Day 14 - 15 Sep - Louisburg, N.S.

Another busy day for the Atlantic travellers. We packed up the LuvMasheen and headed for the fort at Louisburg. There were very heavy winds and cloudy skies but nothing could deter our quest for history!
I'd sent Carmel an e-mail asking her where in Cape Breton she hailed from as I intended to pay hommage to it in some way....perhaps a wiz in the bushes....and as we drove up the road from the campsite and passed the sign for 'Millville', both Wayne and I looked at one another and said, "Oh yah...this is the place"....which Carmel confirmed in an e-mail. We slowed down and looked for anyone that resembled Carmel but didn't see anyone but definitely going back this morning to enquire about "where that wild Fleming crowd hangs out".
It's picturesque Carm but not a mall in site...the move was a good one, girl!
The fort as Louisburg was very impressive and it's HUGE! Although a lot of the activities have slowed down now that summer is over, there were still a number of people in period costume who are more than willing to provide a historical commentary from a French soldier/settlers point of view. It was originally built in the 1600's and two major (successful) sieges by the British created a lot of havoc. It was the third largest/busiest port in North America...the Frenchies back home loved that salt cod! After it was abandoned by the British it just faded away and in the 1960's, Parks Canada started to rebuild. It was an amazing undertaking...all of the building and fort were painstakingly recreated using extensive original drawings and descriptions as there was very little of the original left, other than some foundations. An interesting footnote...the Sydney mines were closing about the same time so they retrained all the miners as carpenters, masons, etc. and used that workforce to build the Fort.
We had intended to spend a couple of hours but ended up staying the better part of the day and thoroughly enjoyed it. The National Film Board should do a documentary for the schools...a day here is a whole semester of boring stuff in a classroom but an hour documentary would show kids what the place is all about. It's so remote and impossible to imagine how the French found the place and built such a huge port, given the location, terrain, and the awful weather! The British expelled them twice but clearly a few of them escaped capture as there are lots of little towns along the Cabot Trail that are populated by French.
The best part of the day was visiting Wayne's cousin Violet Anderson and her husband Charlie. Her father and Wayne's father were brother's. Uncle Irving had owned and Captained a 4-masted fishing boat on which Donald was first mate at some point in their young lives. Irving later joined the RCMP. We had called Violet to say we would be coming to see her and I have to admit to a bit of apprehension as I didn't remember her at all and Wayne hadn't seen her for 30 years. She's much older (now 82) but sounded anxious to see us.
We knew it would be shortly before suppertime when we got there and I was trying to convince Wayne that this would NOT be the time to visit but another phone call to her resulted in her telling us to come anyway....we'd just order pizza! When we arrived they made us so welcome and the visit I said would only be for an hour or so ended up lasting all evening. Violet had called all her children so that the whole family could come over and see Cousin Wayne. We had so much fun and her daughter Bernice was so struck by how much Wayne looked like her Grampa (Irving) that she cried. Cousin Wade said it was a good thing he hadn't just passed Wayne on the street as he probably would have had a heart attack thinking Grampa had risen from the grave! They have a lovely home in Sydney and while Wayne & Violet exchanged family gossip, Bernice and I talked about kids, grandkids, and a hundred other things. We laughed and promised to keep in touch as well as exchange old photo's as Wade's wife is doing genealogy on the Corkum's.
It was back to our friendly KOA for the third night and we collapsed into bed after a long day. I think our Cape Breton trip is at an end and we will head for Hubbards today...it's about 400 kms so depending what else there is to see along the way, will either get there tonight or tomorrow.
I forgot to mention that the day before we had stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell exhibit in Baddeck. If you ever get the chance...go! It was a real eye-opener as other than the telephone, I really didn't know how creative this guy was...or that he had a beautiful summer home there for many years. He, and his father, were responsible for an alphabet that helped teach deaf children to speak, he built the fastest hydroplane ever, and on and on. Again, Parks Canada have built an amazing interpretive centre and it took us 2 hours to go through it, reading everything and looking at displays.
I need to talk to somebody about the Maritimes being a 'have-not' province????