The rest of the day was perfect. Perfect temperatures, perfect blue sky, perfect road, perfect bike, perfect woman, all of it. We crossed the Canso Causeway and headed up the Ceilidh (kaylee in Gaelic I'm told) trail to the Cabot Trail around the Highlands of Cape Breton. First stop was in Margaree Harbor, a place about as charming as it gets. Then the cathedral in Cheticamp (where it inexplicably goes from Scottish to French...). Then...the Cabot Trail.
If you are looking for the place where the Creator spilled the beauty bucket, this is it. A twisty, rising and falling road hugs the coastline of this rugged place. You're not prepared for the beauty: it's just that incredible. Green as anything on the land and blue as anything in the sea and the mountains just erupt from the water and head upward to dizzying heights and a road clings to them. It beats Montana and we LOVED Montana. Of course, Montana was on fire when we were there.
We took a side trip to the Northernmost point of Nova Scotia. Bay St. Lawrence is at the tip and we went there. We didn't take the rougher road to Meat Cove, but we got close enough to the 48th parallel to call it enough. Stunning.
Down the other side of the trail and we ran into a group at an overlook who wanted their photos taken. Turns out they were local Micmac Indians (here's a clue politically-correct readers: they don't MIND being called "Indians"). I asked them what they could tell me about their culture and their spokesman, an electrical contractor on a Harley, said with a big grin "We're friendly: no more scalping, eh?!!" He said "Eh!" a lot, so for all eternity the Micmacs will be the Indians who say "Eh!" One was a school bus driver, so he commiserated with Betsy and one worked in a school as a records person, so it was old home week. We took their photos in front of the view and they ours, then they rode off (without scaps, eh!).
We found a great motel in St. Ann's (hi to all the Ann(e)s in Betsy's family). The place advertised itself on the card as "A View with a Room." We had a 50-mile view up St. Ann's Bay toward the trail we just left. The Lobster place next door was open late, so that was a bonus too (but we had salmon). We slept with the windows open and were awakened to the view up the bay. Ahhhhhhh. 60-70 deg in July.
On the road, stopping in Baddeck to check out Alexander Graham Bell's museum there. He had a summer place called Beinn Breagh (Gaelic for beautiful mountain). He actually pioneered aviation in Canada. Great guy who also made hydrofoil boats and other cool stuff. Good friend of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtis. The telephone wasn't the half of it.
Down the road to Caribou and onto...cue evil music...the FERRY. Ah, but this one was great and a smooth one-hour crossing saw us into Prince Edward Island. A B&B, a nice dinner overlooking the harbor, and now we're back with you, friends and family, courtesy of an internet cafe.
We're just over 2,000 miles into our trip, have just over 4,000 on the new bike, and have 7 days left. Dragging our feet and staying two nights because we're on the back side now. Blog you later.
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