Day Sixty Nine
Today was going to be a day of waiting. Our departure time for the ferry too Newfoundland was 11:15 pm, our checkout time for the campground was 11:00 am. Our travel time from the campground to the ferry was only a half hour, leaving us with just over eleven hours of waiting.
The day prior, we noticed a memorial park along the water not too far from the ferry and decided to spend the day there. I was not sure how well the RV would manage towing the truck into the parking lot, so Lori drove the truck to the park. I would hook the two vehicles together before we headed to the ferry.
The park had two well groomed soccer fields, a playground and a few memorials with information plaques telling about the role the area played in WWII. In Sydney, they commemorated the ship convoys and the sailors. This park focused on the pilots and the aircraft that was used to protect the convoys.
We took the pups on several walks around the park, and leisurely relaxed in the RV during our wait. Throughout the day, the occasional person, or family would enter the park; but over all, it was a very quiet place. During our stay, I figured I would be able to attach the truck to the RV here before we left for the ferry.
Around five, a wall of vehicles began pouring into the parking lot filled with kids with their parents coming to use the soccer fields. Within half an hour, the parking lot was full of screaming kids. We had planned on heading to the ferry around seven and hopped the soccer games would have ended by then.
We watched in amusement as the coaches did there best to get the kids focused on soccer, only to be defeated by games of tag and surprisingly one I remember from my childhood; what Time is It Mr Wolf. Around six the young teams began to pack up, just in time for the older kids to arrive for their soccer games.
At seven, the parking lot had cleared out just enough for us to pull the RV out and begin heading towards the ferry. Closer to downtown North Sydney, We found a pullover large enough to attach the truck to the RV. Once we were attached we prepared our paperwork and headed down the road to the ferry.
I will admit, I was a little nervous approaching the gates to the ferry. I did not know what to expect and was worried I would pick the wrong lane for entry; backing up the RV up was not an option. We pulled into a line with only two vehicles and stopped. A man came around to Lori’s side of the RV with a measuring wheel and ran it alongside the RV and truck. When he was done he cheerfully greeted me at my window while passing me a piece of paper indicating the length of our vehicles asking me to pass it over to the lady at the booth.
When the vehicle in front of us was finished, we pulled up to the booth and was greeted by a very friendly lady, I’m sure Sophie aided in the friendliness as Sophie did her best to befriend the lady from the edge of my window. She reviewed all our paperwork and directed us to wait in lane eleven. I pulled from the booth and towards our lane with a huge sense of relief…. That was easier than I thought it would be.
When we arrived in our lane, we began preparing the puppy’s sleeping pens from the bunk; where they normally sleep, to our bed, we figured it would be a little more quieter in there. Once we were satisfied with the puppies sleeping arrangements, We sat back and watched the lanes around us fill up as the departure time came closer.
To the left of us, an RV pulled alongside us parking nose to nose with our RV. The passenger and driver seems to provide a little more attention than normal when they pulled up, I waved, and they cheerfully waved back. After a short time, I stepped out to stretch my legs and discovered the couple that pulled up beside was driving the same make and model of RV with Texas licence plates.
I saw the owners were sitting in the cab of their RV, and approached the drivers window to commented on their awesome choice of RV. We spoke for awhile and was blown away to discover that they have been living on the road for the last seven years and loving every moment of it. After a short period of talking, I headed back to our RV to continue our wait. Around eleven, our line began moving towards the ferry. The loading went quickly and there was plenty of staff on the deck directing you to the exact spot they wanted you to park.
Once we parked, we loaded the puppies into their pens, wished them a good night and headed to the elevator that would take us to our seats for the seven hour journey.
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