22-23 September 2022: Newark to Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth South Africa: Out of the Travel Grinder, Safe and Sound

The title of this post may be too extreme.  We did spend 14 hours on a plane and that plane did experience over 10 hours of turbulence, but we were not ground down entirely.   I will rewind back to the 21st of September.  We allotted 3 hours to get to Newark International from South Jersey.  It only took us two hours to get to the airport, so we only had 5 hours to waste.  What better place to waste time but the first class lounge.  That was not a problem for seasoned travelers like us.  We had some food, drank some beer and wine and relaxed.  We have never been the type to sit around a wait before we leave or the airport.  The NJ Turnpike can turn into the NJ Parking Lot at a moments notice, so dawdling was not an option.  We left early, arrived early and we were able to enjoy our lounge access early as well.  We flew on the United flight from Newark to Johannesburg because it was a non-stop flight.  The 14 hour flight was a bit daunting but the lure of business class "pods" were enough to ease our fears.  The flight started out like a normal flight but soon we hit a pocket of turbulence so intense that the arm holding my wine was fully outstretched above my head.  I did not want to spray wine all over the cabin so I tried my best to keep it in the glass.  The pilot made an announcement "All flight attendants must go to your jump seats".  That is how bad the turbulence was.  The pilot made that same announcement eight more times during the flight.  It was never as bad as the first drop, but it did not let up either.  I think my phone mistook the shaking of the plane for aerobic exercise, so even though I did not get more than 4 hours of sleep, I somehow met my steps goal.  We landed, got our luggage and breezed through immigration.  We knew it would be a hard flight so we booked a stay in the hotel across from the terminal.  Best decision ever.  We walked to our hotel, got some dinner and fell deep asleep.  We left our breakfast order on the door and the breakfast delivery doorbell woke us both up.   We ate, showered and walked back to the airport for our flight south to Port Elizabeth.  Only two hours flying time, thank goodness! 

Made it to Newark

Exploring the wine selection

The sun is going down on NJ

Good bye USA!

We are settled in the pods

Nelson Mandela  statue

It is a shame that its is too early to start drinking

Very varied landscapes n South Africa

The iconic flat topped mountains

Rhinos and elephants are down there somewhere

Snow capped mountains

The beach!

A huge expanse of sand piled up in dunes

Bottom right is out AirBnB look for the green roofs

Andrew meets us with a smile

Yummy.  We stopped off for supplies

We have arrived!

It has been 111 days since we began our migration

21 September 2022, Newark, NJ. Africa, here we come!

We are back on the world wide interweb!  Watch out all you other sub-micro influencers out there, because we are now at over a 110 followers on the Instaweb.   That makes us bonafide micro influencers. This post will push us further, unless it sucks.  I am actually typing this in on my phone.   Typing is probably an overstatement as I am using only a single finger to peck away like a chicken. That single finger is already sore and swollen so I will make this brief!   We left Canada at the end of August and went down to Hollywood International airport. We stayed at Kim and Ken's for 2 weeks but took a brief trip up to Orlando for Vera's memorial service. Then we flew to New Jersey and stayed with Dave and Kristine. We got to go to Carrie's Carrie's bridal shower up in Newark, then over to Roxanne and Mike's for pizza dinners, and then finally Tyler cooked us a delightful salmon and chicken dinner.   He used the Dungeons & Dragons recipe book which was brilliant good.

Exploring the Polaris lounge.  Water and wine, will be just fine.  

 We arrived with too much luggage and we are leaving with too much luggage

Our new pile of stuff 

Of course we never pass up a chance for chicken gizzards

We stayed at Kim and Ken's condo in Pompano for a few weeks, right on the intracoastal 

We had giant lobsters to celebrate Vera's 90th birthday

Lightning and lunch

Laura Jean is fresh as ever 

We got haircuts,  this is just Leslie's hair

Tyler and Kara

We went up to New Jersey

My Nephew Tyler cooked us a great farewell dinner

Not much conversation between tasty bites. It was too tasty to talk!  

 

31 August 2022: Goodbye to Canada

Our last two days in Canada was a lot of bureaucratic things.  Checking into the flights, driving from Sorel Tracy back to Montreal.  Returning the rental car and getting settled into a hotel room and finally revisiting our packing jobs so we can get on a plane with the correct weights and numbers of bags.  There were big storms blowing through Montreal and we were happy that we did not have to drive over the rough roads in the rain.  We are headed back to South Florida for Leslie's Mom's memorial.  This trip was already planned for her birthday celebration but instead we have the service.  In addition we are going to all of our medical team one last time.  Doctor, Dentist, Dermatologist and Travel Nurse for more vaccinations.  I will not be blogging during this time to give my fingers a rest.  My next posts will be from South Africa!

 

30 August 2022 Sorrel Tracy Ontario: Waterfalls to Waterfront

Just outside Quebec City is Montmorency Falls.  At 272 feet tall is is taller Niagara Falls but obviously not as wide or as much water.  There was a cable car to the top. a walkway across the river and a zip line for the  most adventuresome.  Luckily the zip line was closed or I may have been persuaded into zipping across.  The skies were overcast and rain was threatening but we stayed dry.  We took the cable car up and had the cabin all to our selves.  Where is a walk way along the edge and the pedestrian walk across the water was a swinging bridge.  There was an additional staircase on the far bank that seemed very precarious.  We spent an hour there and then started driving to Sorel Tracy.  This time we drove the south side of the St Laurence.  We still took the backroads and we were treated to one spectacular view after another.  The roads are pretty bad and they have been bad since we left Montreal.  At one point we had to detour around a town that has the entire road pulled up.  We had to ride on the highway for a while but it was so bumpy that we could not even drive the speed limit.  However once we arrived the hotel was delightful.  We had a fine dinner at their steakhouse, we spent some time in the pools area of the spa and watched folks fishing from the banks.

Looking back to the river from the cable car

This stairway is perched on unstable ground

I like the arrow telling you where to look for the waterfall

Hang on to those handrails

This surface is crumbly shale, yikes

One hell of a wood pile

Peeking out over the edge

Selfie time

A stop along the way to see a waterfowl area

The "path"

Big and flowery

All the small towns have giant oversized churches.  Maybe they thought the town was going to grow, maybe it was a competition between towns

Stopped for a bit to ear and got bit by a yellowjacket as a bonus

Just a roadside diner

Leslie's chicken sandwich left a lot to be desired

Stop #2

Looking out over the St Laurence

A more modern oversized church, but more modern looking

Detour and bad roads 

Lots of craft beers to choose from

El Gato Beers

And a maze to play while drinking

Fishing at Sorel Tracy

Got the big weed fish

An interesting décor for a steak house

It would fit in perfectly as a disco some where in the Mid-East

Super funky reflections everywhere 

 It has been 87 days since we began our Migration.