Montreal

I couldn't say I got an early start, but it afforded a lovely late breakfast with Neil and his wife at a
local favorite, lost the name,.....hmmm.
While saying our goodbyes, Neil proposed we try to improve the nasty gaps in the tilt (canvas roof) on the Rover. The canvas has shrunk badly and scoops massive amounts of air into my left ear. Well and Geordie's right.


With such a late start and really crappy weather, I opted for a more southerly route and to stay
somewhere in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
I didn't really get far enough south for spectacular vistas, but it was a nice drive the following day through a few passes.






Crossed Champlain Bridge into Montreal and went straight to my favorite Souvlaki joint. Villa Du Souvlaki.
I've been eating here for about 33 years! Still the best anywhere.

Later I spent a wonderful evening with friends, enjoying their new hot tub until very late,...

Into America

Last minute wiring.

On the road at last, sort of.

I'm taking a side trip to Montreal, my old home town to visit some friends, but most importantly my father who is not well. So I've left the Argosy in Saint John and headed for the USA.

It's a much nicer drive to Montreal through northern Maine than the ridiculous northern route through Canada. This also gives me another chance to have a beer with Dr. Neil Fisher, whose works at the University of Maine.
A beautiful, bright sunny day, and a speedy run to the border at Calais Maine. Yes, speedy, without the coach, it's tempting to run a bit quick, will have to curb that.
Once in Maine it was an easy run down the Airline, Route 9, which used to be a pretty ratty road, but it's lovely now.



Dropped into Dr. Fisher's lab mid afternoon and got a tour.
I just love this place, Neil has the coolest job!
Besides the ocean radar research, he deploys buoys throughout the Gulf of Maine that record all matter of science stuff, but coolest of all, submarines!
YES, I said submarines, Neil has these little yellow subs, which have no propulsion, rather they glide by compressing
a balloon of air in the nosecone, thus reducing it's buoyancy so it sinks, or glides because it has wings. collecting data all the while, as it reaches it's predetermined depth, it lets the balloon expand again, increasing it's buoyancy and rises to the surface, again on a glide path. Then it surfaces, zaps all the data it's collected by cell phone to the central server, get a GPS fix on it's location, instructions from the server and submerges for another cycle, so very, very cool!

After the tour, well, off to the pub!
Great spot, Woodman's in Orono Maine. We were met there by Jim, great guy and fellow

Rover enthusiast.
I had an amazing steak and a sampling of local beers.

The night ended a bit late,...

In with the new

Back on the road!

Setting up a Salisbury (Dana 60) rear end is a long process. It's in, new ring and pinion, bearings, seals and flange.
Dialed in with a perfect contact patch and preload.  Love it!
While the truck was on the hoist lot's of other maintenance was undertaken. The entire front end rebuilt, drive shafts, transfer case, emergency brake, new shocks.
One extra modification was the addition of 30mm wheel spacers. The truck has pretty big tires and they hit the springs when turning sharp. I could set the steering stops to avoid that but I want to maximize the turning ability. The

spacers fix that and widen the overall stance which will improve handling.
Unfortunately when the spacers arrived they were for the later coil spring Land Rovers. Nothing a visit to good friend Peter McKelvey and his well equipped machine shop couldn't fix.
Just needed to cut off an extra flange real Land Rovers don't need.
I just got in from road testing, what an amazing difference!
Off to Montreal,...

Fundy Park

My girlfriend, Donna is visiting for a few days, and with the truck still on hold waiting for parts we thought we'd go on a bit of a tour. Started with a fabulous brunch in uptown Saint John at Magnolia  Cafe. I had a wild Eggs Benedict, Donna had panko battered, deep fried French Toast. Perhaps not as amazing as it sounds, but a neat spot. From there we walked around a bit, as I've mentioned, I've become enamored with the city, love all the old buildings and the steep streets.
But I was really amazed when we came to the harbor and there was,... The Queen Mary II!!
I couldn't believe it! I just love the old liners and this boat just represents a whole era of travel that I adore. Next to the Carnival Cruise thing behind her, the QMII was radiant! Love this!
After much Googling, I finally found a  suitable place to spend a couple of days, I called and booked Fundy Park Chalets.

Awesome spot, and at this time of year there is very little in the way of chalet rental. Plus really
reasonable!
So we're off up to Alma.
Checked in, set up, lovely spot, increasable view, absolutely lovely people!
Off for groceries. Then bacon wrapped scallops on the Q,
The next day we head into the park and set out for some hiking, lovely trails. Our second trail was significantly longer than expected, the park maps aren't quite to scale,...
The inlet in the picture to the right with the covered bridge was once the site of a huge dam and lumber mill, just below they built ships to haul the timber to Europe! It's amazing, unless you look very closely, the bridge is the only trace of that era.
The next day we went to Cape Enrage and Hopewell Rocks.
The New Brunswick tourism destination of choice, which was closed. So we broke in,...
Now this place is awesome, no wonder it's such a hot spot, there's easily room for 300 cars in the parking lot. Taking pictures becomes absurd as they all look the same, but walking around you just come upon more and more amazing stuff.
Do NOT miss this on a trip to New Brunswick.

Cape St. Mary's

OK, so we need to get to Cape St. Mary's at the very bottom of Nova Scotia, Not really all that far
from here but the options are the ferry from Saint John's to Digby NS and a 40 minute drive down to the Cape. Or drive all the way around on the mainland, a 6.5 hour drive,.....
At is always seems with the ferry, the timing
never works out, so if we leave now, we'll still be at the cape ahead of the ferry,....
We fuel up and hit the road.

Cape St. Mary is another stunning spot, high over the Atlantic Ocean, more cliffs, more climbing safety fences,...
The work here was somewhat more complicated however, we had to open all the road cases full of electronic gear!
In fact by dusk there were still issues, realizing we needed to return the next day we packed up and headed for the Rudder Pub in Yarmouth.
A great spot with some nice craft brews including a splendid dark ale.
The following day was very successful as Dr. Fisher promptly sorted out the radar and we were on our way, again the ferry was of no use so we drove around again, arriving in Saint John just before midnight. Plenty of time to tidy up the remaining beers in the trunk.

At the Coast Guard tower

The work Dr. Fisher does involves sending radar pulses out across the gulf of Maine from several stations in Maine and Nova Scotia. These radar pulses bounce off waves in the gulf and using sophisticated modeling software he can map currents in the gulf with great accuracy. Cool stuff. The electronics is housed in the Coast Guard radio shed at the extreme southern tip of the island, a dramatic spot indeed.
I didn't feel I should take any pictures of the gear in the radio shed in the interest of national security but wow! what a pile of cool gear.
The installation is on a very high cliff overlooking the Gulf of Maine. I managed to climb out on a rather precarious rock bluff well beyond the safety fence,...
When you stand in a place like this, alone and in still air your mind about bubbles over, for me anyway, I'd love to build a little studio, right on this bluff, and build a beautiful but precarious stairway down to the completely inaccessible beach, what a spot it must be.
That mood was promptly squashed by the instant appearance of a Coast Guard helicopter directly overhead! "h lovely"I thought "'ve gone and pissed them off, threatening the good doctors work." Or worse, perhaps an alarm triggered when we opened the door to the computer room from hell!
Then they landed!
No worries, the little building in the picture holds 30,000 liters of jet fuel, it's a refueling stop.

Neil promptly fixed the radar, without more than some carrying and lifting on my part, well done.
And we're off to Saint John! Back on the ferry and up to the city, bookended into the hotel and off to the pub!
Britts, awesome spot, good folk behind the bar.
I had simply amazing prosciutto wrapped scallops!
Our late night walk back to the hotel was lovely, I really like Saint John, I believe it's in for a renaissance. it's a city on a hill of a peninsula with three sides to the sea. Ancient architecture and very walkable, love it!

Science!

Now we're talking!

My first adventure! My good friend and Oceanographic scientist, Dr. Neil Fisher needs help with a field maintenance tour of the Bay of  Fundy! With the truck on hold while we wait for parts, Neil picks me up on his way to Gran Manan for our first stop. Having never been to Gran Manan I was really looking forward to the trip until Neil pointed out that there isn't a single pub on the island.
Oh well I always enjoy a ferry ride.
It's good to catch up with Neil, he's a Rover buff
too and has been a good friend for many years. Everyone should know at least one scientist.
Arriving too late in the day to do any meaningful science we found the sole open restaurant and had a lovely deep fried bonanza.
Back at the motel a trunk full of beer made up for the lack of a pub.
We didn't quite see the dawn that night but made a good effort.