Food, Glorious Food!

We were at this camping trip for over a month which means we’ve tried out quite a few meals. Way back before we left I wrote a post about the possibility of doing this trip on a budget and in there I mentioned some marinades and such that I had prepared. Those were consumed within the first couple weeks and I am happy to report that they were all really good!

A Clam Dig Day

My post today is a bit more specific to a particular tour we went on while in Prince Edward Island. It was suggested to us by friends to check out the Giant Bar Clam Dig with Tranquility Cove Adventures. This was the excursion that we sacrificed a bunk on the ferry to Newfoundland for. Now’s the time to go enjoy!

We needed to be up at 5:30 to get ready and do the hour and a half drive from the Cavendish campground to Georgetown. We arrived JUST on time. Everyone was there waiting for us. We hopped onto the boat and Perry, our guide for the day, gave a little intro before we headed out.

First stop was to pull up a few traps. We saw a rock crab pot, lobster trap and a mussel sock. We were given an explanation of how they farm, collect and measure each and then we could hold them and check them out.

Perry’s assistant for the day was Riley and he was super informative and friendly.

This doesn’t show Riley very well, but here he’s showing us a female lobster covered in eggs.

From there we drove by the oldest wooden lighthouse on the island, but didn’t stop spend or much time there.

We had a special driver for awhile.

Perry was so good with giving our oldest the time of her life.

It took a bit of time to get to our digging destination and along the way Perry called out that this would be the time to get into our swimsuits….. Swimsuits….. Right. I had a feeling I should’ve brought those. I’m very much a land lubber. I don’t even like swimming. Or showering. I’m not afraid of water, I just don’t really prefer it at all which means I don’t have much experience with water sports so when I read on the website that we would have wetsuits I thought “waterproof”. We would just put them over our clothes and be fine. In fact, I dressed all of us girls in clothes that would easily fit inside a suit. Yes, that was silly of me. It gets worse.

I mentioned to Erick that we didn’t bring our suits and he apparently already talked to Perry about it who said the other family on board didn’t either and they were just going in their underwear. He says this is a regular occurance. Well, now I really started panicking because it now sounds like we don’t even have the wet suits! I’m frantically whispering to Erick that I don’t know what we’re going to do and he says all nonchalant that we can just use our underwear. Good lands! Who does he think I am?! I’m simply not comfortable with jumping in the water with a bunch of strangers and me in my underwear! I’m considering just staying in my clothes, but we wanted to go into Charlottetown when we finished and now we were going to be in wet clothes! Things were getting out of hand in my mind.

A few minutes (felt like half an hour but probably wasn’t) later Perry calls out that we can now put on wetsuits. PEOPLE!! The relief I felt! It was around this point that Erick finally clued in that I was thinking we were swimming in our skivvies and he started laughing at me. I would’ve too. Into our suits we wiggled. I never felt more like a sausage than that moment, but the happiest sausage there ever was. I was dressed!

Some look cuter in wetsuits than others…

Eventually we ended up at the bar where we would be collecting our clams. Perry told how this was where his father and grandfather dug clams and explained how much the shores had changed since he himself was a boy. Where we saw a sandy shore all the way across he remembers when they could still drive the boat right through that area. (Or his dad did….) The sand has drifted across and created the connection to the other side. Pretty crazy to think how fast a landscape (or shore) can change in just a few decades.

We jumped into the water with our snorkels and rakes and started the hunt. We were searching for indents in the sand that looked like belly buttons or sometimes they would stick their nostrils out a bit and you would see the holes from their breathing. It was a bit of a slow start as we were finding lots, but they were not big enough to keep. It’s too bad we couldn’t take pictures at this point because my favourite part of this day was the digging. Every once in awhile we’d see a lobster or crab running around our feet. I could’ve stayed out there for awhile yet. Our littlest clam digger was kinda cold and got a special ride to the boat with Perry to wait for us to collect our clams.

Eventually we found all we needed and Perry called everyone to shore. They did a quick measure of the clams to make sure they were the allowed size and then the clams all went in the pot. When there was about 2-3 minutes left he added the crab legs that were also collected. While waiting for those to be done we got to sample some raw clam and that part was my personal favourite taste of the day.

Once finished we got a little Chef Ramsay style tutorial on how to prepare the clams to eat. It included adding in some of the brine that they were cooked in. YUM! My oldest was in there like a dirty shirt once again. She got her own little lesson and then was very proud to present a specially prepared clam for Papi where she forgot to clean out the stomach. Oops.

We ate for awhile before heading back to the car. In all it was very fun and worth the early morning.

Enjoying a little coffee after a full morning.

We headed through Charlottetown on the way home for a quick walk around. We needed to pick up more Beaver Tails for everyone.

Enough for everyone. And people stared at us as we walked down the sidewalk with this!

Once back at the campground us girls headed to the beach for a little bit to enjoy the sand and have a quick sand castle competition. We started the day in sand, we might as well end it there too.

A Campground Review, Rocks and 3 Things I Learned

“I love rocks!” I exclaimed today while in the Sudbury, Ontario Wal-Mart parking lot.

“Girls! Throw some rocks at Mami!! She likes rocks!”, says Erick.

The interpretation of the actual words out of my mouth leave much to be desired.

I’ve been completely enamoured with all the cut out crevices along on the roads and in Sudbury the town has walls of this cut rock all over the place. I don’t know why I find it so fascinating. It’s especially when there are all sorts of trees, shrubs and flowers growing out from the nooks and crannies. But it bugs me that I can’t just stop in the highway and take pictures. I’m forced to be content with drive-by photos through the windows.

This involves great finesse as I quickly turn on the camera, find my focus, centre on the most artistic view I can possibly get at 90 km/hr, try to maneuver around the dead bugs all over the windshield, and the glare from the sun on the dashboard, and the dreaded crack!!

#nofilter

This crack!!! Completely in my line of sight and today I noticed it matches the scratch across the right lens of my prescription sunglasses…… Lovely (she says in deadpan manner).

I wish I had a picture for one particular experience coming around a rocky corner right into a construction area. There in the middle of the road was the guy holding the stop sign. It all had a real Sasquatch feel to it. Perhaps it was his incredibly unruly hair or the huge grin with the lack of numerous teeth that is clearly due to previous games of chicken with cars coming around that corner! We hit the brakes pretty hard and he sat there calm as can be, big toothless grin, just daring us to run him over. It was a moment when I wish we had a dash cam… pointed at us! For all we know, we could have had a real Sasquatch sighting and we’ll never know for sure. Prayers for the guy whose clothes and hard hat he stole, I guess.

This week is really our week of long drives in our effort to get across the country and be able to spend some longer stays in the campgrounds out east. We planned it this way because we figured the beginning of the trip would be the time when we’re motivated and excited to go. The assumption is that after a few weeks we won’t be quite as excited (or the kids) for the super long drives. However, we had a longer stop than we planned in Sault St Marie, ON.

If you’ve read in a previous post about the big bang you’ll remember Dale and Trish needed to get some car work taken care of. The parts and a perfect “first thing in morning” appt were waiting for us in Sault St Marie so it gave us the chance to sleep in and relax. I have to say it sure was a nice treat. I’m starting to become accustomed to the different bed and don’t wake up as much during the night so this was probably my best sleep so far. And MUCH needed.

The campground we stayed at was called Bell’s Point Beach Campground. It was one we called on the way to the city and not one previously booked. RV Park Reviews gives it 4.9/10. Not the best ratings, but the bonus was that it was close to the dealer Dale needed to be at early in the morning.

You can look across the river into the states.

I would say 4/10 is a fair review. Though the scenery is beautiful, it wasn’t quite what I expected. We paid for the water/electric service and couldn’t use either so I probably should’ve gotten some money back, but I didn’t want to argue. Here’s an idea of how far we were from the tap and outlets.

On the left is the power and the hoses are the water supply for 4 sites.

There was a fairly good size drop that we’d have to attempt to manage while going around a huge stump (just on the other side of our trailer) in order to reach our water and power. This is NOT something that we were willing to do still feeling so very, very new to backing up trailers. We should probably invest in some longer hoses and cords thought. This is not likely the only place we’d need them.

Some friendly campers from Red Deer, AB offered us an extension cord that would reach. Still no go. We’ve installed the Progressive Industries HW30C 30amp surge protector. It works.

For those curious, this is where it was installed on our trailer.

We had low voltage issues so it kept kicking out the power. We can only assume this was because the surrounding 3-4 other campers were all plugged into the same post and it just wasn’t enough for that many people. I have to admit I was a little conflicted on how much I loved that surge protector since everyone else around us was happily enjoying the power they paid for and apparently quite oblivious about the low voltage. I should probably rather be glad that we know our camper is protected quite well from voltage issues.

The one other reason I think that 4 is a fair rating for this campground is the general confusion when trying to find your site and the fairly “rustic” style with stumps all over the place. The guys happened to notice a guy trying to back up his camper and somehow ended up driving his pickup right onto the fire ring. For some reason they both looked at ME and said “See? That’s why spotters are important.”….. Really? So much pressure!

Beautiful stump and many angles

Just a few more stumps and more angles

Anyway, I can only imagine when they decided to open this campground they took all the site markers and threw them in the air and wherever they landed, there was a site! I tried to take a picture of the grounds to really showcase the feel, but I don’t know if they really do it justice. The roads are just packed down grass and trailers are parked in every angle possible. It took us forever just to figure out where we were supposed to park. Do we go lengthwise? Widthwise? Down the hill? On top of the stump? On top of the fire ring?! Should we just flip the trailer upside down? What is the best way??? This all did not help the genuine marriage test that is backing up the trailer as a married couple! Thankfully, today we are still driving the same direction, in the same vehicle.

But we’ve learned a few new things.

1. Always check to see where your power/water is situated before you unhitch.
2. Take the sway bars off before pulling out from under the hitch. Just in case a bar flings around (in a completely random way) and knocks out a piece of wood that you have piled under the tongue jack.
3. When doing long drive days, take the time to do your bigger meal at lunch so that you can do the quick sandwich style for supper and you’re not trying to set up while getting HANGRY!

If you’re an Instagram junkie, I’ve been posting a few daily pics over on my account. Feel free to go check them out. It’s my regular sewing account though, so fair warning on the sewing posts! 🙂

The First Install

We’ve seen a lot of talk on various camping forums about getting a surge protector for the trailer.  The question has been, do we get one or not?  And if we do, what style should we get – portable, or hard-wired?  If this was a simple $20 item it would have been more of a no-brainer, but these baby’s don’t come cheap!