On Sunday July 2, 2017, we made our last move as a
Yankee RV Caravan group. Naturally, Mother Nature wanted us to remember this trip and she gave us rain! We departed Woodhaven Campground, let me tell you a
bit about this awesome campground. It is situated on seventy acres of wooded
and open land within the Halifax City limits. Our sites we open with some trees
diving the sites. All the sites were back to back, so the first RV pulled in
and the second RV backed in to the same long crushed stone pad.
We traveled east on Route 213 E to Larry Uteck Blvd. Larry
Uteck was a Canadian professional football athlete, university sports
administrator, football coach, and municipal politician. Following university,
he played with the Toronto Argonauts, BC Lions, Ottawa Rough Riders, and
Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League and was named Conference
All-Star three times. He became the Head Football Coach of the Saint Mary's
Huskies in 1983 and continued through 1997. He was named AUAA Coach of the Year
5 times. He was named CIAU Coach of the Year twice. His teams appeared in five
Atlantic Bowls and three Vanier Cups. In 1995, he was named interim Director of
Athletics and Recreation and was formally appointed Director in 1997, a
position in which he continued until his death, in 2002. Uteck also worked for
the larger Halifax community, notably as Deputy Mayor of the Halifax Regional
Municipality.
Kearney Lake Road to 102 N. On Kearney Lake Road, you
run along Kearney Lake. It is a nice recreation area for kayakers and swimmers.
Kearney Lake is also home to the Maskwa Aquatic Club.
Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum is located close to
the Halifax Airport. It all started in 1977 when a group of volunteers got
together to set-up the only museum devoted to preserving all aspects of Atlantic
Canada’s aviation heritage. In 1985 the doors were first opened to the public
and in 1989 the Museum was granted ‘Local Museum’ status by the Nova Scotia
Museum. Throughout the Museum and the extensive displays both civilian and military
aviation history is depicted. Included are hundreds of artifacts, large and
small, from books, badges and uniforms to engines and aircraft from the
earliest balloons and gliders through to modern aircraft. Each one is designed
to be information and tell its own part in the story of Atlantic Canada’s aviation
history. Atlantic Canada has a rich aviation heritage, beginning with the first
powered flight in Canada and the British Empire in 1909. However, it is a
heritage that, until the formation of the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum and
our sister organizations at Shearwater and Greenwood, was largely forgotten.
Over the next ten years from 1986 to 1995, the Museum continued to grow, and
along with it the visions of all the volunteers working at the Museum for how
they saw the future unfolding. From 1995 to present day the Museum and its team
of volunteers has continued to thrive and grow. Each and every year there are
more new displays on view and upgrades being made, keeping things fresh and
modern is just as much a key part of the Museum’s role as it is telling its
historic story.
We crossed over the Stewiacke River as the tide was
coming in. It is a river in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia that starts at
Dryden Lake in Pictou County and flows into the Shubenacadie River running
through the Stewiacke Valley. It is part of the Bay of Fundy, hence the reddish
brown color!
We traveled on Route 104, again but this time heading
west. We did finally see some blue skies! Route 104 takes you past the Cobequid Interpretive Center
and part of the road is called the Cobequid Pass. The name Cobequid was derived
from the Mi'kmaq word "Wagobagitk" meaning "the bay runs far
up", in reference to the area surrounding the easternmost inlet of the
Minas Basin, a body of water called Cobequid Bay. Cobequid was granted in 1689
to Mathieu Martin. He was said to be the first Acadian born in Acadia. In 1705,
the Acadians first settled in this area near Cobequid Bay. The Acadian culture
consisted primarily of farming. Their advanced farming systems of dykes,
permitted them to recuperate valuable farmland from the marshlands that cover
the entire coast of the community. The community, which is now called Masstown,
is located 10 minutes west of Truro. In 1714 many inhabitants of Minas, signed
to a resolution, dated 9 September 1714, to go to Cape Breton. The Cobequid
Acadians were close to an Indian mission located where the Stewiacke meets the
Shubenacadie; and which had been run, for many years, by Le Loutre. In January
1750, Le Loutre made an ever closer alliance with his native friends (the sworn
allies of the French crown). This meant that the Acadians of Cobequid did not
want to get too friendly with the English. On the second day of September,
1755, the French inhabitants of Cobequid Village, lying on the north side of
the bay, were working in their fields because it was harvest time. Three
British vessels came into the Bay.
Two of them anchored, one opposite the
Village, and the other at Lower Cobequid; while the third went further up the
shore. On September 4, they placed a notice on the church, that read that all
their belonging now belong to His Majesty. However, this order had been given
by William Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts and commander-in-chief of North
American forces, and not by the British government in London. This was William
Shirley's revenge for the death of his son during Edward Braddock campaign
against the Canadians in the Ohio Valley. This was the beginning of the Acadian
deportation.
We went from the rain, to seeing some blue skies to
heavy fog! We are getting all kinds of weather today!
There is a new red trail bridge over the River
Philip. The bridge is in Oxford. It is a friendly town with scenic beauty to
behold and a history to be told along the old Rail bed to the River Philip. The
trail through this area is 5 miles and the bridge connects Oxford with the
trail system through the rest of Cumberland County as well as with Pictou and
Halifax via the Sunrise Trail system. Eventually some historic sites will be
identified with markers and information, picnic tables and benches along the
way for rest stops will be put in so to enhance the trail experience.
We passed Joggins Fossil Center and Cliffs, which is
another UNESCO World Heritage Site. This sight has been preserved in nature,
uncovered by force. It is here that the highest tides in the world reveal the
most complete fossil record of the “Coal Age,” 100 million years before the
dinosaurs. Every rock holds the possibility of discovery, and our guided tours
may lead you to finding a missing piece of time’s puzzle. The Joggins Fossil
Centre is situated on the reclaimed site of the Old Joggins No. 7 Coal Mine
overlooking the Joggins Fossil Cliffs. The Centre provides an exceptional
learning experience, featuring an extensive fossil specimen collection,
exhibits, and displays depicting
We had a rest stop at the Nova Scotia Welcome Center.
This area was the site of the Acadian Village of Beaubassin, first known as
Bourgeois Settlement. Raided in 1696 and again in 1703 by a force from Boston
under Captain Ben Church. Occupied by French Troops in 1746, who traveled on
snowshoes in February 1747 to make a surprise midnight attack a Grand Pre. In
1750 the entire village of 121 buildings, church, mill and tannery was burned
by Indians under orders of Abbe La Loutre and the inhabitants forced to go to
French Territory. The site, now is largely comprised of hayfields, pasture and
marshland. A marker and this lonely cross are all that marks the spot.
We crossed the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick border
without much fan fair, just some flags flying in the breeze.
We traveled east on Route 116, also known as Acadian
Coastal Drive. This area is as renowned for its spirited Acadian culture as it
is for its beautiful destinations. The Acadian coastal Drive is a total of 466
miles. Port Elgin is conveniently located at the intersections of
Highway 15 and 16, and Provincial Route 970, just minutes from the
Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island and the border of Nova Scotia. The
historic, picturesque village of Port Elgin, New Brunswick, is on the
Northumblerland Strait near Fort Gaspereaux National Historic Site. From the
summer encampment of the Mi’kmaq on the banks of the Gaspereau River to the
arrival of the Acadians and the building of Fort Gaspareaux, and from the
building of the Intercolonial Railroad and the construction of the Trans
Canada, Port Elgin has been at the crossroads of commerce.
We saw more “Watch for Moose Signs” on our way to the
Confederation Bridge. They have "moose" whistles on the edge of the bridge, to keep the moose off the bridge.
We crossed the Confederation Bridge. The
Confederation Bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward
Island and New Brunswick, making travel throughout the Maritimes easy and
convenient. The curved, 8 mile long bridge is the longest in the world crossing
ice-covered water, and continues to endure as one of Canada’s top engineering
achievements of the 20th century. The decision to replace the existing ferry
service with a fixed link followed a heated debate throughout the 1980’s.
Farmers, fishermen, tourism operators, and residents of Prince Edward Island
had sharply contrasting opinions about how year-round access to the mainland
would affect their way of life and livelihood. Eventually, it was decided that
the debate would be settled at the polls. The federal department of Public
Works and Government Services selected its favorite bridge design out of
several proposals from the private sector, and on January 18, 1988, Premier
Joseph Ghiz asked Prince Edward Islanders to make the final decision in a vote.
At the polls, 59.4% of Islanders voted “Yes” to a fixed link. After four years
of construction using crews of more than five thousand local workers, the
Confederation Bridge opened to traffic on May 31, 1997.
There is a live bridge cam on the eastbound side of
the bridge, into Prince Edward Island. We prepared our friends and family to
watch us cross the bridge on their phones, computers or tablets by giving them
advance notice. We had to change the time by an hour, due to travel delays.
But, I think many of them were ready! We wanted to be sure that they could see
us … we put a sign in the passenger side of the front window. The New Brunswick
and Prince Edward Island border is the Northumberland Strait.
As we drove further into PEI, Rod narrated the fact
that there are no rivers in PEI, only estuaries. The sea water flows in and
out.
PEI also has many farms, most of them are potato
farms.
We arrived at Cornwall KOA, our home for the next two
nights. We had time to relax and tend to personal matters.
We were treated to music by the Vagabond Minstrel, Gordon
Belsher. He has been a friend of Rod’s for more than 25 years! He is based in
Prince Edward Island on Canada's east coast. Gordon Belsher has been
entertaining audiences in Canada and around the world for more than 40 years
performing at concerts, ceilidhs, conventions, and pubs. He played classic PEI
tunes, some John Denver and introduced us to the Mandola & Bahran, a drum.
After our private ceilidh with Gordon, we enjoyed a pizza party provided by
Yankee RV Tours.
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