Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Day 28 of 30 on our 2017 Canadian Maritime Caravan with Yankee RV Tour

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment