MeAnd’Er Across Canada: MeAnd’Er-ing West from the Maritimes

Day 102 - the ferry across Cabot Strait was uneventful other than the boarding process for the cars. After getting through the ticket booth, which takes quite a bit of time if your toll booth person wants to know all about your trip and what it’s like in B.C., what her favourite places in Nfld. are, where her hometown is …. then we pass through a tunnel equipped with hoses, spray tunnels etc. for decontaminating your vehicle if you have been anywhere that you could be carrying any crop damaging bugs or viruses. We didn’t get sprayed or anything, but the line up took about 20 minutes to get on our spot in the line up for the boat! We thought it should be the other way around, checking for this stuff Before you come on to the Island. Anyway, we got through and had a quiet 6 hour trip back to North Sydney, Nova Scotia. Siri pulled some fast turns in and out of laneways and alleys when we disembarked and we were at dinner before the boat was unloaded! We ate at Black Spoon on Commercial Street and had an amazing Chili Bread Dip - and Tori gave me the recipe! Not with proportions of course because she makes it by the quart, but the ingredients are all there and we can’t wait to share it with you. 😋

Learned something new today, or at least something I didn’t know - a Canadian railway/passenger ferry, the SS Caribou, was torpedoed by a German submarine right here in Cabot Strait in October 1942! 237 passengers and crew were aboard and 136 died.. Whaaaat??? I must have skipped school the day they told us about that!

Day 103 - off to the Cabot Trail, a 298km journey around the north western part of Cape Breton Island, named after the explorer John Cabot who landed in Atlantic Canada in 1497, although his landfall likely took place in Newfoundland, not Cape Breton. This is beginning to sound like Marconi and his 1st Transatlantic signal - St. John’s or Table Head? (I think I have that one figured out).

We started at Baddeck on Brass D’or Lake, the site of the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site, featuring photos and models of his historical inventions. Ironically when driving toward the village there was a large wind turbine front and centre of our view right above the sign, I think he would have liked that. A.G. Bell patented the 1st telephone in 1876 after working for years studying hearing and deafness, elocution and speech. He and his assistant Casey Baldwin invented the Hyrdrofoil which they were selling to the government but the deal fell through when the war ended! They also invented the Silver Dart, the first aircraft flight in Canada in 1909.

North from there we travelled the ‘Trail’s beautiful scenic route climbing from sea level to 455m and the views were spectacular looking out to the Atlantic Ocean. Quick stop at Neil’s Harbour to send a postcard to our friend Neil, then on through St. Ann’s Gaelic College in Englishtown, a program of culture, music, language, customs and traditions of the immigrants from the Highlands of Scotland - the only one of its kind in North America, which explains why the guy at the gas station was wearing a kilt!

We went off road at Cape North and went out to Meat Cove. “Why?” Roger asks - “Because someone said to” I reply, which is pretty much how our trip has been.

Meat Cove is the most northerly settlement in Nova Scotia along 70km/round trip of the craziest roads. The campers and campground at the end of the road was very peaceful and reminded us of the 60’s - vans, blankets, campfires, children running around - everything but the Mamas and Papas in the background. Meat Cove - the name is from the area being used for hunters.

Day 104 - After loading up at La Boulangerie Aucoin Bakery we stopped at Freda & Thor Gallery & Cafe to check out local folk art, and our day took a complete change in direction when we me Jay Kana, a journalist, owner, editor of Modern Traveller https://www.moderntraveller.ca/ and he’s going to do a story about our MeAnd’Er Across Canada journey in our EV Kona. It was so exciting to meet someone as excited as we are about this adventure in our electric car!

“I’m speechless, and I’m a journalist!”

Freda & Thor’s has some great folk art, and a lot of it with a great sense of humour. And live music with your coffee and sandwich!

The western coast of the Cabot Trail takes us along the Gulf of St. Lawrence through Canada’s Musical Coast (golf too, apparently) home to world-class fiddlers, whole clans of musicians, folk artists including the Rankin Family, Barra-MacNeils, Ashley MacIssac, Natalie McMaster, John Allan Cameron, Rita MacNeil and once visited by Serena Eades! You could feel the music in the earth and air - it was magical. And I bought my own copy of Ducks at the Celtic Music Interpretative Centre gift shop!

Did I mention that it is raining?

Day 105 - We made a huge mistake and drove Truro NS to Woodstock NB on Hwy 2, a 4 lane highway, thinking to save time, only to arrive in Woodstock tired and cranky. Every time we spotted a water tower off in the distance we knew we were missing a village or town and it made us sad. Won’t be doing that again for a while, maybe a bit through the prairies when we get closer to home.

Truro, Nova Scotia - We stayed with Jenny and Justin at their B & B Abide Within right on the edge of Victoria Park, and it was absolutely charming. They were great hosts and our fellow travellers were from Nova Scotia and Denmark. Their guest rooms were named after Royalty, the rooms at Windsor in St. John’s after the owners of the house throughout its history, Kittiwake in Nfld. after their parents, and way back when at Bell Aura in Carman, Manitoba after authors. Jenny and Justin are retired long haul truck drivers and have settled well into their role as hosts.

The Farmer’s Market was a real highlight and we got to browse there and through town while the Kona charged at the EV station at the Market.

We visited Noveltea Bookstore & Gifts, a fun bookstore that we heard about from the young lady at the Big River Cafe in Stewiacke. Vonda Hazzard blends teas and gives them book names like Winnie-The-Pooh, Charlotte’s Web, Sherlock Holmes etc. Melissa works at the bookstore and was more than eager to fill us in about the bookstore and tea shop, how they survived the 1st 6/12 of COVID then they had a fire and lost everything. The community rallied behind them and raised funds to help them recover. Guess Truro appreciates the value of an independent bookstore👍

Woodstock, NS - we stayed in a restored Anglican Rectory dating back to 1878 and it was more like a hostel than a b & b, somewhat disappointing. But - we did dine at Thai Hut where we tried Dragon Noodles for the first time, and were treated to a cooking lesson by the chef about bromaline in pineapple and how it is affected by broccoli, delicious and educational. Reminded me of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmas. The decor at Thai Hut was fantastic!

Day 106 - We’re heading to Montreal and wanted to set our pace a little slower so decided to stay over in Levi, Quebec, and oh what a beautiful drive along Rte. 103 through farmland all along the St. John’s River that flows from northern Maine into Canada, running south along the western side of New Brunswick, to the Atlantic in the Bay of Fundy. Maine’s right on the other side of the river!

We passed through Hartland home of “The Longest Covered Bridge in the World”, 1282 feet long. (a fact challenged by some). Then Florenceville-Bristol “French Fry Capital of the World”, home of McCain Foods, started back in 1957 by 4 brothers, sons of 3rd generation farmer. “One in every 4 fries in the World are a McCain Foods fry!” You may remember a feud between two of the surviving brothers back in 1994, resulting in them having a wall put up in their office in Florenceville separating the two of them!

The entire drive was beautiful and we enjoyed being back in to our MeAnd’Er-ing mode through New Brunswick and the rural areas of Quebec, and I was reminded of Eric LeBlanc and how he would scour these areas for treasures to bring back and market at The Rustic Rooster. I bought many a Medalta plate and mixing bowl from there, still have a few in fact.

If you’re ever coming this way, we would definitely recommend going from New Brunswick to Quebec via Lac Baker.

The architecture in Quebec is quite beautiful and unique, one style I particularly like is the Southcott style with its scoop-type roof lines. And of course, the winding outside stairs are classic.

Day 107 - On our way to Montreal we stopped in at Trois-Rivières again to charge the car at the Avenue Electrique, the most fantastic charging station on the whole trip! We mentioned it before, and that you can even buy a pizza from a vending machine.

Back for another great visit with cousin Karen in Beauharnois and a lovely walk along Rivière Saint-Louis and downtown area on the lake across from St. Anne de Bellevue and Dowker Island, at the convergence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. Again an exchange of memories and stories, and some family pictures.

And guess who we had coffee with??? On the day before someone’s 75th Birthday! They’re heading east and we’re heading west!

We won’t be able to visit everyone on our way home because we are trying to stay a little more ‘on course’, meaning a bit more on the route, but we’re doing our best. We visited Roger’s cousin Susan, in Alexandria, another one he hasn’t seen for about 40 years, a very heartwarming morning indeed. These folks greet one another like there is no time lapsed at all! And it was so nice to meet Stan, Susan’s new 4 legged companion.

Visiting with Roger’s family has definitely been the highlight of this whole trip. 💕

When we were driving from Montreal to Alexandria we took the rural route and encountered a small tornado making its way across a farmer’s field, sending clumps of hay floating into the air - quite a site for sure! just before driving through Village of Glen Robertson, North Glengarry! (definitely sent a picture of that sign off to our friend Glen!)

The fields along here are filled with corn and soy beans and evidence of a lot of Monsanto influence with crops labelled and nothing for sale at roadside stands. Roger thinks all the corn here is being grown as cattle feed.