Dates with extended time away from your coach during the rally

Q. Which days during the rally will we be away from the coach for more than four hours? We would like to try to arrange dog walking ahead of our stays. 

A. At first glance I believe there are 25 days during the rally where we expect to be away from the coach for four hours or more.

Stop #	Date	Estimated Time
1	6/30	8:15 a – 6:00 p
2	7/3	9:15 a – 4:30 p
3	7/6	8:00 a – 4:45 p
3	7/7	9:30 a – 4:45 p
8	7/19	8:30 a – 2:30 p
10	7/23	10:00 a – 4:00 p
11	7/25	8:45 a – 4:30 p
12	7/27	8:45 a – 4:45 p
14	7/30	8:45 a – 5:30 p
15	8/1	8:45 a – 5:00 p
16	8/3	11:00 a – 3:45 p
17	8/6	10:00 a – 7:30 p
18	8/8	9:15 a – 2:30 p
20	8/11	11:00 a – 2:30 p
22	8/16	12:30 – 5:30 p
23	8/18	10:00 a – 5:00 p
27	8/24	9:00 a – 5:00 p
28	8/26	9:00 a – 5:30 p
28	8/27	9:00 a -  1:30 p
29	8/29	9:15 a – 3:30 p
32	9/4	8:45 a – 1:30 p
33	9/6	9:30 a – 2:00 p
34	9/9	10;30 a – 5:00 p
35	9/11	9:00 a – 3:00 p
37	9/16	8:15a – 1:00 p

Canadian Maritime Rally Activities

There are 34 stops on the Canadian Maritime Rally with planned activities. This activities document is intended to provide a schedule (subject to change), local history, and directions to scheduled and optional activities for each stop on the rally.

• Where time and scheduling permits, we will try to get together as a group in the campground around 4:30 or 5 PM. Primarily as a social hour but also to discuss the upcoming activities and what’s going to happen next.
• Scheduling of tours may run through a normal lunch period with no meal scheduled. When that happens, I suggest you “brown bag” lunch or a snack.

During this rally, stops may seem somewhat eclectic.

•  We will visit historical sites, see local reenactments that are intended to give us a sense of how the people of the area lived in the past and to a lesser extent how that impacts their lives today. We may even gain a little better understanding our two countries have impacted one another in times of war and peace.
• We will visit several national parks and regional gardens that will provide some insight into the geographic diversity and visual splendor found in the Maritime provinces. I wouldn’t be too surprised if we caught a glimpse of animals we might not normally see in our day to day lives (black bear, woodland caribou, otter, muskrat, fox, lynx, & moose)
• We will stop at several locations that showcase the innovations and inventions of the Canadian people.
• We will also spend some time visiting lighthouses along the coastline and yes, we will spend time on the water. This is, after all, a Maritime rally.  Who knows, you may catch sight of a Humpback, Finback, or Minke whale along with dolphins, porpoise and killer whales.
• You can expect to see birds like the Atlantic puffin, northern gannet, long-tailed duck to name a few. There are over 100 varieties of birds native to the Maritimes.
• You will have several opportunities to sample the local cuisine. Items like Poutine, Bakeapples, Cod tongues, Touton, and, of course, Lobster. In fact, you should be able to determine whether the lobster is better in the Maritime provincess or in Maine.

Canadian Maritime Rally - group departure times on travel days, GPS & insurance question

59 days till the start of the Great Gaspe’ and Maritime rally and there are several topics I would like to address.

Item 1 - I put together the attached “Coach sequence on travel days” document. it is intended to help answer the age-old question on a rolling rally: Who are we traveling with and when do we leave?

The first page lists group departure times for each stop on the rally. The intent is to have the first group arrival time close to when the next campground or RV park allows check-in. It follows that, the last group departs at or before the checkout time for the campground/ RV park we are leaving. For obvious reasons the specific times listed will be subject to change as the rally proceeds. The second page is intended to associate each individual coach with a group to identify when your group, for that particular day is scheduled to depart from a specific stop number. When you arrive in Ottawa we will ask you to draw a number from 2 – 14 to identify where you fall on departure times through the first 12 stops on the rally. Coincidently, the first 12 stops are in predominantly French speaking areas. Once we reach Prince Edward Island we are looking for the group at large to put together a travel days schedule for the remaining stops on the rally. The only requirements are that Eileen and I will need to be with the first group to pay where required and Peter & Connie will need to be in the last group. They are serving as the tail gunners/ sweep on travel days. Page 3 and 4  identify our groupings going into campgrounds in the National parks (Petit Gaspe' in Forillon NP and Newman Sound  in Terra Nova NP). The specific sequence entering the campground should expedite getting into the individual sites and this will be particularly important in Petit Gaspe'.

Item 2 – When I was talking with Glenda Ferris a couple of days ago she reminded me that not all GPS’s provide US and Canadian coverage. You might want to double check the GPS you use for both the coach and your car to make sure they will wok in Canada. If anyone doesn’t have GPS’s that work in Canada we will need to stop at a welcome center when we enter a province to pick up paper maps.

Item 3 – When we reviewed our RV insurance with Ron Jarvie at Overland he suggested requesting a  Canadian Non-Resident Interprovincial Motor Vehicle Liability Card when we renew the policy. This may be something you may want to consider before arriving in Canada.

Social Hours on Canadian Maritime rally

As many of you know the social hours on Beaver rallies are a way to unwind in the afternoon and get to know one another a little better. Typically, a social hour might include snacks, hor d’oeuvres, or heavy hor d’oeuvres at the discretion of the hosts. On a rally of this length providing plates, glasses, flatware and napkins become the responsibility of each attendee. We have tentatively scheduled 30 social hours during the rally.  The social hour is also where we may discuss upcoming activities and/or travel plans. Please keep in mind that activities like this are subject to change as the need arises. Connie, Pete, Eileen and Keith (your rally masters and co-rally masters) will host 7 of the 30 social hours. That leaves us with 23 scheduled social hours needing two couples to serve as hosts for each social hour. To make this as fair as possible I have put together the attached schedule. You will notice the only names currently assigned are Cooper & Bradish. When you arrive at the campground in Ottawa you will be asked to draw a number from a bag (1 to 13) and that number will determine which social hours we are asking you to help host. Chen and Margie will be with us from stop 12 to stop 30 and will be assigned number 14.