Travel to Nova Scotia

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Every February 2nd a large rodent is pulled from the warm confines of his lair at  the ton of Shubenacadie and subjected to the onslaught of bagpipe wailin and people yelling. Why? Because Shubenacadie Sam has the honmor of predicting whether the Nova Scotia winter will be short or long. And this has to do with the sky. because if Sam does not see his shadow then spring is “just around the corner.”

This tradition is not just in Nova Scotia. In fact it never started here. The world’s most famous groundhog is Punxsutawney Phil from Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania. It turns out Phil saw his shadow at the 123rd annual Groundhog Day  about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. This means that the already-long, cold winter ill continue for six more weeks.  Gobbler’s Knob is a small neighborhood in Punxsutawn, a town that totals about 6,100 residents.

Here’s how it went. A member of the “Groundhog Inner Circle” took the furry animal from his modified tree stump home and exclaimed, “As I look around me, a bright sky I see and a shadow beside me, six more weeks of winter it will be.” However, this didn’t seem to bother th crowd. They all cheered.

Ground Hog’s Day started as a Pennsylvannia-German settler tradition. To the uninformed it is is eld that if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on February 2 – which is the Christian holiday of Candlemas – the spring would not come for another six weeks.

According to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club since 1887  the groundhog has seen his shadow 97 times, didn’t see it 15 times and there were no records for nine years.

Shubenacadie Sam saw his shadow. Then he went back into his warm home.

Fill up the snowmobile, we’re in for more of great sledding!

*Image from http://www.dailycontributor.com

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“I have traveled around the world. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes, the Alps, and the Highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty, Cape Breton out rivals them all.”
(Alexander Graham Bell)

 

The Cabot Trail is named for Giovanni Caboti, an Italian navigator under the pay of England who mapped the region in 1497. It circumnavigates the highlands of Cape Breton winding around the rocky northern shore to the plateaus of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. One of the marvels of this magnificent highway is that it’s carved into the sides of mountains above the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. All along the route there are lookoffs to view the vistas of Cape Breton’s lowlands and rocky ocean fronts.

Cape Breton Highlands National Park is one of Canada ‘s most exceptional wilderness areas because it is many things in one package. The highlands are made up of woodland, tundra and bogs, where wildlife is common and moose are often seen grazing in the shallows of lakes and streams. The park has 25 trails ranging from 20-minute interpretive family walks to challenging hikes through stunning mountain and coastal landscapes.

The Cabot Trail is a destination for all seasons. However, in fall the highlands chnage to a mix of fiery reds, oranges, crimsons and golds. The days are warm, the evenings sweater-cool and every road leads through a tapestry of brilliant autumn colors.

In winter, endless groomed trails open the winter magic of the highlands for cross-country skiers and snowmobilers, and Ski Cape Smokey’s 300-m (1000-ft) vertical drop is Atlantic Canada’s unique downhill ski experience.

The Cabot Trail is a golfer’s paradise with exciting, world-class championship courses that surround players with the magnificent beauty of Cape Breton Highlands National Park or panoramic views of the Bras d’Or Lakes.

The Cabot Trail meanders for nearly 300 km (185 mi.) through the beautiful highlands and forested plateaus of Cape Breton. Visitors can begin or end their journey at a number of different points depending on what side of the vehicle they want to view the ocean. Usually they take Trans Canada Highway 105 west from Baddeck to Exit 7 to travel clockwise around the Cabot Trail, or east to Exit 11 at St. Ann’s to travel counter-clockwise. Cheticamp greets you on the St. Lawrence River side.

 

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If you were asked what do the telephone and the hydrofoil have in common you might be intuitive enough to answer that they were great American inventions. You would be partially-right.

1) The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 in the U.S.

2) Bell was a Scot

3) The hydrofoil was invented by Bell in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, a place where he spent the most rewarding period of his life.

Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone ranks up there with the invention of the wheel as one of the most important inventions of mankind. His experiments with helping the deaf contributed to this invention and a lot of the groundwork was done in his home in Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

Bell, his wife Mabel, and their two young daughters arrived in Baddeck by boat over the Strait of Canso built two homes Beinn Bhreagh. He also built the original Bell Laboratory, the predecessor to the famous Bell Laboratories which came many years later. Bell, a Scot, could also speak which was the mother tongue of this small Cape Breton community took. In fact he opened his home to the locals and promoted culture, sociability, science and industry among the villagers.

In his laboratory on Beinn Bhreagh Alec Bell conducted experiments, built airplanes, hydrofoil boats, and, during WW I, lifeboats for the Canadian navy. The Bells provided steady employment for many in the village of Baddeck. Mabel Bell also was involved and is credited with fostering the famous hooked rugs of Cheticamp.

In addition Baddeck became the site of the first powered aircraft to fly in the British Empire, the Silver Dart which was first flown off the ice of Baddeck Bay on February 23, 1909. As well the HD-4 hydrofoil established the world watercraft speed record in 1917 after travelling at 71 MPH across Baddeck Bay. This record lasted for 20 years.

Alexander Graham Bell spent the last thirty years of his life, until 1922, in Baddeck. Today, there is a grand interpretive museum within site of his famous homestead.

Baddeck, situated in the heart of Cape Breton, is considered to be the beginning and end of the world famous Cabot Trail. Stretching along the shores of the beautiful Bras d’Or Lakes it is a bustling resort community boasting over 600 rooms but it retains the essence of the quaint village that Bell loved.

You can begin your trip of the Cabot Trail in Baddeck, spend a few days traversing the route and finish up in the same spot after completing a “loop.” For more information go to the Visit Baddeck site:

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I’m always searching for items of interest with regard to the Dartmouth area. The old locks at Sullivan’s Pond, the Cow Bay moose and Alderney Landing immediately come to mind but there are a great many more. But I’m always interested in what others from away think are the the major attractions and I found an interesting site that mentions some more that, while a novelty, are not in the league with say, the statue of Terry Fox in Thunder Bay.

Then it suddenly came to me. Attractions do not have to be profound or stand for an amazing feat of courage, as in the case of Terry Fox. If you follow the history of Route 66 in the U.S. you’ll run into a cornucopia of differing items such as figures built from engine parts, shrines to Elvis, a half-buried cars, museums of everything and rusting Edsels.

Question: Do people stop at historical sites? Some do. But most of us want to see the unusual and, in some cases, buy the T-shirt to prove we’ve seen it because even we know that bumper-stickers are passé.

So what do others across Canada think is important enough to photograph in Dartmouth? These things:

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Country music star Hank Snow is immortalized in all country music circles, especially Nashville, Tennessee. However, purists and enthusiasts will recognize the Nova Scotia town of Liverpool as the focal point of Hank’s metamorphosis. Because Liverpool is the home of the Hank Snow Country Music Centre

http://www.hanksnow.com

Clarence Eugene “Hank” Snow was born on May 9th, 1914 in the sleepy fishing village of Brooklyn on Nova Scotia’s beautiful South Shore, just down the tracks from Liverpool. When his parents divorced he was forced to stay with an abusive grandmother who kept him away from his mother. He regularly sneaked out at night and walked down the railroad tracks to Liverpool where his mother was living. At night he would seek refuge at Liverpool’s railway station, now home of the Hank Snow Country Music Centre.

In 1926, to escape his abusive step-father, Hank went to sea as a 12-year-old cabin boy on fishing schooners based out of Lunenburg and never returned to school. He bought his first guitar, a T. Eaton Special for $5.95. While at sea he would learn to mimic Jimmie Rodgers as he listened to his idol the radio. It wasn’t long before Hank had picked up his own style. He entertained friends and neighbors and quickly developed excellent skills as a musician and entertainer at kitchen parties and neighborhood.

In 1933 he doffed the oilskins for a microphone and joined CHNS Radio in Halifax where he had his own radio show. This was when he changed his name to “Hank, The Yodeling Ranger” because it sounded more western. Throughout the 30s and 40s he toured the Maritimes and Western Canada playing at county fairs and local radio stations. Then the U.S. called and he answered, becoming one of the biggest country stars in history.

The Hank Snow Country Music Centre was showcased more than once on TNN shows Today’s Country and This Week in Country Music, and features many personal memorabilia of Nova Scotia’s “native son” Hank Snow (including his 1947 convertible Cadillac) as well as memorabilia from various Canadian country music stars, including Carroll Baker, Wilf Carter, Ronnie Prophet, George Hamilton IV, Lucille Starr and others.

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