My Love, Cape Breton And Me

Well we are home safe and sound. I think this was one of the best adventures that we had traveled. Even though things didn’t go as we pppplanned, it worked out great in the end. What is the old saying – if you want to make God laugh just tell him your plans. Well I ain’t messing with God… And…I am content not to make exact plans. Many of our plans were changed during the course of the vacation --- even the last ferry ride. The 17-hour ferry would have put us in rough waters and we would have never been able to see the most amazing sites of Gros Morne National Park, or have a wonderful lunch with a bunch of friends at a small mom and pop type restaurant overlooking a peaceful, tranquil, pristine lake, and also we were able to avoid the cool rain on the eastern side of the island –-- but, on the other hand… if we stayed on the first course maybe our bike wouldn’t have been disabled….. So now you can see why I let others make ppplans. I guess I don’t want to be responsible for the “future.” And Yes I will get qualified help for this type of demented thinking…….and you can see what my husband has to deal with – he should be a saint ….oh yeah!!! …..(Hey, I’m Irish…he deals with it!)

I would like to leave you with the words of a beautiful song that Roger Whittaker sang many years ago. I absolutely feel a deep affection for this song and it is so lovely when you hear him sing it. It is called My Love, Cape Breton and Me. Thanks for joining us through this ride. It was truly my pleasure to tell you our story.

My Love, Cape Breton And Me
Natalie Macmaster


Sing me a song of your hills
Of mountains and waters so still

A song that will speak of the magic of three
My love, Cape Breton and me

Teach me the ways of your land
Where power and peace go hand in hand

It's all that I want in this life and it's free
My love, Cape Breton and me

Always your rivers are calling to me
I hear the sound of sweet melody

When we're apart and I feel so alone
Carry me home, carry me home

If my time could end perfectly
I know where I'd want it to be

God's gift of heaven would be made up of three

My love,

Cape Breton

And

me

It's all that I want in this life and it's free
My love, Cape Breton and me

The End!

... the rest of the story

...However, ..tish? happens. 82 klicks (Kilometers) on the Rock (Newfoundland) a terrible thing happened to our bike. Until our insurance settles, I can't tell you exactly what happened but our bike was disabled and we were ok. We did not fall or anything like that but after this little mishap happened we were unable to use our motorcycle. Our friends from Canada, (Stuart and Carolyn), Emory and Kathy, and a friendly bunch in a car stopped to help us. I ended up getting a ride to the hotel where we were going to stay for the night with Stuart on his bike. Stuart's wife, Carolyn, went with the two men and woman and their kids in their car. Kathy and Em were on their bike. (I was uneasy about riding with someone I didn't know, in a province I've never been, with people who look like Hell's Angels. So the look on my face must have shown every bit of apprehension ... so Carolyn stepped up to the plate and pinch-hit for me---she rode with the people who stopped to help). She said these people were the nicest people and they couldn't have been friendlier. Silly me ... I watch too many horror-type movies and my imagination took off. Ed got the bike 52 miles from where the occurrence happened to the hotel. Everyone was safe and sound at the "St. Christopher's Hotel" that night. Hmmmm, St. Christopher - doesn't that sound like someone was looking out for us? The next day Emory had to take Kathy and then me to the ferry. Ed somehow got the bike and trailer on the ferry, and Stuart and Carolyn changed their plans and got on the same ferry on a stand-by basis - just to help us out. Luckily for all of us, the tropical storm by-passed the western part of the island and hit the eastern end. I don't know how or why but the seas were as calm as can be ... another one of God's little gifts to us. We had a very pleasant crossing ... in fact..quite fun. At the end of the ferry ride, when we got to Nova Scotia, we had to get to our vehicles to disembark. I was with the other motorcycles ready to get off the boat. Nobody was moving. The smell of fumes was getting to me and I started to get angry. What the heck is going on?????.Oh yeah, Ed and the bike was stuck on the gratings of the off ramp of the ship. He couldn't move. The workers on the ship had to get a board to lift up the center stand on the bike to get it across the grating so he could move our poor ole bike. As soon as they got the bike over the hump, we could all get off. Then Ed could move off the ramp and over to the side of the road to figure out what we were going to do now? We called a couple Honda places to see if they could look at and possibly fix our bike but in that area of the world it seems like they only sell a few motorcycles a year and have no parts or anyone qualified to fix a major problem. So now we had to figure out how to get our bike home... We ended up getting a 26-foot U-Haul Truck. The cost of the truck, gas, and tolls to get home was astonishing. We had four adults in a truck side by side for 22 hours. Now I know how sardines feel.

Newfoundland

We had a wonderful time in Newfoundland this week. It rained a little in St. John’s toward the end of our visit. This was part of that tropical storm that came up from the United States. We drove out of it and the weather has been much more pleasant. We backtracked our route with our new friends from Nova Scotia. They are a lot of fun and it was a pleasure to travel with them. Stuart and Carolyn took us to Gros Morne National Park. Gros Morne is the second-largest National Park in Eastern Canada. It stretches across 1,805 square kilometres (still thinking in metric and the Canadian-way of spelling) of western Newfoundland. These towering Long Range Mountains also include tiny seaside communities, forests, bogs, barren lowlands, and magnificent shorelines. The park takes its name from Newfoundland's second-highest mountain peak (at 2,644 ft/806 m) located within the park. Its French meaning is "large mountain standing alone," or more literally "great somber." In Gros Morne, we traveled up to Cow Head, Trout River and Rocky Harbor. The weather was a perfect 79 degrees and sunny. You couldn’t have asked for anything more.
We saw a few different vehicles this week. ATV’s are extremely popular here. People will park on the side of the TCH (Trans Canada Highway 1) and abandon their car to hop on their ATV for the day. You will see them far away from their vehicle riding along the hilly, rocky terrain. Something I thought was unusual was looking at the semi trucks traveling the TCH. They have big "moose catchers" mounted on the front of the truck with extra lights attached. These trucks are constantly going from one end of the island to the other hauling everything under the sun. Their main goal is to get to their destination as quickly as possible. There is only one thing that can slow them down…………..and that would be hitting a moose. So these truck drivers have extra lights and giant bars on the front of the trucks so when they hit a moose (no deer on the island) the moose doesn’t hurt their trucks and the truck driver can just keep on going on down the road with no time lost for a damages.
Where the TCH was built, some of the riding was a little monotonous. Miles of Tucamore (a Newfoundland term) trees (stunted spruce trees) are on the side of this highway. The salt spray and the wind stunt the growth of these trees so they are short and sort of hideous looking. Emory said the other day that this reminded him of the Outback in Australia……….And I am agreeing with him…………………until I remember………………………….I’VE NEVER BEEN TO THE OUTBACK so how the ‘ell would I know what that would look like. But Em was right; the part of the TCH that we were on was repetitive and probably hard driving when you see the same site for a couple hundred of miles. So we traveled close to 600 miles in a day and a half on mostly a two-lane highway - on the way to the ferry. Most of the roads were great and hardly any pollution on the sides of the roads. However……………….to be continued.

Moose tracks and expensive gas

We saw our first moose a few days ago. The moose (I don’t know its gender) was swimming in a beautiful lake. The moose saw us looking at him or her and I know what he or she was thinking..... "waddya looking at – haven’t ya ever seen a moose swim? Get outta here and leave me alone…eh!" Remember the moose is also Canadian.

We drove in to St. John's, Newfoundland. I finally got there after all these months of talking about it. St. John’s (that is the way they spell the city with an apostrophe) is a town cradled in a harbor carved from granite. The town is surrounded by hills running down to the ocean. It has quaint little side streets and the scenery around the town is breathtaking. However, I guess I thought it was going to be a little San Francisco-type city and it wasn’t at all. We walked around and found a specialty market that sells homemade items as well as hard to get sundries. This store had a cool thing that caught my eye. It was a wall of chocolate. Yes, chocolates from all over the world right there in front of me. It was extremely hard to pass up but out time was limited in St. John’s.

We drove up to Signal Hill which was the reception point of the first transatlantic wireless signal by Guglielmo Marconi in 1901, as well as the site of harbor defenses for St. John's from the 18th century to the Second World War. The view was magnificent – much better than the city.

We then headed over to the Cape Spear Lighthouse. When we got off the bike and the first thing we saw were numerous whales blowing and slightly breaching out of the water. It was very cool. Every time one came up the crowd was cheering. At that point nobody was looking at the lighthouse or the bunkers located here.

The square shaped Cape Spear lighthouse has been restored to its original appearance and refurnished as a light keeper's residence to the period of 1839. This lighthouse is the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland and Labrador. There is also a newer - working, concrete lighthouse that is not open to the public. That lighthouse looks like your typical lighthouse. I believe it came in service in 1950’s. This area is the most easterly location in North America.
At Cape Spear we also saw these old WWII bunkers. Cape Spear was a direct convoy route from Europe to the North American continent. German submarines and raiders off the coast of the Island posed a considerable threat. A coastal defense battery, equipped with two 10" guns was constructed here to protect the entrance to St. John's Harbor. The gun emplacements were built at the tip of the Cape and connected by underground passages to magazine and equipment rooms. From 1941 to 1945, troops were stationed here, and barracks, mess halls and canteens were built. At the end of the war, most of the fortifications were demolished but the gun emplacements stand as a solemn reminder of that important period in military history.

Good news………..Emory has new brakes on his bike and other news……..I am really looking forward to the ferry ride since Christobal is in town. Ugh!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah and I forgot to tell you that gas is over $6.00 per gallon. Whew!!!

Thank you for the emails of encouragement after that fiasco with the hijacking. I wish I had the computer skills of that jerk. I found out about the hijacking on the ferryboat and darn near had a coronary. Marie, my oldest daughter, and I were trying to communicate (via email) regarding the incident while on the boat. We do have our cell phone that we paid extra money to get cell service that is not roaming while we are in the Atlantic Provinces, but the big joke between the Wolfs and the Zarembas is that our cell phone has not been on anything but roaming. So if we were to make a call it would cost an arm and a leg. Needless to say, my husband is not happy with Alltel. Thanks to the Wolfs, we have been able to communicate with our kids via their phone. At that point we were just emailing each other back and forth.

After our nice ferry ride we stayed in Channel Port Aux Basques for the night and the next day headed toward St. John, Newfoundland. We started our day with our raincoats on and ended the day in the mid 70’s and sun. "Aboot" (remember we are in Canada) lunch time we needed to get gas and food. We pulled up to a gas station and got off the bike and to our amazement, our friends we met from the ferryboat pulled up right next to us. They were heading the same direction we were so they have joined us for a couple days. The odds are slim that this happened but it has been an enjoyable journey with them traveling with us.

We met a guy in Alma, Nova Scotia, who used to own the hotel we stayed in the night we were there. He was having his 65th birthday – dinner with his wife. He overheard us talking about Newfoundland and told us some places to go while we were there. This man was born in Newfoundland and he knew all the non-tourist type places to go. One of the places he told us to see was Deer Lake. Well the ol' guy was right – it was beautiful. Twisted turn after turn and it kept getting prettier and prettier. We had lunch at one of Popeye’s favorite places called "Blow Me Down Provincial Park." Well it was an outside café in that town. This was an ideal setting, perfect weather and breathtaking scenery. That is "one of those wonderful places" I will think about the rest of my life. It was perfect.

Crossing the Atlantic

July 18

Before I go any further I want to apologize for someone hijacking my blog. At the very least, with what that person wrote, he or she could use correct English. Amy, my daughter in law, received the bad emails and called Marie on the phone and asked her - in her sweet, cute tone of voice,------ "what kind of vacation is your mom and dad having?" That was the only thing I laughed about.

We uneventfully got on the Newfoundland Ferry Boat. This huge ship can carry 1,200 passengers and 350 vehicles. Our ship was called the MV Caribou. This vessel, which entered service in 1986 as Canada's largest ferry, is designed to provide year-round service. However, I met a passenger yesterday that said she rode this ship in the winter and the waves were splashing up to the highest window. It was so rocky and scary that she would never, ever do a winter crossing again. Our crossing was smooth as glass and very entertaining. We had a two man Irish Band in the lounge, wireless internet, restaurants, movies and wonderful people from all over the world. We were very fortunate to have such a nice smooth crossing and believe me I am counting my blessings. I want to say hi to Stuart and Carolyn Hebert – our new found friends on the way to Newfoundland….

Walking on the ocean floor

Tuesday we spent the day sightseeing. We saw the Hopewell Rocks Ocean Tidal Exploration Site in Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick. These giant red rocks are formed by the ocean tides. When the tide is out you can walk on the ocean floor through the giant rocks that now look like huge flowerpots because balsam fur and dwarf spruce cover the top of the rocks. When the tide comes in these giant rocks look like little islands. The waters are very dangerous when the tide comes in.
We stayed at this charming inn in Alma, New Brunswick, which is by the Fundy National Park. This is where we saw the tide go completely out. The boats had to be propped up so they would stay upright. Otherwise they would be lying on their sides in the red, dry ocean floor. Today, we actually walked on the ocean floor, it was incredible!! The tide goes out two cycles in twenty-four hours and fifty-nine minutes. After our dinner, the tide was coming in and the fishing boats were waiting for the water to rise high enough so they could dock and unload. (The tide started coming in at 5pm and the water was high enough for the boats to dock at around 9:30 pm.) It was truly amazing.

These are the Hopewell Rocks. You can see everyone walking on the ocean floor. When the tide comes in, the top of these rocks look only like small islands. The rocks are red as well as the ocean floor.

Here is a daylight and a night time picture of the same dock. The night time picture was of course taken at night with my new camera. It did a pretty good job but I had to hold it very still. The people and the boats were moving so I could not get a totally perfect picture. Remember these boats are in the same harbor - notice the difference in the water. The first picture was take in the afternoon and the next one after 9:00 pm

Wednesday we were in the city of Fort Hastings….. or so we thought. When we went to dinner it said we were in the Sky Lodge Restaurant in the city of Fort Hawkesbury. We asked the waitress where Fort Hawkesbury was located. She replied, "you are in it." We looked at her like she was nutz…and she looked at us like we were out of our minds…….like why are you asking me such a dumb question? It turns out they changed the name of the city but didn’t change the name of the signs. Go figure….we should have known that.
We went from the town of "two names" to the town of Ingonish Ferry, Nova Scotia. It is in Cape Breton, the most northern section of the province. We traveled about 190 miles on the Cabot Trail with some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Giant Lake Ainslie had the bluest – uh… make that cobalt color water with a brilliantly radiant reflection --- it seemed as though you were looking in to natures splendid… enormous… looking-glass. Several miles later, we even saw whales at Pleasant Bay – a very unexpected treat. This wonderful ride today was twisty, turning and somewhat hilly – a very nice challenge for both the driver and the passenger taking pictures. The area we are in now has several ski resorts around here. Right now we are in the North Bay and we have this cute little cottage that overlooks the most "sparkly", shimmer-y, deep sapphire blue water with an emerald green mountain-view background. What more could you want???

Windy Day....

We traveled through customs without a problem, and rode to St. John, New Brunswick for lunch. We had our first glance of The Bay of Fundy and it was beautiful. St John is at the mouth of the St. John River on the Bay of Fundy. This is the one of the most active seaports on the Atlantic Coast. Its deep-water terminals handle some of the world’s largest ships. They have recently built a boardwalk with restaurants and shops to entertain guests. It is truly a fun and beautiful area to site-see.The wind today was extremely gusty. At times I had to hold my helmet so the wind wouldn’t jerk it around. That hurts. The bikers we ran across all commented on the same subject – the wind. It didn’t seem to bother Ed or Emory but I got beat up a little. I am not complaining I am just reporting the facts.

We ended up in Moncton, (pronounced Muncton) New Brunswick at a quaint motel off Canada Highway 2. Moncton is in the Petitcodiac River valley at the geographic center of the Maritime Provinces. It is known as the “Hub City” because of its central location and also Moncton has historically been the railway and land transportation hub for the Maritime Provinces. I loved Moncton and would go back again. People were friendly, Moncton was beautiful and we had a lot of fun there.

We drove up to Prince Edward Island. I couldn’t wait to get there. It rained almost the whole day but we didn’t seem to mind the rain and it didn’t ruin any of our plans. PEI is a very beautiful place to visit. They are known for growing potatoes as well as their fishing industry.We drove to Cavendish were the site of Anne of Green Gables was inspired. L. M. Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, was born on the north shore of Prince Edward Island and raised in Cavendish where she lived until she married at age 36. She published her first book at age 15 and her books have been translated into 15 different languages and put on film. People from all over the world stop there to see the house and land that inspired her writings. Ed and Emory have never heard of Anne of Green Gables but I used to watch the stories on PBS. The tour of the house and land was definitely worth going to visit.We met some brothers outside of Moncton. They were from Vermont, and we helped them out with a small situation. We are at a hotel in Nova Scotia now and we saw their trailer. We knew they were staying nearby. So I wrote a note on the trailer and they found out where our rooms were tonight. So I have to go talk to our newfound friends.

Confederation Bridge

We drove over the Confederation Bridge yesterday. It was rainy, foggy, and just a bit windy but quite an exciting journey crossing the expansive bridge. It is about eight-miles long spanning the Abegweit Passage of Northumberland Strait, linking Prince Edward Island with mainland of New Brunswick, Canada. Residents of Prince Edward Island commonly referred to the bridge as the "Fixed Link" before they gave the bridge its official name. Construction took place from the fall of 1993 to the spring of 1997, costing- ($1.3 billion Canadian). The 12.9-kilometre (notice the spelling) long bridge opened on May 31, 1997. Let’s hope they have inspected it several times since then especially in the last few months, eh! (-; ugh!!! It only takes about 12 minutes to cross the toll bridge and you only pay a toll if you leave……..The locals say it costs about $41.00 to cross the bridge with a car. They don’t get any discounts or pass being a citizen of P.E.I.
We had rain most of the day today. It wasn’t too bad until you wanted to take a picture. Other than that it didn’t hamper a thing. We were just a little bulkier than usual – he he he.

The islanders told us they hadn’t had rain in three weeks so they needed it desperately. They grow potatoes on the island and the crops needed irrigation badly. It is so funny to hear that the local radio station here is called "The Spud."

Other than growing and exporting potatoes, the most income would be from tourism. Tourism is way down this year with the price of gas being so high. Some of the people at this little gem of a motel that Kathy found have their children enrolled in a piper camp. They have a college for Bag Piping right here in Somerside. One part of the camp is for girls all over the world to learn to sharpen their traditional Scottish dancing skills. I met a couple, here at the pool, from Illinois. They were here for their daughter to attend this dance camp. I told them I had relatives who did Irish dancing. The mom said that the difference between the Irish and Scottish dance is this: Irish are stiffer, can’t use their arms as much and their shoes are hard type and that makes more noise (on purpose). The Scottish use point shoes and can move their arms a lot more. Both have beautiful costumes that are very costly. It is nice to see families together on a vacation and also preserving their heritage.

We visited the house in the city of Cavendish where the stories were created from the books of Anne of Green Gables. The author who wrote these wonderful books grew up here after her mom died and had to go live with her maternal grandma. Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables, became a famous author at age 15 with her fictitious stories. The grounds where she got her inspiration for the descriptions in the books are impeccably beautiful; the house is well preserved but not flawless and it is owned and operated by the Prince Edward Island National Park.

Down East in Bangor, Maine

We have landed “down east” in Bangor, Maine. To get here we went the very long, out-of-the-way - route. We decided that in order to get two more states that we traveled through on our motorcycle, we would have to drop down a little and get in to Connecticut and Rhode Island. So now I can add two more pins on my little leather vest. Some day soon I will take that vest with all my state pins and have it framed. That is my trophy with a whole ton of memories.

On our adventures, we sometimes see some pretty strange things. I didn't see it, because I was looking at the people, but was told a dead bear was on the side of the road. Also, while we were driving along in Connecticut, I looked up and noticed something was wrong with the tree line. I mean, why is this ONE tree sooo much taller than the rest? Someone thought they could blend the cell tower in with the trees (well, I wouldn't say it blended), check out the picture.
Apparently many other places try to pass off cell towers as trees, some places do much better than others... here are some pictures http://flickr.com/groups/345995@N24/

Ok, I heard you ask “Why do you call Maine “Down East?” My mom and dad always called the New England states “Down East" when we went there every year as a kid to camp with our aunt and uncle and family. We never really questioned it because we heard it all the time. I heard this little tidbit on one of the morning shows a couple weeks ago. Here is a little bit of how they explained it.
When ships sailed from Boston to ports in Maine (which were to the east of Boston), the wind was at their (ships) backs, so they were sailing downwind, hence the term 'Down East.' And it follows that when they returned to Boston they were sailing upwind; many Main-ers still speak of going “up to Boston,” despite the fact that the city lies approximately 50 miles to the south of Maine's southern border. When they returned to Boston they were sailing upwind; many Main-ers still speak of going “up to Boston,” despite the fact that the city lies approximately 50 miles to the south of Maine’s southern border.
Canadians refer to their Maritime Provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island as "Down East". "Down" being down river from the more western provinces up the St Lawrence River. (Are you confused yet???)

Bangor comes from the Gaelic word Beannchor - meaning a staked enclosure. It may also be linked to Beanna, the Irish word for cliffs.

Well so long to the states for a while. We should be in Canada soon. We will have to think in metric once again. That gets a little confusing for me but I can handle it – ha!

First Day

The first day is usually the hardest day of the trip. You need to get your “groove on.” You have to learn to sit on a bike for at least eight hours of driving and try to get as comfortable as you can. It takes me a couple days to get comfy. The first day is the day you break in all your muscles and learn to calm your mind and body.

We fortunately had an uneventful day. Emory is turning in to a “real biker.” He drove through sun, clouds, rain, and chilly weather and didn’t mind it a bit. I guess all those trips to Florida, the Carolinas, and Seattle were his practice runs. He is good to go and a little rain didn’t scare him a bit. In fact he was the one who decided that the rain wouldn’t last, that it was clear up ahead and it wasn’t worth putting on the raincoats. He was correct. The rainy mist cleared up just fine and we didn’t have to put on those annoying raincoats. However, all the other riders had their rain gear on and didn’t even need it. Nice going Emory…

Destination Newfoundland - Vacation with the Wolfs

July 2008

Well this is a first…huh, you want me to help you ppppplan our vacation? Heck, I have helped to map out a route, suggest places where I would like to go, or say some day I want to go to this place… or prepare for a vacation before but never – not ever… really – ppplan to this extent. Whoa, I’m not the one who is driving here – just the passenger – my plans are the same as the driver. Yeah, I know that Emory and Ed have been busy at work and didn’t seem interested in this type of trivial work anyway (planning our vacation), so Kathy invited me over to her house on a cold, rainy day in July to help her finalize our upcoming vacation. Kathy all ready had some plans-in-the-works but as far as the particulars, she needed to complete most of those minor… uh…details…..

Kathy is the type of person who can throw a few things together and in five minutes have a whole suitcase packed for a three-week vacation. It takes me ten tries and then I forget half the things I need even though I had made lists from previous trips. She has this incredible knack for planning and then executing, finding great deals, and making sure everyone’s needs are met (even though we are all adults and should be taking care of ourselves) during a trip. This is all completed the old fashioned way – via the telephone. However, she just very recently received a laptop and is all ready in the process of learning how to use a computer as well as map-out our days, times, and mileage with the help of Yahoo Maps. Kathy, in fact, had to show me how Yahoo Maps program works. So, we will find out soon enough if this program does what it is designed to do.

So in less than a week to go, things are shaping up. I, personally, am not comfortable at making plans. In fact, it down right scares me to make exact plans. I call plans my wishes, goals, desires, wants, dreams, hopes or the closest thing I will say are “so-called plans. I’ve had too many variables come at me during my years so I leave plans up to God, Ed, or Kathy Wolf… and I am very comfortable with that arrangement. (Did I hear someone say she needs therapy??? Well, duh!!!) There are a few times during this type of vacation when you actually need to “plan” rather specifically. On one hand, we had to “time” and then “reserve” our: two Atlantic Ocean passenger/vehicle ferry rides, our one day and night stay near the Bay of Fundy where there should be a full moon so we can watch the tides at their peek, find two rooms in north-central Newfoundland where there is a very popular salmon festival going on for five days, and then on other hand be prepared for the usual ”oopsie” that happens now and again that delays forward progress. Yes, you could say we had to make some definite decisions and do it soon. Yep, I agree, Kathy made some great plans.

So we will embark on a new adventure. The bike has been prepped, passports are packed, reservations have been made, Dramamine has been purchased, and sunglasses have been repaired. We are as set and organized as we can be……….…I think.

Here’s to you my family and friends. Say a prayer and send a wish to keep us all safe…uh, …and throw in a good thought or two mainly so “we” don’t kill each other. All four of us will be together for two and a half weeks. This is a first for Ed and me – traveling this far and long with another couple. Don’t be concerned for us - Ed has been and is used to dealing with me and if he hasn’t killed me from “togetherness” - yet – it is highly unlikely it is not going to happen – but let’s hope that Emory and Kathy can handle…. little ol’ high-maintenance, anxious to plan anything, …………………me.