This is another two day post as yesterday was a travel day. We are now in Codroy, also known as Codroy Valley, also known as Great Codroy, and Grand Codroy… take your pick! It was a beautiful day for a drive and the 3+ hour trip was uneventful. The scenery changed, and we found ourselves driving through the mountains (actually the northernmost end of the Appalachians) where we saw pine forests and deciduous trees. It’s been pretty barren up to this point, so the change was a surprise. The gazillion lakes continued, and the landscape was lush.
Steve and I were the first to arrive at the campground behind the wagon masters which was a first for us. We finished setting up as the rest of the caravan trickled in. A group of us sat around until it was time to go to another trip log meeting and social. That probably sounds fun, but actually we are all pretty tired of these. Our wagon masters have scheduled a social at the end of every single travel day, and our group is divided into two so we take turns bringing food to share. To say that most of us don’t feel like cooking anything after a day of driving is an understatement. Add to that the lack of grocery stores in rural parts of Newfoundland, and you have a recipe for some cranky travelers. Well it was my turn to help with food, so I had some leftover French fries I had put in the freezer that I put in the convection/microwave and made some gravy to throw over… camping poutine! After everyone had eaten, the wagon masters did our trip log meeting.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but our trip log is a spiral bound book with turn by turn directions for each destination. It points out where to find fuel, points of interest, things to watch out for, etc. They want us to use it rather than our navigation systems, because they want to be sure we are all in the same route so if something happens, the tail gunners will be able to find us. All of that makes sense. I’ve gotten smart, though, and quickly run through the directions at the start of each drive and match it up with the nav. So far there have been no discrepancies (mostly because there is only one way to get to most places here) and so we’ve only used the log book for fuel stops. The most frustrating thing about these trip log meetings, is our wagon master READS EVERY WORD to us. Oh.My.God. It is painful! Since it is all written in front of us, perhaps ask us to review it and ask if there are questions?!! Not only that, at last night’s meeting, he did the trip log for the next THREE travel days. Not only did he read pages and pages out loud to us, since some of these travel days are not until next week, it is unlikely that anything he said will be familiar when it comes time to drive. Steve and I both dislike these meetings, but Steve REALLY can’t stand them! Totally understandable. By the time we were done, we had had it… it started to rain so we all just headed back to our RVs.
Today was a free day for us. Several of our group went cod fishing, and all came back with their limit of five fish each. Steve and I opted out of fishing and did some exploring instead. We found a spot for breakfast then drove around. We are in a beautiful valley with an estuary running through it. It is an important bird flyway, so we took advantage of that and did some birding. There is a trail along the estuary that has informational placards. It was a beautiful walk through a forest along the water. I was using my binoculars, my camera, the Merlin app for bird calls, and the Seek app for identifying plants and birds. I had my hands full but really enjoyed my time in this beautiful area! I did have one very interesting sighting while using the Seek app. There was a duck on a log that I was trying to identify… and the app focused on the log and told me it was a ‘typical crocodile!’ I definitely did a double take! I’m pretty sure that duck wouldn’t have been taking a nap there had it really been a croc!
Once back at the RV, we ate dinner in and joined some friends outside for a duck fart and conversation. Several other of the caravaners joined us, along with the tail gunners, Butch and Jo. Our wagon masters stayed away. We were all enjoying our time together but eventually got chased back inside by the mosquitoes and a few rain drops. Tomorrow is a travel day, but the ferry will be doing the work. We will be leaving the beautiful province of Newfoundland and will be back in Nova Scotia tomorrow night.