Rapher's Log: Stardate 07/06/19
I'm back, day two of a three day visit to the Island. The plan originally was to completely avoid the Cavendish area, due to the Music Festival. This meant heading into parts (mostly) unknown. Oh, this can only end well...
We ended up getting up about 40 minutes ahead of schedule, neither of us had a great night's sleep. For me, my knee was aching a bit and the room temperature never seemed quite right. Got downstairs for breakfast about an hour later - the room is a pretty good size and had the standard hotel breakfast items - eggs, sausage, ham, breads, waffles, cereal, yogurt. When we returned to the room, it was obvious that the cleaning staff was in the middle of cleaning the room. We went in to get our stuff and surprised the cleaning guy when he popped in to grab something he'd left behind. We got on the road shortly before 9:00am, heading east. FIrst stop - Point Prim and Hannah's Bottle Village. I had my directions typed out, it was mostly a straight route along the Trans Canada Highway. Missed one teeeeeeny important thing though, what to do when faced with a set of lights in Stratford (just across the bridge from Charlottetown). I turned right.
Yep and started to suspect I was no longer on the TCH fairly quickly. As we watched for signs, Sandra scrambled to figure out where we were on the map. Nothing we drove past seemed to be showing up on the map until a sudden triumphant cry of "TEA HILL PARK!" came from Sandra. We were on Hwy 26, not the TCH. But, good news, we weren't far from where the two roads met up. I wasn't lost, I was just taking a more scenic route. With only a 1/4 tank of gas in the car. Oopsy. Straight drive now, and I still damn near missed the exit for Point Prim, just made the turn. The car behind us actually went past the turn and had to back up a bit. Eventually (it was a long drive) came across Hannah's Bottle Village. Not a typical tourist attraction, it's not listed in many tourist guides, just a small setup in someone's backyard. No admission charge but they do take donations which go to the IWK Children's Hospital in Halifax.
The buildings were made from bottles, cute buildings like a schoolhouse, church, lighthouse, sports room, Sherwood Forest... Oh and more damn mosquitos. Got about 5 more bites here. Mosquitos aside, it was a cool little place. Left there and continued along the road to the Prim Point Lighthouse. Spent a little time there but didn't spend the money to go inside the lighthouse, figuring neither of us would want to climb the steps to the top of the lighthouse. Left there, headed a distance away to Georgetown and the AA MacDonald Memorial Garden.
Now we were down to 1/8 of a tank of gas and given that I'd already gotten turned (not lost *G*) once, I didn't want to risk not filling up. So, as we went through Montague, we pulled into the first gas station we saw. An Esso. One that had only self serve pumps. This is a big thing. I always go to full serve gas stations. Sandra's pumped gas twice in 30+ years. But, we bravely gave it a go. Both of us got out and followed the directions on the pump.
1) Put in credit card, follow instructions for processing payment - Check
2) Take pump handle, place in appropriate automobile orifice - Check
3) Push the button to select the type of gas. Um...button? What button? Tried pushing random buttons but none of them had anything to do with type of gas.
4) Pump times out due to not doing what we were supposed to do - Check
5) Lather, rinse, repeat...Ask the guy at the pump diagonally across from us for help. He helped us get through to item #3 again, told Sandra to put the nozzle into the gas tank and let go so she did. He left and we stood there, waiting for something to happen. It wasn't pumping anything. Called the guy back over who said Sandra shouldn't have let go of the handle. Oy. Now at least we got things working.
The issue, we realized later, was that the pump I had pulled up to had a diesel option, as well as regular gas..but did not have the 3 buttons from which to choose which type of gas I wanted.
After leaving there, we headed to Georgetown and that went smoothly. Found the gardens easily. They were lovely, bit of an Oriental theme, really cool fountain and some chatty frogs. I suspect they were laughing at us, trying to figure out where they were in the pond. Did a quick drive around Georgetown before heading back to Montague to grab a quick bite to eat at Tim's. By now, we were trying to decide what to do next. We had a few more places to get to this afternoon, as well as wanting to visit Charlottetown in the evening. The weather wasn't looking so promising for the evening plans (the morning had been cloudy/cool - then sunny/hot - but was due to be rainy in the night) so we cut out our afternoon plans out, in favour of a downtown wander.
Parked in the lot by the waterfront, visited Peake's Quay, walked up to Queen then Victoria Row. By now, about 30-45 minutes after getting downtown, I had to take a break. My knee was really bothering me. We found a bench and sat there for about 20 minute. In the rain. Not heavy rain, more like sprinkles but it was enough to send some restaurant goers inside. Once rested, we hit a few more stores (bought some candies at at Freak Lunchbox) and headed back to the car...and had to sit again for another 20 or so minutes.
When I drive for 1-2 hours, it seems to work well for my knee, doesn't give it time to stiffen up. Apparently, though, driving/walking all day is a bit too much for my knee.
Got back to the car around 4:30, headed to Subway to grab supper, which we took back to the room to eat. Relaxed for a little while before...the skies opened up. Wow, did it rain. Thankfully, it was short lived and we were able to head out to Starbucks. The Charlottetown location does a better business on a Saturday night than the local ones do. Tried the Acai Strawberry Lemonade which was quite tasty, but did have a little too much ice. Managed to miss a few more downpours before heading back to the hotel.
Tomorrow, we take an alternate route home and see truth in signage!
We ended up getting up about 40 minutes ahead of schedule, neither of us had a great night's sleep. For me, my knee was aching a bit and the room temperature never seemed quite right. Got downstairs for breakfast about an hour later - the room is a pretty good size and had the standard hotel breakfast items - eggs, sausage, ham, breads, waffles, cereal, yogurt. When we returned to the room, it was obvious that the cleaning staff was in the middle of cleaning the room. We went in to get our stuff and surprised the cleaning guy when he popped in to grab something he'd left behind. We got on the road shortly before 9:00am, heading east. FIrst stop - Point Prim and Hannah's Bottle Village. I had my directions typed out, it was mostly a straight route along the Trans Canada Highway. Missed one teeeeeeny important thing though, what to do when faced with a set of lights in Stratford (just across the bridge from Charlottetown). I turned right.
Yep and started to suspect I was no longer on the TCH fairly quickly. As we watched for signs, Sandra scrambled to figure out where we were on the map. Nothing we drove past seemed to be showing up on the map until a sudden triumphant cry of "TEA HILL PARK!" came from Sandra. We were on Hwy 26, not the TCH. But, good news, we weren't far from where the two roads met up. I wasn't lost, I was just taking a more scenic route. With only a 1/4 tank of gas in the car. Oopsy. Straight drive now, and I still damn near missed the exit for Point Prim, just made the turn. The car behind us actually went past the turn and had to back up a bit. Eventually (it was a long drive) came across Hannah's Bottle Village. Not a typical tourist attraction, it's not listed in many tourist guides, just a small setup in someone's backyard. No admission charge but they do take donations which go to the IWK Children's Hospital in Halifax.
The buildings were made from bottles, cute buildings like a schoolhouse, church, lighthouse, sports room, Sherwood Forest... Oh and more damn mosquitos. Got about 5 more bites here. Mosquitos aside, it was a cool little place. Left there and continued along the road to the Prim Point Lighthouse. Spent a little time there but didn't spend the money to go inside the lighthouse, figuring neither of us would want to climb the steps to the top of the lighthouse. Left there, headed a distance away to Georgetown and the AA MacDonald Memorial Garden.
Now we were down to 1/8 of a tank of gas and given that I'd already gotten turned (not lost *G*) once, I didn't want to risk not filling up. So, as we went through Montague, we pulled into the first gas station we saw. An Esso. One that had only self serve pumps. This is a big thing. I always go to full serve gas stations. Sandra's pumped gas twice in 30+ years. But, we bravely gave it a go. Both of us got out and followed the directions on the pump.
1) Put in credit card, follow instructions for processing payment - Check
2) Take pump handle, place in appropriate automobile orifice - Check
3) Push the button to select the type of gas. Um...button? What button? Tried pushing random buttons but none of them had anything to do with type of gas.
4) Pump times out due to not doing what we were supposed to do - Check
5) Lather, rinse, repeat...Ask the guy at the pump diagonally across from us for help. He helped us get through to item #3 again, told Sandra to put the nozzle into the gas tank and let go so she did. He left and we stood there, waiting for something to happen. It wasn't pumping anything. Called the guy back over who said Sandra shouldn't have let go of the handle. Oy. Now at least we got things working.
The issue, we realized later, was that the pump I had pulled up to had a diesel option, as well as regular gas..but did not have the 3 buttons from which to choose which type of gas I wanted.
After leaving there, we headed to Georgetown and that went smoothly. Found the gardens easily. They were lovely, bit of an Oriental theme, really cool fountain and some chatty frogs. I suspect they were laughing at us, trying to figure out where they were in the pond. Did a quick drive around Georgetown before heading back to Montague to grab a quick bite to eat at Tim's. By now, we were trying to decide what to do next. We had a few more places to get to this afternoon, as well as wanting to visit Charlottetown in the evening. The weather wasn't looking so promising for the evening plans (the morning had been cloudy/cool - then sunny/hot - but was due to be rainy in the night) so we cut out our afternoon plans out, in favour of a downtown wander.
Parked in the lot by the waterfront, visited Peake's Quay, walked up to Queen then Victoria Row. By now, about 30-45 minutes after getting downtown, I had to take a break. My knee was really bothering me. We found a bench and sat there for about 20 minute. In the rain. Not heavy rain, more like sprinkles but it was enough to send some restaurant goers inside. Once rested, we hit a few more stores (bought some candies at at Freak Lunchbox) and headed back to the car...and had to sit again for another 20 or so minutes.
When I drive for 1-2 hours, it seems to work well for my knee, doesn't give it time to stiffen up. Apparently, though, driving/walking all day is a bit too much for my knee.
Got back to the car around 4:30, headed to Subway to grab supper, which we took back to the room to eat. Relaxed for a little while before...the skies opened up. Wow, did it rain. Thankfully, it was short lived and we were able to head out to Starbucks. The Charlottetown location does a better business on a Saturday night than the local ones do. Tried the Acai Strawberry Lemonade which was quite tasty, but did have a little too much ice. Managed to miss a few more downpours before heading back to the hotel.
Tomorrow, we take an alternate route home and see truth in signage!