It is 8:05 am and we are on our way to the Cabot Trail. We have to go just five miles from the park to get to the Cabot Trail. As we were driving along we suddenly saw two moose in the side ditch, but when we got close they disappeared into the pine forest. We missed our chance. Then in a few more miles we saw a great piece of scenery. We looked out onto St Ann’s Bay and the water was like a mirror and the sky was hazy and met the water with the same look. Breathtaking!!! My pictures are fabulous. I will treasure them for a long time.
We traveled along the trail and we had 4 mountains to cross and many miles of seashore. They say you can travel the trail in 8 hours but we were gone for 11 hours. This included a long trip to an art quilt studio. I will tell you about that a little later.
The first small town, which spread along the trail for a few miles, was called Ingonish. It was a community in the mountains. They had a ski area and a golf course. We also hit our first construction for the day. Canada has a stimulus plan like the US and it is called Canada Action Plan and they have signs on each project just as the US has for the stimulus plan. They are doing a major makeover of the tourist roads in the area. When you get off the tourist roads it is alarming as to the condition of the roads. This little town also advertised whale watching tours.
Our next stop was at a drive off were we could see the ocean. The view was something I cannot put in words. There was a very rugged shoreline of huge red rocks and the water made crushing waves on the rocks. The sky was overcast so you could hardly tell where the sky stopped and the sea began except for the coastline which jetted out into the ocean. God certainly did a good job when he created the earth.
Neils was our next attraction and it is located to the northern edge of the trail. It was overcast until we reached this harbor and the sun began to come out and the scenery was even more beautiful. The soft puffy clouds gave everything a new dimension. We took some pictures of the light house and the harbor which was small. Our greatest picture here was the pointed roof house which had seagulls sitting on it’s peak and seagull do-do ran down the roof. Nasty but funny!!!
We did stop at Asby Bay and go into a gift shop hoping we would find a bathroom. Well, the shop was stocked with many good quality items that we never did ask for the bathroom. They had some witches balls that are supposed to chase out bad omens in your house. It definitely is something that not every home will have in it.
We continued our trip by swinging to the west side(kinda west) of the cape that looks out on the Northumberland Strait. We reached Pleasant Bay by 10:45 am. Shortly after driving past Pleasant Bay we stopped at a drive out and saw a beautiful ocean scene. We stepped up to the wall and Walt immediately saw a whale blowing thru his blow hole. Well, that set off a panic with everyone who had stopped and they pulled out their binoculars to see the whales. We stayed for about 15 minutes watching the three whales and the whale watching boat which had come from Cheticamp. Later when we ate lunch at Cheticamp we watched the whale watching boats come in the harbor.
When we left Cheticamp we asked if they knew a place which had hooked rugs. These are not the latch hook rugs which we have done in the past. This is a whole different thing. They use yarn but it is tight on the backing and not with yarns sticking up out of the canvas. We did find her shop and it was very interesting to have her show me how she did it and the differences in yarns and canvas. She was a lady who was proud to be a hooker. The gal and her sister have been hooking since they have been 8 or 9 and she was probably in her late forties. So she could do it so fast you could hardly imagine how she did it. They had many consigned pieces in the shop and they ranged from 30 dollars to 150 dollars. After hearing her demonstration I could see which was done well and which one had been done by a 94 year old hooker.
Our next adventure definitely turned out to be an adventure. We had a brochure about KingRoss Quilts and Fibre Art. Everyone seemed to know her and gave us instructions about where to go to find her. She was in Margaree Valley and “you go on the Cabot Trail south of Chiticamp to Two Macs gift shop. You turn left on the road next to the shop and follow the signs.”
Well, this is when the adventure started. We were driving south of Chiticamp and we ran into construction so we listened to our GPS and she said we were to turn earlier. We followed her instructions and drove for a while without a clue to where she was taking us. After a while we stopped at a coop (grocery store) and got some more instructions. Finally after finding the start road we proceeded to follow the written instructions on the publicity card. We finally ended up running out of paved road and drove 7 ½ miles on a dirt washboard, pot holed road to her home in the middle of a large valley. The place was absolutely beautiful and very quiet. It was in no man’s land.
When we entered her studio we were greeted warmly and I was absolutely blown away by the quilts she had on display. Her name is Anne Morrell Robinson and she has been doing art quilts for over 30 years and has designed many quilts which have been in National and International shows. She had one in the quilt frame which was 112 x 112 and was hand appliquéd. She spent 4 winters doing the hand appliqués and has started hand quilting the quilt. She says it will probably take her another year to finish the quilting. She is doing the quilting a very scant one fourth inch apart using many different designs. She plans on sending the quilt to all the large quilt shows in the world. She also designs patterns and they are also hand appliqué. She teaches classes on how to do primitive rug hooking using scant ¼ inch strips of wool. This lady must have a very persistent personality to stick with such detailed projects. And by the way here studio was to die for. (Since I do my quilting in a fifth wheel, which is not adapted to serve as a studio, it is a dream to reach for some day.) Her stash of fabric was huge. She lived in the boonies and she could not run out to the quilt store on a whim to get supplies.
Now our next adventure was to get out of the valley. We asked our gal on the GPS to get us home. Well, we started off okay but when she made us make 3 right turns in a row we knew we were in trouble. Needless to say, none of the roads run in a square grid like they do at home. After we saw the same church for the third time we knew we were in severe trouble. Finally we stopped at a home which had some cars in the drive and asked for directions. Well, once we got good down home instructions and did not listen to Lizzie, we drove out of the valley in a few miles. The thing that got us in trouble is that when we got to the Cabot Road we ran into construction and the first turn should have done was when we reached TwoMacs, which was just beyond TwoMacs. So as of now we have more negative things to say about this new GPS.
We did stop at a Fish Nursery on our way out of Margaree Valley, but it was too late and they were not open anymore so we continued to drive on the trail until we came to our exit and stopped to get supper because it was almost sunset already. We had some seafood which was only fair but we did meet some very nice people from Traverse City, Michigan. He was raised in Iowa and she was raised in South Dakota. They had lived all over the United States and knew where Maria Stein, Ohio was located. They were a lovely couple and we could have talked with them for many hours.
When we got to the ferry to take us across the St. Anne’s Bay we were delighted to know we were only a few miles from our home. Bart, our dog was glad to see us after our long absence.
It was a very wonderful day and thank the Lord that we have been able to do all of this traveling
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