Someone once told me that when we drive off to vacation, our intention is to see things-- Bryce Canyon, New York City, Florida Keys or the Great Salt Lake-- but what we remember are the people we meet.
Well, maybe, sometimes. And maybe we remember the folks when what we left to see isn't as spectacular as we anticipated.
We just returned from another jaunt to Canada, this time visiting Prince Edward Island. The island is about the size of Delaware, but it has less than half the population of York County. While glad to have visited, I'd say the scenery is nice, but not extraordinary. But as usual, the kind and friendly Canadian people made it a trip to remember.
Darren works at a crab plant near Souris. A native Newfoundler, he says jobs are more plentiful here, and his parents helped him find work in the factory. It's tough work, he says, and truck driving school is in his future. Well-spoken and easy-going, Darren says when he first came to PEI, he thought it was a 'pasture in the middle of the ocean'.
Duane is a proud potato farmer, and climbed down from his big tractor to talk when he saw me taking pictures of the high furrows. Boasting about the PEI spuds, he said if we eat a potato in Canada, it probably came from a PEI field. Duane farms about 1,000 acres, about 310 in potatoes. No one in PEI is allowed to own more than 3,000 acres, he says, because a certain oil company came in and bought up most of New Brunswick, PEI's neighbor to the south. PEI folks took measures to keep that from happening.
Shelly had to quiet her three barking dachunds when I knocked on her door. I asked why all around her family's farm, antique wheels decorated-- or helped hold up-- a fence post. Her husband Francis collects them, she says. He's a carpenter by trade, but was off oyster fishing today. His goal is to collect 1,000 wheels, and display them all over the farm. When he's not fishing, he's tending to his beef cattle. Francis and Shelly are busy folks.
Ron McWilliams is president of the Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island, and he and his wife tend a farm that is just a wind gust away from the ocean on PEI's southwest shore. A bald eagle sits on a fence post, looking over the 90-foot cliff. Mosquitos and black flies try their best to carry me away.
On some of PEI's license plates, it calls itself the "Canada's Green Province". To the east of McWilliams' farm are huge windmills. While some people have complained it clutters up the landscape, McWilliams seems resigned to the fact that wind power might be the way to deal with the energy problem. More than 40 windmills are either in operation or planning stages.
David and Kodie are slouched at a diners' table, watching their Dad pound at the laptop. The teenagers from Dover, Ohio, are obviously not happy, being stuck here "in the middle of nowhere" with no TV, one computer, and little to do. But, they're smiling anyway. While their parents talks about the small burg's virtues, David and Kodie roll their eyes and snicker.
Alice and her husband raised seven grandchildren on their small farm. But he died recently, and Alice is trying her best to keep up the farm, the lawn, the house and the glorious garden. "I don't know if I can keep it," she says. "It's a lot of work." But my bet is that she will. Across the street, a couple was trying to rehab an old cottage. Before she left for an extended family visit, the woman left a 'handful' of money to him so a sewer and running water could be installed. When she returned, nothing was done, but the money was gone. She was soon gone, as well.
Arielle and Ty are returning from their long walk during low tide. The walk took them a half mile or more to where the waves finally meet the shore. They plan to be married in their home in Puerto Rico, despite both their parents' strenuous objections.
It was a good trip. I've never been to Canada when it wasn't.
For more travel tips and information, check Jen Vogelsong's blog at http://www.yorkblog.com/explorer/
