Month: August 2023

Sunday, August 6, 2023

We had a quiet night in the Truro WalMart parking lot last night.  There were at least 13 other RVs in the parking lot when we woke up this morning.  First, we headed back toward the Fundy Discovery Center that we tried to visit yesterday but wouldn’t drive through the water to get there.  Today there was no water over the road in the area we could see but the road was now barricaded and there certainly could have still be water further on down the road.

We decided to drive on to Cape Breton.  It was so hot when we were here two weeks ago that we skipped some hikes we had on our to do list.  Today we decided to hike to Uisge Ban Falls (pronounced OOSH-KA-ban, ISH-KA-ban, or Eeesh-kah-ban) and is Gaelic for “white water”.  Cape Breton has very strong Irish and Scottish roots.  The hike is rated moderate on All Trails and that is probably about right.  Currently the road into the Provincial Park is closed due to a washed out bridge so we had to walk down the road and over the closed bridge to get to the trail head. The first portion of the actual trail is easy with a nice gravel path to follow.  Closer to the falls there are rocks and boulders to climb over or around to get a good view of the falls.  You then arrive at a tall waterfall in a beautiful granite gorge that today had a lot of water flowing over it. It was a great hike with a really good payoff for the effort.  Our total hike was 2.8 miles.   However, about 2/3s of the way back to BB, it began to rain – really rain.  We were drenched.  Sure glad we had BB with all our clothes.

After changing into dry clothes we drove about 25 minutes to our Harvest Host site for the night.  It’s a brewery but they also have smash burgers and pizza.  Unfortunately, they were sold out of pizza and the food truck for the smash burgers was closed for the one night of the season.  Oh well, we had plenty of food in the freezer.  While we were eating supper, to our surprise our friends Owen and Lynn pulled into the parking lot.  We knew they were in Cape Breton but didn’t know where.  We had another good evening of visiting with them.  So much fun to meet up with friends on the road.  Hope you have all had a great weekend.

Saturday, August 5, 2023

We will begin the day with a correction.  On more than one occasion we have referred to Nova Scotia as an island.  A friend reminded us that it is not.  We knew that, but it just feels so much like an island.  Nova Scotia has a 7,500 km (4,660 mile) coastline but is connected to New Brunswick across the only 25 km (15.5 miles) wide Chignecto Isthmus. As you recall we drove to NS from New Brunswick.  So, even though it is not an island, the vast majority of NS is surrounded by water and it definitely feels like an island when you are sitting on the beach just chilling. More importantly, it is just an absolutely beautiful place that we are so glad we have visited.

Now on with what we did today.  We were on the road at 6:40 headed to the bakery to pick up sticky buns.  You will recall that we loved the sticky buns we got from the Wolfville market last Saturday. Max did a little research and determined the location of the bakery to be less than five minutes from Lunenburg, in Blockhouse, NS.  It’s a delightful French bakery, can’t pronounce the name but it’s Boulangerie La Vendeenne.  We visited the bakery yesterday but they were out of sticky buns.  They had made 100.  They said they would make more for today but that we needed to come early. They open at 7:00 so we were there before 7:00.  Oh, those buns are sooo very fine.

Our next stop was unexpected and sad.  On our way to Peggy’s Cove we saw a sign for the Swissair 111 crash sight.  We remembered a little about this commercial airline crash but had to look up the specifics.  It occurred Sept 2, 1998 on a flight from JFK to Geneva, Switzerland. The plan went down in the Atlantic Ocean not far from Peggy’s Cove, due to electrical and instrument failure due to an inflight fire causing spatial disorientation and loss of control of the plane. 227 lives were lost.  We stopped and walked up a little hill to the memorial.

Next stop Peggy’s Cove.  This is one of the places everyone told us we had to see.  It’s actually a very small village, population of 30 permanent residents.  They say they have everything to support daily life – a schoolhouse, church, general store, lobster cannery, and boats of all sizes.  They also have an iconic lighthouse that is pictured in post cards and tourist brochures for NS.  There were way more than 30 tourists taking pictures this morning even with the off and on rain.

After walking on the rocks and taking pictures, we were off to Halifax, the provincial capital.  Due to the flooding of two weeks ago, we had to make a couple of detours but soon we were in the traffic of Halifax.  So thankful we were here on Saturday because we know traffic would be much worse during the work week.  We wanted to go to the Halifax Seaport Farmer’s Market.  It is the oldest continuously operating farmers’ market in North America having been founded in 1750.  It was very crowded.  To be truthful, we were a little disappointed.  We expected it to be larger and with more diversity of vendors.  The market in Wolfville has been our favorite so far.  We remembered what a wise man once told us  “If you never go, you’ll never know.”  So we go.

After leaving Halifax, on our way to Truro, we stopped at the Stewiacke Tourist Information Center.  We had been told that they would allow us to fill our freshwater tank.  This was another interesting stop.  We got a lot more than water.  The owner greeted us and immediately gave us permission to fill with water.  We asked him about the “Mastodon Ridge” name.  He told us the story of the finding of mastodon bones in a gypsum quarry nearby.  He took us inside to see some of the mastodon bones on loan from the Halifax museum.

It was a very interesting day but we stopped early to avoid more storms and flooding.  Be sure to be praying for your pastors as they prepare for the Sunday messages – that they will speak what God wants them to speak and we all will have ears to hear.

Friday, August 4, 2023

We woke up sometime during the night hearing the sound of a fog horn.  It was sounding every fifteen seconds.  It sounded far away, wasn’t very loud and we just went back to sleep.  When we got up this morning it was still very foggy so we took the time to cook a good breakfast and do a little maintenance on the van.  Then we walked out to the beach once more.  When we returned, there was a rainbow in the fog over our van.  Wow, what a special blessing from our Lord.

We sadly left our great little boondocking spot, wishing we could just stay a few more days.  However, we do have to return to the US in early September so, we need to keep moving.  There are just so many beautiful places to visit.  We continued our counterclockwise travel around the island.  This morning we drove through some of the area of the forest fires earlier this year.  As we drove we began discussing things we have seen, etc.  Today we talked about the churches we were seeing.  Many beautiful churches.  This surprised us because on previous trips to Canada, we have sometimes had difficulty finding a church to visit on Sunday, having to drive a much longer distance than we are accustomed to driving in the southern US.  This trip to the Maritime provinces, we have seen many Baptist churches, some Catholic, some Anglican, some Lutheran and almost no methodist. The Baptist churches have been all types of Baptist.  We were expecting more Catholic churches because of the early French, Catholic settlements.  However, then we remembered the information we received at Grand Pré, and that the French Catholic settlers would not take an oath of loyalty to the King.  So, the British brought what they called “Foreign Protestants” to this area and displaced the Acadians in the “great upheaval”.  The British also brought the “Foreign Protestants” to Merligueche and changed the name to Lunenburg in honor of George II.  This explains at least partially why there are many more protestant churches in the Maritimes. We visited Lunenburg today.  It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. “UNESCO considers Lunenburg the best example of planned British colonial settlement in North America, as it retains its original layout and appearance of the 1800s including local wooden architecture.”  Lunenburg is a cute little town with many colorful buildings.  We really enjoyed the harbor area however, most of the town is simply little shops filled with tourist buying T-shirts and trinkets or restaurants.  They do however have good ice cream served in freshly made waffle cones.

After Lunenburg we continued to Mahone Bay.  It is another quaint little town on the bay and we have a boondocking spot tonight right on the shore.  Lots of sail boats here. Very pretty setting.  The vibe here is more local village feeling and definitely not as touristy although there are tourists here.  Hoping for another quiet, peaceful sleep. Thanks for hanging out with us.

Thursday, August 3, 2023

We had a quiet, peaceful night right on the shore and this morning we headed back to Cape Forchu to visit the lighthouse again.  Anne cooked breakfast (oatmeal with cranberries and blueberries) in the parking lot while we were waiting for them to open.  We were the only ones there for the first tour so we had it to ourselves. We were able to climb to the top.  Such pretty scenery.  From Cape Forchu we resumed our counter-clockwise travel around the island taking the scenic route that hugs the ocean. It was a beautiful drive.

We unknowingly arrived in the little town of Shag Harbor.  We began to see various signs noting UFO’s and then drove by a bright yellow building with a sign saying “Shag Harbour Incident Society UFO Interpretative Centre”.  Google tells us it’s all about an incident you might remember (we didn’t) that occurred on October 4, 1967 and is reported to be Canada’s most famous UFO Case.  It’s still a big deal for the little community.  There is a UFO XPO in September.  Tickets for the two day event are only $250.00 if you would like to attend.  Sorry, but we can’t make it this year.

Moving right along, we continued our oceanside drive.  Our destination was Hawk Beach.  When we arrived in the area we first drove out to Hawk point.  In an attempt to find the white sand beaches, we ended up at a little park with a pond and all these cute little pirate ships floating around.  We had noticed several pirate displays/yard decorations as we were entering the community.  Seems we arrived just in time for Hawk Dayze.  Some of the locals told us it’s a local festival.  There will be different things going on all weekend and it began yesterday with the launching of the little handmade boats.

We found our beach.  We’ve had two long walks in the sand.  We are sitting here listening to the waves break on the shore as we prepare the blog.  It’s a great destination for the night.  But…it’s not about the destination, but the journey.  It’s been a fun, and interesting day.