Day 39, August 4, 2007

Day 39, Saturday, August 4, 2007.
We sure had a heavy rain last night, but I guess I told you about it already. When we got up in the morning the sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky. We had our breakfast and we were off. We climbed to about 1480 feet over the drive on the Cabot Trail. Some of the hills are very steep. You don’t climb as high on the Cabot Trail as in the Rocky Mountains but the climbs are steeper in most cases. We puttered along stopping at viewing pull offs and gift stores. Lots of gift stores along the way. One we stopped off at was a leather store. Very interesting, some of the stuff he had there. Very renowned leather smith. He is world famous for his replica water buckets that were used to fight fires before fire engines and departments. They are very well made and expensive also, running in the neighbourhood of $500-600.00 each. Plus he makes the replica powder carriers that were used to carry gun powder from the powder magazine to the cannons. Very well done and also not cheap. For one movie, he was asked to make these water buckets for a scene. I can’t remember the name of the movie but apparently Russell Crowe was in it. Also according to a write up I read PM Mulroney gave a gift to George Bush Senior of one of his replica water buckets. Amazing what you find in these little shops along the road. We picked up speed in the afternoon with the idea of going to Fort Louisbourg which is located close to Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, still on Cape Breton Island. We arrived around 3:00-4:00 pm. We found a campsite right in town and walking distance to the bus that takes you to Fort Louisbourg. We will do the Fort in the morning. Once we were all set up we unloaded the bikes and rode into town. There is a Crab Fest going on and we thought we would partake of some of the crab. However, they were sold out of crab and we weren’t interested in the beer garden or hot dogs or hamburgers. So we looked for a restaurant that served Sea food. We asked a couple of locals and they recommended the Lobster Kettle and so will we from now on. The best sea food chowder I have tasted. I had a Snow Crab dinner and with the salad bar was only $21.00. Willa had the salad bar and some fish and Tegan had a big bowl of sea food chowder. For an appetizer we had fresh steamed mussels and again very good. An appetizer order of steamed mussels is one pound of mussels (and shells) for $5.95. I could make a meal out of a couple of pounds of them with no trouble. Willa and Tegan both help me eat them. Willa says she can’t believe she is eating mussels and enjoying them. We rode our bikes back home (the motor home has now become home and all three of us are using this term). Tegan found an internet connection and spent an hour on the computer. I read my book and relaxed. Willa walked around the campsite and found out you can see Fort Louisbourg from the campsite. All and all we had a real good day and the driving wasn’t bad at all but very slow road very windy, narrow and even some hair pin turns that I haven’t seen for a while. (Now a twist in the English language). We also had a good head wind most of the time so it was very WINDY. Still having a problem with the power on the top end of the motor home. I’ve talked to a couple of mechanics about the high pressure reading on the oil pressure gage but I will call Fred Key at the shop in Abbotsford to see if he can give me some advice. Tried a couple of times, but I think he may be away. I know they close the shop for a few weeks every summer so may have to wait. Until he is back or it breaks down and we have to go to a shop here or some where. Generally the motor home is running well. Some minor things but it is a lot of miles to put on in a short period of time. We have covered very close to 5000 miles so far about 10-12,000 miles by the time we are done unless we cut some of the trip short because we are spending too much time in individual spots. Better to see one spot well than two spots briefly. Well good night again. I’ll let you know how the Fort goes.