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.
RVing With a Purpose 