One Less Hitch...

10 June 2015

Cape Breton to….?

We woke up and started getting ready to leave – doing laundry, making use of the guaranteed free hot shower, and packing up the Casita… don’t underestimate the amount of time these tasks take!  We cleared out a bunch of leftovers for lunch before heading out.  To where?  We still hadn’t decided... Newfoundland sounded like a great adventure, but the weather wasn’t promising – well, it was sort of promising rain.  So it was either going to be Halifax by way of Iona (one last stop on Capte Breton) or spending one more night on the island, visiting a fort, and taking the Newfoundland ferry in the morning.  We decided to flip a coin – heads we go to Newfoundland, tails we go to Halifax… tails.  (We did get to take a small pointless ferry across a really narrow part of the water that should have just had a bridge over it anyway.  Sissy still thought it was cool though.)

Iona is a town on Cape Breton that boasts a Scottish Highlands museum village.  Sis got to join in and help soften some wool while singing traditional Scottish Gaelic songs.  It was so authentic, that the workers actually spoke to eachother in casual conversation in Gaelic, and attested that they do the same when they run into eachother (and other locals) in town as well.  The blacksmith was actually welding a cooling rack and explained all the tools, etc., to us.  His father (in real life) has a metal works shop, and he said he enjoys what he does there at the Highlands.  The carpenter was making an outdoor table.  The ladies had linen on the loom and had made a good amount of the garments and blankets they use there on the premesis, to include having collected wool from the sheep we were able to visit near the barn.  It was extremely impressive.  The general idea of the village was to visit buildings in succession that took you from living conditions in 18^th century Scotland all the way to a “modern” 1925 Scottish house on Cape Breton, complete with its own switchboard and telephone (though they still used kerosene lamps despite Alexander Graham Bell being on the island, because it wasn’t worth their trouble to run electricity to their part of town for just a measly light bulb…).

We grabbed a Gaelic/English children’s book for the girls (we started making a tradition of getting a native book when we took Sis to Italy (though we didn’t do the best at it in other places we’ve been) and loaded up the car/Casita for Halifax.  However, with some Newfoundland regret, we again brought it up, realizing we could still call it a night and grab the ferry.  While I was waiting for the weather forecast to load, Matt said “Let’s Do It!,” and I said “well let me see what the weather says, and let’s look and see if we even have time to fit it in before we have to be back (for a family wedding)…”.  Apparently by then the “moment” had gone by, (and the weather still looked rainy and our schedule looked tight), so to Halifax we went, with the idea that if we changed our minds, we’d still go after Halifax, and maybe instead of Quebec…

En route to the greater Halifax area, we stopped for dinner in Truoro, which was still over an hour from our destination (a beach-side campsite south of Halifax).  When attempting to park at the diner-style restaurant, we pulled into what apparently was not a two-entrance lot, forcing us to have to back the Casita all the way back out of it.  The problem we’ve encountered is that when we back up at an acute angle to the Casita, our bike tires (on the back of our SUV) actually touch the Casita.  Matt made mention that he may just take off a bike tire for this particular maneuver, and disappeared for a few minutes behind the Casita.  After a few driver’s seat-switches, he finally got it parked at a Staples next door while I held a hangry Eloise and noticed indeed the rear mountain bike wheel was off.  Nonchalantly, since this was discussed as an option, I approached him and said “do you have your tire?”  Not so nonchalantly, he asked me what I was talking about.  I pointed out that his rear bike wheel (not just the tire) was missing.  It was not on purpose.  It was not in the parking lot.  It was gone gone.  We hit a pretty serious dip in the road (but no scrape) when still back on Cape Breton that bounced the car and Casita pretty fiercely – it must have fallen off at that moment.  Bummer right?  Worse.  He then said, by the way – the worst part of this is that the kids’ bike trailer hitch was on that  wheel.  Now we have no way to pull the POD.  (I’ve never even come across another POD in America, let alone finding one in a bike shop on an island in Canada).  I decided we’d call Baby Jogger in the morning to mail a replacement part to PEI for us, since we didn’t plan to use the bikes in Halifax.  Oh, and we’d have to get Matt a new wheel.

Another after-hours arrival at the Hubbard’s Beach Campground, another successful sleeping girl Peapod transfer.  Lunenburg in the morning.

Baby Gear Used Today:

Packing up the Campsite:
Fischer Price Folding Travel High Chair:  While packing up our campsites, we are able to contain Eloise in this high chair strapped to her L.L. Bean camping chair.  (I do regret not bringing my Guava Family GoCrib on this trip as an outdoor playpen, or even our North States metal play yard).

Iona:

Baby Jogger City Mini GT Double:  The unpaved hilly paths resembled 18^th century Scotland.  The GT tires handled the task well.  We did leave it parked outside all of the buildings we entered (aside from the visitor’s center). 

Confesh:

I’ve given up on using the high-chair cover in restaurants.  It doesn’t come along everywhere because it takes up space, so I stopped trying for the most part.  However, I am still quite the germaphobe, so I am a big fan of our BabyGanics hand sanitizing foam, followed by a Pampers Sensitive wipe.  (If you have any sanitizing suggestions for a baby who tries to eat restaurant crayons, I’m all ears… cringe).