Vacation Schedules

August 3 - John writing from Charlottetown

How do you schedule the time on your vacations?  We worked hard in preparing for this trip, trying to set it up so that we would not just be driving, sight-seeing, eating and sleeping.  So I planned for us to arrive at campsites/hotels by 3 in the afternoon, leaving us time to set-up camp/check-in, have dinner and then relax for the evening.  Well, almost five weeks into our trip and we have yet to experience the relax part.  It seems there is always something that puts us behind schedule, leaving us to scramble for a late supper and then get to bed late.  One thing we consistently seem to underestimate is the time it takes to feed a family of four.  We like to make/cook our own meals when we can, both to save money and because we prefer to eat that way, but that means planning ahead and taking the time to shop for groceries each day, as we can't store very much food while we travel.  And eating in restaurants is not always quick either, as it take time to find a good place in a strange town - a place that serves the variety of foods we seem to need, serves healthy foods (deep fryer free would be nice) and meets our budget.  For this reason we really enjoyed our time in Corner Brook where our friend Doreen Klassen either cooked for us or took us to her favourite places.  It meant we did not have to spend the time shopping/cooking or hunting for food, as she did or had done the work for us.  And to top it off, we ate healthy (or at least healthier) food for those days.
Of course sometimes the scheduling issues we've had relate to issues beyond our direct control.  The other day was a perfect example.  We left our campsite in St. Peter's, Nova Scotia (on Cape Breton island) at a good time in the morning, hoping to get to Charlottetown by mid-afternoon so we could set-up camp, have dinner and go to the Anne of Green Gables musical by 7:30 PM.  Google maps said the drive should take 3 hours and 49 minutes.  As they are usually quite generous with their time, we thought we would be fine.  The only problem is that this route involves taking a ferry and with our ferry experiences so far, we should have known better.  We couldn't make the 1:00 ferry but arrived in plenty of time for the 2:30 ferry, only to just miss getting on that boat so we had to wait for the 4:00 ferry which then turned into the 4:30 ferry which actually left just after 5:00 PM.  By now we knew we were going to have to hurry to get to the show on time at all, so we quickly booked a hotel in  Charlottetown, had supper on the ferry and made it to the show on time...but without the relax part of our day.
In case you haven't heard about our ferry experiences (we've now been on five ferry's/ferrys/ferries?)  On our way to Newfoundland we were scheduled to leave North Sydney at 1:30 AM.  That's late enough for a family that has developed a routine of being in bed by 10:30 while camping, but then we got the news that the ferry was delayed until 3:30...so we went to see a late movie (Toy Story 3 in 3D...not the best $50 we've spent on this trip!) and then fell asleep in our car in the ferry line-up.  The ferry didn't arrive in port until 3:30 and only left around 5:00 AM.  Then our 16 hour crossing took 17 hours and well, there went the relaxing evening we were supposed to have on our first day in Newfoundland.
On the return trip from Newfoundland we made the mistake of not checking the ferry schedule for updates before we left Corner Brook (2 hour drive to the ferry in Port au Basque).  When we arrived at the ferry dock we were told the ferry was delayed for 12 hours!  Our 2:15 PM ferry was now scheduled to leave at 2:15 AM...not good news.  We had the option of waiting in line in a parking lot for 6 hours on the chance we could get onto the 6:00 PM ferry, or return at 12:00 AM for our own ferry.  We decided to wait as stand-by for the 6:00 ferry and got on.  However, this still meant arriving in North Sydney after midnight, when originally we had been scheduled to arrive at 8:00 PM - another relaxing evening gone.  (oh by the way, if you are ever on Cape Breton Island during the August long weekend, book your hotel well in advance as there was literally NOTHING available.  I called a lot of hotels before I found a motel that had just received a cancellation).
So here's hoping that the final week of our trip sees us make good time in the morning and early afternoon, prepare our camp and food in the later afternoon and enjoy relaxing evenings all the way to Alberta.  Well we can hope can't we?

Anna of Green Gables