Day 41, August 6, 2007

Day 41, Monday, August 6, 2007.
We got away fairly early today. On our way out of town we stopped at the lighthouse across from the Fortress of Louisbourg. This is the site of the second lighthouse built in North America. The one currently standing is the third in this location. The first burned down 2 years after it was built. Hard to believe looking at the harbour that at times there were up to 175 ships at anchor in the harbour. The fog horn was going when we arrived. Although it wasn’t too bad behind it they had a warning sign saying not to go past the sign without ear protection. We left there and drove into Sydney and Tim Horton’s was right on the way, we had seen it coming into town so drove right to it and luckily lots of parking which isn’t always the case. We are off. The road up to getting on #4 and a ways out of Sydney was good but then it got rough, narrow and rocky (as in rocking and rolling), although the sign said 80 k, I couldn’t get past 65-70 most of the time. Not a road I would recommend to anyone other than in a car. I would say the same for the west side of the Cabot Trail. I’ve talked to other people who traveled it years ago and they said it was a better drive then, you could see the water from most of the road but now the trees have grown up and not much to see and some very steep climbs. The East side was better and of course the Fortress of Louisbourg. A few other things I would like to have seen including the Miner’s Museum but we were too early leaving, running out of time and the girls had seen enough of museums. We did have a close call, I was motoring along and either I wasn’t paying attention or the guy’s brake lights weren’t working or he made a quick decision to make a left hand turn, but lucky there was a good shoulder on the road other wise I would have had an extra set of wheels and second smaller motor under us. Knock wood but the close calls have been non existent. We had a bit of a start coming around a corner, big semi coming at us, narrow road, low shoulder, and branches on a low tree on our side of the road. How accidents happen, every thing hit at once, I moved over for the truck caught the low shoulder, branches hit the motorhome and even small they make a heck of a racket, the m/h lurches to the right side and everyone is moaning. Not close, not a problem but sometimes catches you off guard and startles you. We didn’t make it into New Brunswick today but are about 20 miles from the border. We found a nice campsite in Amherst, Nova Scotia called Loch Lomond Park. We settled in for the night. I BBQed zucchini and steak for Willa and Tegan and lamb chops for me. The mosquitoes weren’t too bad. We cleaned up and I thought I would put out the bug zapper that Pat Pelletier at the office was determined I would buy. Not too bad at the start but as the evening progressed I looked at the window beside me and there must have been 10 mosquitoes on the screen then I looked at the bug zapper and there must have been 500 or more buzzing around the zapper, literally a cloud, it was absolutely mind boggling. I still had to go out and clean up the BBQ. Luckily the bugs were more interested in it than me and I was able to sneak out and do some clean up. Thank you Pat. I don’t think this is going to be the worst of them but up to now just hasn’t been a problem. The weather was good all day then started to cool in the late afternoon and we ended up with a little rain in the late evening but by that time we were all snuggled into the motor home, fed, watered and watching a little TV and Tegan was on internet to her friends. Will do the Hopewell Rocks and Fundy Park tomorrow..