Saturday, June 25, 2011

East Bay and Louisburg

We are in Sydney waiting for our ferry crossing tomorrow. There is wifi at McDonalds, so I’m going to send off a blog.

It is still cold here - Chica likes to snuggle in Dean's goosedown jacket.

After Goldboro, we drove the rough Hwy 316 along the Eastern Shore. The scenery was beautiful but the road was very bad – patched in many places. We soon were on Hwy 16 heading for Cape Breton Island and it wasn’t so bad. We overnighted one night at Walmart in Port Hawksbury and then drove to East Bay. This was probably the nicest boondocking spot so far– on a parking/picnic area, surrounded by water, with lots of room for both rigs. The GPS showed us on the water but it is a road that goes across the water with this large pullout. Thank you Days End.








After parking we went to the Fortress of Louisburg. This is by far the largest restored village/fort that we have seen so far. It is listed as North America’s largest historic reconstruction. The 18th century comes alive as we walked thru period homes, the old fort, and stores. There were many citizens of the town (people dressed up in costume) explaining their role in everyday life. In fact, there was more working than tourists. The only problem was that it was very windy and cold while we were there. Is it ever going to warm up here??


















































On Friday we stayed at the rigs and enjoyed our beautiful surroundings. The four of us and Chica took a walk. After a cold morning, it was a beautiful afternoon. Dean and Ron even had a fire in the firecan.


Next blog - Newfoundland. We take the 10AM ferry tomorrow and arrive at 3:30.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Halifax, Marie Joseph, Goldboro, Nova Scotia

Halifax was just another big city. We stayed in a large mall parking lot in the downtown area. It was really a nice place to park. On Friday night we went for dinner at one of Ron’s friends (Lynn and Dawn Allison) who lived in Dartmouth. He cooked us steaks and we had a wonderful time.


Saturday we did some touring in Halifax. Our first stop was the Fairview Lawn Cemetery where 121 victims of the Titanic were buried. There are three cemeteries in Halifax where a majority of the 209 bodies recovered were buried. Only 59 bodies were shipped out to families for burial. The gravestones are granite blocks with a number (order of discovery) and name, if they were identified. The monument to the unknown child is located at this cemetery.






Next stop was the Citadel National Historic Site. This large fort is one of the best preserved forts we have seen. It sits on a hill watching over Halifax. There have been four different forts built at this site. The present one was constructed form 1828 to 1856 and was the last and strongest of the Citadels. It has never been attacked. We took a tour and watched a couple of films. Every day of the year noon is announced in Halifax by the firing of the Noon Gun (cannon). Well, we watched as they got it ready – but the cannon didn’t go off today because of a faulty igniter. Oh well – so much for tradition.







After the Citadel we went to the boardwalk and walked along the water. There were some colorful boats in the bay. I really liked the one that had a face on it. Very cute! There was a cruise boat docked so the boardwalk was crowded.


















We were glad to pull out of the big city on Sunday. We drove to a picnic are near Marie Joseph (a tiny fishing village) and decided that it would be a good place to spend the night. We had a great view of the ocean.









Monday we went to Sherbrooke Village Museum, a captivating living-history museum of restored buildings and residents dressed in period costume explaining the everyday life of the town in the 19th century. There was a printing press that was actually printing business cards, quilters, blacksmith shop where Dean and Ron saw a really good demonstration and got a gift, drug store, doctor’s office, etc. and in each restored building there was someone to talk to us and give a thorough description of who occupied the building. The mill was a favorite since we watched lumber being sawn by waterpower.
































After we left Sherbrooke we had to take a ferry on Hwy 316. It cost $5.25 and they only allowed one of the motorhomes at a time. So we got some good shots of Ron and Bernita’s rig coming across.

We then boondocked at Goldboro by the Interpretive Center (which was not open yet). When we got here there was a fisherman coming in with some lobster so guess what – we bought some more lobster at $5.25/lb. That is 18 lobsters we have cooked, cleaned and eaten since we got into Canada between the three of us (Bernita doesn’t like them). And we are not tired of lobster yet.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Barriington, Lunenburg, and Peggy's Cove. Nova Scotia

We are covering so much of Nova Scotia quickly since we are moving everyday. Hopefully we can find a place to stay a few nights and recharge our batteries. This blog is dedicated to the South Shore of Nova Scotia – Barrington, Lunenburg, and Peggy’s Cove.

We stayed at the visitor’s center of Barrington. If you look close at the picture you can see that Barrington is the lobster capital of Canada. We had to stop here! But when we started looking for a local fisherman who would sell us lobster, we found out that lobster season (in this area) was over May 31. We were not discouraged – we found several seafood processing plants and one sold us 6 lobsters for less than $5 per pound. Of course we had to come home and cook them and then clean them right away since the rain had let up for awhile. Bernita does not eat lobster so it was Dean, Ron and I picked away. We had lobster for 3 days. And we also found a local fisherman on the side of the road in Bridgewater who was selling haddock. We are having a seafood feast up here!












After Barrington we drove a short distance to Western Shores and a boondocking spot across the street from the ocean and next to a fire station. It rained most of the time we were here. We didn’t let the rain stop us from going to Lunenburg. What a charming fishing village. This town is known for boat making and its colorful houses. We took a tour of the restoration of the Blunose – a fishing boat that is now an ambassador for Lunenburg but in the old days raced and won a lot of trophies. We also went into an old blacksmith shop, which had been converted into a distillery for liqueur.
















We left Western Shores on Thursday and drove Hwy 333 around to Whites Lake and boondocked at a pullout by a lake. It was a pretty setting but the highway was very busy since Halifax was only a short distance away. From this location we drove back to Peggy’s Cove. This is the most photographed town in Canada and it beautiful. It is a small fishing village perched on rocks with a lighthouse. There are lots of tourist in this town but very few locals (30). We also visited the 1998 Swissair Memorial outside of town.





























After a noisy night at Whites Lake we drove the short distance to Halifax and staying at a shopping mall in downtown.