Canadian Maritimes August 1-2, 2019

Day 53 Thursday August 01, 2019 Today we had a 86 miles drive to the Nova Scotia Ferry for an overnight ferry ride to North Sydney, Nova Scotia. We arrived at the ferry terminal at 1:30PM and didn't load the motorhomes on the ferry until 4:30PM. They loaded all the cars on a lower level and then all the RVs on the level above the cars. We were not packed in as tight as we were on the last ferry. We were assigned cabin 8027 so we dropped our overnight bag in the cabin and went down to level 7 to check out the public spaces and line up for our buffet supper that was part of our tour package. The ferry is similar to a small cruise ship in the public area, cabins and dinning room. The cabin is probably about 2/3 the size of an inside cabin on the cruise ships we have been on. The bathroom is small, especially the shower but like Nick our Wagonmaster said it is a “proper” bathroom. Nick is British.

Cabin 8027

Our Ferry

The buffet had a good variety of food and it was good and lots of it. When we returned to our cabin it was so cold in it we were uncomfortable and turning the thermostat up did not warm it up so two maintenance men came and worked on it and it got much more comfortable.

Day 54 Friday August 2, 2019
We went down for the 7:30AM buffet breakfast that cost over $42 (Canadian) for the two of us. We docked in North Sydney at 9AM. We are now back in Nova Scotia timezone so we had to set our clocks back ½ hour. The drive to the Arm of Gold Campground was only a couple of miles. We all got drive through sites with FHU. This is a nice big campground with grass lots and the best WIFI we have had at any campground and we are only here one night.

A tour bus picked us up at 12:30PM and took us to the Fortress of Louisbourg for lunch and a guided tour of the reconstructed fortress. The meal was serve much like it would have been is the days of the fortress in the 1700's. The waitresses and all the people working at the fortress were dressed in period costume except for the tour guides.

Aren't we cute with our bibs on

Floor in the dining room with blacksmith hand made nails

Baker where we got the bread

Governor's dining table

Governor liked red silk sheets

Chapel

Front of governor's house and chapel

Soldier's quarters on other end of governor's house

Hand making lace

Governor's Bastion

The guide told us about a resident of the fortress named Marie Marguerite Rose that was captured in Guinea Africa and sold to French traders an brought to the fortress as a slave for 19 years. Finally her owner freed her after his children was grown and he didn't need her as a slave anymore. She married a local Mi'kmaw (native) man and they opened a tavern in the fortress. Therefore she was the first freed slave to own a business in North America per our guide.

The fortress was owned at different times by the French and at other times by the British. They kept fighting over the area but it was finally abandoned. Several of the buildings were reconstructed in the 1960's to preserve the history of the area. It was a very interesting place and we would have like to have to stayed longer but the bus picked us up at 4:30PM to take us back to the campground. We were able to buy a loaf of bread at the on site historic bakery.

We had or driver's meeting at 7PM for our 248 mile trip tomorrow.