All posts by Paul Goldberg

Paul Goldberg Blog

Crossing Nova Scotia and New Brunswick

Yes indeed we are on the move now. We stopped back at Arm of Gold in Little Bras D’or planning to stay two nights. The second night we joined the Perlmans for an art opening and dinner at Chanterell on the Cabot Trail. Wonderful meal and wonderful people. Did I say the ambiance was also wonderful? And the Perlmans bought, OMG how could it be better. During the day we had stopped at the Fossil Museum in Sydney Mines and had our eyes opened to the incredible fossil bed in the area, just above the coal seams. We extended our stay a day to join Stuart on a two hour fossil walk on the beach. We went to Aconi Point and walked out to the very point where a coal seam is exposed. Above the coal seam is a slightly later layer, 350 million years old! As Stuart pulled hunks of the layer down we flipped through the debris and almost every piece had at least one fossil impression of carbonaceous material, often on both sides, splitting a piece often resulted in two more fossil layers. we returned to the coach with far more rocks than we intended, but far less than most other participants.

Sunday we took our time getting underway, so what else is new, and crossed the rest of Nova Scotia on TCH 2 ending the day in Moncton NB at a casino that has a large RV parking area. We went in to the Casino to register and ended our visit to the interior in a matter of 5 minutes. I did “win” a deck of cards for registering. In the morning we dragged our heals again getting under way at about 10. We rolled down TCH 2 with the US border just a few miles to our west. We ended the day in Edmundston NB at another Casino. Unlike last night we seem to be alone here as far as other RVs. This is also a smaller casino. No entertainment during the week.

Again, no photos. The wonderful Verizon “unlimited” plan which includes data in Canada has a hidden limit – .5 GB per day! pictures just blow through that, especially uploading a day’s shooting for both of us. Even if VZW didn’t cramp our style, the service on Bell Alliant is so slow that 3G would look good, it’s the only reason we don’t blow through our daily limit by the time we are done with breakfast.

Quebec City tomorrow!

Paul Goldberg Blog

To the west and South of NFLD

Writing off line, trying to remember where I left off, there is little to no connectivity in Grand Codroy Tent and RV Park. That is the only problem with this otherwise delightful location.
Backing up a bit. We have driven the length of the Western Peninsula of Newfoundland from L’Anse aux Meadow in the north to Codroy Valley in two days. That is only 420 miles, but they are incredible miles with varied terrain and equally varied quality of road. We stopped overnight in Gros Morne at a KOA!! with the tightest site I have ever stuck the coach in. Once we opened the slides I could not walk around the coach to access any of my bays. Also, this is the first time I remember getting a site with water and no electric AND with very limited generator hours. Fortunately there was enough sky to light our solar array to keep the batteries topped up. We helped the batteries by going into Rocky Harbor for dinner and then to a Kitchen Party in the Pub. Lots of good fun until we decided to challenge the moose and get some sleep for another day of driving.
Before dinner we drove out to Norris Point and back to Lobster Cove. We just cannot get enough of roads that come to an end at the water. In Newfoundland that seems to be just about every road we get on. We have decided not to turn back, no matter how bad the road, until we get to the end. Fortunately the Jeep is the perfect vehicle for this kind of exploration. We try to keep the coach on main roads, but even those can get pretty rough and slowing to 20 mph on a highway is not uncommon to avoid opening every cabinet and dropping the clothes in the closet on the floor, again.
On our way south we noted that there was a zip line at Marble Mountain, about half way through our drive. We pulled in to their huge gravel parking lot after a few challenges finding the place. I must note here that signage is not something Newfoundlanders do well. Actually that is an understatement. As bad as the roads are, the signage could easily lead you to one of those roads that end at water. For example, the sign to Marble Zip Line pointed to the left. Naturally I turned left. I finally figured out that it meant GO STRAIGHT on the road to the left of the sign! Oh well we have always eventually ended up where we were going. (is that a tautology?) The zip line was a lot of fun, but regulation and liability concerns have taken a lot out of the excitement. There were two lines to connect to and the harness, normally a mountain climbing rig at the waist and around the legs was “enhanced” by a figure 8 upper body harness with an additional carabiner at the breast bone. This forced one into a seated or semi seated position with no way to lay out flat or upside down. For the fearful this is a wonderful setup. Carol and I felt restrained. The views as we soared across the gorge and the valley were worth it all. The 9th line was long and steep, they estimate top speed at 65 miles per hour! They made no attempt to stop us at the bottom, instead there are springs on the line to brake the descending person. Then they roll a stage into place to climb down from the line. I must note that while getting dressed I unconsciously chose my New Zealand ZipTrek T shirt. This caused some conversation with the staff. We will get on yet another zip line in the future I am sure.
I hope I can insert a picture or two of Carol on the line. They do not seem to have uploaded yet
Today we will tour by Jeep down to the Port aux Basque area and tomorrow we will take a day tour of the Codroy Valley where we are staying. Then Thursday we will get up early to be in line for the Ferry before 9:15 AM.
Another day without a connection in the coach 🙁 We indeed drove all the way to Rose Blanche, the very end of the road. It was a two lighthouse day because we also stopped to see Cape Ray as well. I guess I really shouldn’t be calling these lighthouses any more the Canadian Coast Guard has changed the label to Lightstation, oh well to me they are still lighthouses. The latter is located at the point closest to Nova Scotia, the southwestern extremity of Newfoundland. Here we found the cable end for the first underwater telegraph cable from Cape Ray to Baddeck NS. Also Marconi made one of his earliest long range wireless experiments from this station, before the telegraph company brought suit to stop him from setting up a commercial establishment. We got tangled up in Port aux Basque as our Garmin does not have the latest update and the roads have been reworked “recently”. It is really easy to get into the line for the ferry, the lanes are clear and even the signs are very good. NOT getting on the ferry is more difficult, especially of you want to get past Port aux Basque. TCH (that’s Trans Canadian Highway) 1 ends – or rather begins in Newfoundland – at the ferry. It ends in St Johns. Now we need to follow across to see the western terminus on Vancouver island. That is for another day.

Tomorrow we will tour the Codroy Valley following the very fine directions from the campground owner in her own publication. Carol will also take the opportunity to get her hair done, still doesn’t quite trust me with the clipper. Don;t know why, she does mine just fine. By the time you read this we will have rereunioned with the Perlmans Nova Scotia and be getting ready for the next legs Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton.  
More: We had an uneventful ferry ride back to Nova Scotia and settled back in to Arm of Gold for a couple of days. Turned into three nights but that is another story.
Paul Goldberg Blog

and We Keep Moving On

Left Gander for Twillingate. There is no way to happen on Twillingate it is at the far end of a 3 hour drive with no alternate but to come back almost the entire way. So what’s the draw? Another lighthouse, the possibility of seeing an iceberg or two – we saw one waaay off in the distance, museums and historic sites and the Split Peas. The most impressive historic site is the Beothuk Archaeological Site. The  Beothuk were a native group who survived until the 1800’s. This site goes back over 1,000 years showing that they were there well before the arrival of Europeans. The main building houses many artifacts and story boards depicting the site and the story of discovery. In the rain we set out on the trail to view the actual site from above. We were beset by mosquitoes as promised and the rain was no issue as we were prepared with rain gear. We returned to town and had dinner at My Cozy Tearoom, which is fine given the alternatives – few and slim pickin’s. Then on to Split Peas, seven women who have been singing together for 24 years, twice a week in season and on tour, in the past. It was a lot of fun, and someplace Carol has a photo of me dancing with one of the women dressed as a Mummer.

From Twillingate we set out on an intended long drive that got longer as our destination changed. We had planned a roadside overnight for midway through the drive to L’Anse Aux Meadow, where the first Viking colony in the New World was established. As it became apparent we would reach the site mid afternoon we decided to continue driving, beyond our planned 5 hours. Working the phone while Carol drove, I found a cancellation at a tiny campground in Cows Head in Gros Morne. Tiny as in 8 sites next to an equally tiny B&B. Here we sit facing the Gulf of St Lawrence with the wind at our back. To our left are two rigs with Canadians from Niagara Falls, ON and to our right is a nice Winnebago with NY plates from Tonawanda NY (between Buffalo and Niagara Falls NY), small world time!

Today we visited two more lighthouses, Cow Head and Lobster Cove, just outside Rocky Harbor. In between we took the Western Brook Pond boat tour. Any body of water is likely to be called a pond regardless of size, this one happens to be 16 miles long and over 600 feet deep. It is the defining locale of Gros Morne National Park. It is an inland freshwater fjord surrounded by towering cliffs forming a deep valley. The trip includes well done explanation of the geology and fun entertainment during the last part of the trip returning to the dock. Since the pond is well off the road and it is in the park, access is  by foot over a fairly level well maintained 3 kilometer (1.8 mile) trail (hmm, I typed trial first). that is entry and then exit after two hours on the boat. The trail took us about 35 minutes each way.

We set out to explore Rocky Harbor, about 22 kilometers further away from our campground and after visiting the lighthouse, it was clear the return drive would make for a very late dinner. We checked into TripAdvisor and found Java Jacks Gallery and Restaurant very highly rated. On approaching we were fearful we would not get a table as the parking lot was jammed. I found a parking spot while Carol got us a table. I had Cod Fillet and Carol had vegetarian Shepherds Pie. Together with wine it was a wonderful dinner and I will eventually rate them very highly on TripAdvisor.

Tomorrow we continue on to L’Anse Aux Meadow and a visit with some Vikings.

Paul Goldberg Blog

A Hodge Podge from the past week

A moment with connection and time to post at the same time. What follows is mostly a journal of the time since the last post. If you can;t read it all, read the last paragraph, today’s activities, it is brief and may even be touching.
In Golden Arm Park on the Baccalieu Loop in Avalon, NL. Our first stop today was at Rodrigeus Winery, a place of many surprises. All their wine is actually berry wine and it is sulfite free and most importantly it is kosher. The biggest surprise is that they are in the midst of changing their brand to Markland Cottage Wines. The signage was a bit disconcerting as we drove in and found the “wrong” name on the building. Given that we had just negotiated a narrow highway and an even more narrow and rutted dirt driveway in the motorhome on the promise that the place would be big rig friendly, it was a surprise. The last bad surprise, there was an easy way out and the staff are all Newfoundlanders which is to say friendly and easy to get along with. I sipped a bit of the tasting and bought a bottle of wine and we took the tour. Carol was driving and doesn’t taste anyhow.
Next we set out for a campground along the loop, ending up in Golden Arm Park in Green’s Harbor. It’s okay. Only 30 amp and the water pressure shows 20 psi on my gauge – way low. After setting up and lunch we set out to drive as much of the loop as we could in 5 hours. This was an overview as tomorrow we plan to leave early and stop at some recommended museums and sites. The drive went a bit long as we just had to explore roads that were 4 wheel drive only along the coast. One long road to Cape Grate took almost an hour to negotiate. A one point facing a puddle across the entire roadway Carol tried to convince me to turn back. I checked the depth with my hiking stick and decided to forge across. No big deal in the end. The Jeep has nice mud striping on the sides and will until we get some rain or I decide to wash it.
Our plan for Tuesday was to visit the key places we had passed and complete the loop. To that end we got a sort of early start after I had an unsuccessful wrestling match with Dish, to be concluded when I have reasonable phone service and 30 minutes to waste. Our first stop was Heart’s Content, the place where the very first Transatlantic Cable came ashore. The station was in operation for almost 100 years. In 1965 the staff had reduced to 18 from over 300 at the high point, this was first due to increasing automation and then to ever decreasing traffic as new lines and telephone cables changed the nature of communication and eliminated the need for telegraph transmission. When the time came Western Union switched off the power, locked the doors and walked away. The entire complex came into the hands of the Provincial government which has preserved it and reopened it as an historic site. You can still see where the undersea cable comes ashore and where it enters the building underground. For
Rochesterians there is a direct connection as Hiram Sibley founded Western Union and it was headquartered in Rochester for a time.
Our next stop took us back further in time to The Boat Building Museum in Winterton. We spent an hour there touring the history of wooden boats in Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador in particular. The most interesting thing I learned is that the method of laying out wooden hulls using variable frames is very rare in the boat building world. I won’t even try to explain as I have not spent a lifetime learning the technique. Suffice it to say a Venetian gondola builder was surprised to see them using the method that he thought was exclusive to them.
We moved on heading for the extreme ends of the road to the north. Our last stop was Bay de Verde Where another historic site has been preserved. This is the home of a Merchant fisherman, named John Blundon. Across from Bay de Verde is Baccalieu Island Ecological Reserve where thousands of Leaches Storm Petrels roost. We left there and slowly returned down the east coast of the peninsula covering new territory as we went. In Carbonear we looked for a place for dinner and found that most were closed on Monday and Tuesday night. The only place we could find was Main St Diner. It is a Tripadvisor 2 star (in a town where Subway is 4 star). I certainly would not rate it any higher. We drove through the dusk returning to the coach. I say that because all advice says not to be on the road after dusk as that is when the moose are moving.
Oops, skipped a day. From Golden Arm CG (not Arm of Gold CG) we drove to Golden Sands Campground on The Burin Peninsula. We explored from there aroung the loop through Grand Bank and St Lawerence. In Grand Bank we attended theater, twice! The first night we dined at the Thorndyke Inn, not to be missed and saw Love Letters with a cast of 2 and audience of 12. We really enjoyed the perfomance and were glad to be coming back for Dinner Theater the following night for “ps The Cat Is Dead” During the intervening day we toured and stopped at several light houses. The most poinient stop was in St Lawrence at the Miners Museum and Memorial. The story of the mistreatment of miners, in this case fluorite mining, is nothing new and the lung disease is also brutal. Our docent is the daughter of one of the miners. The other story is the heroic rescue of US Sailors from the Truxton and Pollux which ran onto the rocks during WWII and broke up with loss of about half their combined crew. The rest were saved by a valiant effort of Bergeron who having achieved the high ground found his way to a mine where the miners turned out with the entire town to pull the survivors from the sea and up the very high cliffs to eventual safety. We drove and walked to the spot on Chamber Cove where the men were rescued and find it hard to believ that even in good health on a calm sunny day that the cliffs were climbable.
Moved out in the morning headed toward Bonvista at the northern extreme of the Eastern Area. We needed some facilities and started looking for a campground, forgetting that it was Friday night and every town is having a festival or “Come Home Year” reunion. Found a site for one night in “no place” and dropped the coach with a brief setup and set out to explore Trinity and surrounds not more than 40 kilometers up the road. We drove out to Fort Point Lighthouse and explored there, it was after hours and the entry gate was “locked”. They had tied a loose twine loop over the gate to keep it from swinging in the wind. Then we drove back into Trinity a very old fishing town for a look around. There was a suggested boondocking site in town and we were grateful we had not tried to get there. The streets are very narrow and twisty and they were congested when we arrived. The boondocking site was now clearly marked “No overnight parking”.
Today, Aug 6 (?!?!) we are planning our last 10 days already 🙁 Drove to Gander and changed into my “Come From Away” T shirt. No one noticed, well one police officer, O. Fudge, did. He or more likely his relative is featured in the play. Writing on speeding warning tickets STFD. We went to the National Aviation Museum and learned the history of the Gander Airport and more of the story of Sept 11, 2001. As we were viewing the exhibits we came upon one that almost reduced us to tears. In December 1985 Arrow Airline, a contractor to the UN returning soldiers from the 101 Airborne from a peacekeeping mission, crashed off the end of the runway here. Our next door neighbor’s son Peter Schremp was among those killed in that crash. He and his siblings played endlessly with out boys as they grew up until we moved away. We drove out to the Silent Memorial and remembered Peter and his family and thought of the many families who lost loved ones on that day.

Paul Goldberg Blog

More from St John’s

Some random thoughts and some more experiences:

Random Thoughts; The road layout of this city makes Boston roads seem orderly and carefully planned. Wrapping roads around mountains and water without any seeming regard to the needs of people and vehicles has resulted in a jumble where three or more roads meet at a single junction at uneven angles resulting in traffic, depending on stop signs, crossing without being able to easily see vehicles approaching from several directions. There do not seem to be many through roads to get from one section to another. The result is we are totally dependent on GPS and Google Navigation for getting around, even to places we are returning to, such as our campground.

The campground, Pippy Park is located in a very large park in the middle of the city! From our location you would not know that we are in a city the size of Rochester NY. We are in a clear area surrounded by woods. Other sites are in the woods, but they would not accommodate us. It is quiet and pleasant here, if the interior roads were in better shape it would be wonderful. Note for other RVers, water pressure is about 100 psi, bring your regulator!

People are friendly! No, I mean REALLY friendly. We have spent most of our time in St John’s and we are told that in rural areas they are even friendlier. Every place we have stopped to ask a question or just to say hello, has resulted in a conversation and an exchange of personal information and often suggestions of other places to see.

Experiences:

Saturday we set out on the Killick Loop up to Pouch Cove (pronounce that as if the “u” is “o”) We made several stops along the way to ooh and aah the views of the ocean from the bluffs or down low from the shore. Once in Pouch Cove we noted a lesser road that continued further out on to Cape St Francis. This was especially interesting as we passed a sign that the road was maintained for 4 wheel drive vehicles only. “Maintained” was an exaggeration. This brought us to the site of the former Cape St Francis Light House. For the light house crazed among my readers there are at least 56 manned and unmanned light houses remaining in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Cape St Francis Lighthouse

We returned from the loop and stopped at Signal Hill in St John’s which has served as the focus of many battles between the French and the English in the 1700’s and served significant military purpose as late as WWII. Oh yes Marconi sent messages from Signal Hill using balloons and kites to support his antenna. He was not permitted to build his main station here as the cable company filed suit preventing immediate action. Marconi left and set up his station in Nova Scotia. Click on this link for much more.

We decided to seek dinner on Duckworth St in downtown but away from the festival area by a block. We had a list of possible restaurants from Google and Trip Advisor. We decided to walk and look, checking menus as we went. Our second stop was Get Stuffed. It looked good and they had an interesting vegetarian option for Carol. We made our excuses and wandered further before deciding to return there. A table was available, unusual for a Saturday night, and we were seated immediately. My Cod was wonderful and Carol’s salad was as well. The staff were friendly – this is Newfoundland after all – and we would send anyone we know there. Prices were moderate!

And so we sit on a rainy day looking for one more thing to do here, indoors!

Paul Goldberg Blog

Quick Notes from St John’s NL

The 16 hour ferry ride was mostly uneventful, we slept in our cabin and dined in the buffet dining area along with almost everyone else. We made friends with people in line waiting to board and ran into a them on our first day touring at Cape Spear National Historic Site. This is the locale of the easternmost point of land on the North American Continent. The actual point was not reachable due to construction, but there is an “alternate” point that is maybe a few feet from the furthest, but in reality waves and rocks would prevent getting to the actual point. We returned to the coach for dinner and took a break for the evening.

On Friday we set out to tour the “Irish Route” not really intending to cover the 312 K. We made it to Witless Bay where we booked a whale and puffin trip for later in the day and continued on down to Ferryland Light where we hoped to have lunch at Lighthouse Picnic. After the drive over a one lane gravel road and a .9 K walk (about 10 minutes) to the light house we found that advance planning was required and there was no way we could get our lunch and be back for the 3  PM boat ride. We stopped to look at some whales and returned to the Jeep and stopped at Tetley Tea House for lunch. The whale and puffin trip was way over the top in a Zodiac with about 14 of us on board.

Entering a sea cave
Backing Out, end of trip

I don’t need to identify the puffin and whale tail for you 🙂

We returned to St John’s with the idea of walking through the entertainment district and getting some dinner. There is a major street festival on and we thought we might take it in. It appears to be mostly loud music and drinking so we stayed outside the venue and started to walk along the other venues. We heard a shout directed at us and and saw a woman we had met on the ferry leaning out of the Shamrock. We had had a long talk with Jennifer and Greg on the boat and decided to join them in the pub. Greg is retired Canadian naval Intelligence. We had a lovely 90 minutes shouting over the Irish/Newfoundland music (along with everyone else). Before we parted. The music sounded a lot like the sound of “Come From Away”. We found a quieter place for dinner before returning for the night. 

Today, Saturday, we will get on the Killick Loop.
Paul Goldberg Blog

Along the Road to Newfoundland

We have left the country! Again! We are perched in a roadside pullout, with fishing, along NS 105 looking over St Ann’s Bay. We are meters past the turn off for Gaelic College and Cabot Trail. We found this spot listed as a free stopping place in Days End Directory a resource for members of Escapees. Tomorrow we will find our way to a reserved camping spot and then go visit the Perlmans who have a lovely place across the bay from where we are parked. We will take Monday and Tuesday to prepare for a very long ferry ride – 16 hours. The coach will be locked down with no power on while we enjoy ourselves in a suite we reserved some months ago. We sill take three weeks to drive the length of the Newfoundland highway before boarding a much shorter ferry for the trip back to the mainland.

I plan to wear m “Come From away” T shirt in Gander and otherwise do and see what we can.

Getting this far has had its challenges. Coming up the Maine coast I heard or misheard and instruction to “turn right.” Against all reason I did! Wrong! It took 10 miles to find a spot that was just barely suitable to turn the rig around. We could have continued which would have brought us back to US 1 20 miles south of where we made made the turn. Oh, and our stop at Wild Blueberry Land was disappointing as they no longer carry the No sugar added Blueberry Preserve that I have for breakfast many days. I will have to wait to reorder from “Out on a Limb” when we are staying someplace for a couple of weeks. We had an interesting overnight stop at a place featured both in the aforementioned Days End as well as in Harvest Hosts. It was a decent place to stay the night but it didn’t have much more than a small shop selling blueberry products as an HH place. The location also included a hardware store and the town Tourist Information Center, one young man with a  bunch of brochures and directions to “The Water Fall” across the street from the shop.

We ended the day with out supplemental braking system (for the Jeep) giving failure signals as we drove on a narrow winding road with no good place to stop and check it out. It has failed safe so we can continue to travel. At last we arrived at Seafoam Campground in Seafoam NS and found ourselves with one of the tightest back in spots we have seen. Troy came out to help, but nothing was needed besides some moral support. With Carol at the wheel and me giving limited, but crucial guidance, we put the coach where it needed to be in one pull.  People were cheering Carol for the great driving. It was grand.

Paul Goldberg Blog

Road Mode

When I left off writing, we were in NYC with Corey. We left Liberty Harbor RV Park on schedule and spent a day driving around the City, across the Tappan Zee Bridge and eventually up I 95 and assorted routes to Hyannis Elks Lodge. It is nothing special but it is in Hyannis and provides access to see the town. Then we moved to Atlantic Oaks RV Park in Eastham, about 15 minutes from my sister Sandy’s place in Wellfleet. We kept Corey on the move including a 3 hour Whale Watch (looking for a picture, must be on the other computer) and walking all over Province Town, and what an education that was, for me! After 4 days on Cape Cod, we changed our venue to the Boston area, camping at Normandy Farms in Foxborough, not far from THE stadium.

Our first half day was at leisure in the park, that meant walking all over the park to see what it had to offer. The short answer is “LOTS” the longer answer is mostly for families with preteen children who can run wherever and whenever and they do. The slow speed limit is too fast as kids appear out of nowhere and stop where the are with impunity and no sense of fear – sort of like Bluefooted Boobies in the Galapagos.

For our second and last day we set out to walk the Freedom Trail. It covers a lot of Boston and we never made it to Bunker Hill or the USS Constitution. Something for another trip, not to mention Lexington and Concord or the site of the Boston Tea Party and that is just Revolutionary War era sites.

Late afternoon Priscilla Douglas, our former neighbor from the Townhouse, and very good friend, came to join us for a long wonderful conversation. When we are together it is seldom “chat” more like engaged conversation. Corey joined in and we all had a great time. dinner was some salads Carol put together and steamed clams I had ordered ahead from the Kamp Kitchen. we gathered around one of their tables and had a fine meal. the end of this part of the trip was in sight, but not yet concluded. We rose earl to get Corey to his flight to Richmond where his parents collected him. I must admit the coach really feels empty without him after 9 days. Then after vamping in town for a bit we drove to Belmont where Carol reconnected with Ann Rafael Brendt. The had been neighbors in grade school and her mother was a very active dance instructor who Carol studied with. While Ann and Carol covered territory that I was not part of (can you imagine?) her husband David and I had a lively exchange of ideas and tales in the next room.

And so we have moved on from Boston. Presently we are camping at Elks Lodge 1008 in Rockland Maine. Tomorrow?

Paul Goldberg Blog

Road time and some Lows and Highs

I seem to have gotten a bit behind. For some of our time since Ithaca check out Carol’s Message in a minute post. Grandson Corey flew in to Newark from Charlottesville via Boston on his own. We picked him up at Newark and headed for West Orange and family. No one was around so we took him to The Edison National Historic Park in West Orange where much of his inventing was done after he out grew the Menlo Park facility. It was a fascinating tour and the place is indeed a repository of much history.

We joined family for ordered in dinner and finally got Corey to the rig to get some sleep and prepare for the unveiling of Carol’s brother Arthur’s tombstone. This was the low point of the weekend. On Saturday night we determined that Sunday night was clear of family obligations and Joyce helped us find seats for “Come From Away” on Sunday night. This was Corey’s first Broadway show, and what a show. It is very “Broadway Musical” and the entire script is sung. 12 actors play at least 36 parts and represent hundreds of actual people on 38 planes that landed in Gander on September 11, 2001. We were on our feet for a very long time, even after the house lights came up. The high point so far.

Today we walked our feet off starting in Wall Street – and we worked our way up to Rockefe;;er Center and ultimately to Central Park. We have taken Corey on 3 ferry rides and innumerable subway trips and in the morning we will experience driving around the city and on up some route to Cape Cod.

In all of the trecking we managed to get to the September 11 Memorial twice. It is indeed impressive and well done.

 

Lego Store
Paul Goldberg Blog

XRIJF Day 9 – That’s all there is!

First a comment on my choice of reviewers. It may seem biased, Jeff Spivack at the D&C is an excellent writer and I would enjoy his reviews and link to them if I could read them without wading through endless popup ads that cover the screen . I know I am not a subscriber, I am not around Rochester enough to care deeply about the local coverage they provide, but making it impossible to read a review just makes me even less interested in reading, much less linking to, the paper. Rant over. Oh there may be another reason for my bias, full disclosure here, I am a stockholder and board member of WMT Publications, the corporate name of City, and also close friends with the Towlers who created the paper some time in the dark ages of the late ’60s or was that the early ’70s, doesn’t matter.

We decided to start the last night with Jazz Banjo, Cynthia Sayer and her Hot Jazz Trio at Max.

She declared right up front that she had just met her sidemen, Sax and Clarinet player and Bassist, just before the gig. It didn’t seem to matter with just a bit more conversation than usual they got it together and the set was so great we wanted to come back for the 10 PM show. Cynthia included a history and background for Jazz Banjo in her between number patter. We would go to hear her again, oh right we stayed for the encore.

Once we had our wristbands for Max we headed over to Harro for Majestic. They were fine, but our plan to leave after after two numbers turned into leaving after one, a blessing of the Club Pass.

Following Cynthia, we headed over to Hatch where Benny Green was onstage solo after his performance with 3 other pianists on 4 by Monk by 4 the day before. We sat back expecting to leave before the end but couldn’t bring ourselves to walk before the encore. This encore seemed a bit forced as he left the stage after 45 minutes and returned to finish the set at an hour as expected. For Ron’s review follow this link.

Our plan was to go on to Little for International Orange. I was hungry and the Little is a hike. We walked up to a truck on East and I got a brisket sandwich, better than expected, and we headed over to Kilbourn for our penultimate set. John La Barbera Big Band Celebrating Buddy Rich. This was our best call of the evening. He had his brothers, one on drums and another on sax on stage. Also Bobby Militello was in the middle of the sax section. Four saxophones, four trombones and four trumpets can really stir up a storm. Needless to say we were pinned to our seats and were grateful for the encore.

The line at Max was too long for us to wait for Cynthia for another show so we headed over to the Big Tent for Bonerama. Two numbers there were enough to remind us that we really don’t care for them. The line at Max was still out the door at 10:40 so Carol had an ice cream and I had some popcorn and we took in the scene until it started to shut down at 11. We headed over to the Jam, now relocated to the first floor on the Radisson. It is a bit of an awkward space and we ended up sitting at a table with our friends the Gracis. We could hear but couldn’t see and  by 12:30 we had had it and decided to call it a Jazz Fest. Wait ’til next year!

As if we hadn’t had enough, today we went to a sold out matinee of “Million Dollar Quartet” at GEVA Theater. Wonderful performance and great ’50s music. Jerry Lee Louis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash were definitely in the house and by the end everyone who was able was up and dancing.

Tomorrow we drive with friends to Ithaca, no live music planned, that we know of.