Hello!! and Happy 4th

July 4, 2015 Day 19

Everyone was in great spirits as we woke up to a beautiful day for the 4th of July! Our tailgunners dressed up for the occasion.

Today we travelled to the Arm of Gold campground in North Sydney, Nova Scotia.  This area did a lot of copper mining 100 years ago, thus the name for the campground. 

On the way, we stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Baddeck, Nova Scotia.  This place had so much information on the fascinating life and work of Mr. Bell--I learned so much about him that I was not aware of.  First of all, he had a summer home here in Nova Scotia where he spent the better part of the second half of his life, and many of his contributions were developed in this area.  His descendants still live in the homestead. The museum building’s style is based on the tetrahedron, the geometric form Bell used in designing his passenger carrying kites.  I knew about the phone, but didn’t know about the kites, or the Silver Dart, an aircraft that achieved the first controlled powered flight in Canada, or the HD-4 hydrofoil that broke a marine speed record, or the experiments with sheep breeding. He was also quite involved with the hearing impaired.  He married one of his deaf students, Mabel (they were married on my birthday in 1877).  She was the woman who inspired his greatest invention, the telephone!   Wonder how many people remember this rotary dial phone that was on display??  Hello…I do!

There were beautiful views along the way in this area that is surrounded by water on three sides:

 

I made a quick run to the grocery store and was reminded about the high prices here.  A big box of cereal was $8. Milk was $7 a gallon—that might cause you to think about drinking something else; but  a 15 pack of beer was $24.50 (I guess that’s a great way to control drinking habits!) And, on top of that, they charge a “container fee” of 1.50 (15 cans @.10)!  Oh, and Honeycrisp apples were $5.99/lb.  (I passed on those).  But, I got a “deal” on Ritz crackers…they were on sale for 1.67! I should have bought 2 boxes for that price.

We have a busy day tomorrow, so we went to mass this evening at St. Joseph’s, a church established in 1846 and within walking distance of the campground.

 

 

 

Everyone is loaded and ready for tomorrow, so we sat outside and tried to watch the race, but between the mosquitos and the rain  delay from Dayton, we decided to call it a night.

I just received heartbreaking news about a friend who died unexpectedly while on an RV trip out west.  Sending thoughts and prayers to the family.  Times like this remind us that life is much too short to waste it, to worry, to put things off, and to take things too seriously.  Don’t ever sweat the small stuff….Enjoy life while you can.