The Women are in Tatamagouche

We got up fashionably late the next morning, and had a leisurely breakfast with Arlene. Doug had boiled up a bunch of crab meat for us to take with us, so we sat around the table cracking the crab and putting the meat into a couple of margarine tubs, to take with us, and chatted, and chatted.....until it was time for a coffee and muffin break. All the crabs cracked and put away, it was time to give Aunt Arlene a goodbye hug, and off we went. We decided to take the Confederation Bridge back across the Straits, partly due to cost ($42.00 versus over $100.00) of the crossing, but also due to the fact we wanted to see the north shore of Nova Scotia on the way.....so drive it was. Shortly after getting off the bridge, we turned left and were into Nova Scotia. The price of gas jumped from $1.01.4 to $1.06.9/liter, so this leg is going to be a bit more expensive. Our friend Ellie, who hails from Tatamagouche, N.S., will be happy to hear that all of the women have returned to town - at least I assume the women we saw passing through there were the locals. We stopped there at the information centre to have our crabmeat sandwiches for lunch at their picnic table, and to try using their internet. The lunch went well, but they had just that morning installed their wireless router, and it wouldn't connect for me or for them - so I guess they'll have to contact their technician to return.



Testing the Wifi at Tatamagouche










We then continued on under threatening skies (grey thickening clouds all around, with showers in most quadrants), and decided to call it a day at Pictou, which may have some clues to our family roots. Many of the Scottish immigrants first landed at Pictou before settling in Cape Breton or in other parts of Canada, and some of our ancestors had been prime suspects for just such a landing, as they had been followers of the Rev. Norman McLeod who led groups of people from Scotland to St. Anns in Cape Breton (near Baddeck), and then to Waipu in New Zealand. We tried for a commercial campground, but it was full - so continued back a few km. to the provincial park. We managed to set up camp with thunder rumbling around us, and then the skies opened up on us. Our camp managed to stay dry, however, and the rain stopped long enough for us to cook up our dinner of crabmeat casserole on rice....but we decided to eat it in the car, as the rain resumed. We still had a good night's sleep in spite of on and off rainshowers through the night.
The following morning we drove into Pictou to explore a bit, and see if we could discover some family history. The town is quite picturesque, with a very scottish theme about it - clan banners hanging from the lamposts, and very scottish looking stone buildings throughout the town. On the waterfront is a very close replica of the ship "Hector" which brought the first Scottish settlers here in 1773. We took a tour of the Hector Centre, with a very good presentation of both the ship and the living conditions, and history, of the settlers. Sometimes we feel a bit hard-done-by, but I can't imagine being one of 200 people crammed into the tiny holds of a ship like this, and setting off on a 6 week voyage (planned - turned into 11 weeks!) across the Atlantic, to arrive at an uncleared forest land in time for winter (and still surviving)!


The good ship "Hector"











A short drive away is another Centre, dedicated to the history of the area, and we visited it to find ships lists of passengers, or records of our family. They did have lots of records, and were very helpful - but alas, we could find no definitive proof of their passing through here. So on we went, bound for Cape Breton. We crossed the Canso Causeway into Cape Breton Island at 16:00, picked up some maps and brochures at the Island end in Port Hawkesbury, and then continued up the highway a few Kilometres. The windshield wipers were slapping time faster than even Bobbie McGee would have liked, so we opted for a roof tonight, and stopped at the Aberdeen Motel, near Wycogomagh,where I am hooked up with wifi, and we can cook up the last of our crabmeat into a chowder for dinner.
We had the crab chowder, and had crawled into bed to watch a bit of t.v. when Mother Nature gave us a 4th of July spectacular......a huge thunderstorm rolled through, and over us, with an extremely vivid lightning show attached. The power went out, the rain came down as heavy as I've ever seen it. We'd lucked out in not being camped out for that one - but our budget is now straining again.....back to camping tonight, when we get to Baddeck.