The weather has been miserable with low hanging fog and non-stop rain. I guess there is a front stalled over the Northeastern part of the USA and Canada. It is the first time in all of our years of traveling in the MH that we have been prevented from taking in the scenery because we can’t see it – period.
The fog is so heavy at times that you can’t see 2 feet in front of you. So much for driving and hiking the Cabot Trail. Since that activity is out for the day we opted to take a tour of the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck.
LINK:
http://www.visitbaddeck.com/attractions/bell.html
Never really thought about it but Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland, moved to the United States with his family as a young boy and then made his summer residence here in Baddeck, Nova Scotia because it reminded him of his homeland of Scotland.
The home that he built and lived in with his family is still occupied by his descendants today. The home is located on a 500 acre parcel of land on the peninsula. Unfortunately, it is not open to the public for touring.
Although he is well known for his development of the telephone, Mr. Bell was very much involved in the development and success of the first manned flight in Canada much like the Wright Brothers in The USA.
The plane used for it first manned successful flight looked much like the Wright Brothers Plane. It flew 1000 meters and from here aviation in Canada took off.
LINK:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell
Mr. Bell was also instrumental in teaching the deaf how to speak. His own Mother was deaf so he took a keen interest in helping young children learn how to speak and communicate. He taught at the school for the deaf in Boston, MA .
One of his students became his wife and played a huge role in helping him develop his inventions. He worked constantly at trying to improve on things that had already been developed and to develop new inventions of his own to better society.
In Baddeck, he had a house boat that he would spend the day alone on, lost in his thoughts and working on new inventions. It was told that no one was allowed to bother him and his wife would make lunch for him and send it to him in a cart pulled by a Shetland pony. The pony would then return on its own to the house.
Mock up of a hydrofoil developed by Bell and his partners. It was to be used to skim across the waters at a high rate of speed. It held a world speed record for twelve years racing at over 70 MPH. The intention was to sell it to the US government during WWI but the war ended before it was perfected.
It took about two hours to go through the museum. It was lunch time so we checked out a couple of restaurants in Baddeck. None interested us, so we got out of the pouring rain and drove around looking for the elusive grocery store.
We finally found the Co-op and picked up a few items. Again, I was taken aback by the prices. A 1/2 gallon of milk cost $4.05 and that was the cheap stuff. I don’t know what the average wage in Canada is but it would have to be pretty good just to afford food and fuel, not to mention housing. I was told that everything is so high here to support their government health care programs.
Back at the MH we settled in, had lunch and watched it rain all day. We have no cell service or television, so it was reading or surfing the web for the rest of the day. We are trying to wait our the bad weather with the promise of some sunshine in the next couple of days.
The CG started to fill up in the afternoon with many tent campers . Brave souls, setting up all their gear in the pouring rain. I guess the rain is part of life here in Nova Scotia because everyone was soaked and not even trying to get under something out of the rain. Tis a hearty bunch here in Nova Scotia.
Again, we are hoping for some clearing skies tomorrow. It would be a shame to come all this way to do the Cabot Trail and not be able to.
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