26: An Industrial Day (10/15)

We visited the Cape Breton Miners' Museum in Glace Bay. 

The museum has its own undersea coal mine, created by local miners just for the museum. They sold the coal they mined here to the local power plant, which supplies power to the U.S. East Coast, as well as Maritime Canada.  Here we are getting ready to descend down to the mine.

Our guide down into the mind was Abbie, a 75 year-old retired miner with a ton of fascinating stories to tell.  He started working in the mines as a teenager, as did his dad, granddad, and seven uncles.  He is the only one to have lived long enough to retire.  Here he's talking about the "pit ponies," the small horses kept in the mines six days a week in order to pull coal to the surface.

Some mines had underground gardens or mushroom "farms."

The mine ceiling is anywhere from 8 feet down to 4 feet high. Miners worked in seams as little as 18" high when the mine was active, and that was not uncommon in "real" mines. The mines were lined with timbers and iron beams, but it was still awfully cold and wet.  I was really glad they issued us hardhats, as I bumped my head countless times.  Allen was better at this stooping over business than I was.

Our guide, Abbie, at the end of our tour. He began working in the mines in early high school, when his family needed the money. He retired when the mines closed 15 years ago. At age 75, is the last surviving member of his mine work crew, most of whom died from black lung disease.

Allen met Bruce, a geologic engineer, at a concert. Bruce is a part of the team working on cleaning up one of Canada's worst-ever environmental sites, the Sydney Tar Ponds. He offered to give us a tour, and we accepted.

Most of the Sydney Tar Ponds have been cleaned up, or at least contained, and turned into a huge city park. Our guide/friend Bruce told us that when he first visited here years ago, he wore a full hazmat suit. Today he brings his young children here to play. Part of me is skeptical, part of me very much wants to believe this area is "cured."

The project is just....huge, a scary reminder of how we used to just dump our toxic industrial waste in the middle of town until we knew better.

25: Thanksgiving, Fortress of Louisbourg, Gobble Fest, and Sydney

So who knew Canada's Thanksgiving is the second Tuesday in October, same as Columbus Day in the U.S.?  And it's not a holiday affiliated with anything  Pilgrim; it's just a day to lay back, watch four CFL games, eat turkey - or not - and give thanks.  I can get into that.

From Port-aux-Basques....

And a Louisbourg Fortress gobbler....

Good-bye to Newfoundland....our ferry, The Highlanders, coming into Port-aux-Basques early on the morning of the day we later sailed back to North Sydney, Nova Scotia.

And here we are in downtown Sydney, Nova Scotia, across the "arm" from North Sydney!  Our hotel room has a wonderful view.

We came here primarily to enjoy the annual Celtic Colors music festival, which takes place in October all over Cape Breton. Allen was surprised to discover it's expensive, not all in one locale, and expensive, so we decided to take advantage of other things to do.

Top priority for me was the Fortress of Louisbourg (again, borrowing from Wikipedia) National Historic Site of Canada and the location of an AMAZING one-quarter partial reconstruction of an 18th-century French fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island. Its two sieges, especially that of 1758, were turning points in the Anglo-French struggle for what today is Canada. 

The original settlement was made in 1713, and initially called Havre à l'Anglois. Subsequently, the fishing port grew to become a major commercial port (according to our guide, the third-busiest in North America, after Boston and Philadelphia) and a strongly defended fortress. The fortifications eventually surrounded the town. The walls were constructed mainly between 1720 and 1740. By the mid-1740s Louisbourg was one of the most extensive (and expensive) European fortifications constructed in North America.

The Fortress of Louisbourg suffered key weaknesses since it was erected on low-lying ground commanded by nearby hills, and its design was directed mainly toward sea-based assaults, leaving the land-facing defences relatively weak. A third weakness was that it was a long way from France or Quebec, from which reinforcements might be sent. It was captured by British colonists in 1745, and was a major bargaining chip in the negotiations leading to the 1748 treaty ending the War of the Austrian Succession. It was returned to the French in exchange for border towns in what is today Belgium. It was captured again in 1758 by British forces in the Seven Years' War, after which its fortifications were systematically destroyed by British engineers. The British continued to have a garrison at Louisbourg until 1768.

The fortress and town were partially reconstructed in the 1960s and 1970s, using some of the original stonework, which provided jobs for unemployed coal miners.  Much of the original building materials were shipped offsite, to be used to build other facilities in Halifax and Boston, for instance.

Again here, as in all other Canadian National Historic Sites, the majority of exhibit components are hands-on.

Louisbourg's punk chicks

Sheep!!!!

This guy just cracked me up.

It was a fortress, after all.

Allen enjoying his conversations with the re-enactors, who are TOTALLY knowledgeable in all things Louisbourg.  Nobody doesn't know the answers to any of your questions.

I just liked this juxtaposition.

And then we learned about Gobble Fest, the annual Thanksgiving weekend series of indie musicians playing around Sydney. We enjoyed Heartwood Slacks, who were later to play elsewhere during Celtic Color, and Breagh MacKinnon, a stunning singer and keyboardist.  We also endured a few of their contemporaies.

Cruise ships that dock in Sydney are treated to the World's Largest Fiddle.

24: MOOSE - this post is NOT for you if you're anti-hunting or squeamish (10/9-10/11)

While on Newfoundland, we learned moose were introduced to the island in the 1870's, and have since done great environmental damage to native forest flora.  Also learned moose licenses allowing one kill per person are issued at a rate of 15,000 a year to islanders via a lottery system, and another number to outfitters, who take off-island hunters into the woods.

We shared our ferry ride to NFLD with a LOT of Americans headed over to hunt with the outfitters. Their license tags showed them coming from as far as Michigan and Wyoming, for instance.  Turns out they probably paid close to $5,000 each to come hunt moose (or bear or caribou) here.  For example, http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/ThingsToDo/Moose

While driving south on the Trans-Canadian Highway south of Corner Brook, we passed a pick-up hauling a trailer with all sorts of moose parts sticking up, as well as an ATV.  Allen was smacking himself in the forehead that he'd passed it because we were interested in taking a longer look, having heard so much about moose hunting.  Shortly after, we got off the highway to take a scenic road.

Along that road was a meat packing shop, next to which was parked a red truck with the bed full of moose parts.  At my request, we stopped.

With the workers' permission, we watched them butchering several moose for a few minutes.

Then a moment later, the guy we passed pulls up behind.  Turns out this shop takes care of post-hunt butchering for several outfitters.  Allen had a long talk with him about hunting and being an outfitter.  Conversation topics also included how global warming is affecting NFLD (snowmobiling now doesn't begin until January, when it used to be plenty easy in December) and how/if coyotes were introduced or got to NFLD by themselves, and in any event, are a leading cause of the island's caribou dying out (the coyotes hang around the known birthing grounds, follow the cows giving birth, and take the newborns as soon as they drop).

The next morning at the Port-aux-Basques ferry terminal, getting ready to leave NFLD, we saw a number of guys who'd had successful hunts themselves, and who spent time admiring each other's successes.  Learned the span of moose antlers, as well as number of points, is what's most admired.

And truckers call these "moose catchers."  Allen spoke with one trucker who said that when you're hauling a load of lumber and are going to hit a moose, hit the gas hard, because to do anything else would mean you'd wreck and lose your load for sure.

23: Toodles, St. John's (10/8-10/9)

Who knew?  Lord Baltimore, founder of Maryland, tried to set up something beforehand in Newfoundland.  I learn something new every day.

So it’s our last day in St. John’s, a beautiful autumn day. Allen and I went our separate ways, he to a bookstore he discovered the night before and to watch harbor goings-on, and me to walk neighborhoods I hadn’t been in before and to hit downtown just once more.  Allen’s been having quite a bit of knee trouble on our trip, and spending a good part of the day walking isn’t his game just now. Doctor’s app’t. when we get home fer shure.

Allen came home with four books and satisfaction. I walked myself silly, touring Government House, the Lt. Governor’s home and manicured grounds....

...where many, many trees have plaques under them indicating which premier or member of the British royal family helped plant them.  This one was Queen Elizabeth's, for instance.

Glorious begonias, that's all.

Also got to the Victorian-era Bannerman Park, one of St. John’s first public parks, which is undergoing a renovation. The first fundraising paving stone was placed by John Cougar Mellencamp and Meg Ryan. I keep forgetting who's Canadian!

Some of the others I admired....

Then to Commissariat House, the 1820s late-Georgian mansion used by the supplies officer of the British military. The house has been restored to 1830s style and contains many period pieces. They were having some sort of “upstairs/downstairs” fundraising dinner that evening, so it was fun to imagine how the two rooms would later be set.

The evening meal was at a neighborhood Korean restaurant. Holm reviewed the menu on the web and made recommendations, all of which were spot-on. We really enjoyed the food we know he’s eating on a regular basis these days. Thanks, Buddy!!

Up and out Wednesday morning, destination unknown except we knew we had to be back in Port-aux-Basques Thursday night in order to catch the Friday morning ferry back to Nova Scotia. It was a looong day, a lot of road construction, but incredible scenery along most of the road.  Just one damned beautiful brook/cove/lake/whatever after another.

I just liked this white lichen.

I really wanted to stop in Gander to see what sort of commemorative things might be there from September 11th.

 From Wikipedia: Gander International Airport played an integral role in world aviation in the hours immediately following the September 11 attacks when all of North America's airspace was closed by Transport Canada and the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). As part of Operation Yellow Ribbon, 38 civilian and 4 military flights bound for the United States were ordered to land at the airport—more flights than any Canadian airport other than Halifax International. More than 6,600 passengers and airline crew members, equivalent to 66 percent of the local population—third highest number of passengers, behind Vancouver International, which received 8,500, and Halifax—found themselves forced to stay in the Gander area for up to three days until airspace was reopened and flights resumed. Residents of Gander and surrounding communities volunteered to house, feed, and entertain the travelers in what became known as Operation Yellow Ribbon.

We were looking at tourist info in the totally deserted terminal when Jerry, a security guard, asked if we’d like the backstage tour. Of course I said yes. He took me into the international terminal, told stories of 9/11, and pointed out various retro fixtures still very much in use (ladies’ room vanity, the first escalator in all Newfoundland, for instance). He said school bus drivers on strike broke their strike on 9/11 in order to take stranded passengers into town to stay, and that schools closed so facilities could be used to house people. Anyway, it was a fun tour for me.

My tour guide/bored security guard, Jerry.

Because it was such a beautiful day, we decided we would camp for the night on the western side of Newfoundland, but couldn’t find any open campgrounds. Yup, all closed for the season. 

We ended up staying in a Corner Brook “housekeeping efficiency” we read about in the Newfoundland visitors’ guide (because the usuals, Priceline and Booking.com showed zero rooms), actually a converted garage in someone’s home, lovely spot, totally private, everything we could need, and cheap! We’ll look for those places again. A new lesson learned.

We looked out our cheap window to see this in the morning. Not bad.

And more dumb luck...we stumbled into the best restaurant in Corner Brook, NewFoundSushi, owned by these two Canadians.  First time I've ever had sushi not made by an Asian, a bit weird, somehow.  Good food!!