Nova Scotia

Yesterday gave us a few surprises. One being my bike would not start in the morning. Lost all power. It seemed to come back after a while then click off when I hit the starter button. I made a call to the local Honda dealer and discussed what it might be. They ordered a part and expected it early enough for us to make the ferry the next day. Not really sure that it is the issue though.

Grant asked me to muck about with his draft for this entry as he'd "run out of descriptors". I'd like to interject that in an effort to be democratic, we'd agreed to each take a day and make choices about activities. The 14th was Grant's day and he chose a route from the NB motorcyclist's handbook. (The Maritimes are no slouches at marketing themselves and could teach BC a thing or 2) It was a good run through some lovely countryside with a stop at an organic market for organic fudge and organic ice cream. As an after-thought, we did pick up some chicken and nice veg for a supper feast.

The 15th was to be MY day. I had wanted to go to the coastal nature preserve, again there courtesy of the Irving family. Then wanted to head downtown to see some of the historical buildings and take a peek at the "Old Market" which sounded intriguing in the guide book. But things changed...

Jill discovered that a tour bus came to the campground and did a two hour tour of the city. We hung around the campground taking it easy till the bus arrived then hoped on board. We were the only ones on the bus till the driver Grant went to pick up a mob from a cruise ship. Saint John gets a lot of cruise ships, this one alone comes 13 times a year.

The tour took us to the four corners of the city. It was very interesting hearing about the history. We were told the background of all the monuments in King Park. One of the interesting stories was about a young man working at a shipyard who saw two boys playing near the ocean edge. One fell in and was being pulled out by the strong tide. Seeing the risk to himself he grabbed a length of rope and handed one end to the one boy and jumped in to save the other. The boy on shore panicked and dropped the end of the rope. The would be saviour and victim were both drawn out with the tide and perished. The mayor asked citizens to contribute and the response was so overwhelming, they had to put a limit of $1 per household. There is an enormous statue of this young man.

ldlings... We saw the house that Donald Sutherland grew up in. Many interesting stories went along with the homes.

The old market is the oldest market of it's kind in North American. It was one of the few buildings in St. John's to have survived the fire of 1877. It is one city block long and the roof is made from an inverted ship's hull. The ribs are all visible. An effort has been made to retain the historical feel with signage and vendor displays. Saw an interesting young man there who can best be described an Celtic Goth. He was tall, hale and hearty and wearing a plaid kilt. He had wild hair, the de rigeur piercings and a T shirt with a political message. I thought he had the same dash and presence a young Scot might have in the 1700's.

The city has some wonderful historic homes with the traditional widow's walk at the peak. Much of the building was made with ballast discarded at the bay by incoming empty ships hungry for local soft wood. The materials used for ballast were granite and Honduras mahogany, all left free for the taking by any enterprising soul, making for some lovely homes.

One of the stops was reversing falls, but with a guide we learned a little more about it. Over 20 million gallons of water pass through the narrow passage per second. Jet boats were treating thrill seekers to a wet, cold ride. The water temp only changes 5 degrees through the year, currently a balmy 45 F.

The gorge is only navigable for 20 minutes during slack tides. There is a $40,000 fine for going through when unsafe.

We were dropped off back at the campground with a new found respect for the history of the area. That evening there was a live performance by two musicians out on the lawn at the campground. A nice bonus to the day.

Today we woke early to break camp and go to the bike shop (my bike was starting now) before the 12:30 ferry to Nova Scotia.

When we got the (Harley/Honda) shop it was obvious that the part they ordered was not the issue. I spoke with the guys in the service dept. and one suggested checking my negative battery connection. I did that and found that I could tighten it a bit. Since then everything has been working fine.

We headed off to get to the ferry early. We followed the signage from Hwy 1 and could not believe the terrible condition of the road to the ferry. Most all of the roads we drove around Saint John were rough and hard on the back.

At the ferry terminal we chatted with some of the other riders there and got some feedback on routes to take in Nova Scotia. On board, the woman at the tourism desk was outstanding. She gave us a motorcycle handbook for Nova Scotia that was Reader's Digest size, but thicker. This gave the trip a new edge of excitement. The trip across the Bay of Fundy is 3 hours and BC Ferries could take some tips from Bay Ferries. They have a full length movie on board (this trip the new Bond. Witnessed an older woman with a very complicated arrangement of what must have been floor length hair giving the purser an earful about the "unsuitable" movie. They should play "the classics" she said. Maybe she's right), a St. John's Museum rep who does three different presentations people of the Bay of Fundy, Shipbuilding and ocean wild life, including some whale watching. He promised the odds of seeing a whale were about 50/50, enough to make us want to brave the Atlantic wind, but sadly, the odds were not in our favour. When the movie was not playing there were info pieces about the area's ecology. It was interesting and informative much like watching discovery channel.

Off the ferry at Digby, we took the southern route towards Yarmouth. On the advice of the tourism gal we took exit 28 and rode along the water all the way. The landscape and ocean vistas were awesome.

The homes were not all colorful like Newfoundland is advertised but beautifully kept with clean lines standing out along against the green.

There were vistas of shoreline with light houses and bays with their docks and fishing boats tied up like some painting out of a gallery. Sadly this highway although easy and beautiful to ride does not lend space to pull over for pictures. Where we did find a place to pull over were the enormous Roman Catholic churches that every little village had. All the churches were impressive buildings but two in particular caught our interest. One was a huge stone church at St. Bernard. All the stone was brought by two men with mule and cart. The building took 30 years to complete.

The other was Saint Marie. It is the largest wooden church in the world. It is unbelievable the dedication that has gone into building these churches.

This is an Acadian area and French is predominant. They have their own flag, a french tri-colour with a gold star. We learned that the Acadians were banished to the US in 1746 and allowed to return in 1768 to settle in the area. Must have given them the determination to keep their culture alive.

With rain threatening, we took refuge just in time at Lakelawn Motel. The main part of the motel is an old house built in 1864 by a wealthy shipbuilder.

It actually began to rain hard just after we went down the road to the Austrian Inn for dinner. It was cosy and we enjoyed our red wine by the fireplace. Jill enjoyed local scallops in garlic butter. Yum. Grant went for the pork chop special with included the most marvellous cauliflower soup.

Luckily there was a break at the time we returned to the motel but it started up just after and continued through the night.

We're gearing up for a wet ride with plans to link up with Bill Sr. and Eunice from Halifax, the parents of Kate's colleague Billy Jr.

Bill Sr. has stayed in touch via email and he and Eunice want to ride up to meet us. Wonder how they'll feel when they watch the weather?