On The Road–Hello from Nova Scotia…

I am sitting in a small motel room in Lunenburg Nova Scotia writing these words waiting for my wife to wake up to tell me what she has planned, or maybe doesn’t have planned for the day. Lunenburg is on the “South Shore” of this province. Two days ago I told my wife that she was going to be in total control of our time in Nova Scotia. I would offer no comments or suggestion and would agree to everything she decided. After the fact she seems to always say that I was the one who decided everything so I … Continue reading On The Road–Hello from Nova Scotia…

All I Know — Grow a Backbone…..

All this political foolishness is getting insane. I just wish the president would grow a backbone and tell congress to give him what they gave the previous president seven times. Give him a “clean” bill that raises the debt limit in the next three days. Yes we need to look at spending but we don’t need to put the country in a totally unnecessary peril to do that. Those guys are risking everything I have spent my life saving for my retirement. This game playing stupidity has gone on for much too long now.  Its time for some “grownups” in … Continue reading All I Know — Grow a Backbone…..

On The Road — Day 14 – Here is to you Anne…

Here we are already beginning our third week of our Canadian adventure. Today we did something that we don’t often do and that is take a tour bus. We decided instead of driving the 100 or so miles around the island we would let Graylines do it for us.  It was a very pleasurable trip. Our driver/guide is a lifelong resident of Prince Edward Island (PEI) who told us much about the local history and how the island has changed during his lifetime. The bridge we went over is several times longer than we have ever encountered and several times … Continue reading On The Road — Day 14 – Here is to you Anne…

On The Road — PEI and the Canadian Federation….

Today we spent the day meandering around the city of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The island is much bigger than I thought. I expect it is 50 miles or more long and 20 or so wide. It is a separate province (State). We spent quite a bit of the day walking its mile long boardwalk along the bay and collecting a few souvenirs in the shops that lined it. After lunch (I had haddock with lobster sauce, Yvonne had a cheeseburger) we went to Confederation Hall which was where the original Canadian confederation was formed in 1867. The museum there covered the … Continue reading On The Road — PEI and the Canadian Federation….

On The Road — Oh Those Acadians….

We had a wonderful day at the Acadian village yesterday. We got there just as it opened at 10am and spend the next four hours experiencing the Acadian life of the 19th century. We had a little rain but not enough to put a damper (pun intended) on the day. There are about fifty building in the village and most of them had an interpreter to tell us about the person who owned the building. All of the interpreters were bi-lingual and I guess they got their clue for your first words as to whether they would talk in French … Continue reading On The Road — Oh Those Acadians….

All I Know — "White House shifts in unpredictable debt debate"

White House shifts in unpredictable debt debate – USATODAY.com. Political analyst Darrell West of the Brookings Institution said the administration’s willingness to adjust when the situation warrants could put the president at an advantage. “Leaders have to adapt to changing circumstances,” said West. “And if they don’t, their rigidity undermines the political process.”    This whole article talks about President Obama has constantly been changing what he wants to accomplish with all the debt talks. As the quote I pulled out mentions that leaders have to adapt…. but what I don’t see here is that the only one that seems … Continue reading All I Know — "White House shifts in unpredictable debt debate"

On The Road — Day 11 – Those Ornery Acadians…..

We Moved from our hotel this morning about 180 km to Riviere-du-Nord to visit a historic Acadian village. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us today. We spent most of the morning and afternoon in constant rain. We found a motel close to the village and checked in. It is another pretty inexpensive motel so I did check out the bed before making the accommodations. ;) After checking in we headed for the village and managed to go through about 20% of it before finally surrendering to the rain and heading back to our room. The rain is supposed … Continue reading On The Road — Day 11 – Those Ornery Acadians…..

On The Road — Goodbye Quebec Province…

This will be a short post as I have already done one today. Here we are at the end of day 10 of our Canadian adventure and we are now in New Brunswick Canada. As I had hoped Yvonne agreed to skip the rest of the peninsula trip and to move on to another English speaking province.  Coping with french only was becoming tiring to me.  We drove about 350 km today to get to Campbellton New  Brunswick which is the gateway to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. I’m sure the New Brunswick folk don’t consider themselves a gateway … Continue reading On The Road — Goodbye Quebec Province…

On The Road – Day 10 – Oh What a Beautiful Morning…

I watched the sun come up this morning over the St. Lawrence River. It was 5:00am here when that event occurred.  It turns out that the bed in our little motel room just proved to be too hard for my bursitis so I spent most of the night in a chair waiting for the aforementioned event. It was worth it. The only other person arousing at that hour was a lonely fisherman. I watched him for about ten minutes. He didn’t catch any fish but I don’t suspect that was the true reason he was out there. I think he, … Continue reading On The Road – Day 10 – Oh What a Beautiful Morning…

My Rare Medical Condition….

I seem to have a medical condition that is somewhat rare today.  No I am not talking about Cochlear Otosclorosis that caused my deafness  many years ago but one maybe even more rare. That condition is called a “Bleeding Heart”. I know this is a condition that my fellow Republicans loathe. Whenever they want to diss someone they call them a “bleeding heart liberal”. But I have to admit that I can’t help having this condition. It is just part of who I am. My heart bleeds for those around the world and even in our own country who don’t … Continue reading My Rare Medical Condition….

All I Know — My Peculiar Medical Condition…

I seem to have a medical condition that is somewhat rare today.  No I am not talking about Cochlear Otosclorosis that caused my deafness  many years ago but one maybe even more rare. That condition is called a “Bleeding Heart”. I know this is a condition that my fellow Republicans loathe. Whenever they want to diss someone they call them a “bleeding heart liberal”. But I have to admit that I can’t help having this condition. It is just part of who I am. My heart bleeds for those around the world and even in our own country who don’t … Continue reading All I Know — My Peculiar Medical Condition…

On The Road — Day 9 — Another Interesting Day….You Can't….

It seems every day in our visit to Canada is not without its challenges. But, then again that is what makes life interesting I guess.  It is kind of like in 1987 during our first vacation as a married couple I lost my wife in a WalMart store in Bozeman Montana. I don’t remember too many other details about that vacation but I do remember searching for my bride for over an hour before I found her. But, that is a story for another post so I will get back on track. We are now in a small motel room … Continue reading On The Road — Day 9 — Another Interesting Day….You Can't….

On The Road — Adieu Quebec…

This is day 8 of our Canadian adventure and we just left Quebec City. That was the last major city we will see in Canada. While Quebec was much more enjoyable than Montreal it was still a hectic time. But we did find the major stopping point we were looking for and that was Place Royale. It was part of the very old Quebec that has been completely restored back to its 1600s roots. That is except for the 21st century add-ons. Here is a picture of the main square in that area. Of course this area is adjacent to … Continue reading On The Road — Adieu Quebec…

On The Road — Au revoir Montreal….

When I made the post this morning I commented that since it was Sunday morning our trip through Montreal would be a leisurely one. I was sooooo WRONG!!   We did get to the two sites on our agenda but it took almost four hours of driving to get there.  At first I decided to try to navigate using  just the atlas. I found Mont Royal on the map and after a few misdirected turns and about 45 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic we were at that location. The trouble was that it was not “Parc du” Mont Royal. So … Continue reading On The Road — Au revoir Montreal….

On The Road — On a Sunday Morning…

Here I am sitting in our hotel room on a Sunday morning blogging again. Somewhere along my long life path I became a morning person; I do my best thinking then. It would be nice to read a paper, I mean the actual paper kind, that just seems to be more soothing for Sundays but since we could only discover the french version that isn’t happening. I’m looking out the window at a twelve lane road going into Montreal and it is hard to believe that it really is Sunday morning. Wait a minute I had better check on the … Continue reading On The Road — On a Sunday Morning…

All I Know … About the Debt Ceiling

I have been a little shy about wading in on the debt ceiling stuff that is going on right now.  As you know I like to make jokes about what I say here and those Republicans in Congress are making me look like an abject amateur in that area. Most of this same group of yahoos rubber stamped seven (yeah seven) debt increases during baby Bush’s eight years in office. We did not even hear a peep out of them about anything to do with future generations or all those things we are hearing now. The merrily passed all the expenses for … Continue reading All I Know … About the Debt Ceiling

On the Road — Parlez vous français?

Here it is at the end of day seven and we are now fully immersed into the providence of Quebec.  It seems that everywhere we went in Ontario there was always an English sign followed by one in French.  Now that we are in Quebec the English signs seemed to have all but disappeared?  When we checked into the hotel for the night close to Montreal we did have English speaking front desk person. That was a relief since we spent almost 4 hours going the 100 or so miles we drove today. Half of that time was trying to … Continue reading On the Road — Parlez vous français?