The Weather is Cool - But the People are Warm

The motel was a treat. The rainshowers seem to be still around, though, and are forecast to persist for a few more days. Following breakfast, we drove into Baddeck (not very far from last night's motel), and decided to check out the campgrounds. The one we chose on the west end of Baddeck used to be a KOA campground, and looked fairly good. Because of the persistent rain, we opted for another Kamping Kabin, which would be drier and warmer, and allow us to spread out and organize our family records. It was still morning, and our Kabin wasn't yet ready, so we set out to get the feel of the area.


This schooner was sailing into Baddeck Hbr.








We drove around the village of Baddeck, and then headed out to St. Ann's, which is the area Rev. Norman McLeod and his followers first settled. We discovered a McLeod Pioneer Cemetery, and walked the gravestones looking for familiar names. None of them, however, seemed related - at least as far as we could tell. The black flies decided that fresh living meat is a delicacy, and swarmed us....so we retreated back to the car, and continued on a scenic drive along St. Ann's Bay, and then returned to near the head of the bay, the location of the Gaelic College. This college is dedicated to saving the Gaelic language and history, and also teaches the language, as well as piping. They also have a wonderful museum dedicated to such things, including a film in Gaelic (with English subtitles for those of us from Away) - we spent several hours there investigating the place.
They are doing quite a job of it....most of the highway signs on the Island are in Gaelic as well as English.





Here's O Canada - in Gaelic











Then along the Trans Canada Highway as far as North Sydney, where we restocked our food a bit, and found Linda's larger tarpaulin (not that we will need it until we leave the Kabin). We stopped at a park and ate our lunch before setting out on back roads to follow the East side of Bras D'Or Lakes, for a scenic drive around the Big Narrows and a cable ferry across Little Narrows, eventually arriving back to Baddeck, and our now-ready Kabin. Rainshowers had passed over us on and off all day, and the temperature was unseasonably cool for early July (at least in most places I know). We fixed some supper and checked online, made some phone calls to organize a meet-up with some distant "cousins", and internet contacts. The cooler it got, the sleepier we got - so we were in bed by 21:00.
The next morning dawned considerably clearer, but also quite a bit cooler. It's not quite freezing yet, but I'd be surprised if the daytime high this day reached 10C. We organized a meet-up with Sandy and Peggy, internet genealogy friends who may also be distantly related. We were to meet at Tim Hortons (of course) at 16:00. In the meantime, we headed to the Court House to check out the land records. Unfortunately, the Nova Scotia Government has taken many of the older records to the public archives in Halifax, so we were only able to search some of the ones we were looking for. We did manage to locate and photograph some of the deeds and land transfers, however.






Linda is poring over the old Deeds and Land Transfers










We then decided to walk one of the local cemeteries (Knox), and as we were finishing that, Peggy (the friend I previously mentioned) strolled up with her granddaughter Alex, and introduced herself (as we'd never really formally met before). We had a lovely chat while swatting voracious insects, and then followed her to another cemetery west of town (Greenwood). We were able to check that one out, as well as another one at Baddeck Forks while Peggy ran some errands.......we had made plans to re-meet at Tim Hortons at 16:00, as planned. We didn't find any of our dead ancestors here, either, but we may have found a couple of McPhee ancestors of our cousin Marla. Finally back to Tim Hortons for a warmer-upper mocha, and a meet-up with Peggy , Sandy, and Alex. By 17:00 we were following them to the location of an old graveyard behind the home of one Ian McLeod, where my gt-gt grandfather is buried. I'd visited this place once before, about 12 years ago, but hadn't remembered how to find it. With the new-found help, we were able to locate the place, and paid our respects to the old man. Back to the Kabin for dinner, and then contact another internet connection, Walter - who is a local history/genealogy expert. He has invited us over for supper tomorrow evening. The Kabin is relatively warm, so the rest of the evening was spent organizing the computer/paperwork/schedule for tomorrow's research.