Al and Audrey Sinner have been traveling together with us since mid June. We are splitting up today and Al and Audrey will begin the trip back to Oregon, and Gary and Judy will cross over to Newfoundland.
The ferry ride will be fairly expensive, so we are storing our red trailer for a couple weeks here in North Sidney, Nova Scotia. We will see just how good we will be at predicting which tools and supplies we will need out of the trailer. Unfortunately there will be no room for Path, our trusty tandem bicycle. He must stay behind in the trailer. Hopefully he won’t be too upset when we get back and try bucking us off.
Over the past couple days we visited the National Park at Louisbourg. This is a recreation of the French owned fort just before the British came and besieged them and ousted the French. The period is 1744, and there are many folks in period costumes and lots of activities and museum displays to observe. Best of all it was all part of the National Park Pass that we bought over two months ago.
One of the best shows was the firing of the cannon and muskets by the cast. We saw a similar performance in the Citadel in Halifax. That group represented British solders. We did observe that the French were much more laid-back. The British were into marching with their pipers and huge feather hats and crisp red coats. When the troops came to fire the noonday canon everything was by the numbers. They marched up to the ramparts in close formation. Each movement was carried out sharply and then that person would snap back to attention at his position. The captain of the guard carried the official watch and the gun was fired precisely at the moment of noon. The French detachment came marching up in loose formation to the drum and fife. The cannon crew assembled around the gun and carefully prepared to fire the gun. How many persons does it take to fire a cannon. For the British it was eight and for the French it was four. The French didn’t get around to firing the noon cannon until about 1:45. How does that old saying go? “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun.” If you check out the web page at www.dinsmore-enterprises.com you will be able to compare the photos of the two teams.
We had lunch in a period inn. We were seated on straight backed chairs with cane seats and rice hull pillows. We were given huge pewter spoons as our only utensil. The waitress informed us that it was expected that everyone had their own belt knife to eat with. Fortunately we were having soup and Haddock so we were able to do nicely with the spoons. Since we spoke only English the guard at the gate had been reluctant to let us enter in the first place. Had we been carrying belt knives I am sure they would have locked us up as spies.
Judy and I wish all of you the best of health and send our love to all. Good bye until we arrive in Newfoundland.
