Thursday July 27, 2017

We start our day by having a Blueberry Lemon Danish that we bought at the Masstown Market yesterday. Being honest, I must say I am a little disappointed in it. It is not bad, but it is also not great. We bought a package of 6, so we will be having it again tomorrow. We are on the road by 0730 and are driving toward Cape Breton Island. The first part of the journey is all highway at the fastest Canadian Speed limit of 110. That is 110 Kilometers per hour which equates to 66 MPH. We have not hit any traffic since entering Canada and this road is no exception. There is a lot of green forests in the surrounding hills. It is amazing how many trees there are and how thick the forests are. Traveling off trail here would be a bitch.

Where is the Cell Phone?

Reaching Cape Breton Island, we are back to one lane roads in both directions. The speed limit on these is generally 80 kilometers or 48 MPH. The driving is easy and we make a detour into the town of Baddeck. We do this to see the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Carol wants to absorb some knowledge so we go in. It is actually quite interesting and we learn many facts that will no doubt someday propel us to the top in trivial pursuit or some other famous facts type of endeavor. Mr. Bell worked to help deaf people, invented the telephone, and surprisingly was instrumental in manned flight here in Canada.

The Silver Dart

He built many types of kites and prototypes of various inventions in his creative pursuits. Carol, newly armed with all this knowledge allows us to leave before my head explodes. Ok, I enjoyed it also. We have lunch on the grounds, a chicken wrap for me and ham for Carol. We made these ourselves with some crunchy cabbage, cheese, mayo, and a few sun chips.

Scenic Coast

Having satisfied our hunger, we continue on to our destination for the day. We enter cape Breton Nation Park and find our way to the Middle Head Trail Head. It starts out with some of our old friends, roots and rocks. It does get better in a short distance and then we get glimpses of the coast surrounding this area. The Middle Head trail follows a rocky finger of land and we end up at the point of such finger. The breeze has kicked up as we sit on top of a sloping slab of granite that angles down to the sea. We watch cormorants and gulls fish in the water and waves crash on the rocks. Then a gust of wind grabs one of Carols hiking gloves and it tumbles down the sloping slab. This was after I had told her to move her gloves to a safer spot. I am not happy about the situation but I am determined to see if I can retrieve the glove even though I can’t see it from our vantage point. Carol does not want me to play on the cliffs but I do not heed her warnings. I tumble down 40 feet into the icy water. Well, that would be a good story, film at eleven type stuff, but I am careful as I search for the glove. I finally see it on a small ledge above me and work my way there. Glove in hand, I climb to safety to see if the glove fits my princess. It does and we live happily ever after. The hike back to the car is without incident.

I am not Crabby

We are camping tonight but decided that this does not mean we have to cook in camp. Instead, we go to a nearby restaurant called Main Street. Lo and behold, it is on the Main Street. We both order the same thing, crab fettucine. It comes to the table, with crab legs on top, a dozen or so mussels in the shell, lining the plate. There are also several nice sized shrimp in view and two pieces of garlic bread. We can’t even see the fettucine below all the seafood. After shelling our crab legs and mussels, we dig in to discover that there are also some chunks of lobster that were not even mentioned in the dish description. The sauce and juice of the seafood is incredible and we thoroughly enjoy this meal.

Our Camp

We drive the 8 miles to the Broad Cove Campground where we have a reserved site for the night. It has been cloudy all day and is supposed to rain so we set up our tent. Once the tent is up, we know it won’t rain because what would be the point. We sit in our camp chairs and enjoy a beer. Our license plates seem to excite people in these parts as every time someone walks or bikes by, we hear things like look Utah, or Utah, that’s a long way, or we have never seen a car from Utah. It amuses us as we are easily amused.

Beach Bum

We learn that there is a beach fire, hot chocolate, marshmallows and bannock tonight on the beach and decide to go to that. Before we do, we meet a nice couple from Texas that has just spent a month in Newfoundland. We exchange travel tips and information before we head down to the beach. The evening has turned out beautiful, the hot chocolate is not very good, and we learn that the Canadians also roast bannock as well as marshmallows. Bannock it turns out is a type of bread dough that they put chocolate chips in and roast on a stick. It is hard to get it to cook all the way through with all the kid competition at the fire so we cannot really judge how good it may be if co0ked properly. We chat with Ross and his wife who we met at the restaurant. They were ordering take out and are from the Boston area. We did not know that they were camping here until he approached us on the beach. We have a nice chat and then retreat back to camp before it gets to dark. Here is my bed time story. Earlier a ranger drove by and then another one came by a little later. Carol says it is good to see that the rangers are on parole. This concerns me as I now think we could be murdered in my sleep. I say to her “they are on parole?” She says “you know what I mean” and I reply with, “you mean Patrol?” Of course, this is one of the many reasons I love her. Keeps me smiling. Good night all.

Expenses                                                                                                                                         Gas 20 CAD                                                                                                                            Dinner at Main Street 47.29 CAD                                                                                       Camp Site 36 CAD                                                                                                                        4.5 Miles Walked