The day went from very good to very frustrating once we
arrived at the Arm of Gold Campground. Once I parked and was leveling the coach, I
made the stupid mistake of switching off the ignition while the electric
leveling jacks were in operation. That
put them into Error Mode and started a loud and continuous high-pitched squealing
alarm. To get them out of Error Mode and
working again requires a frigging Einstein to interpret the manufacturer’s four
pages of instructions. This happened
once earlier in our trip and I eventually got everything corrected. However, I tried repeatedly for the first
hour after we arrived until I was dripping with sweat and my fingers were sore. My fingers are sore because there
are 8 buttons on the control pad and various combinations of up to four buttons at a time must be held down in a particular order and with significant pressure for up to
15 seconds for each one of the four jacks. I would try a combination of buttons, run
outside, and look under the coach to see if the jack moved up, down, or did
nothing. I believe that I followed the
instructions to a “T,” yet had no success.
If I can’t solve the problem by bedtime I’ll just remove the
control pad from the wall and disconnect it to shut off the alarm. I will be without leveling jacks but I’ve
been there before.
It was recommended that we get on the road by 9:00 this
morning and we made it by 9:20. Not
too bad for us. We needed fuel and
planned to stop about 11 miles down the road at a station that was listed in
our trip log as a “truck stop”. We took
the exit and found a small service station with only one outside lane of pumps that
were available to a large vehicle. Once
I pulled in I could see that there was no diesel in that lane but we were committed
and had to drive through the pump lane and do a U-Turn in the road to get back
onto the northbound lane of the highway.
We tried again a few miles further up the highway and found a station
with diesel and that could accommodate our rig.
I saw an interesting sign today as I was driving along. It marked the halfway point between the North
Pole and the Equator. I would have
thought we were much closer to the North Pole than to the Equator but I would
have thought wrong.
We stopped at a Cape Breton visitors’ center (centre in
Canada) for some maps and bought some T-shirts and sweatshirts in the gift
shop. We grabbed a late lunch at The
Red Barn restaurant for lunch. Carol Ann
had fish and chips and I had a hamburger.
We made another stop to top off our fuel tank just prior to entering the
Arm of Gold Campground. Other than that,
the trip itself was a rather boring 250-miles but then we reached the
campground and my frustration with the jacks replaced the boredom with
frustration and irritation.
There was an interesting tidbit that I forgot to mention
about our visit to Halifax yesterday. We
passed by a building with a sign reading “Canadian
Language Learning College.” I was a
little surprised to see that because I never knew there was a “Canadian
Language.” Carol Ann told me that it was
actually a Canadian college where people went to learn languages but I don’t
think so. I always thought that Canada
was kind of like Australia as far as languages go. I don’t believe there is an “Australian Language”
either, which reminds me of a true (I swear) story. Many years ago a colleague of mine married a
very beautiful, but a not so brilliant young lady. They traveled to Australia on their honeymoon
and upon returning to the US she spoke of the Australians in the highest of terms
because they could speak the English language so well! I have found the same thing to be true of the
Canadians except for certain words and phrases.
Here are a few examples:
ABM - Automated
Banking Machine (same as ATM)
Bluenose - Resident
of Nova Scotia
Come From Away (or CFA) - Not
from around here
Eh? (Similar to “huh” in English) - What did you say? What do
you think? Wow! What
do you mean? Sure! Or to denote the end of
a sentence
Garburator - Garbage
disposal under the sink
Gas Bar - Gas
station
Loonie - $1
Canadian coin
Pop - Soft
drink or Coke (“Pop” is also a Yankee word)
Tattoo (not skin art) - Military
musical, acrobatic, and drill extravaganza Toonie - $2
Canadian coin
Washroom - Bathroom, toilet (not a
laundry room)
By the way, it has not rained one drop since Carol Ann and I
bought rain boots and rain suits. We
have experienced cold, rain, fog and sun, heat, and humidity so far during this
trip. Someone told me that Canada has only
two seasons instead of four as we have in the States. Canada has six months of winter and six
months of poor snowmobiling.
We have a drivers’ meeting 30 minutes from now to discuss
how we are to get our RVs on a ferry tomorrow for a 5- to 7-hour cruise to
Newfoundland (pronounced like “understand”, as in “understand Newfoundland”). OK, back from the meeting. All 22 RVs have to leave the park together in
a caravan at 7:30AM for the 15-minute drive to the ferry. The ferry is about 700-feet long, the longest
in North America. They begin loading
about 8:30AM and departure is at 9:30AM.
Tomorrow night at 7:00PM we will be attending a “Screech-In”, which should be a lot of fun. I know what a “Screech-In is but I don’t won’t to spoil the fun for those in the group who are unfamiliar with this unique “Newfie” ritualistic ceremony so I will not tell what it is tonight.
Tomorrow night at 7:00PM we will be attending a “Screech-In”, which should be a lot of fun. I know what a “Screech-In is but I don’t won’t to spoil the fun for those in the group who are unfamiliar with this unique “Newfie” ritualistic ceremony so I will not tell what it is tonight.
2 comments :
When the first Europeans landed in Canada they encountered a group of the local inhabitants and asked them what the new land was called Unable to understand the word, they asked the inhabitants to spell it. The local answered, "C, eh, N, eh, D, eh".
True story, eh?
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