Canadian Maritimes with Mahoney/Brewers 08

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Betty --  No description of the ferry trip back from NF?  Anything noteworthy there?
 
August 2, 2008 Louisbourg, Nova Scotia Fortress of Louisbourg

Even though,  the weather was overcast and misty we opted to trek down the coast to visit the National Historic Site of Canada, The Fortress of Louisbourg. Russ had been there 8 years ago so he opted out of the day?s activity. Jeff was designated as the driver for the day and the 4 of us set out on an adventure through Nova Scotia, which is very different from Newfoundland. The area is much more populated and tourist venues exist all over. Cute B& B?s with large expansive lawns and manicured gardens dot the highway. Most homes  also have have well defined grassy yards and beautiful flower gardens. The coast would have looked even more picturesque if we had a sunny day but you get what you get when talking about the weather.

We arrived at the Fortress(not a fort) of Louisbourg. A Fortress encircles an entire community. It was founded in 1713 by the French and used as a busy sea port to send cod back to the mostly Catholic France who required 142 days of non meat eating days. It was also the Administrative capital of French holdings and a center of trade. In addition it was a military stronghold and naval base to protect French interests. It fell to British in 1758 for a final time. It became a National Historic Site in 1928.

The park is  a Town site  reconstructed in 1961 to 20% of it?s original size. Since no other city was built on top of it, archeologists were able to find foundations and recreate it in exact detail. Architectural drawing also existed that gave clues as to the nature of the Fortress in 1744. There are 25 buildings open for public view and exhibits were well done. The most special thing about this place to visit is that dozens of costumed people step into the role they might have had in the day and speak to us of their life in present tense. We spoke to guards, servants, society ladies, children , musicians and on and on. You can tell from the photos that weather helped to created the realistic picture of the hardships endured by early residents. It was rainy, cool damp misty and we all had water spotted glasses! There were no hot dogs nor McDonalds? available for lunch. We were only given a spoon for our peasant meal of soup and dry bread. Terry had a hard time with this realistic feature of the times. I loved my split pea soup.

On the bus ride back to the parking lot an Acadian couple recommended that we tour the nearby Miners Museum in Cape Breton. So off we go, hi ho , hi ho?? Retired miners give guided tours of the Oceans Deep Colliery mine. We saw coal mining as it was done in the 1900?s . All coal was loaded by hand shovel and for 65 cents a ton. Miners worked 12 hour days 6 days a week and like cod fishermen owed their soul to the company store! The mines were only built as high as the coal vein so we traveled in tunnels 4.5 foot high. Needless to say we had been issued hard hats and they did prove needed! Jeff and Terry had the hardest time with the height of the tunnels! These mines went out under the Atlantic Ocean where much coal still exists (and our ceilings dripped) but it hasn?t been cost effective to mine for some time. With increased fuel costs private companies are now looking at the feasibility of reopening the mines.

We called Russ to join us for dinner at the end of a long touring day.
 

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KodiakRV said:
Betty --  No description of the ferry trip back from NF?  Anything noteworthy there?

Kodiak,
Thanks for  paying attention. Something got lost in cyberspace I guess, or as one rcently posted....  Error between chair and computer.

July 31,2008 Ferry from Port au Basques, NL to North Sydney ,Nova Scotia

We boarded our Marine Atlantic Ferry at 3 pm for a 4 pm departure that was delayed an hour. The fare was $355.52 for 2 people and 59 feet of ferry space for motor home and car connected. $ 32.02 of this was a fuel tax added surcharge. The ride was smooth and in a very nice ship compared to the long ferry one month ago.

Terry and Russ started the voyage with soft serve ice cream while I headed for the lounge as I heard music. The onboard entertainment came in the form of a really good singer and the Newfie passengers. Seems there is a big Eagles concert in town 8/2 and 75% of passengers in the lounge were on their way to the concert. What a party! Those Newfies know how to have a good time. We just hoped they had designated drivers for the ride off the ferry. After a short 5 hour ride, we docked at 10 pm and used the bread crumbs on the GPS from last trip here to find our boon docking spot for the night. We will meet up with Jeff and Sue on Friday 8/1.

I am sad to leave Newfoundland. It has made it to my list of places to return. We had good weather almost everywhere and met wonderfully friendly people.
 
If you get about halfway down the east coast of NS, we heartily recommend the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg. 

Also very memorable were the gravesites of the Titanic victims in a cemetry in Halifax, as well as the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax with numerous Titanic artifacts.
 

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August 3 and  August 4, 2008  Seal Island KOA North Harris , Nova Scotia

We started out to tour the Cabot Trail in misty cloudy weather.  About  30 miles later it was now pouring and we could not see any scenery along the road.  Jeff and Sue were following in their car and announced on our radios they were going to turn back and try the trip next month when they return from Newfoundland.  We made the  decision  to try it tomorrow, at the next  exit.  We had  breakfast in  Baddeck at a wonderful bakery and  retuned to the motor home. Later in the evening we joined Jeff and Sue for  a lobster dinner  at a restaurant overlooking the water. and then  returned to  Baddeck to  enjoy some Cape Breton music.  It was the Baddeck Gathering Ceilidh featuring  fiddle music.  It was a very entertaining evening and we  stamped our feet to the music.  I learned that one does not clap along to music when a fiddle is playing.  You stomp your foot  as clapping signifies you want them to stop. 


8/4/08 While we had planned on taking the  Cabot Trail today is still  raining (harder than ever)  so we?ve changed our plans and will stay another day here to try to catch some clear skies for our  drive. I?m taking the day off.
 
Betty Brewer said:
August 3 and  August 4, 2008   Seal Island KOA North Harris , Nova Scotia
  I learned that one does not clap along to music when a fiddle is playing.  You stomp your foot  as clapping signifies you want them to stop.   

I got a chuckle out of hearing about that local custom.  It would never "play" in Alabama or Texas.  (As the band Alabama used to sing, "when you want to play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band.")    You can bet there was a lot of hollerin', stompin' and clappin' going on at Alabama's concerts.  ;D

Margi
 
Margi:

We got informed of the custom after all the Americans in the audience started clapping along with the music. ;D
 
August 5, 2008 North Sydney, NS    Golden Arm RV Park


You may have noted that we moved to a new RV park today.(Within  12 miles from the last one)  Here is the reason. 

I went to bed last night at  around 12 pm. It had continued to rain lightly all day and  into the evening and now and then we heard thunder.  Terry stays up to watch TV.  When I was drifting off to sleep I thought I heard something  fall off the bed.  You know,  a shoe,  a jacket or  whatever  but  then I realized I did not have anything on the bed to fall off.  Nevertheless,  I drifted off to sleep but I could not sleep as I smelled the smoke of  electrical wires burning.  I wandered out to the living room and  told Terry he need to check the back.  He wondered why I was interrupting his late night TV but I convinced him SMOKE was a good reason.  I  quickly dressed  in real clothes, as now he has all the bedroom windows open .  He trouble shoots the smell and the smoke for  2 hours and  I fear the worst, our inverter is fried, our converter is fried, our 50 amp service is gone.  Good news, the TV?s and the computers work.   

In the morning Terry figured  out that  the Circuit breaker surge protector had done it?s job.  We wonder if  lightning  had struck something close by  and  caused a  power surge.  We asked KOA for a refund  for the prepaid night and moseyed on down the road with Jeff and Sue and Russ to the Golden Arms RV Park to catch wi-fi.  We watched big rigs get stuck in the grass following this  4th or 5th day of rain.  So far I am not  impressed with Nova Scotia weather .  Terry still wants to try to do the Cabot Trail  in the morning.

We opted to eat in  tonight while Russ and Jeff and Sue went out to eat.  I love my own cooking after  eating out so many times.
 
8/6/2008 N Sydney, Cape Breton island, Nova Scotia.

On 7/29, last full day on NFLD, drove the S coast 30 miles East to Rose Blanche from Port aux Basques. Wonderful terrain of smooth hills and granite rocks partially covered by heather and stunted forest plus innumerable ponds. No free boulders, the glaciers have exported all of those to St Johns. I imagine this is the look of the moors that Sherlock Holmes would walk

Isle aux Morts, a fishing village at a heavily indented cove is almost as scenic as Peggy's cove. I could have mined this place for pictures for several days.




7/31. the ferry crossing back to NS was smooth, lasted 6 hrs and was enlivened by a musician in the bar across from our seats. Many of the passengers were on their way to an Eagles concert and "participated" in the show.

8/1 We moved over to  a KOA 15 miles west of N Sydney at the foot of Kelly mt. Terry Brewer could just barely get  a TV satellite signal, so we were able to watch the Hungarian F1 race. First TV for a month! We toured the Alexander Graham Bell museum in BaddeckThat afternoon and were joined by the Cousins (arriving from PEI) in the museum.

Bell started out as a speaking teacher to the deaf and married one of his students. She had a mind for business so he gave her all of the stock in his new telephone company and never had to worry about money again, so was able to devote his life to research in phonograph record improvement, kites, airplanes, and hydrofoil boats.

Our entire time here has been plagued by rain. The last straw came when a power surge took out Brewers surge arrestor and left  the cousins and my coaches with reversed polarity power. We had to pull the power cord out of the post and run on battery overnight.

Therefore we moved to a different CG for our last 2 days here. We have been waiting for a sunny day to do the Cabot Trail, But the gray morning suggests we not get that wish.


 

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Betty Brewer said:
August 5, 2008 North Sydney, NS    Golden Arm RV Park


You may have noted that we moved to a new RV park today.(Within  12 miles from the last one)  Here is the reason. 

I went to bed last night at  around 12 pm. It had continued to rain lightly all day and  into the evening and now and then we heard thunder.  Terry stays up to watch TV.  When I was drifting off to sleep I thought I heard something  fall off the bed.  You know,  a shoe,  a jacket or  whatever  but  then I realized I did not have anything on the bed to fall off.  Nevertheless,  I drifted off to sleep but I could not sleep as I smelled the smoke of  electrical wires burning.  I wandered out to the living room and  told Terry he need to check the back.  He wondered why I was interrupting his late night TV but I convinced him SMOKE was a good reason.  I  quickly dressed  in real clothes, as now he has all the bedroom windows open .  He trouble shoots the smell and the smoke for  2 hours and  I fear the worst, our inverter is fried, our converter is fried, our 50 amp service is gone.  Good news, the TV?s and the computers work.   

In the morning Terry figured  out that  the Circuit breaker surge protector had done it?s job.  We wonder if  lightning  had struck something close by  and  caused a  power surge.  We asked KOA for a refund  for the prepaid night and moseyed on down the road with Jeff and Sue and Russ to the Golden Arms RV Park to catch wi-fi.  We watched big rigs get stuck in the grass following this  4th or 5th day of rain.  So far I am not  impressed with Nova Scotia weather .  Terry still wants to try to do the Cabot Trail  in the morning.

We opted to eat in  tonight while Russ and Jeff and Sue went out to eat.  I love my own cooking after  eating out so many times.

Sorry to here you are getting our Newfoundland weather.  We have not had a single sunshiny day since we arrived.  You do need to do the Cabot Trail.  It is the one nice thing in Nova Scotia other than Peggy's Cove.

Shirley and I are just east of Gander at the Square Pond RV Park.  It is the first internet in 4 days.  We tried libraries in six towns and either they were closed or were gone for some reason.  Many places that are supposed to have internet do not and one TV Station is pretty bad.

We finished the Discocery Trail yesterday.  We also had a breakdown with the car.  A Conservation Officer came by and gave us a ride to get some help.  We threw an alternator belt, which in turn, took out a radiator hose.  Took 3 hours to get back on the road.

Say hi to Terry and Russ.

Ron and Shirley
 
Ron, Brewers, and Russ:

On board the MV Smallwood:

Withing an hour of leaving North Sydney this morning the sun was trying to burn through, hope the same is true of the Cabot Trail today. Still cloudy but bright and good visibility and it is warmer out here than in N Sydney. We left 1 1/2 hours late so like everyone else will arrive 2-3:00AM.

Ron:

Forecast for St John's is improving so maybe all of the Rock will be the same.
 
Russ, you got one really great photo of what they call "fishing rooms."  Neat!

Sure hope the weather clears for you.  That's a really pretty area when the sun is out!

ArdraF
 
August 6, 2008 Cabot Trail Drive , Nova Scotia

Today was  ?Cabot Trail or Drown Day.?  We?ve waited for 6 days for a clear day to do this trip.  We awoke and it was foggy and rainy but what the heck we were going anyway. I radioed Russ on the CB to see if he was ready to leave in 5 minutes.  He opted to pass on this trip.  He visited Cabot Trail 8 years ago and was moving on down the road to Peggy?s Cove.  So armed with tourist guides, camera, water, chips and  topping off the fuel tank we  headed off on this adventure.  To our amazement  the weather got better and better as we traveled.  We had sun and  rain  but the showers were only in parts of the green tunnel roads.  The Cabot Trail  has been recognized as one of the  top scenic roads in Canada. Tour brochures proved true today.  What a wonderful day.  We had history, scenic beauty, folk art, real art, wildlife ,  a National Park and many many photo opportunities.

The Cabot Trail  is a loop drive  in the  Cape Breton  part of Nova Scotia.  It includes  the Cape Breton Highland National Park ,  many  scenic  coastline villages,  highland forests and some rolling fields.  Down the road  we saw a moose and her baby standing by the road but no time for  a photo.  Luckily on the other side of the island  we saw a first for us?.. A male moose munching on  branches  in  the field along the road. Whoo hooo my heart beats fast when I see these guys along the road!

I added in stops at several local artist studios.  Terry and I  drove off the main route to a studio where we made a  purchase of a lobster plate piece of pottery.  It will  be a souvenir of our Nova Scotia  trip.  We saw a funny  tourist stop along the first part of the trip called Scarecrow Village.  They have hundreds of figures in all kinds of scenes  to  entice the tourist to their lunch wagon.  It was a hoot and too crowded to stay for lunch!  We saw  coastal scenery, crashing waves and a bit of fog covered mountain tops.  It was a wonderful day topped off by our  doctored up homemade  frozen  pizza at home.  We heard from Russ and have our route plotted toward  Halifax tomorrow.  We need to replace the tires on our toad which have now exceeded 80,000  driving/ towing miles.  We noted they are getting bald.  So we are Costco bound in the morning! 
 

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8/7/2008 King Neptune CG near Peggy's Cove NS

270 mile journey yesterday from the rains of the north to partly cloudy here S of Halifax. This CG is my all time favorite in Canada. It sits on a tiny fishing cove with the usual fisherman's wharfs and shacks, a lobster pound and NO TREES. I got TV but not internet last night. Today, with clear skys I am online with a signal strength of 50.

It is not big enough for the caravans so only 3 rigs and 4 tents . Thus they let me park next to the ocean and park crosswise over 2 sites.
 
Russ,

Please...get a couple of pics of the tiny fishing cove with the usual fisherman's wharfs and shacks.

Thanks a bunch,
JerryF
 
August 7, 2008 Halifax, Costco Parking Lot

Terry and Betty have arrived in Halifax.  We are parked  in the Costco parking lot hoping to be first in line in the morning for new tires for the  GMC Envoy.  So far folks in  Halifax  have not been too friendly.  OK, OK  we did block the entire driveway when we could not make the turn into the parking lot.  A car was not legally parked and we did not wish to run into him.  Of course with car in tow, we can't back up.  so we calmly get out, unhook car.  Get it out of way.  Back up and now we can swing  in to make the turn.  Problem solved. I'm reminded to be nice and to be patient when motorists or RVers have some troubles on the road.

We too have internet and TV.  It is cloudy but not rainy so it is a good day.
 
20080807 King Neptune CG near Peggy's Cove NS day 2.

Departed the CG at 11 AM after a lazy morning on the internet. went east past Peggy's Cove and N to Halifax. As I went by I could see dozens of tourists walking the rocks near the lighthouse. Proceeding N along a very twisty road, I met 8 tour busses on their way to Peggy's Cove!

I ended up at the shopping district at the junction of hywys 102 & 103. A huge collection of strip malls and big box stores including the Costco That Brewers were heading for. Had lunch at a restaurant with greek food (mousaka!)

On the way home, found the all important coffee shop at the head of the bay...unbelievably bad!

Chatted with CG neighbors from Ontario and Florida who also experienced the recent heavy unrelenting rains. Prior to that there was 3 weeks of very hot muggy weather in July. The CG owner did not bother with an air conditioner for his trailer and now regrets the decision.
 
August 8, 2008  King Neptune Campground  Near Halifax,  Nova Scotia

We left our Costco parking lot ?campground?  at  1:00 PM.  We have  4 wonderful new tires to the tune of  nearly $1,000 including the  13% tax charged by Canadian Government.  We followed the picturesque shoreline to  Indian Head  Cove and then to King Neptune  Campground and  found a beautiful  sight  that overlooks a wonderful cove.  It rained a bit and we  planned our next week of tourist activities.  We will tour  Halifax  in the morning.
Betty 
 

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