At 3 AM we woke to the thunderous sound of rain on the roof. It was raining so hard you would have thought you were going to float away. We wondered how our neighbors in the tents were doing. I can’t recall ever seeing or hearing it rain so much for so long. Everything here is saturated.
Since this was going to be another blow out for the Cabot Trail we opted to go to the Miner Museum in Glace Bay some 60 miles from here. At least it is something interesting to do here in the rain forest. LOL.
Did I mention that getting around this part of Canada can be tricky. There are road signs but not real clear road signs. We forgot our Tom Tom – not so sure it would have worked well anyway. We do have our laptop with DeLorme but it went wacky just getting us here. It was lost most of the time so I did feel better about my navigational skills. LOL Ron, who is generally always knows where he is was getting frustrated.
After 90 minutes of misleading road signs we finally stopped for direction. As it turned out despite our stops and starts we were only about 30 minutes from our destination.
We finally arrived at the Miner Museum around 1 PM. We watched a video about mining in Canada and were surprised to hear that the issues facing the miners in the US were not different in Canada. In some ways they were even worse because the miners in the US had formed a union earning protection against poor working conditions and low wages. Not so in Canada, and their fight was as brutal as the fight for rights in the US.
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Our tour guide had worked in the mines for thirty years and was able to bring his experiences to life for us. He had worked 650 feet underground below the ocean as a third generation miner.
As everyone knows a trip for us would not be complete without some type of underground adventure!
In the early days they used Shetland ponies to haul the coal in the carts. The ponies lived in the mines and were not allowed outside except for one week per year when the miners were all on vacation. The ponies became blind after living so many years in the darkness.
Our guide told us a story about a miner from Germany who had planted a garden in one of the mines and kept it alive. A garden is planted in this mine annually as a tribute.
The tour was excellent but reinforced that neither Ron or I would be cut out to be mine workers.
Outside we planned on looking at the mine related artifacts but we only got to check out one of the miners’ rental homes and a couple of pieces of equipment before the monsoon rains kicked in again.
Since it was still early we decided to check out the Marconi Museum. There were signs to the museum so we thought it would be an easy place to find. We followed the signs then nothing!!!!!! Not a building, sign or indication where this museum might be. Ron was frustrated so we opted to head back to the CG.
This time we took a more direct route following our instincts instead of road signs. It worked out well because within the hour we were back on PH 105. The weather had not improved and the fog just as bad at 4:30 PM as it had been at 10 AM.
Since we were unable to take in the Cabot Trail we decided to stop for dinner at a restaurant on the Cabot Trail. The food was great, although pricey, then it was back to the CG.
Since morning the CG had really exploded with people. There were more tent campers - all who seemed to know each other. The only difference was there were now canopies set up for protection from the rain. I guess everyone was waiting for that group to arrive.
Once under cover the party really got going. They were enjoying themselves with loud music , hooting and hollering and just having a great time. Someone played a guitar for hours. Whoever was playing was pretty good and when he stopped I missed the music.
We did some research and found that the weather doesn’t look much better no matter which part of Nova Scotia we decide to travel to or north east Canada. Not sure what to do. Will be checking the weather pattern in the morning and make a decision then. We are both craving some sunshine.
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