I am finally getting back to the blog after what is
certainly one of my longest absences. We have been back in Florida for over a
week and fully engaged with getting settled in.
First on the agenda, was getting the house AC repaired, as it quit the
day after our return. I am just glad it
did not fail while we were gone. Then it
was spending time with the grandkids and enjoying a visit from our daughter
from Texas, who left for home yesterday.
A busy time and fun time.
Overall, it was a wonderful trip, visiting all the
Maritime and Atlantic Provinces. It was
a total of over 7500 miles round trip from home. We really had the chance to see many of the
great features of the region. One of the
real highlights turned out to be the many local people we met along the
way. Nearly all of them were friendly,
helpful and a real pleasure to spend time with.
After leaving New Brunswick for Nova Scotia, we
started to experience some much less reliable Wi-Fi and even power issues at
the campgrounds. We have never experienced
so many occasions where the surge protector shutdown the power for various
reasons. Low voltage being the biggest
problem. Power protection is a must in
these provinces. Trying to publish a
blog post was very problematic. At one campground,
with no appliances running, we started the coffee maker and the voltage dropped
to 99 and we lost power.
The plan now is to post some highlights of the many
areas we enjoyed and a few things we did not.
After leaving Hopewell Cape, we headed to Parker's
Cove on the north shore of Nova Scotia.
The historic village of Annapolis Royal is nearby and is one of the top
attractions of Nova Scotia. It turned
out that the Cove Oceanfront Campground would be our worst campground experience
of the trip. It started right away upon
arrival. 17 coaches arrived at the
appointed time and found ourselves lined up at the entrance with those in the
rear stranded on the small two lane road in front of the campground because the
unpleasant owner decided she wanted to park several fifth wheels who were
having a hard time getting into the tight spots. We sat there for two and a half hours.
The campground has some spots with great views and
half of us were lucky to get those.
Since the campground was full, they had to use the second row which is
at the bottom of a steep incline and routinely floods during rainy periods. That is most of the summer season. It turned out that these spots require you to
hookup to power while standing in three or four inches of water and if you use
a surge protector you have to use an extension cord arrangement to keep the
protector out of the water since the power posts are short. It also turned out that the power itself was
not reliable. We did have a spot where
we gathered for social time and enjoy a great view of the water. If we ever go back here, we will find another
campground.
Annapolis Royal is one of the top attractions in
Nova Scotia and is filled with the early history of the colonization of North
America. The area was first settled in
the early 1600's and was a center of conflict between the English and the
French for nearly a hundred years. Here is also where I learned a great deal
about the Acadian people who immigrated to this area from France. They suffered greatly during the periods of
English occupation and when the English finally took permanent control of the
region, most of the Acadians were expelled. Many of them traveled south to
French controlled areas, including those around New Orleans. They were the beginnings of the culture we
know as Cajun.
A must tour is the candlelight graveyard tour, where
our guide covers the long history of the town and how that history is explained
by the marked graves and the many more unmarked resting places.
Then a visit to the Fort Anne National Historic site
and walking tour of the town provides an overview of the towns past and
present.
Finally, a tour of the Victorian and Governors
gardens completes our visit.
