Waking up to the cool air in the mornings these days sure feels like Fall is here. We got up and had coffee and cereal, then went into Leslie and Dieter's kitchen and saw that Christopher and friend, Daniel, were already there drinking tea and chatting. We had delicious poached eggs by Leslie (again with the Boursin on toast... this lady sure knows how to fancy up a breakfast! - I need to remember this). Kids were a bit rangy and so we kicked them out to have a bounce on the trampoline out front while we packed up the rig and paid a few bills while on wifi. Before we left, we gave the 10cent tour of our RV to everyone interested and then Ollie set us up for our group photo op by the colourful canoes. Love this photo!
We said our goodbyes and had hugs... so great to connect with family and meet new friends. At 10:30pm we drove a short distance to the Atlantic Superstore in Antigonish to load up on some supplies and groceries (including the two mini-nerf guns the kids bought with their allowance). Filled up with diesel at the Esso Mobil and by 11:45am we were back on the road headed for Cape Breton Island! Yahoo! We drove Hwy 104 across the bridge onto the Hwy 19 into Cape Breton and started on the Ceilidh Trail towards Port Hood : Sunset Beach (on recommendation by my friend Lee Evans)
Around 1pm we arrived at in Port Hood (home of hockey player, Al MacInnis) and drove down to Sunset Beach, passing the local Al MacInnis Sports Centre (hardest slapshot in the NHL). Kinda neat! Arrived at a beautiful beach with the tide out and coming in. Stretches of gorgeous sand and only one other small family down there - the realization that with school being back in session, we would have access to a lot more places with less crowds. Set up chairs and a beach blanket and the kids played with the skimboard (Ollie trying to give lessons to newbie Amelia - she returned happily reporting her "sand rash" on her backside from falling so much). Jonathan had the trainer kite out for awhile and was always testing to see if the wind might pick up enough to kiteboard. No luck here. We stayed for hours enjoying the "private" beach. The kids were very busy creating a hermit crab resort in the sand... digging waterways and playzones for 50 hermit crabs (all accounted for!) until the tide came in and they had a formal disolving of the wall. I had walked down to investigate while Jonathan chatted with a local guy named Scott all about hockey and the local area. Kids found what we think was a moon snail! super cool.
After we had our fill of the beautiful beach, we packed up around 4pm and did our best to dust all the sand off ourselves! Jonathan made sandwiches for everyone and we were back on the road before 4:30pm. By 5:30pm we were at Margaree Forks and officially on the west coast side of the CABOT TRAIL. We saw a mangy little fox at the side of the road. Poor thing had hardly any fur on its tail from mange. Still cute though and Ollie sent a photo to his buddy Vincent, who loves foxes.
We looked up some camping options and saw that there was an RV campground within range and by 6pm we pulled up into the Waves End RV Park in Chéticamp where we met the very lovely Audrey and Jack (and their little yorkie) who worked on site. The park had only just opened last year and was very fresh and new and lovely. It was an expanse of grass with gravel roads that stretched down from the highway all the way to the beach. There were only a handful of RV's parked there, with it being officially "off season". We had our choice of spots (we chose Site 10 down by the cliff that lead to the water). Jack drove the truck down to lead us to our spot. He reminded us of a classic western character with his hat and thick grey moustache and weathered kind face. Audrey was warm and welcoming with a thick maritimer accent. In the office I admired the little hook-rug samplers of little camper trailers. Super cute.
Afterwards we walked back up the our prime camping spot and made a late dinner of perogies and veggies as the sun set. Jonathan lit a fire to roast marshmallows and we also met our camp neighbours. Valerie and her boyfriend were from Montreal and were in the process of converting an old shuttle bus into their RV. They were headed up to the shower block and said hi and we got chatting about our trips and sharing some stories before we had dinner. After, Valerie showed us some photos of Joshua Tree and shared some good travel tips about the BLM lands where you could park for free or cheap in different places in the States.
At bedtime (it's always a late bedtime on the road!) I read one chapter of Anne of Green Gables (AGG) and Ollie was almost asleep before the end of the chapter. Jonathan and I found our bed to be full of sand from the day's adventures -- the kids' clothes are stored in the cupboards above our bed in the back of the rig, and little sandy bodies climb on there to get their fresh clothes with no regard to how much sand they be be carrying in their swim suits or between their toes!
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