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RE/MAX "29 day"
East Coast "Hot Air Balloon Tour"

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Tour Diary;~June 10th 2003~
Stephen Smith Writes:
While in Moncton, Sussex & St. John..
We had a great week of flying in Moncton, which ended with our discovering the Caledonia Triangle... To quote a popular children’s poem, 1 stuck duck, 2 stuck ducks, 3 stuck ducks. As the story goes (video of this event will be on C-Spot) Scotty had a typical flight that had that freaky left taking him and his passengers into a field just off the trans Canada. After a short while I finally found the balloon and it's passengers who had their fill (or rather the mosquito’s had their fill) of the pesky insects. Scotty took over the truck and backed it 20 feet too far in towards the balloon and rig. Well, he done got the 4X4 stuck and after several repeated attempts to unstuck us (using dry grass, timber pieces and rock) he broke down and called a tow truck. By the time the tow truck arrived the passengers had made a haste get away by calling friends to pick them up. The tow truck driver all of 23 years old, drove his doolly non 4x4 truck along the service road until deciding to test the shoulder resulting in his getting stuck. A kind stranger driving a cube truck saw the predicament and backed his truck up so as to have the tow truck hook up to him and pull himself free. Once free the tow truck then proceeded to attempt to unstuck us to no avail. While all this happened the kind stranger then realized he had become stuck, so the tow operator decided to help him get out and got himself stuck again. Now we were all stuck.. The tow operator called a co-worker who showed up after awhile in a 4X4 tow truck who managed to get us all unstuck within a half and hour. It was all quite amusing and you know that it's going to be fun to watch, so keep your eyes peeled for the final video which will be up when we get a chance to put it up once we get back to Ottawa!
We also met a few great people, a photographer named Daniel St. Louis who shot the photo's shown here (more to come) of the balloon down the road, Scotty at the burner and me profiled with the balloon. We also met Lahdie (pronounced lady) from Jungle Jim who we talked with at length while having suds and wings the night of the stuck vehicles and all of the passengers who had a great time flying with us!
Dave (High Time Balloon Co.) our boss made a surprise visit to Moncton and partied with us in style. We shared many laughs and ended his stay with a tandem flight (two balloons) in Sussex with Ulie Dave and I in Oulie's balloon and Scotty and passengers in the Re/Max balloon.

I shot all of the flight on video which turned out amazing!! (Check out Main Flight Video to see footage by clicking on the right link area). After the flight we went to Oulie and Katherine's for beer and a Bar-B-Q which consisted of shish kabob skewers of shrimp, scallops wrapped in bacon and mushroom with veggies..YUMMY!!!! We hung out till the wee hours of the morning chatting, laughing, drinking and listening to me play piano. What a fantastic evening that I won't soon forget!! It was so much fun having Dave hang with us and packing his night light for him!!
We then headed off to St. John New Brunswick where we are currently. Here we have enjoyed some great lunches one of which was a big spaghetti meal that has left me so very full and dizzy with satisfaction. So far the sights have been full of eye candy and we plan to head off tonight to Sussex to meet up with Oulie and company for another flight in the valley. This trip is taking its toll on me though and I will welcome some down time when we get back, but I will miss the people and the adventures. Ah well, it's the price of having fun eh?

~June 4th 2003~
We had a great flight this morning taking off from Sackville NB and landing 5 KM short of Amherst Novascotia. After the flight we had a chance to meet up with students from an Elementary School in Sackville where Scotty gave the a Ballooning 101 course.


~June 3rd 2003~
We have had the Balloon up 26 times since we arrived 15 days ago!! We are going like gangbusters having left a lot of smiling faces in our wake! It's been quite a great run considering the weather we have had, mind you it's nothing like what Ontario has been seeing since we've been gone. I tell ya, we are going to need a couple of days rest when we get back!
We went back to Grand Banker Seafood Bar & Grill on Sunday for more Acadian stew in Lunenburg. (Check out the recipe courtosy of Grand Banker Seafood Bar & Grill) God is that stew ever amazing, if you ever get the chance, head to this true sailing town to take in the tour of the ships, walk the streets filled with cool gift shops and tourist attractions and of course make it to Grand Banker Seafood Grill to fill yer belly with their amazing food selections...my mouth waters as I think about it...

After filling our gullets we headed off into the heavy rain and high winds. to Peggys Cove to act like typical tourists. The winds reached a mere 75KMH (you can see from a screen capture above that the Anamometer reached 25Knt and 31Knt shortly after (note Scotty's glasses floating in the wind on the right). We finally ran back to the truck when it started to pelt us with high velocity hail! The footage from Peggy's cove will be shown in the near future.

Today we went by Garrison Brewery and met up with Brian Titus (President of Garrison Brewing Co.) who gave us an interview and tour of the brewery. This was prompted by a friend of ours (Mark Rump) who while playing pool at Doolys in Bedford - Halifax, commented after I had mentioned that we had a wicked beer while in Annapolis Royal at the "Ye olde town Pub" called Garrison. Mark told us that that they made a jalapeño brew...Scotty and my eye's widened and a smile accompanied reaching ear to ear as Scotty and I are big hot sauce fans and this was sweet music to our ears. After tethering in Commons park this morning we B-lined it to the brewery. You will be able to watch the footage and see this great Micro brew facility in an upcoming segment. We are waiting till we get back to try the jalapeño brew, but if it's anything like what we have tried so far, it should be anything shy of magnificent!!! We hear that Garrison may soon be available in Ontario, you have to know that we will be bugging the Beer store until they have no choice than to stock their product just to shut us up!! A big kudos goes out to Brian Titus, C-Spot's man of the year!!!!!

Psycho-Eyes 2003
After corresponding with Wendy of "Good Beginnings Daycare" in Annapolis Royal, it appears we have started a new silly fad called Psycho-Eyes. We are anxiously awaiting photo entries of her son and friends. We will also welcome our viewers to get in on the action. There is talk of setting up a "Psycho eye's" annual contest / festival which may just spread like wildflower drawing people by the thousands, nay, Millions to Annapolis Royal every spring!! Oh our quirky ways are so infectious and contagious n'est pas? Wendy's son Brogan has been practicing his rendition of "Psycho eye's". Anyone interested in sending us a photo of their version of "Psycho eye's can send a photo (size no larger than 1 MG) to info@canadianspotlight.com Stay tuned for more on this!! (Photo shot at Annapolis Royal of "Good Beginnings Daycare" group provided by Wendy seen in cream top and blue jeans on right)


~June 1st 2003~
The people are incredibly friendly, the seafood is out of this world and the sites are amazing! We left on May 19th and stoped by the "Shoe Tree" at the Quebec / New Brunswick border (more about the shoe tree at a later date) to pay homage and throw another pair into it's tired branches, starting our tour off on the right foot (no pun intended). Then we stoped in Sussex New Brunswick, flew after driving 11 hours where we had so many people to crew that I felt like a soft fart with the winds out of the wreck house (Superfluous ). We partied afterwards in a hot tub throwing back some tasty Maritime Beer (Clancy). The next day it was off to Summerside P.E.I. where we flew for two days and met up with Janel (more to come on Janel at a future date). Then we took a tourist style tour along the Northern coast to Charlottetown where we fit in an evening flight. P.E.I. was a beautiful run with memories of some serious redness everywhere we went. They aren’t kidding when they say the soil is as red as that Anne of Green Gables hair!! Then we headed off to Nova Scotia where we are currently, hitting Halifax several times for Tethered Ballooning in Commons park and touring through the Valley in such places as Greenwood, Middleton, Bridgetown, Bridgewater and Annapolis Royal. We also flew over Kentville for the Apple Blossom Festival..wicked party town filled with thousands of would be partiers. We will be heading to New Brunswick next to tour around such places as Saint John, Moncton, Woodstock, Fredericton etc. We will be finishing up our tour on June 17th just in time for me to teach a class the night we get back, boy I’ll be some tired!!!

Highlights of the tour so far;
- Garrison brewery tour, meeting Brian Titus (President) and their "Hand Bottled" jalapeño Brew....oh this is going to be sooo good (saving for when we get home to try it)!
- Acadian Stew at Grand Banker Seafood Bar & Grill in Lunenburg (Total mouth happiness!!)
- Free Eggs Benedict at the Bridgetown Motor Inn served by a most amusing hung over owner of the restaurant. Hope your feeling better!
- Whispers the bear, I'll be thinking of you...sorry about your stitching...you naughty lil thing you!!!
- Watching "Adaptation" with Nicholas Cage at the Funday Spray hotel, what a great flick!!
- Rum and Coke with Don in Charlottetown P.E.I. in his Garage, after an evening flight with Scotty.
- Seeing a new ingenious invention, a Beer pitcher with an ice reservoir, tres smart!!!
- Clancy, Moosehead Dry, Moosehead drive through (they even ice your cooler and it's open till Midnight - They know how to drink out here in style!!!) and my new favorite Micro brew Garrison Brown and Red ale (this beer is as smooth as Scotty’s flying)
- Going out with Nick and Lee (friends from Ottawa who flew into Halifax on the 23rd of May for the weekend) and Lee's Halifax friend Leslie to hear some true East coast tunes be played by some talented musicians.
- Going out for Suds and Wings in Middleton with the former Mayor.
- Meeting Janel (new C-Spot Hostess) and Tumblin Bob (long story as to why he is called Tumblin Bob) and having some great eats in Summerside
- Touring through P.E.I. and walking along the coast line (wow!! Beautiful scenery)
- Meeting Wendy and her boys, Private "Psycho eye's" Brogan, Justin “Nice Truck” Oliver and toasting champagne with the Annapolis Royal “B&B” girls after and evening flight.
- Getting some pilot time in the Remax balloon (Thanks Scotty for trusting me at the Helm).
- Meeting Jeff and his son Jason (long time friends of Dave Roberts and Scotty) who reside in Kentville and spending Apple Blossom with them.
- Meeting Nick (from Newfoundland) and his brother Liam. Nick your help crewing for us was a reward in itself as well as being there for a fantastic morning flight through the valley.
- Flying with Scotty in the Valley (Nice Box – flying terminology - BTW)
- Learning a new meaning to the term Go’er’.
- Hour long cell phone conversation with High Times Balloon owner Dave Roberts, thanks for believing in me Dave!
- Ulie "Get in meh' belly" Fournier and his Major Hospitality and outdoor Hot Tub.
- The many people, faces and places I haven't mentioned which were equally monumental in making the trip a very cool time!
- And seeing the many sites we have seen along the way..

I will have a ton of footage to share when I get back and get a chance to edit it. I shot a heck of a lot of footage along the way that is both amusing and visually wonderful to look at!

Closing remarks
I highly recommend checking out the East Coast, there is so much to do, see, taste and hear. The people are genuine and wonderful, the beer is cold and delicious, the scallops melt in your mouth and the lessons you will walk away with will follow you through the rest of your life!!
Also I would like to thank the C-Spot team for holding down the fort in my absence, they have been hard at work (especially Mr. Bryan Jones) preparing content for June so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for new material coming up!

Cheers!
Stephen