Kettels enjoys trip filled with adventure

GLANDORF - As Jane Kettels sat in a living room area on a ferry, she settled in for an eight-hour trip and some sleep. Instead she had an uneasy night after hearing the loud scrape of the ferry against an iceberg. Feeling the ferry rock, Jane and her husband made their way unsteadily to the dining area, holding on to the sides of the ferry as it rocked.

"We never had any announcement, but all I could think about was the Titanic and what those people had felt," Jane Kettels admitted.

She had good reason to be nervous. She was not that far from Cape Race in Saint John, Canada, where the first distress signal from the Titanic was received.

Kettels said they were able to complete their ferry ride across the Gulf of St. Lawrence safely, but it was one of many misadventures they encountered while taking a camping trailer to Mount Pearl, Canada, a 2,256-mile trip one-way.

John and Jane Kettels were on their third trip to deliver a trailer with their pick-up.

"Our son is in Baghdad right now and does this when he is home," Jane Kettels explained. "We said we'd do it for him until he can come home."

The Kettels deliver the trailers to the dealers who have ordered the trailers from a company in Indiana.

The couple left on April 11 to travel to Canada. "I was the navigator and bookkeeper," Kettels said. She said they are given so much per mile plus ferry fees and tolls for one-way of the trip. "You pay for your own expenses on the return trip," she said.

Their first problem came at the Port of Woodstock when they went to enter Canada from the U.S. and it was discovered the paperwork had not been completed correctly.

"We had to unhook our trailer and leave it in ‘no-man's land' until it was straightened out," Kettels said. "This was the area between the U.S. and Canada."

The couple chose to do some sightseeing until the port of entry could be changed on the paperwork.

Their next adventure was the all-night ferry and iceberg encounter.

After landing in Port Aux Basques in Newfoundland, the Kettels drove for several miles until they decided to stop for a rest.

Jane Kettels went into an all-night coffee shop while her husband rested. While sitting there, she talked to truck drivers who warned her about winds on the miles ahead.

"They told me if we see semis parked along the road, we should get on a CB to find out why," Kettels said. She was told the winds sometimes were so strong in Newfoundland, they would pick up a semi and put it in a field. She was told cars on a railway that gone through there had sometimes been blown off the tracks.

Kettels said she felt fortunate they did not encounter those strong winds while traveling to Mount Pearl.

Along the way, Kettels took photographs for a future scrapbook. "I saw seals, icebergs and breathtaking scenery," said the enthusiastic scrapbooker. "I'm really looking forward to putting these pictures in a book." Many of the pictures were taken while traveling 65 miles per hour down the highway.

"I often work on another scrapbook while we are traveling," Kettels said.  "It helps pass the time." Jane said her husband made a work table she can use in the truck as they travel.

Oftentimes the couple would have packed meals, including turkey sandwiches, fruit and yogurt they would eat along the way.

"It helps save on costs," she said.

Although both John and Jane enjoy the trips, Jane Kettels admitted that congestion of traffic around cities can be stressful. "We will be glad when our son Steve returns and can take over the traveling," she said.

The couple returned to Ottawa, Ohio, on April 19.

Their prior trips were to Rogers, Min. "We had a terrible snowstorm when we went in March," Kettels said. "That wasn't much fun."

"I really enjoyed meeting the people in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. They were always so friendly and helpful."