Marcum Memories

July 31: Wow, we've been gone for nearly 2 months and we are nearing the end of our RV Tour. We spent 2 nights in Port au Choix, NL, at a campground owned and run by a Lions Club chapter. It's right on the ocean and has been windy and raining most of the day. This morning, we went to a French Bakery and were given a history lesson about the French presence in this part of Newfoundland and baking bread in a brick, wood fired oven. When the French traveled to Port au Choix, they came to fish but were not allowed to live only visit. Their ships were laden with bricks to keep them upright and when they landed, the bricks were unloaded and used to make the ovens in which the fishermen cooked their bread. Afterwards, we traveled back to the lighthouse and saw a herd of caribou hanging out. The remainder of the day was quite wet so we kept close to home. In the evening, the group enjoyed an Ambassador cooked meal. (The Ambassadors are our Wagonmasters and Tailgunners.) The air is so d...

July 30: We chose to not go on the whale watching trip and instead switched off the alarm and we left just before 10 am. The drive was relatively short mileage wise, but the roads were really bad and traveling at maximum speed just wasn't possible. We were the 4th to arrive at Oceanside RV Resort in Port au Choix and we have a lovely view and sound of the ocean. There isn't much of a beach, mostly waves crashing onto large flat rocks. It is very windy here today and hopefully it will die down tomorrow. We drove into town to do a little shopping and found another lighthouse. This one is not operational but nice to see. We had a free day and we took naps.

July 29:  Today is a busy day because we have several items on our itinerary. We woke to high winds again and were told that one thing on our list is postponed to the morning - whale watching. We started at Norstead Viking Village and we walked through various buildings built to Nordic specifications. The first building houses a full scale Nordic ship which is 45 ft long, 16 ft wide and can float in 3 ft of water. We walked outside and Alan tried his hand at ax throwing. Note the buildings all have living roofs. There were displays showing yarn crafts, in particular, weaving and one needle knitting. Another building was a small church, a communal building and a blacksmith. The communal building would have housed about 35 people and their livestock, cooking facilities, and sleeping quarters. Quite fascinating. We then went to lunch at a local restaurant where we again had fish and chips. After lunch we headed to another site, L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site where we watche...

July 28: We traveled today from Rocky Harbour to St. Anthony for a distance of 210 miles. We were warned of high winds along the route and we did experience winds. On the road here, we all noticed hundreds of  piles of logs along the roadside. We found out that the locals burn about a cord of wood every month so this wood is really valuable to the locals. We all arrived safely at Tripple Falls RV Park. The space allotted to our group is like a parking pot or a sardine can - I'm not sure which. We all made it safely, though. We came across another lighthouse which give a very loud fog horn noise when needed. This area of Newfoundland proudly boasts Nordic/Viking presence from hundreds of years ago. We were supposed to attend a Viking Feast Celebration and Dinner but due to a mix-up at the Tour's headquarters our dinner was postponed to tomorrow - much to our chagrin. Instead, about half of the group stayed and had a meal at the restaurant next door to the Viking Dinner extravag...

July 27: We woke to a lovely sunny day and after breakfast, we joined the group on a cruise from Norris Point wharf. We received a gentle 2-hour cruise which was narrated by Wayne Parsons, who is the lead vocalist/guitarist of the band we saw last night at the hotel pub. He is quite a good comedian also. He described some of the geology of the rocks along the waters edge. We even saw an eagle high up in the trees. The village of Norris Point is really pretty and colorful and the bay was calm and beautiful. We went back to the RV and spent the afternoon and evening chilling and getting ready for the next day of travel.