Friday August 12

Finally. Internet. (as you can probably tell from the last two blogs)

We were a little late getting up this morning, but everyone needed it. It took us 3 hours from the minute I got up to the minute we were pulling out of the campsite.

While we were packing up, William and Xavier went for a little walk on the road in front on the trailer and made a new friend; a dog named Olivia. She belonged to some folks a few trailers down who were full timers from Arizona. A really nice couple. Guylaine and the kids spent a lot of time with them while I finished packing and hooking up. Xavier talked about the dog all day. She reminded Guylaine and I of Tasha.

I called a place in Bras D’Or and they have a spot for us for the night, so the goal is to head there, drop the trailer and pick up the Cabot Trail from that side of the island and go as far north as I can. If there is time before the day ends, we’ll head into Baddeck and chek out the Alexander Graham Bell museum.  The problem is that when you look at these places on Google Maps or Microsoft Streets and Trips, they calculate the time between places by how many kilometers it is, and what the speed limit is. Two problems – the roads are – let’s say, a little narrow – and not in the best shape, so driving the speed limit is only for the brave and the retards. The other problem is that they don’t take intpo account that there is so much to see you can’t drive the speed limit and you have to stop to take pictures – in my case usually in the middle of the road (there was nobody behind me….most of the time). So the 56km ride to Baddeck to our new campsite took a little onger then expected. Total time to tear down, relocate and set up – 5.5 hours. Lesson learned – call ahead for campsites – and if it’s full find another campsite.

On the way, I put in a DVD we got last winter from Disney called Oceans, and the kids kept taking about all the things they`ve seen this summer, and started giving information on the various creatures and landscapes. That, combined with them telling us everyday that so far, this day was their favorite sure makes Guylaine and I feel good  how we`ve spent our summer. What an experience for us and for them.

We headed back up the the other side of the Cabot trail, picking it up just off the 105 past Baddeck, and after driving some way, we were a little less then impressed compared to yesterday. My neighbor at the campsite last night said we had seen the best of the trail yesterday, and I think he was right. Nonetheless we drove on. We got to mount smokey which is a ridiculously steep winding drive up the face of a mountain. The other side of the guardrail is a cliff to the sea below. The pictures Guylaine took are amazing, but simply cannot capture the feeling of driving. It is stressful, yet exciting, and beautiful. We took the trail as far as Ingonish and turned back. Ingonish is where the provincial park starts again, and our pass had expired an hour before. While I’m certaim the views from the park were way more dramatic and spetacular based on what we saw last night, it was already 5:00 and we were almost 2 hours from the campsite. We stopped at a little store and got the kids some slush puppies for being so good, and we picked up a few things at a gift shop called the dancing moose along the way. When it came time to follow trail back, I decided to take a shorter route back to the 105 to see if we could have enough time to get to the museum. What I didn’t know was that this route included a ferry. We had to use the ferry or backtrack close to an hour around the bay at St. Anne’s, so we opted for the ferry, despite the long wait. On the other side, we came across an English double decker bus which had been converted to a fast food place, so we stopped in to see if we could get some fries. Lo and behold this was the first place we’ve found a fry stand since leaving Ontario. Xavier used his little wooden fork on his poutine with such precision, he didn’t spill a drop of gravy.

We got off the highway in Baddeck and were pleasantly surprised by this beautiful little village on the side of the lake. We found the Graham Bell museum, but it was already closed. It losed at 6:00, I thought it closed at 8:00, but it was 7:45 anyways. I took some pictures of the lighthouse and harbor, as well as the old church that has been converted into a visitor’s centre It was really a beautiful little town. We headed back to the campsite where I learned checkout time is 11:00am! That doesn’t look too good for us. This campsite is rated one of the top 100 sites in North America by Good Sam’s, but I have to tell you, it was by far the worst site we’ve ever been in. The quiet time and checkout times are just not realistic. There is no security what-so-ever. Anyone can come and go at anytime. We’re right off the highway so the noise from the traffic didn’t die off until midnight. No heated pool, and after a long walk to the beach, the beach is rocky not sandy. It’s not a horrible site, but every site we’ve stayed at to this point was better.

Nobody was hungry after our poutine, so we decided to skip the cooking tonight. With 11:00am looming over us and a 2-3 hour packing window, we decided to just get the kids to bed and call it a night. The pool here isn’t heated and it’s about 12C here tonight so there’s not a hell of a lot to do anyway. We’ll see how fast we can get out tomorrow to hit PEI.