August 23, 2014 Going in circles

Saturday August 23, 2014

 On training my humans... when I want attention, I make eye contact- good eye contact, then run my claws on a piece of furniture.  OOOOh, watch the humans jump!

 After my walk, we packed us some lunch food and headed to explore the Cabot Trail.  This trail circles around the tip of the north part of Cape Breton.  It is probably about a 200 mile ride all told.  There are no roads across, thus no shortcuts.  So to see the trail, you essentially need to do the whole trail at one time.  (Unless you plan on staying at motels along the way, but Rudy would take issue with that!)  We start going north on the lee side of the island.  Here, it is heavily wooded.  There are tiny towns, a bakery to die for, and a variety of artisans here and there.  Quilts, glass, wood.  The buildings are quite far apart, often miles so even though there may be a town on the map, there might only be one building on the trail.  And all along, the ocean and its inlets are to our right.  It started out kind of rainy, but the clouds are breaking up and the sun is coming through.  It is still cool and quite beautiful.

 

 

 

At one point, we go from sea level up 750 meters (over 2100 feet).  Ultimately we cross into the National Park.  Our first stop is at the Highland Links golf course.  It is gorgeous!  Ocean views galore and the holes look quite challenging.  A man was showing me a picture of a moose he saw on the 4th hole while playing yesterday.   Aye, a few more brogues!

 

 

 

 

 

We continue on.  Each turn is eye candy.  Pink granite walls, the ocean is calm.  We stop at a scenic overlook (like there is any other kind of overlook!).  We take the road to Meat Cove, which is at the very tippy top of the island.  It is a windy road, and the last 5 miles are on a dirt road.  There is hardly any traffic, it is quite a pleasure.  I am driving and, of course, Spouse is squirming as I might step on the brake instead of using the gears.  When he told me to stop, I told him my foot isn't on the brake.  I was good from that point on!  From Meat Cove, we can see the Newfoundland coastline.

 

 

 

 

 

Continuing on, we hit the high grounds.  The road follows the mountain ridges.  Keep in mind, these are not mountains like the Sierras or Rockies.  These are between 1000 and 2500 feet and the road runs along the tops looking down at a fault below with all the wooded moutainsides converging.  With the ocean in the background, it looks fake. 

 Back to the windward side with its stark beauty, and then back to home.  No bald eagles this time.  But it was a day of sensory overload and made the trip to Nova Scotia well worthwhile.

August 22, 2014 The eagle has landed

Friday August 22, 2014

 Back to training my humans.  In the mornings, my humans eat.  When we are on the road, they let me sit on the table because I pretend I am looking out the window.  Then, I will turn and walk up to their food.  My maternal human pushes me away.  But my paternal human sometimes lets me move in.  That is until the maternal human says words.  Now the paternal human puts the bowl on the floor when he is done.  I am being treated like a common feline but I do get to lick the bowl.

Spouse made the morning walk with me.  The trans Canada trail is right off the campground,  so we follow it.  It is lined with ferns and heavily wooded with firs, birch and beech.  Beyond the trees is a farm with corn nearly ready.  There are still a lot of wild flowers in bloom even though we are starting to see the first signs of fall in the trees.

 

When we get back, we pick some fresh blackberries for breakfast.  We then ready Hannah, leaving the scenic town of Pictou.  We head south, then east towards Cape Breton.  The woods are getting thicker, the hills are getting even prettier.  We approach the Canso Causeway and cross the water onto the island.  We are heading to the town of Baddeck.  There are lots of water inlets, some marshlands and lots of wooded hills.   It is the weekend now and full service RV sites do not seem to be available.  But we did get a site with electricity and water so we are good.  This area is not crowded.  It just so happens that those people that are here are into camping!

 The day is still young so we decided to tour part of the Ceilidh (pronounced cay-lee) trail.  There is a large Celtic population here, and the city signs are in both English and Celtic (I guess the French were demoted!).

We head towards the town of Margaree via a fish hatchery.  We have been to dozens of those, yet Spouse has to see one more.  The countryside is beautiful!  The farms are well tended, there are woods and rivers and ocean inlets.   When we get to Margaree, we turn south.  We are on the windward side of the island and everything is Gaelic.  McCleod's, McCllelan, Angus...  We stop in Inverness at a links golf course.  Looks brutal, and is a bit expensive.  My back has been killing me but I am going to play golf somewhere around here even if it leaves me writhing in pain.  I could tell I would need a dozen balls to play this one.  And everyone has a Scottish brogue.  I left the pro shop with a wee bit of the scottish meself!

 

On the windward side of the island, there are not as many trees.  But the starkness is part of the beauty.  Whitecaps are kicking up on the seas.  There are a few harbors.  They are working harbors with fishing boats.  No luxury  vessels can be seen and it is rather refreshing.  We start heading back to Baddeck and it is trying to rain.  Then I saw a bald eagle.  We stopped and there was another eagle.  We were near a hiking trail so we took it for a while, then came back to get a better picture of Ernie and Ella Eagle.  We listened as they screeched to each other, and maybe to someone else too.  We also heard bull frogs.  We might need to come back for a hike here.

 

 

The 'wow' factor has definitely kicked up some here.

 

August 21, 2014 Fidgeteer is getting better

Thursday August 21, 2014

 Even though my rodents are calling me, let's get back to my training of humans.  Today, I will tell you how to get them to feed you.  One of the ways is to block their view.  Some times, they sit in front of this box and stare at the top while their fingers tap the bottom.  They say it has a mouse, but that is the lamest mouse I have ever seen.  Anyhow, while they are staring, I sit in front of them and purr.  When they move one way, I move that way too and I will get closer to them.  They can't miss me and eventually, they will feed me.

This morning, our morning walk will be a hike to Flowing Waters.  It is less than a mile along the Mersey River.  It is a marked trail, and once again, Spouse is packing as if we are going into the netherlands wildnerness.  And he waits till we are leaving to charge the batteries for his GPS.  Really?  From this point on, I may refer to him as 'the Fidgeteer.'

 The hike is an easy one but it is quite pretty.  We meander through the woods, over the river and back through the woods.  I am glad Spouse is able to hike again, even if it is an easy one.  Although, no grouse sightings...

 

 

 

 

We ready Hannah and head to Annapolis Royal, about 30 miles north.  A doe and her fawn lead us to the turn for the exit.  A weasel of some sort showed us the way out.  Nice of them.  Annapolis Royal was the first official town in Nova Scotia.  It is equivalent to our St. Augustine in Florida.  It is on the Bay of Fundy and it is a small, artsy town.  After lunch, we head east on hwy 1 and 101.  It is a rural drive with forests and rolling hills of pastures and bucolic homes.  Overall, the homes are of wood, and the architectural detail is in the moulding and the windows.  Lots of craftsman styles and cape cod.  Loads of character.

 

 

 

As the day wears on, we head east on 14.  I am driving now, with Spouse navigating... kind of. 

 We should take 354 but I think we already passed it.

Well, here is 202, and it will take us to 354, I will take it.
Oh, we really didn't get to 354 yet.
Argh!

Too late now, as we are stuck in a hellacious construction zone.  Time to switch drivers.  The bucking bronco ride lasted about 3 miles and I closed my eyes rather than watch one spot we had to drive through.  Fortunately, nothing fell out of a cabinet or refrigerator or freezer.

We pass through the city of Truro heading east on 104.  We have been looking for RV parks, but none too close to our route.  We finally ended up near the town of Pictou, which is about 10 miles off of our route.  Nice place with fresh blackberries that will need to be picked for breakfast.  And an ocean inlet just across the street.  It is getting prettier by the kilometer!

August 20, 2014 Tippy Canoe and Dougley too

Wednesday August 20, 2014

I know I promised more on the training of humans.  I will do that.  But for today, I gotta tell you about this new place that we are living.  There are critters with my name on them.  Look!  There is one now!  Ooof!  That hurt my neck... if I only had a little more lead line I know I could get one!

It was a chilly night and with the canopy of trees, it was dark even though the sun was up.  We didn't get out of bed till after 8am.  Once up, my walk took me to the Slapfoot hiking trail along the lake.  When I saw how warm and calm it was, I rushed back.  Spouse was making our lunches and we headed to Jake's Landing to rent our canoe.

You can rent them by the hour, or by the day and they do that based on when you come back.  My idea is to head to the lake first, and when the wind comes up (and it always does), we would head up the Mersey River.  Of course, Spouse spends the first half hour fidgeting with this, that and the other.   We finally get in the canoe.  It is not a stable thing but we manage to keep dry.  We head out to the lake.  As usual, the first 10 minutes is bickering about this and that.   Do it this way... No, I'll do it that way.  Steer us that way.  Hey!  We finally reach our comfort zone and move on.

 

 

 

 

 

It is absolutely beautiful.  The water is glassy, the air temperature is warm.  It is quiet except from the noise of our paddles hitting the water.  This is how it was centuries ago when the Indians inhabited the area.    We paddle around this island, then over to that island.  We pull onshore and eat some of our lunch.  The water is not cold, but not warm.  Good for a quick dip.  The islands are heavily forested and the ground is soft, soft, soft from years of pine needles accumulating.  Some of the islands have a picnic table and maybe an outhouse.  People canoe or kayak over with their camping gear.  I imagine the nights are fantastic.  We started to head over to the next island when the winds started up so we followed my plan and headed for the shelter of the river.  It was a whole lot of work.  We are glad we got the early start.

 

Spouse, stop steering us to the shore. 

It is calmer near shore.

Not if you are on the windward side!  They call that 'on the rocks'.

 

We finally get in the lee of some land and head up the Mersey.  The wind is dead against us.  By now, we have been more than 3 hours.  There are beautiful water plants like lotus, and we can see the fall beginning in the trees.  A little yellow and orange, but a bit more of the reds.  We paddle against the wind.  Finally, Spouse says he is done.

 

I suggest we pull over and finish our lunch.  The first spot was too easy so we paddled on until Spouse saw a small clearing.

Spouse, it is too steep.

No it isn't.  Just step out and pull me up.
I am not worried about getting on shore.  Getting off will be a problem.
It will be easy.
Hmmmm...

 We enjoy the rest of our lunch, talking to those who paddle by.  Then we go to launch.  Good thing our dry bag and backpack were attached to the canoe.  It wasn't as easy as Spouse thought it would be and he tipped and fell into the water.  I tried not to laugh, I really did.  We were successful the next time.  But his binoculars are ruined.  Crap!

 On our way back to camp, we checked out the road to some hiking trails.  Wouldn't you know the hike that I wanted to do back to ancient hemlocks and hardwoods was closed.  Tomorrow, we might do a short river hike before we hit the road.  We did see a wild grouse cross the road.  Until now, I had only seen a wild grouse on the National Geographic channel and it was probably being eaten by a fox.

Back at camp, we gave Rudy some outdoor time.  These tiny little squirrels keep coming by and he is chasing them as fast as he can run till the leash jerks him back.  He is all sorts of excited by the action here and the smells.  I bet his neck is a little sore tomorrow though!

In the evening, we went for a walk and I took Spouse on the Slapfoot trail.  It seemed pretty dark in the campground with the canopy of trees, but when we got to the lake, we experienced a most beautiful sunset... and no camera.  Oh well.

Spouse is determined to burn every bit of wood we have in a campfire.  Hopefully, you will not be hearing about us on the nightly news...  And we did go view the dark night sky.  Seeing the milky way took me back to all of our camping trips at Lake Mohave and Lake Powell where we laid in our cots and watched the sky.  Eye candy.

August 19, 2014 Twinkle twinkle little star

Tuesday August 19, 2014

Training of humans continues.  When I want them to pet me, I don't always want to be obvious.  So if I sit just out of their reach, they almost always extend their reach to pet me.  I get my fix while maintaining my roguish charm and my feline dignity.

 After my morning walk, I found Spouse doing the guy thing.  Why do they always have to compare notes?  He is at our neighbors' checking out their expensive rig.  He did this with boats.  He was always checking out other peoples' boats.  Now he is doing it with RVs.  What else might he be doing it with?

 
We ready Hannah and leave Margaret Bay, heading east on hwy 3.  We hug the coast for a while, then cut over to hwy 103 continuing east to the town of Liverpool, where we break for lunch.  Liverpool is known as the home of Privateers.  Privateers were essentially legal pirates.  In the 1800's, governments (the US did this too) sanctioned the taking of ships for their bounty in 'protection' of their country.  Of course, they got to sell the goods. It is a cute small town with a pretty lake and a small downtown storefront area.  We then head north on hwy 8.  We are heading for the national park Kejimkejuk.  There are two pieces to this park.  One is the seaside area, which is about 25 miles west along the coast.  The larger piece is inland and that is where we are heading.  Only Samaaaaantha thinks we should go seaside even though we have the inland piece flagged.  'Do a u-turn if you can'.  Let me shut you up if I can.  Voila!  I can!

 Keji (as Kejimkejuk is known) is known for its lakes, rivers and wildlife as well as its history with the ancient Indian tribes.  An endangered turtle species is here as well as a variety of wild orchids.  I would love to see them, but who knows.  It is also known for the darkness of their night skies. 

 

We are told there are no RV spaces with electricity, and only one spot of any kind that would fit our size, so we take it, even though it has no hookups.  Being fully self contained, we don't need the hookups, but they are convenient.  With no hookups, I think we call this 'camping'.  We tried, we really tried but there was no way we could back Hannah into the space without doing damage to Hannah, the truck, and/or all the trees.  So we go back thinking we would get a refund.  Instead, miraculously, they found a space with electricity for us.  Since these spaces are specifically for RVs, it was much easier to maneuver into.  Gee, what timing we must have to get this space... maybe if we spoke French at the get-go, we would have gotten this space right away.   But wait, they are not French.  Ok, maybe their boss is French?  Whatever, we got our space.  And it is a beautiful, woodsy space.

 Around 9:30, we walk outside to check out the night sky.  From our site, we cannot see much sky as the tree canopy is too dense.

Spouse, put the flashlight on. 

I don't want to ruin our night vision. 
What night vision?  We can't see a thing!  Put the f'n light on!

 Although there are lots of stars,  it won't be dark enough to appreciate it for another hour at least.  Looks like we will miss this spectacle!

 Tomorrow, we plan on canoeing around the lakes and rivers. 

August 19, 2014 My walk

Come along with my on my morning walk...

 

August 18, 2014 The Big Bang Theory, or That Sinking Feeling

Monday August 18, 2014

Feline training of humans, how to get love... I use this one very sparingly as I do not want to overwhelm them, but I will actually go and sit on their lap.  Because I do it infrequently, I know they will stay.  They will pet me and make me purr.  I am ok with that.

This morning's walk took me around the cove behind us.  There is cove to the right, then cove to the left.  It is very scenic.  There are fir trees with Spanish moss, which seems contradictory since firs are cold tolerant and Spanish moss is a warm grower.  And the firs appear to have keikeis (growths off of growths).  I will try to remember the camera tomorrow.  When I get back, the skies opened up and it poured.  Timing is everything!

Our mission today is to go to the maritime museum on the waterfront in Halifax.  After a brief stop at Canadian Tire to pick up some parts for Hannah, we set Samaaaaantha to our goal.  Amazingly, there were parking spaces available right in front.  I hate the way you pay here though.  You have to estimate how much time you will be spending and pay up front.  How the heck do we know how long we will be here?  We pay the all day fee, knowing that Spouse (the entrepeneur) will sell the parking ticket when we leave.

 

It isn't that I am particularly  fascinated with Canadian maritime history.  But they do have a couple of exhibits that pique my interest.  They have many artifacts from the Titanic.  Halifax was where they brought many of the survivors and bodies after the disaster.  One hundred years later and there is still such fascination with all the artifacts and it was all very interesting.

But the bigger draw for me was the history of the 'big explosion'.  On December 6, 1917, the Mont Blanc was a french cargo ship carrying wartime explosives into Halifax harbor expecting to meet up with a convoy.  It collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo (who would not give way and was going the wrong way).   When the fire started, the French crew knew what was about to happen and they abandoned ship as fast as they could running to a house up the hill to a woman who was holding her baby.  They tried to tell her to run but they spoke only French.  Instead, they grabbed the baby and ran.  Of course she ran after them.  All but one of the crew survived.

 

When the town heard the collision and saw they smoke, they all came running.  Bad idea.  Another ship tried to tow the drifting Mont Blanc away from the docks, but could not.  After about 20 minutes, the fire ignited the explosives and the biggest man made explosion in history occurred.  The anchor of the ship was found 5 km away.  The entire waterfront was destroyed.  2000 lives were lost, a tsunami was created which took those lives that were not already blown away.  The injuries were in the thousands.  So many children ran to the windows at school to see the fire.  When the explosion occurred, they were permanently blinded.  9000 were homeless and it snowed that night.

 The city of Boston mobilized a relief team.  To this day, every year the city of Halifax sends Boston a Christmas tree.  So many personal stories are on exhibit.  They have a log of all the people that died.  You can see 10 or more people with the same name so you know entire families were totally wiped out.  Fascinating.  Totally fascinating. 

There was also a great exhibit on the war of 1812 as told from Canada's point of view.  Not quite as I remember from the history books.  My schooling taught me that we won.  This representation said it  was a draw, but Canada emerged as its own country.

 

As we were getting ready to leave, the skies opened up again, BIG TIME.  We watched, ran to the truck and ate our lunch.  And we decided NOT to take a harbor cruise!  But when the rain waned, we did walk around the waterfront.  As we left, Spouse sold our parking pass.  What a guy!