September 20--Louisbourg and Beyond

Today, we had a lazy start, ate breakfast a few feet from our RV park in ‘down town’ Louisbourg and headed out to the Old French fortress town. We fell asleep last night to the sounds of the wharf, mostly crab fishermen support systems. At breakfast, we talked with the cafe owner about American politics, Canadian politics, and the politics of fish! He was obviously very well educated about all three! He was an Obama fan, by the way!

Louisbourg is now a fascinating historical site on the order of Williamsburg, Virginia. In the mid 1700’s, it was one of the 3 (or 4, depending on who you listened to) busiest ports in North America, just after New York, Boston and, perhaps, Charleston. For me, it came as a surprise to learn that the trading of beaver pelts was NOT the principle business of the French in North America (OK, so my basic education in the history of this period was dished up in the 6th grade in major metropolis of Lake Crystal, Mn (population 1,500 + livestock). No, their business was dried cod . . . to the tune of the equivalent of $20 billion US per year. And they caught them one at a time using a hemp line, a 5 lb weight, and a hook. That’s a lot of cod! Well, enough of the history lesson. Let’s just say that Louisbourg was a very cool place!

So now let’s talk about the roads that came from the same time period. We hit every bump on them down route 4 alongside Bras D’Or. This is a HUGE drainage, 3700 square miles with six rivers feeding it, all within the island of Cape Breton, with only 18,000 people currently occupying it. Apparently, many have moved to the oil/gas fields of Alberta, and left their homes for sale. Many, many for sale signs along the shores.

Tonight we ended up at Antigonish, NS, and only had seafood as an appetizer. The steak and lamb chops were a terrific change of diet! We checked the tide tables for Fundy National Park, and thought we would be there tomorrow to see the high tide at around 5 p.m. Low tide is at midnight tomorrow, and we doubt seriously that we will see that one, so we will stay the next day to see the next low tide at noon. There will be a 40 feet difference between high and low, certainly something to see!