Judy is
better, but of course feels wiped out. She had lots of napping time on the bus
today. We all got an early start and watched sunrise from the breakfast room
today. When we boarded, the bus windows were filthy and smeared and streaked.
What the heck? We have a full day of travel and sightseeing with few stops and
no photo stops and you can’t even take photos out the windows because they are
too dirty! We drove from 7:45am to 9:30am or so to get to the Northumberland Ferries Ltd. terminal at Wood Islands, PEI. Marty played loudly local music for
almost the entire bus ride. Barrie paid $402 for the bus to leave PEI on the ferry. Driving
round trip on the bridge would have cost $44 on departure from PEI. I guess Caravan does it this way
to give some variety and a different experience, but I think we all would have
been just as happy on the bridge roundtrip. People aren’t allowed to stay in
their vehicles. You have to go upstairs. Marty told us to take the elevator from B to
D and to make sure we came back the same way when they announced that we should
return. The ferry landed at Caribou, Nova Scotia. It was about 75 minutes and
it was a pretty smooth and comfortable ride. I was worried for nothing, but
then I was taking a double dose of meclizine, a Relief Band and using
MotionEaze, so it should have been fine! We arrived in Caribou at 10:45am and
got back on the bus. We drove off and
headed toward Pictou. From there we drove by Antigonish and along St. Georges
Bay on our way to the Canso Causeway to cross to Cape Breton Island. Marty
played a lot of more local music too loudly before doing an interesting show
& tell about tartans. We stopped at Port Hastings Visitor Center and used
restrooms. I also went to the gift shop next door and found a locally made ear band in Nova
Scotia tartan that I got to replace the black one we lost last year.
Marty told us
that she had selected a special place for lunch and it was a surprise. It was.
She did not tell us they would serve almost the same lunch as yesterday’s
complimentary lunch for $12 and that it would include more local music loud and
live. I saw the menu of soup and tuna or chicken salad and got up and asked Marty
if those were really our only choices, she said yes or you can have a salad. I left. I
went back to the bus and asked Barrie if I could go back onboard for a moment. He didn't like it but I got my water bottle and a protein bar and sat outside in
the smokers' section where I could still hear and feel the live music. Mom came
out once and told me that 20 minutes later they only had a glass of water. I felt no
pity. They all had the option of walking out whether anyone told them that or
not. Barrie and Marty both were upset that I wouldn’t go to their performance
lunch at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre at Judique. I am not here to make them
happy, as I am afraid Marty learned. The good news is that there was no more
music loud or muted on the bus today. Mom came back out as soon as she finished eating. I had seen 3 girls walk across the lawn with Popsicles or ice cream cones and I got Mom to walk over to the convenience store next door with me after I used the restroom. I got a little Nestle Oreo sundae. It was good. I shared it with Clay when he came out and told me he ate rhubarb for dessert.
After lunch, we drove past a town Mabou that several
people had inquired about because of the Rankin family and The Red Shoe Pub. Marty told us about it before we drove through the town and past the pub. We also drove past the Glenora Single Malt Distillery which Marty told us we would see but not stop at.
We did
stop in the afternoon at Le Centre de la Mi-Careme which no one had heard about or asked
about. Caravan must have paid our $5 pp entry and we had about a half hour here
for restrooms and an Acadian cultural presentation. About ¼ of the people
had walked up to the food co-op and waited for the bus instead because Marty told
us we would need food for 2 nights in Cheticamp because everything would be
closed on Sunday. She also told us to use the restrooms first and then to wait for the presentation. But a lot of people had left to go photograph an enormous bald eagle that was sitting on some rocks behind the building and others left then or after the restrooms to walk up to the food co-op. We waited with a dozen or so others and when nothing happened we all walked out and headed for the store instead of waiting for a bus ride there. But then Marty came out and rounded us up and told us to go back inside for the presentation. By, this time maybe half of us were there for the show. It was one Acadian man and he talked and showed us a short video. Then he went to open the mask gallery and greeted us costumed and masked. Marty cut him off during his mask making lesson because our time was up. Clay and I left and walked up to the food co-op. There were a bunch of our group standing out by the road shivering in the cold wind and one woman yelled at us to tell her what was taking so long. We told her they had put on a cultural presentation down there, but were loading the bus to move it up here now. Clay had finished shopping by the time the rest of the crew came in the store. People were shopping but Marty had not told us that Laurie’s Inn would have no
refrigerators or a Laurie. When we arrived we met an Asian man named Gordon who owns Laurie’s
now. It is spread over several buildings. We are in rooms 47 and 48 on the 2nd
floor of the main building. Maybe the other buildings are nicer. Ours is not nice.
The Cape Breton Visitor's Guide I picked up at Port Hastings says to allow up to 6 hours here if you are interested in hearing live Acadian music. We'd had enough of that and now we have 2 nights here.
Discussing this before dinner, we are all in
agreement that if this had been our 1st Caravan Tour, we would never
have taken a 2nd one. We are mystified and wonder what we are
missing based on the uniform raves we heard on our past Caravan Tours from
people who all told us this Caravan’s Maritimes Provinces tour was the best
they had done. They all raved about how much better the guides were and how
great the facilities and meals were. Something must have changed. The hotels and the meals must have been downgraded. While we were a bit disappointed with our guides on our past 2 Caravan trips, we continue to be. We had a fantastic bus driver last year, he kept that bus and the windows spotless and was always ready to pull over for photo opportunities, but not this year. We are all
pretty disappointed so far and are hoping that things improve in Baddeck, but
no one is feeling very positive. Marty told us the end of the tourism season is
a holiday weekend with Canadian Thanksgiving on the 2nd Monday in
October. There is some feeling that this being the weekend before marking the
end of the tourism high season in the region may have something to do with it,
but I don’t think so. I mean they are just nearing peak leaf color here and I
know that is a tourism draw too. Caravan does leave here after October 16th
though I think that is a tour start date. In any event, lots of businesses have
already closed for the season. So, who knows? I fear though that this is the
end of our little foursome’s Caravan Tours' trips. It is too bad that it has to
end badly.
We arrived in
Cheticamp at 5pm or so. We were greeted at the bus by the owner and a front
desk woman. Marty distributed a single key for each assigned room as they told
us where things were and when. The restaurant is down the hill on the
street along the waterfront. We were welcome to go there at our leisure for our included
pre-ordered dinner. We had to tell Gordon what we had pre-ordered. Then, we could help ourselves to napkins and drinks and
silverware and soup and salad as we waited for our pre-ordered main course to
be delivered as well as any alcohol ordered. Clay and Judy ate all their fish
so it must have been ok. The Acadian meat pie was just strange. It tasted just
like American Thanksgiving of turkey and gravy, with the rare odd bite of pork
thrown in. There was no unusual spicing or flavoring. It was even served with
mashed potatoes and American-style jellied cranberry sauce. Was this because of
thanksgiving approaching? Was it an Asian interpretation of an Acadian dish
(since the proprietor and all the workers were Asian. Our waiter, not Gordon, was anxious to
get home to Toronto!)? Dessert was also on the buffet. It was blueberry cake,
gingerbread and chocolate brownies with a side of brown sugar sauce in a
crockpot. We’ve decided that although no one has mentioned it that bell peppers
must be in season here and in abundance, be inexpensive and locally easily
obtainable. They just keep appearing at all meals.
They were
offering live music tonight there on the 2nd floor as well. None of
us would go even at gun point. Enough already. The Eastern Canadian music as
Marty calls it is a combination of Scots and Irish with bluegrass and Cajun to
my ear and understanding. We heard many of the exact same songs this spring in
Scotland and Ireland, meanwhile the local songs are more bluegrass sounding
which would be explained by the similarities with the Scots/Irish in the
Appalachians and their music. It all has the same strong rhythms and twangy
sound. While I don’t find it particularly unpleasant or at all unfamiliar, a
little goes a long way for me and I have had more than my fill of it today.
There was
some confusion with Marty telling us breakfast was at 6:45am and the locals
telling us 7am. Marty also told us that our morning tomorrow is free with
nothing scheduled until a whale watching cruise at 1pm or 1:30, weather
depending or else a harbor cruise. She told us though that she was going to
provide a surprise bonus drive to nowhere at 9am for those that were
interested. Well, we’re not interested in sitting here all morning with nothing
to see or do. There is not even a fitness room here, though plenty of people
got excited about the laundry room. There are no TV channels besides the
basics. While the village of Cheticamp is in walking distance of this hotel,
there doesn’t appear to be anything to particularly see or do here and the physical
locale itself is not particularly scenic or charming. So, we are inclined to
take the optional morning bus tour, but honestly, enough with the surprises.
Just tell us what is happening. She wouldn’t tell us what was for the optional
lunch today either. She said it was a surprise and we’d be pleased. We weren’t,
surprised or pleased. What the heck? So now she tells us tomorrow morning is
another option but gives us no alternatives or even tells us what she has
scheduled so we can make a determination how to spend our time here if we chose to opt out. A lot more
useful information about our local choices and a lot fewer “secret surprises”
would make us infinitely happier. But, right now we are all very disappointed
in Caravan Tours and the Maritimes experience in fall that we had heard such
raves about. Mind you the colors of fall are as expected and the weather is as
expected, but nothing else about the experience is as expected. Expectations can be a tricky thing, but I think ours were realistic and they are not being met.
