Shaken cats

Hi everyone

It's been a while since our last post and that is because of one of the cons of being in rural Canada. When André and Sue decided to travel they checked out how best to keep in touch e.g. how to get internet while on the road. And they found a neat little device which lets them access cyberspace anywhere they can find a Rogers cell phone signal. Cool! So we were not concerned at all that we would be able to let you know what we’re up to and where we’ve been. But then we ran into the first of our problems: you can't get a Rogers signal everywhere and thus - big shock - still no access to the internet. Ok, we thought, a problem but not really. There has to be some campgrounds which offer WiFi and sure enough many of them do. Problem solved, or is it? Oh, we don't get a signal when it's raining (or overcast), sorry. These guys must be with Xplornet or something! But while it is frustrating we still can live with it. We will be connected again sooner or later. Then, about two weeks ago, problem number two occurred: Sue's computer crashed and wouldn't even let them reset it to factory default. So she had to go buy a new one. It's a cute little thing called a net book and she really likes it except it does not have the same edition of Windows 7 that her old computer had. And it does not have a CD drive and so she can't just re-install all her programs by putting a CD in the drive. She has to do it in a more time-consuming and complicated way. And she has no internet to download copies of programs or register them so they will actually work. She also can't restore all her (and our) files from the remote backup server because of NO INTERNET. Now we're really frustrated. How can we write our blog like that? And when we have a connection, however slow, how can we get one of the many pictures from the camera to go along with that blog? We think that Sue is about to trow the new computer out the window and that scares us.

What also scared us but is part of traveling in rural areas, is the roads. Man are they bad in some places. I mean, really! We drove across Labrador and thought we would never make it. 1800 kilometers of dirt and gravel roads with only a couple of places to stop along the way. We were getting shaken, rocked and shaken again until we hardly new what's up and what's down. It went on for hours on end while André and Sue first drove from Baie-Comeau to find the only truck stop on the road to Labrador City after 320 kilometers. That doesn't sound too bad but remember: gravel road, road construction and potholes the size of Lake Nipissing (or almost)! Then the next day another 270 kilometers of the same only to find that there really isn't much to be found in Labrador City. So André and Sue decided to continue to Churchill Falls. Big mistake, let us tell you that. If Lab City hasn't anything to offer, Churchill Falls is even smaller so we kept going another 531 kilometers to Goose Bay. Man, we were so done when we arrived and so glad we spent a couple of days there before we hit the (dirt)road again for another 560 kilometers to Red Bay on the south coast of Labrador where we finally found some paved road again.

Can you blame us for trying to make a run for it out the door and seek refuge in the woods every time André and Sue opened the door? We were ready to move out and not come back! Even André and Sue had enough after that. On the up-side: the landscape is gorgeous and one really appreciates the amenities of our fifth wheel and of civilization once you get back to it.
Anyhow, we now need to catch up on some sleep because snoozing was out of the question on this part of the trip as you might imagine. As soon as Sue (somehow) will be able to get back to normal with regards to computers and internet we will tell you about a campground in St. Anthony, Newfoundland and how we got there. Meantime check out André's and Sue's blog too to get their insights.

See you around

hunter and trapper

PS: don't forget to read André's and Sue's blogs (listed on the side), too and to follow our trip on Google map and on facebook. You can also check our web site for more pictures.