Baddeck and Sydney, NS

We had a staff-prepared breakfast this morning that included banana-walnut, blueberry or plain pancakes and link sausage. It was stupendous! After breakfast, we had a travel briefing for tomorrow’s run to Baddeck, pronounced ba-DECK, with the emphasis on “deck”. After the briefing, one of the guests stood up with a stuffed Goofy doll. This is a “present” given to someone on the caravan who has in some way screwed up. Well, I was the victim of the presentation. It seems that I was sent to pick up a guest at a repair shop the other day. I went to the RV park office where the office girl pulled out a map and highlighted the route on the map. It was very simple…turn left out of the park, go to the signal light and turn left. Go to Hwy. 102 and turn north (left) for 6-7 miles and Kevin’s Auto Body will be on my right. All went fine until I got to Hwy 102. There were no on-ramps or off-ramps to or from Hwy 102. No nothing! I continued on and went under 102 for two miles to a “T”, which was Hwy 1, and turned left. I found an open business and showed them the map. They told me that there were no ramps to 102 from the road I was on, but I already knew that. They sent me back past the “T” to a light and down that road where I eventually found Hwy 102 and turned north. It was a sort of freeway and I drove for about 20 miles before getting to a business district. I called Barry, telling him I was totally lost. He got the address for me and I plugged it into the GPS. “Karen” took me right to Kevin’s and I completed my mission. It turned out that Kevin’s was on Hwy 1, not 102 as the office had told me.

I protested loudly that I was given erroneous directions and that my getting lost was the fault of the RV park and that I was totally blameless and completely innocent. Claudia leaned over and gave me some quick advice. As I recall, she said something like, “Shut up and sit down”. I gave it one parting shot and sat down, holding my new best friend…Goofy.




After the travel briefing, we took off in the car for a tour of the waterfront. We saw the Public Gardens and then went to the waterfront. I was looking for Theodore Too, a cute little tugboat used for harbor tours and found it out on the water doing a tour.


We then parked and went to Alexander Keith’s Nova Scotia Brewery for a tour.



Inside the brewery


Tour guides


Tour guides

As tour guides, we got in free. The hour-long tour was given by 19th century costumed guides and the tour included the obligatory tasting of their wares. Since Claudia doesn’t drink beer, I was required to drink her mug of brew. I protested but it didn’t do any good. With some reluctance, I drained her mug of suds. We then returned home for dinner and bed.

The 24th was the travel day to Beddeck. It was almost uneventful as one rig had a small problem (quickly solved) on the way. When we arrived at the campground, we all formed up and carpooled to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. I learned a lot. AGB was quite an inventor. Not only did he invent the telephone, he did a lot of work on airplanes, hydrofoil boats, kites, breeding and genealogy and many more things. It was a very interesting stop.

After the AGB Museum, we all went back to the park for a combined birthday/anniversary celebration party and travel briefing. Claudia and Terry made a carrot cake with apricot filling and a vanilla frosting to serve the caravan celebrating all the July birthdays and anniversaries. It was a wowzer!

The next day was a full-day’s bus ride circumnavigating the Cabot Trail.

Cabot Trail map

Our first stop was the Keltic Lodge at Ingonish where I got some great pictures

View from the Keltic Lodge

AND a rum & raisin ice cream cone, double scoop, of course. Claudia’s was some sort of a cheesecake flavor that was only so-so.

After the lodge, we meandered down the trail to a crab processing plant where Terry had arranged for us to buy crab…not normally done, but it’s all in who you know, and she knew the right person!

Not Dungeoness, but tasty!

We bought four pounds of the larger crab legs for $5.25 a pound. They were all cooked and frozen and ready for eating…except for the being frozen part!

We left the packing plant and headed up a “mountain” to the top, all 900’ of it. As we topped out, we saw our first moose. It was a small bull with a modest rack. He was extremely shy and didn’t stick around very long for pictures. The people in the front of the bus got head shots. I, being in the rear of the bus, got the other end!

We then stopped at Saint Peters church in (I believe) St. Ann’s. The whole Cabot Trail area is French and Celtic so almost all signs, posters, etc. are in French and Gaelic (which is an interesting language to see or hear).

St. Peters church in St. Ann's, NS

The last stop was at Joe’s Scarecrow Village. These pictures tell it all…quirky, but cute…sort of!

Scarecrows at Joe's Village

more scarecrow's

Our next day, Saturday, July 26th, was a travel day. We toiled and struggled a whole 35 miles to our next park. Once we got in, it was a free day for everyone except us. We had to go to the Newfoundland Ferry terminal to make arrangements for our travel day on Monday…VERY early Monday…like 4:00 am! I don’t do 4:00 am’s at all, except maybe to leave on a fishing trip! I guess I will have to make an exception this time. Barry broke out the barbecue for dinner and we cooked up a bunch of crab legs for dinner. It was a great change from all the lobster we have been eating. Tomorrow night’s dinner was a choice between two small lobsters or a 16-oz. steak. Claudia and I both chose steak!

It rained all night and we woke to an overcast Sunday morning. Today will be getting the rig all ready for the trip to Newfoundland and Labrador. As I mentioned earlier, we have to get up at 4:00 am tomorrow and caravan to the ferry landing for a 7:30 or 8:00 am loading (if the ferry is on time). We then will have a 14 to 21-hour crossing, depending on the weather and tides. The ferry is running on only three engines right now. One is either down for repair or they have shut it down to conserve on fuel. I have heard both rumors and don’t know which is true.

So, I need to get ready to sail away across the great Atlantic Ocean. The next musings will be from Newfoundland. Sea ya!