Monday 17 October 2011

Day 47 Woodstock, NB - Grand Sault/Grand Falls, NB

Good Evening My Beloved Blog Readers!

Well, I didn't think I was going to write tonight because it is now 12:52am but so much happened today that I just had to drop some notes for you all to check out.

I was afraid that our stretch of nice weather had left us and that winter had come early. While we were in Fredericton a couple days ago, it was bitter cold, windy, and rainy. Everyone had hauled out their winter gear and the grumbling and groaning about winter weather had begun. Weeeeeell, Stop the presses! Today was an incredible day!! Sunny, bright, cloud free, blue sky, 27 degree day...on October 9th in Woodstock, New Brunswick! So already we were off to a good start.

Okay, I lied, I'm too tired...I'll have to finish later.....Nighty night.

Okay I'm back....9 days LATER! Hahaha You had no idea it was that long, did you? Well, I apologize...but it was....(hint..I've already been in Quebec for over a week!...that blog will have to follow later.)

So heading out of New Bruncwick and into Quebec, I tried out a new job on the Relay. I was a "pilot". I drove ahead and marked the next 3 days of the Relay. This involves taking big yellow stickers and sticking them 250 metres apart on lamp posts, telephone poles, No Parking signs, traffic signals...or whatever we can find. We do this according to a very details mapping program that was created during the 2 hard drives that were mapped out by our Route Coordinators. It was a lot of driving...over 800km round trip resulting in an arrival back at the hotel around 11pm. This was on the night that the rest of that staff enjoyed a nicely prepared Thanksgiving Dinner at our hotel. Thanksfully I have a sweet boss who made me a plate and wrapped it up for when I got back. Thanks Deena! Then we are the pilots for the Relay for those days since we are familiar with everything after having down the recon mission. We lead the core convoy of vehicles throughout the day to make sure they stay on track and all Medal-Bearers are dropped in the correct places.

Well this day in New Brunswick had lots of cool stuff and since its 12:20am and I'm at risk of postponing posting this, I will give a quick rundown and include some pictures.

Visited Hartland, NB, hone of the World's Longest Covered Bridge at 1282 feet long. Found some Fisherman enjoying a lovely sunny morning on the water.






We had a Medal-Bearer in Perth-Andover who had a pet goat named Rocky who even came on the shuttle! GO ROCKY!




And our Last Medal-Bearer of the day in Grand-Sault/Grand Falls was Ron Turcotte. He was the jockey who rode the famous race horse Secretariat to the 1973 Triple Crown. For those of you who are uneducated in the world of horse racing. The Triple Crown means that a horse wins the 3 most prestigious races in the year...The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. It is a difficult task because they are quite different races and different lengths and horses typically aren't suited for all 3. Its so tough in fact that no horse has won the Triple Crown since 1978 when Affirmed accomplished the feat. Great job Ron! Ron got to carry the medal on the bridge that is named after him.



Our End of Day Celebration site was right by the Grand Falls and there is a zipline that crosses the gorge. They cut our staff a deal and we zipped across a couple times...after playing some mini-stick hockey with the kids of course.




Ohhhh yeah....ziplining harnesses are quite flattering for the gentlemen. I was walking a little taller around the ladies when they saw me descend down to the platform. :)  Sorry..but this is the only ziplining photo that was taken.

See you in Quebec in the coming days!

Jonesy

2 comments:

  1. Good to see you back! And glad you've had good weather. Keep up the good work, the fun and the photos.

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