Lobster Quest From East to West

Posted by kim on Jul 31, 2009 in | 5 comments

(scroll all the way down to see new updates)

Looking for a ride… the sign said.

Yesterday as we were on our daily fish run to North Rustico, deb spotted a sign on a lobster trap outside the fish store.

She seemed very intrigued, and finally motioned me over with a big smile on her face…. the wheels were a churning.

There was a fun rhyming note inside that spoke of a wish to get the trap out to Alberta, with a little help from passersby…

We bought this trap to remind us of our Prince Edward Island Trip

But costs and weight and too much expense has made it tough to ship

So we’ve hatched a plan, a crazy idea, we’ll send the trap out west

A solo journey, a leap of faith, what one might call a quest

If you have room, to bring along, this trap a little closer

A little way, or more each day, we’d be a grateful hoser!

Please fill out the book and send this on, there really is no hurry,

For it’s Alberta bound, over Canadian ground,

for this we have no worry!

So we hauled it into the back of the truck and brought her on down to Bayside RV Campground, in Oyster Bed Bridge. Cause what better way to get the lobster trap out west then in a park full of travelling RV’s?

Of course we showed the trap a little fun the Bayside way before sending her along on her travels. First a little supper at the trailer with the salmon we bought at Doiron’s:

Then full from our feast, we joined the usual suspects Best Boyfriend #1 ( BBF#1), Best Boyfriend #2 (BBF#2), shut up larry, and our neighbors scott and pam for adult swim…. with drinks by the pool and dancing queen blasting on the ipod. A great time was had by all.

Sadly, we had to let the trap go along on it’s journey… so we added a little PEI souviner, (along with the plastic lobster and badminton birdie already in there)… a little bag of red sand, red rocks, a mussel shell and the lobster’s sign in sheet for an over night camping spot… on the house of course!

Happy Journeys lobster trap… here’s hoping you get to Okotoks, Alberta to Karen and Chis McCallum safe and sound, with a few other adventures along the way.

We added our name and this blog to the book inside, so if you are on the blog because you have become another leg of the lobster trap’s journey.. we’d love it if you signed the comments telling us where the trap is now!

Hi Deb and Kim!

How excited we were to hear that such enthusiastc and appreciative people had adopted our Lobster Trap for even a day! The pictures are great! We would like to share a picture or two of when we got it started, if possible.

The great times that the trap has had so far with you are a super start to an epic journey! We hope to gather news momentum throughout the adventure, and your blog is exactly what we need. Thanks so much!

To those of you who are willing to help with the fun and craziness, thanks as well. It will be (hopefully) captured in a story in some of the news media across the nation.

God love ya!

Chris and Karen

From Bayside RV Campground co-owner Michael Creighton

I picked up the trap at Bayside RV Campground to accompany me back to Ontario. That was on August 2 2009. Having the very busy schedule that I have with work The trap made it to Ontario safe and sound.

I got very busy with work and travelled to Brockville, Montreal and to South Lancaster and finally to rest my head in Alexandria Ontario where I live.

I was packing my suitcase for a Buying trip to Toronto on Saturday morning …got everything done…..opened the back end ot the SUV to put my suitcase inside….and what do I see….THE LOBSTER TRAP!!!!!

I got so wrapped up in work I forget the trap was still in the SUV! Well now my quest was on…..I began on the 401 at hwy 34 in Ontario at 11:00 AM….continued along and stopped at the last Rest/Service centre on the 401 before Toronto…..at last I had a safe and busy place to drop it off for the next leg of its journey……

After completing the Buying trip on route home I passed by the service station and to my amazement the trap was gone! I hope that someone picked it up and it is traveling safely across Ontario getting ready for its final destination!

Hi Kim! Here’s an update on the trap! We find it so funny and strangely humbling that this has come so far already.

What a great nation we have! Now we venture into the US!! Thanks to all of you for helping out and following along!

Take care,

Chris and Karen

Forwarded email sent From: Kristina Husby
Date: August 10, 2009
Subject: Lucky the lobster trap

Today we drove lucky from near London, ON to near Chicago,il crossing the canadian/us border at Sarnia into Michigan.

Now it is an international trip! We left it at a rest stop on I-290 W so hopefully someone heading further west will take it along with them in the morning!

Hope lucky makes it back to you soon.

From, Kristina Husby and Erik Amundsen.

Last PEI update on the lobster quest from east to west. Late this afternoon i went for our last pit stop at Doirons Fish Market in North Rustico… home of Lucky the Lobster Trap. I was saying a final good bye, and we got talking about Lucky.

We are all sad that Lucky never made it past Chicago… or at least to date, we have no updates on Lucky. I said maybe next summer we should send a new trap out to Chris and Karen and see if it would make it. Suddenly one of the guys at the counter said that he was going to head out to Red Deer, and thought maybe he’d take another trap along with him.

So to all the folks at Doirons, thank you. Thank you for your part in the Lucky the Lobster Trap saga, thanks for providing us (well and everyone else around!) with the best fish we’ve ever eaten. Thanks for your help, advice in what to eat, how to prepare, and most of all for your smiling happy faces all summer.

So, we don’t know if this is the end of the Lucky the Lobster story, we hope not, but it’s certianly a lovely twist, doncha think?

Hi Kim,

What a great development!  Of course, we would rather see the original make it, but this brings the story a much happier, if not preemptive, ending.

You know, Karen and I often reminisce about the great times we had in PEI, and one of those stories revolves around our experience with Doiron’s Fish Market, in North Rustico.  Having a great feed of lobster and mussels with my Uncle Ronnie, Aunt Joan, parents and Sister Marie was made possible by the quality food served out by Doiron’s.

Now, they offer to bring another trap out west for us!  It’s this kind of ‘Canadiana’ that makes Us Canadians, Canadians.  God love them.

As for you two and your innovative approach to logging, tracking, and helping out, well, what can we say but a sincere thanks!  We will probably never meet, and yet we shared something so great.  Be sure to pick up a copy of the December/January issue of Our Canada, and catch the story you helped bring together!

As for the trap, who knows?  We still check the front step after work everyday, in the hopes ‘Lucky the Lobster Trap’ makes his way across our great nation.

God Love Ya!

Chris and Karen McCallum