MeAnd’Er-ing through Nova Scotia

 

Family and Friends, Music, Fun and Games!

 

Day 60 - We had circled Kentville and Wolfville on the map to find Lynda in Nova Scotia.  In fact she is nestled quietly in the woods in a home filled with treasures in Aylesford.  Roger and Lynda are cousins and was in the “went to live with my Aunt and Uncle” chapter of Roger’s life.  They spent the evening pouring meticulously put together albums that Uncle Fred could challenge any archivist as near perfect!  There are records of the Dowker family back to 1662 in England before they came to Canada in 1845 - records unlike anything I have ever seen, gradually being passed on to Lynda from Fred and Lee and from here the records will pass on to her daughter Emily.  Roger has brought his grandfathers book “Birds of Montreal” to pass on to Emily that he had restored by a volunteer at the Repair Cafe in Mission.  

Wolfville is in the Annapolis Valley, Kings County, about 100 km northwest of Halifax with views of Cape Blomidon, The Bay of Fundy and Gaspereau Valley.  It is home to Acadia University and Acadia Cinema Cooperative, a non-profit organization that runs the local movie/performance house.  Meet Jim, one of the 5 Jim’s who owned, or still owns The Odd Book, a rare book store.  

 

Day 61 - 63 - We spent the day exploring the south coast - with a driver!  What a treat to have Lynda tour us along the coastline of the Bay of Fundy, Blomidon Park, Canning, Minas Basin = fishing boats at low tide on red sand/clay beaches, farmland and orchards, vineyards, waterfall in Kentville, red sand, black sand, and my 1st Maritime Lobster at Hall’s Harbour Lobster Pound.  It’s off season and the Lobster Pound is where to get fresh - it’s akin to an animal pound where trapped lobsters are kept alive by running sea water across their tanks.  Here’s the menu - 😋

We went to Centreville - home of the Fairy Houses built by Charles MacDonald.  In 1912 he started a concrete factory in Kentville, and as a renowned socialist, instead of paying his employees  they had a Company Pot and the employees took what they needed!  When he retired he went to the factory, handed the keys to his foreman and told him the factory was his.  The 5 Fairy Cottages were built of concrete and knowing his employees needed an income during the Great Depression, he gave the cottages to them.  It looks like the chimneys were made out of Jelly Beans and the driftwood fence is a natural work of art!

It was here on the beach that I joined my Friday Friends back home for a quick Zoom visit on a low battery and poor reception, but nice to see them.

And I got to put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean - great joy for a girl from BC.  Not a swim though, unlike Lynda who swan in Aylesford Lake after a lovely walk through the forest from her home - and Roger again was a tick magnet, only one tick this time.

Mahone Bay with its colourful parking meter to donate your change to the Mahone Bay Chamber of Commerce, yarn and rug hooking shop and continued along Route 3 to Lunenburg - home of the Bluenose.  We stopped in at St. John’s Anglican Church, founded in 1753, and a local pointed out a building to me that was a brothel and now bears the historical plaque The Gothel, so now I’m calling it the Gothel Brothel.  He also told me that a really good musician named Turner recently moved here from Abbotsford.  

Lunenburg was full of tourists, but we did learn that the Bluenose II was back on tour this week and we booked for a 2 hour sail on the 19th.  Wow!!  You’ll be hearing a lot more about that when the time comes.

We meand’ered along the coastline to Sand Dollar Beach and lingered long enough to miss the famed LaHave Bakery!  Lynda found us great places to explore and filled us with lots of local history.  And a family visit with Emily and family in their suburban home with a yard filled with plants, mostly native to Nova Scotia and not a lick of grass to mow - a family after my heart!  They also drive a red Kona EV like us and Barbara in Saint George.  

And I even got to pump gas into Lynda’s car - that’s been a while!!  Took a lot less time than an EV, but a lot more $$$

We shared stories, books and book titles, music and music recommendations, and some seeds for the Community Garden Karen has going at Northview back home in Mission.

Sunday night we wrapped it up at Paddy’s Pub in Wolfville with a music ‘session’ and it was fantastic - real live Maritime stuff I’ve only dreamed of.  Lynda was 1 of 4 fiddlers, accompanied by 2 guitars, a flute, a Celtic bodrain & Jenny, who played both fiddle and concertina.  3 of them were also vocal sololists leading some Maritime ballads.  All wrapped up in a bow with a young couple in the pub dancing.  It was magical.  

Great Memories

Great Family Connections and Bonds

and Lots of Love 

Day 65 - Left Aylesford and headed back on the 101 to Windsor, along the Evangeline Trail Scenic Route, named after the principal character in the epic poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  I don’t know if I mentioned it, but one of Windsor Nova Scotia’s claim to fame is “Birthplace of Hockey”, and is sister city to Cooperstown, NY, the “Birthplace of Baseball”.  

On along Hwy 14 through Greenfield to Hwy 2, north to Stewiacke where we met Kamie, one of the two young proprietors of the Big River Cafe, (we made an Independent Bookstore connection).  Stewiacke has a population of 1550 people, just over the 1300 at Mission Secondary, and it’s nickname is Halfway between the North Pole and the Equator.  Now I haven’t tested that out, or fact checked, so my friends who like to do that type of thing, please let me know!  

We charged up in New Glasgow where Roger talked to a guy charging a Ford 150 Lightning EV truck who has a company that sells and installs home and business charging stations, and business is quite brisk - good to hear.  He spends $200/month less, including car payments on the EV truck and cost to charge it, than he used to pay on just the fuel to run his last truck.  

Passed a sign on a business in Rawdon that said “Call Us Tuesdays” !  

The devastation from Hurricane Fiona is everywhere we look and I don’t know if we can give you pictures to let you comprehend just how horrible it was, and still is here.  Fiona was a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane which was the most intense tropical cyclone to hit Canada on record.  It hit landfall near Whitehead, Nova Scotia September 24, 2022 with winds of 105 mph (169 km/h), moved through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia from Halifax eastward, most of southeastern New Brunswick, most of P.E.I., some parts of Newfoundland and over southeastern Labrador Peninsula, lasting 3 intense days in the area.  We saw some evidence of it in parts of the coast in Quebec and in New Brunswick, we just didn’t know what we were looking at.  On the northern part of PEI the forests were so badly damaged by the blasts of the heavy gusts of salt water and sand that the forests that are left standing are filled with dead trees. 

You can google Hurricane Fiona at cbc.ca hurricane fiona, but it doesn’t show near the devastation left behind or the years of work that it will take to restore.  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/fiona-storm-damage-photos-nova-scotia-1.6595229

Arriving at Marilyn & Glen’s beautiful “cottage” at Melmerby Beach, in Little Harbour, Pictou, Nova Scotia, 20km from New Glasgow NS (there’s a New Glasgow in PEI too), through rolling hills, destroyed forests and lots of old farms, but not a lot of farming being done here now.  It’s on Northumberland Shore and the beach is beautiful.  This is everything I imagined - coastal community filled with families who have lived here for a few generations, grand parents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone!  Summer at the cottage, complete with games like Mexican Train and Rummy-O.  

Glen drove us around Antigonish County, stopping in at Knoydart Farm in Merigomish, an organic cheese producer, Frazer Hunter, from the Scottish Highlands:

Arisaig Harbour where we talked to a couple of lobster fishermen (Glen says they never disclose their catch, just “fair” or “good”):

Ballantyne’s Cove Bluefin Tuna Interpretative centre where we spoke to a young girl studying to be a welder who is crew on a lobster boat with a female captain.  Won’t that be nice when that is so normal that it’s not noteworthy 👍. Anyway, there is record there of a fisherman, Ken Fraser, who landed an Atlantic Bluefin Tuna weighing 679kg (1,491 lbs)!  Holy Tuna Martha Jean! 

Almost all the tuna caught now off Cape George is sold as fresh product to Japan.  

On to Cape George Lighthouse overlooking Northumberland Shore, Cape Breton Island and PEI on a clear day - so windy we just took a few minutes for photos!  

Glen knows most of the families around here, including some Bagnall’s - now wouldn’t that be a coincidence if Roger’s paternal grandmother is related, she was a Bagnall!  And I think he quite likes driving the electric car!  Lots of evidence of Fiona everywhere, especially when we were out in Merigomish Harbour and the shoreline.  

Independent Bookstore update - The Curious Cat Tea and Books on Main Street in Antigonish, home of St. Francis Xavier University, owned by a young man who’s only been open a couple of years, very nice guy and very cool store.  

Back at the cottage we poured over maps, shared stories with their family and friends and set our sites on PEI.

Great Memories

Great Friends

Farewell to Nova Scotia 

- Stompin’ Tom Connors

MeAnd’Er-ing into the Maritimes

 

The big rollover!  10,000km  

It did this for the time when it reached 100, so we have actually travelled for 165 hours - and still talking!

Day 54 - Just so you can get things in perspective, today is July 12th, and Day 54 was June 29th, so I’m always playing catch up.  Things slow down for us when we are staying with friends and family because we spend time visiting and I just write things in my notebook to share with you when I get a chance.  At this moment I am sitting in the verandah watching the clouds roll over the Northumberland Strait.

Quebec City to Saguenay/Chicoutimi via Hwy. 175 through the Laurentian Mountains, the wildlife reserve and Jacques Cartier National Park, and I had my 1st (and probably only) bacon wrapped weiner at L’Etape rest stop.  It rained most of the day, sometimes really heavy downpours,  I asked Roger “where do the cyclists take shelter?)”.  We’ll have to ask Neil about that when we get back.  Parts of the park had a lot of trees with black bark - maybe pine beetle?  

From Saguenay to Tadoussac we hugged the north shore of the Saguenay Fjord, we could only imagine how beautiful it must be without the heavy clouds and rain.

We landed in Tadoussac at Gite Au Vieux Pommier greeted by Ella, a power house of energy from Tunisia - she switched us to Auberge Madison Gagne operated by her son and they have a fierce battle going on with which has the better ratings on Google and Expedia!  We’re too tired to care.  We were right on the edge of the water and a field that was filled with wild strawberries.  I’m reading Braiding Sweetgrass and this was quite significant to me. 

Day 55 - Tadoussac - This is a whale watching town on the Saint Lawrence River - beluga, humpback, sperm, fin and blue, and dolphins.  We didn’t take a tour but we did visit the Sand Dunes of Tadoussac, a UNESCO site.  The dunes are 2 immense marine terraces measuring 30 metres in height that stretch along the edge of the river and when we went in the morning it was so foggy/cloudy that we would have been happy to see the water much less a whale, but the sky cleared in the afternoon and we returned to this … 

We have since learned that my friend Gai and David live there!  

Tomorrow is Canada Day and we didn’t see a flag anywhere.

Day 56 & 57 - Canada Day!  We drove from Tadoussac to Les Escoumins to catch the ferry to Trois-Pistoles on the Gaspe Peninsula, the south side of the Saint Lawrence River.  

We drive to the Les Escoumins ferry through Essipit, an Innu Reserve (I hate that word) in the Cote-Nord Region, one of the 9 Innu communities in Quebec, part of the Manutiun Tribal Council.  Innu are members of the large Cree-language group.  Lots of information at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/innu  The community was filled with new homes, condos and cottages, community hall and a great gift shop.  The young boy working there told me he learned English mostly through playing video games!   

The ferry was a quite a contrast from our BC Ferries I must say.  But I did see a beluga whale!!

We later learned from a lady at the EV charging station outside of Truro, Nova Scotia that Trois-Pistoles has The Best cheese curds at Fromage Des Basque! during a conversation we had as they waited for us to finish our charge. Another EV charging friendship

Trois-Pistoles has a huge Presbyterian church with the most amazing steeples and alter. 

Now this is where I got confused - I thought the ferry went to New Brunswick, but we travelled a long way in what was still Quebec until we got there. Janet was so excited to be in New Brunswick I started to doubt my maps! 

We stayed on Hwy 132 (what we have learned is that a highway is what a road with 2 lanes is called), still along the St. Lawrence, Through Rivière-du-Loup then through marsh and farm land  into New Brunswick to stay the night in Edmundston, where the storm damage caught up with us and the power went out!  Next morning heading out Hwy 44 along the Madawaska River and had our 1st encounter with a moose.  No damage done to either!

and continued along lupin lined Hwy 17 to Campbellton where we drove right into a parade!  And witnessed our 1st Road Rage :(  Campbellton was known for its salmon and logging, just like Mission, and there’s a large fountain in the middle of town honouring the Resticouche Sam, a Rotary tribute to the mighty Atlantic salmon - prime reason for the settlement along the Resticouche River.  

The heavy rainstorm there left 100 families out of their homes.  

This was where we pulled over and had a fun facetime visit with John and the kids - nothing like one of those to make you homesick!  

It’s a lot of fun travelling through these towns - every one of them has at least 2 spiring steeples and lots of old historic buildings and homes.  BC feels so young! There is a Starfish route through New Brunswick which we pretty much followed all along the coast of Baie des Chaleurs, Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Northumberland Strait, through Bathurst, Caraquet, Miramichi and on into Shediac, 

Day 58 - We’re in Acadia Country!

We enjoyed a visit at Musee Des Cultures Fondatrices in Grand- Anse, former Pope’s Museum (yes, the only museum in North America dedicated to the Papacy.  There is a scale model of St. Peter’s Basilica and painted ceilings that are still there when it reopen in 2016 as a cultural centre.  There is the story of the Irish Potato Famine and the migration to Canada and settlement here of the Irish Catholics.  Later, when many refused to swear loyalty to the British crown they were cleared from their settlements and large numbers were sent to France and the Caribbean.  But a number resisted this and hid with the help of their Mi’Mak allies and have since returned to the area and reestablished large communities such are Caraquet, Capital of Acadia, St-Louis de Kent and many others along the coast.  We passed on the big Acadian Historic Village - the tour was 2 hours long and we really felt we had the most of the information from the local centre.  

Day 59 - Shediac, home of the World’s Largest Lobster, a statue commissioned by the Shediac Rotary Club

The Auberge B & B was lovely and we met a couple from Frederickton who had moved to Nova Scotia from Surrey 3 years ago, drawn by the low housing prices, in another EV charging station conversation.

Continuing along the coast we stopped on the beach near Cap-Pele for a picnic, looked off to the east and low and behold, there was the Confederation Bridge! So off we went - popped onto Prince Edward Island for a visit to Borden and sent a bouquet of pictures of his old house and his grandparent’s home to my friend Colin back home.  We stopped into Pigeons Gift Shop and visited with Ashley, super friendly and very helpful giving us names of indie bookstores when we return to PEI.  

$50. toll on the Confederation Bridge and we were back in New Brunswick, Hwy 16 through Melrose to Aulac, then into Nova Scotia!  We have travelled in 3 provinces in one day!

Nova Scotia, past Springhill - birth place of Anne Murray, and on to Truro.  Stopped in at Masstown to charge the car and met a great couple from Quebec who gave us lots of great tips on places to stay and cheese curds.  I did not know that they are best if left at room temperature overnight before making poutine!  

Truro - In Colchester County - territory of Mi’Kma’Ki people.  We went to view the Tidal Bore but it was low tide, but the really helpful lady at the Information centre directed us to Burnt Coat Head in Hants County for a better Bay of Fundy tidal experience. A tidal bore is a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave of water that travels up a river or narrow bay, reversing the direction of the river or bay’s current.  It is a strong tide that pushed up the river, against the current.   Unlike the Skoomunchuk, this is a wave as opposed to rapids.  

Berry’s Motel on Robie St. in Truro was interesting, mix clientele, most appeared to be permanent and well lived in, but our room was really clean and Berry was really friendly.  Interesting ….

On our way to the tidal bore we stopped in at the post office in Maitland, very colourfully decorated,  and the town with “Canada’s Oldest General Store”.  I took a picture of the white place because I’m thinking it’s probably Canada’s Oldest Duplex!! 

Brunt Coat - nothing short of amazing!   We walked on the ocean floor in the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy.  When the tide comes in it travels about 5”/minute to an average of 47.5 feet high (the extreme range is 53.6!)  Burnt Coat is known for having the largest tidal range of any location in the world.

From here through Windsor (lots of Anglo/British town names here) where the covered bridge we had hoped to see we were told by a guy in the diner that it came down in 1972!  Windsor boasts being the undisputed Birthplace of Hockey in Canada or, The Little Town of Big Firsts.  Windsor is sister city to Cooperstown, New York - Birthplace of Baseball 🏒 ⚾️. 

We’re headed to Roger’s cousin’s near Wolfville.

I’m beginning to feel a little better about getting caught up on the blog, but it’s always going to be behind where we actually are - which is Melmerby Beach in Nova Scotia, on our way to PEI (again)!  

Boy there’s a lot of Largest, Oldest, Deepist, Widest, Tallest things here in Quebec and the Maritimes!