Interstate to move the Rigs and just take the car up to enjoy the sites. The mountains go up to about 5000 feet but most are lower and now snow so far. From Luray we took Interstate 81 down to Fort Chiswell which is about mile 250. Tomorrow we leave for Cherokee which is at the south end of the trail and will meet up with Brad and Sheri Whitman for the next week. We really enjoy traveling with the Perrys and they seem to have the same ideas on where to go which makes for good company. It is getting close to November 1 which is when we reach Sarasota and will park the rig for 3 months. We both are looking forward to more structured day where we can get into a little bit of a routine.

Thanks again for all your E-mails. Pictures are coming.

Touring New Hampshire & Vermont

Sunday- October 5
Pownal- Vermont

Picture to right- Taken by Louise Perry from their RV
" Back end of ours travelling the New Hampshire Road "

Good Morning. It is Sunday morning in sunny Vermont. We left Bangor Maine Sept 30 and drove through spectacular fall color to Littleton New Hampshire(NH). The brilliant reds and yellows just are not seen on the west coast and are as a result of the Sugar Maple Trees. It was mostly a sunny day and we were travelling with Doug and Louise Perry from Cranbrook who are a fun couple that are going to Florida in the same direction. The scenery was breath taking as reflected by our hundreds of pictures of foliage. We arrived at the Crazy Horse Campground in Littleton New Hampshire. It was large and owned by the most hospitable couple we have met on our whole trip. They gave us two large sites that had just been cut out of the trees this year. Unfortunately the next 4 days were rain which turned our campsite to a sea of MUD. This really spoiled a lovely setting as the temperatures dropped to about 6 degrees C and snow fell on the mountain tops. We still managed to get out every day for some interesting drives with Doug and Louise. We had dinners at each other’s RV and named our sites “ The Swamp “. Maine is very flat but the White Mountains of NH make this area a very scenic destination. After 4 days of rain we left and made our way to Pownal which is just outside the scenic town of Bennigton on the Vermont/Massachusetts boarder nestled in the Green Mountains. We lucked in to Pine Hollow Campground. It is a small but the jewel of Vermont and a favourite of locals. You will see a picture of our rig across the pond in a setting that couldn’t get better. The weather has cleared and it looks like a sunny day. We have finalized out plans for the next 3 weeks. From here we will go to Williamsport, PA for a couple of days then down to Gettysburg for 5 days where we will meet up again with the Perry’s who have gone to Boston. We plan on doing a day trip to Washington DC on a bus tour as it is very close. From Gettysburg we will get on the famous Blue Mountain Parkway and travel south to Atlanta. It is about 500 miles long as was built in the 1930’s. It is supposed to be a spectacular drive and have to finish on October 19 in Atlanta to meet Brad and Sheri Whitman. They have rented a camper and will spend the next week travelling to Savannah on the coast before making our way down to Sarasota by November 1. As we go south it will be nice for warmer weather and sunshine. Please keep the E-mails coming as news from Canada is always welcome. Remember to click on the map picture to expand it to full screen. Picture are coming as we finish labelling them. Lots of work !!!!

Our Campsite in Pownal, Vermont

Pictures:

New England States

New Brunswick

PEI

Cabot Trail

St.John NB & Maine

Where was Stephen King’s fictitious town – Derry supposed to be? To read about our latest travels our Blog update.

The answer to the question is Bangor Maine, the home of Stephen King, Gail’s favourite author. It is a rainy Saturday morning as we wait for hurricane Kyle to pass. I chose a campground on a hill so flooding shouldn’t be a problem. We left Halifax Sept 22 and made our way to Rockwood Campground in Saint John NB. The weather for that week was spectacular with sun,sun, & and more sun. Rockwood campground is part of a 2200 acre park in the city that is mostly inhabited by tradesmen working on new mega projects. You can not make a reservation and with limited sewer sites all that is available is power and water. The have a pump truck that will empty your tanks for $20. I had a long discussion with the campground director and sent a e-mail to the mayor ( No reply yet) about the lack of sewer sites. With tourism being down 50% they made a decision to fill the campground with permanent trades people to keep the revenue up. It is too bad because it is a spectacular RV park right in the middle of Rockwood Park. The city bus comes right into the campground twice a day and will take you on a city tour for $18. While there are many other campgrounds in the surrounding areas this is the only one in the central city. We had a good time because the weather was so great. Now they should rename St.John to IRVING. Most of us from the west have no idea how big Irving Oil is with diversity in refining,trucking,petrochemical plants, Nuclear Power, Pulp & Paper etc. While the down town harbour is pretty with a lot of old buildings the view from our campground on the hill tells a different story.

St.John is a massive Irving refining plant that stretches for miles. They are currently building a second refinery and a Nuclear Power Plant. All of this energy is exported to the USA and NONE is sold in Canada. I feel sad for St.John as I think it has lost its beauty with pollution.

We left Bangor Maine and crossed over to the US at Calais. The boarder police were really nice and didn’t put me in jail for the lemons and limes Gail forgot to throw out. They didn’t even ask about booze or meat. It was a gorgeous sunny fall day and colors had just started to turn as we took the south route- Highway 1 to Bangor. Originally I had planned on staying at Bar Harbour but Hurricane Kyle changed my mind. Thought we would find some high ground to be safe. We are in a nice campground called Pleasant Hill. It is just on the outskirts of Bangor but there were lots of choices. Yesterday we toured Bar Harbour , which is part of Acadia National Park and found it spectacular but crowded with lots of traffic. This is in the off season with all the huge hotels empty. I have no idea what happens in the summer. There is a KOA campground in Bar Harbour that has waterfront sites for $78/night. Not sure what we are going to do yet. The weather for the next week is not great even after the storm passes. This afternoon Doug & Louise Perry are arriving in their Motorhome. They parked next to us in Halifax and are from Cranbrook so we had two BC plates side by side. We are having them over for dinner tonight and will talk Canadian !!!!! Some facts- Diesel is $3.86/gallon, 2 liters skim milk $1.81, 5-liters of Mountain Chablis in a box- $14.99, two salmon filets wrapped in crab meat $3.99 each.

Keep the Emails coming and will work on uploading some more pictures.

Touring Nova Scotia & PEI Sept 22-08

Touring Nova Scotia & PEI
Sept 22-08

It is a frosty Tuesday morning and wanted to update this Blog before we leave for St.John, NB and on down to Bar Harbour. It has been a very busy 2 weeks and as I write this our friends Bruce and Judy Williamson ( B&J) should be getting on their WestJet flight bound for Comox. They are long time friends who arrived in Halifax on Sept 9 to tour the Maritimes with us. Lots of interesting people and places with specific dates being in the itinerary section. B&J stayed at a B&B at the entrance to the Woodhaven Campground just outside Halifax. It is an average campground with its greatest asset being close to Halifax but right next to a major shopping complex. Costco, Staples & Future shop. Yeah !!!!!!
We left our RV parked at Woodhaven and did two trips ( 3 days each) with B&J staying at B&B's. The first 4 days B&J stayed in the B&B and we did day trips around that included a city tour of Halifax, Grafton Dinner Theater, and brewery tour of Alexander Keith's. Peggy's Cove and Lunenberg were spectacular as we had calm sunny weather. The horse drawn carriage ride through Lunenberg was a highlight that narrated the old buildings interesting history. On Sept 12 we headed for the Cabot Trail and made out first stop Glenora at the Glen Breton Distillery. Now many of you might think that the reason that we stopped here is that it is a single malt whiskey distillery. NOT SO !! They had some cottages on the side of a big hill over looking the valley. After drinking the bottle of Scotch ( only 250 ml) we went to the main lodge for a great supper and local music. The drive around the Cabot trail was misty and overcast but very beautiful. The second night was spent at Baddeck in the Inverary Inn with a tour of the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Great scenery as we drove to Pictou and stayed at the Braside Inn which was a old turn of the century building that has been renovated to a B&B. Great dinner in a formal dinning room that had elegance with its old wooden floors and large picture windows of the harbour. We had lunch at the Chatterbox Inn in Pugwash which has great historical interest. In 1955 Cyrus Eaton arranged to have the leading scientists of his time get together to discuss nuclear disarmament. This led to a series of conferences at Pugwash that laid the ground work for the current nuclear disarmament treaties. Back to Halifax for 3 nights before going to PEI. Bruce and I took the bikes into Halifax and rode all over Point Pleasant Park and surrounding area. They really have some steep hills. Lots of cruise ships including the Queen Elizabeth 2 today.
We left for Charlottetown on Sept 18 and booked the Bagnall's B&B for 3 nights which was right downtown next to the shellfish festival. Confederation Bridge is an amazing structure that was completed in 1997 at a cost of one billion dollars. It only cost is $41.50 to cross both ways and NO FERRY. You can only appreciate how great it is to avoid ferries if you live on Vancouver Island. The first night we ate at a neat restaurant called the WaterPrince. Bruce had Lobster and we all had seafood. Day 2 was a trip to Anne of Green Gables and a visit to the Shellfish Festival in the afternoon. Day 3 we went to St.Peter's Bay and Greenwich and on the way stopped at a Vodka distillery. They make it out of Blueberries or Potatoes. That evening we had a lobster dinner at the New Glasgow Lobster Supper. The restaurant has been in business for 50 years and can sit 500 people. Dinner was fish chowder, mussels- all you can eat, Lobster, and pie with ice cream. I had the 1.5 lb lobster and about 3 buckets of mussels. It was probably the BEST meal we have had since we left Comox. It is a MUST if you visit PEI. The B&B was made special by the owner Nora. She was a lovely lady who cooked great breakfasts and spent many hours educating us about PEI. Bruce and I did a great bike ride around the city and waterfront. Only 30,000 people live in Charlottetown and about 140,000 on the whole Island. It seemed that they all left while were there as the roads and beaches were deserted. Sunday we sadly left Nora and PEI which left with a magic experience that only PEI can do. We vowed to return and spend more time there. We went back across Confederation bridge and took the south shore of Nova Scotia to Truro and back to the Airport Hilton where B&J stayed before leaving this morning. What a great two weeks and it is had to believe it is the end of September. Where has the time gone? We are now busy planning our trip to Florida. We will meet up with Brad and Sheri Whitman. Brad was best man at my wedding and have known him since we were 3 years old. We will catch up with them on October 19 in Atlanta for a week of camping together before arriving in Florida November 1.
Today I am getting the oil changed and tires rotated before we hit the road tomorrow for St.John NB. Thanks again for all your E-mail. It is always great to get news from home.

PICTURES:

Western Pond Boat Tour Newfoundland

Codroy Valley Newfoundland

Louisbourg and Glace Bay Nova Scotia

Halifax

Peggy's Cove and Lunenberg

Cabot Trail