Wild Vacation

Todd: So Jeff, you're going back to Canada. What are you gonna do, just sit on the couch and watch TV?

Jeff: No, I'm going to go on a trip with my father.

Todd: Really, just your dad?

Jeff: Just me and my dad. We are going to go back to the island, the small island in Eastern Canada, that I was born on, and that my dad lived on for about 12 years.

Todd: Cool.

Jeff: We haven't been back there together since.

Todd: So how long's it been?

Jeff: 28 years.

Todd: Woah.

Jeff: So, and the island is, it's a very interesting island. It's very rugged and rough, and the people that live there are very hard-nosed, inhospitable, and most of it is very inhospitable. It's very rough and rocky and lots of animals there and a very beautiful place, so it's a very unique and sort of exotic island.

Todd: What's this place called?

Jeff: It's called Newfoundland.

Todd: Newfoundland.

Jeff: Newfoundland. Yes,and it's a pretty notorious island around the world, and my dad had four of his five kids there, and I was born there, and so it's a special place for him, and it's a curious, it's a curious place for me. I'm very curious about it because I haven't been back there since I was a child, since I was five, so it's going to be an interesting trip, I think.

Todd: What type of things do you plan to do with your father?

Jeff: Well, we're going to take a ferry. It takes 24 hours to get there by ferry, so we will take a ferry there, and then we're going to drive on 4x4's, little four wheeled vehicles, like a motorcyle from one side of the island all the way through the interior through the woods, to the other coast, and it's over a thousand kilometers, and it's pretty rough and slow and we're just going to go through the woods, straight across the island, through the woods.

Todd: In this truck?

Jeff: In these, we each have a little 4x4, each have a little four-wheeled vehicle and at night we'll camp in a tent and we'll have campfires and ...

Todd: Oh, you mean the offroad vehicles like the little buggy thing.

Jeff: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And my dad will have a gun so we'll probably shoot some animals and cook them up in the fire and we'll go fishing and so, yes, it'll just be very clean and very wholesome and very nice, quiet, two weeks.

Todd: Are you a little worried about bears?

Jeff: Ah, there're lots of bears around, but they don't usually, they won't hurt you if you make enough noise, they'll, there scared of you. There're more scared of you than you are scared of them. Generally.

Todd: But don't they want to eat your food and stuff?

Jeff: Yeah, maybe, but you take certain precautions and you don't leave things lying around your camp or you hang them from a tree, and usually the bears will leave you alone if you don't, if you don't entice them with food by leaving things around the camp.

Todd: Oh, be careful. Sounds fun though.

Jeff: Thank you. If you have time you can come along.