We made it back home

Wednesday, August 3, 2011


Well we finally made it back home at 10:06 p.m.!  It was a fantastic trip, but it does feel good to be back home.

We left the campground in Argentia around noon.  We figured the ferry would probably start loading around 1:30 or 2:00 so we might just as well go get in the line-up.  Who knows we might get to talk to some more interesting people while we are waiting.  And of course we did, we talked to a young fellow that was on his way home to Nova Scotia after a season of crab fishing.  He had been gone for 3 months and was hauling all of his equipment back home. 
 It was interesting leaving the Island, we could not take any vegetables or plants back with us, and Hemi and Elbroko had to go through a car wash. Unfortunately there was no brush to scrub all the Newfoundland bugs off!   Apparently there is a blight in the soil that they do not want to spread.  After handing over our bag of expensive potatoes we were good to go.  Security was definitely tighter leaving the island. If you went into the terminal building you had to make sure you had your boarding pass to exit the terminal and go back to your vehicle.  
We drove onto the ferry, Atlantic Vision, around 2:15 and immediately went in search of our bed for the night.  We opted not to pay the $160 for a berth, we figured we could just sleep in the reclining chairs.  Wrong!!!!  Neither one of us got a wink of sleep.  It was the longest night ever!  14 hours of fidgeting, up and down and strolling over to the lounge was not fun.  We took our pillows and a small blanket, but we just couldn't get comfortable.  We arrived in North Sydney around 6:30 a.m. and were unloading in no time at all.  We stopped to have breakfast around 9:30, and then drove a couple more hours before we just had to pull into a gas station and have a nap.  We were going to be visiting Doug's brother Dan again on our way back home and that was an 8 hour drive in total.  We did arrive in Woodstock New Brunswick around 5 o'oclock Sunday night.  Needless to say I was not up very late.  I did manage to visit for a few hours before I was off to get my beauty sleep.  Boy do I need it!  Doug got his second and third wind and stayed up into the wee hours visiting with his brother.  We were not sure if we going to spend another night or carry on.  It took us until 6:00 o'clock that night to decide that we really should try and get a few hours behind us, even if we can make it to the Quebec border.  We stayed in our first Walmart parking lot in Edmonston, New Brunswick with 27 other Wallyworld campers.  We couldn't believe it!  There were campers of all sizes scattered around the back end of the parking lot, and now Hemi and Elbroko were part of them.  We left Wallyworld 7:30 a.m. headed for home.  Our timing was perfect to drive through Montreal.  Not too much traffic. We did not have to worry about the bikes falling off this time, Doug decided to have them ride inside the trailer.  Good thinking Dougy!  We were thinking we would camp around Cornwall or Kingston but when we arrived in Cornwall around 3:00 we decided it was too early to stop we could get closer to home.  So we head for Kingston and arrive around 5:00.  We decided it was still early to stop so we made an executive decision to just push it right on to home.  We could be there around 10 or 10:30.   We sure did surprise Sarah and Stephane, they were not expecting us until Wednesday or Thursday.  My Sarah burst into tears when she saw us, it was a long 2 months for her. It was definitely a long day of driving but it was great to be back home after 15,175 kilometers and 68 days of being on the road.  Our gas prices ranged from 122.9 in Bouchtouce, N.B. to 137.9 in Hermitage, NL.  Out total gas bill came in at $4,153.74, which we did not think was too bad for all the beautiful places we had been.  Our camping however, did cost us more than we expected.  It came in at $1,728.82.  Camping rates were as low as $15 up to $36.42 a night, which are much lower than any campgrounds in Ontario. We were planning on doing a fair bit of boondocking, but when the weather was so cold and rainy we just wanted to be hooked up to hydro so we could run the furnace and make Elbroko more comfortable.  We saw a total of 19 moose, 5 deer, 8 bald eagles, several dolphins, 1,000's of puffins and other seabirds, and tons of whales on our journey.  We met so many wonderful people on our travels.  We will never ever forget the hospitality of the Newfoundlanders.  I was able to check off all the items on my "must see" list including my long lost relatives. This certainly was a trip of a lifetime for both Doug and I.  We thoroughly enjoyed every one of those 15,175 kilometers and 68 days, in spite of the weather. We both feel so fortunate to have been able to experience this unbelievable adventure.  Now it is time to catch up with family and friends and continue to make more Backroad Memories!

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