Bell Museum & short move

The caravan went to Fort Louisburg but Judy & I didn't want to do all the walking and it would have been like Williamsburg or Greenfield Village so we went to Baddeck & Alexander Graham Bell's museum. Bell spent time here & build a rather large home as he & the misses liked the area. This is where he worked in the hydroplane, kites & a flying machine to show the world his telephone invention wasn't just a lucky accident. The last picture shows a replica of his hydroplane that held a water speed record of 118mph for 10 years. Not my best picture. We decided to stay in Little Bras D'Or two more days to avoid finding CGs on a weekend; it's busy up here with all the RV caravans and locals coming out for their short camping season. The bridge picture is from a scenic outlook, we will cross the bridge & drive up this 4 mile long hill that climbs 1200 feet when we leave Sunday.

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Cabot Trail

Inside St Peter's Catholic Church, patron saint on fishermen. Outsie is above!

Today we spent 9 hours touring the Cabot Trail. This is a 185 mile loop around the island and through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We didn't travel the complete 185 miles but quite a bit of it. You can see that Canada also has it's share of wacko people doing their own "artsy" thing. Each "person" had a story attached & a name.

Down days & Tattoo

Friday was Canada Day and there was nothing planned so we did laundry and bug bombed the HitchHiker. We have been noticing itty bitty bugs on sweet stuff that isn't wrapped up. So far so good, haven't seen any since. Patches did not enjoy sitting outside the laundry room but enjoyed the truck ride as long as she wasn't in her carrier.
Saturday we went to Tattoo in Halifax. It was a 2 plus hour show with 1600+ folks entertaining us. No cameras were allowed so no pics. There were lots of marching bands (US Marines, Mounties, & several more military organizations). I'm starting to get a hankering for bagpipes, we have seen & heard quite a few the last several days. Also, lots of different dancers and European circus entertainers. It was a very fast moving show.
Today we did some odds & ends around the truck & trailer, had a pot luck dinner then started packing up as the weatherman is calling for rain or drizzle tomorrow and we'll be moving to eastern Nova Scotia.

We had a strange one a day ago. We were with Stan & Connie chatting at their site and a lady walks by read a book as she walks. This is unusual, the only other time we have ever seen it was at our home on Wamplers Lake. Mary Kay lived in the condos and often walked along on the road reading a book. Judy said "Hello May Kay" and the lady almost fell over. It was Mary Kay from Wamplers Lake. She quizzed us about leaving the lake to RV and a year later she did the same thing, so here we both are in Nova Scotia!

Halifax & Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove lighthouse, bagpiper & the cove. As you can see it was in the mist.

The Citadel fort in downtown Halifax.

We didn't get to see the Public Gardens, they were closed due to a fire.

The deck chair is from Titanic, I wonder if anyone clung to it trying to survive? The small shoes were on a 2 year old boy, one of the first victims recovered. He was the unknown infant buried in the Halifax Fairview cemetery. He has been identified using DNA, he died with his two older siblings & mother as they were traveling to Chicago to join their father.

Off to Nova Scotia

We took some nice back roads to the Confederation Bridge and back to New Brunswick then over to Nova Scotia. It was easy & cheap to get to PEI but it was $57.25 to cross back to New Brunswick. Today was 214 miles and we are just outside Halifax. Just before we arrived it started to rain, it had been clouding up all morning, and it's been a heavy mist all afternoon and night. It did get up to almost 80 at one time today but its down to 59 now at 10:30. We get good TV reception up here but the rooftop dish is pointing almost down, the satellite is so low in the sky up here. AND.....the WiFi works good enough here in our home sweet home trailer that I can get caught up with the blog in my recliner.

Lobster supper & Anne of Green Gables, the musical

Monday was a free day so Stan & Connie went with us to Charlottetown see the Cows dairy where they make their ice cream & age their cheese. They have a gift shop with LOTS of cow tee shirts, hats & stuff. They make some real good ice cream! For supper we were all bussed to the New Gloucester Lobster Supper, Judy had salmon (we confirmed neither of us like salmon) while I had haddock. The mussels were real good but I think the locals make too big a deal on these lobster suppers where you can eat as much as you want....except lobster and main dish stuff.

After supper Judy organized a visit to a local community center to see & hear some local Ceilich music. The leader was the gal playing the fiddle and she had a cousin and even her father on stage doing a jig to a few of the high energy songs they played, quite a good & comical group.
On Tuesday we had another free day but in the evening we were bussed into Charlottetown to see a musical play, Anne of Green Gables. I'm not into musicals but will have to admit it was very good. The sets were outstanding and the girl who played Anne had so much energy & did a great job.

Checking out PEI

Lobster boats & rows mussels growing..

The bus picked us up this morning to see what we can see on this part of the island. The first stop was in the PEI National park along the shore and sand dunes. I think the this local tour leader get a kick back from some of the locals places as he was sure pushing some gift shops, high end restaurants, & a jelly joint. The newlyweds, Charles & Kate, are due to make a stop here next week & he was sure to show us their hotel (meals are $30 to $50 and evening attire is required); I know no one on this caravan will be at this place for a meal. The next stop was nifty, it's where the local lobster boats tie up. There were many of them here as they do not lobster (or do you call it fish?) on Sundays. We were also shown where mussels are grown which is a significant business on the island. It takes over a year and they grow on long plastic mesh socks tied and anchored in long rows. We spent an hour at the house of the cousins of the grandparents who raised Lucy Maud Montgomery who wrote Anne of Green Gables in 1908. This green gabled house and the surrounding area (haunted wood & lovers lane) were her inspiration for the book. I never read the book (Judy bought a copy to read) & never will. An hour there was too long. The last stop was a small jelly factory, gift shop & restaurant.