The Cowardly Lion and Me
Another new province? Say it isn’t so. “Okay, it isn’t so”. Some of you may think I am drinking while I write this blog and maybe you caught me. The truth is that most times I fail to look at something (tour book, calendar, email) that might remind me of our next stop to blog. Unfortunately, I use my recollection instead.
During my younger years as a manager, I would hold a weekly supervisor meeting. There they would sit with their Franklin Planners in hand writing down the plan and to do’s for the day or week. I had nothing in hand. They would ask me, “why don’t you have a Franklin Planner to keep notes?” With a sly grin I would reply, “Because I have a brain.” Ouch. They knew I was partially kidding.
Where the heck is that brain today. I could put notes in 2 Franklin Planners, the Google Calendar and receive reminder texts; the extra paraphernalia still wouldn’t help me stay on course. So forgive me if I sign off thinking we’re headed to a specific destination and in fact, we are not. This is a long involved way to tell you we are not headed to Prince Edward Island, not just yet.
We are on our way to Arm of Gold Campground in Little Bras D’or Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Now how could I possibly forget that?
Lost Again
All of the directions for each leg of the tour are listed in a booklet given to us by the wagon masters. We track our turns, upcoming gas stations and points of interest by the miles advanced on our odometer’s trip meter. On some travel days, I will admit, Pam and I forge ahead and forget to set the trip meter at exactly the right moment. We are busy plugging in the Garmin, attaching the rear view camera to the windshield and checking the empty site for anything we may have forgotten. With those excuses, we are typically 3 tenths of a mile to 3 miles off on our trip meter. Uh, close enough.
As we pull out of the Halifax campground, I remind Pam to set our trip meter to 0. About a tenth of a mile down the road I direct Pam to turn left at the next street. I’m reading the turn-by-turn directions that the wagon master gave us. She gives me a look and says, “Here?” Of course, I give her a look and say, “Yes, right here.” Come on readers, I know you’ve had these conversations during your excursions.
Then I tell her to take the first right. Again, she looks at me and says, “I don’t think this is right, this looks like a subdivision. Why would they take us down this street?” At which time I say, “I don’t know why but that’s what the directions say.” As we continue down the street, I glance side to side at the road lined with garbage cans and small children striding off to school. Secretly and without a hint of panic, I begin to wonder, this doesn’t look right (visualize clouds, question marks and a whisp of confusion in my brain). I recheck the directions and I am reading them correctly. Phew!
Unfortunately, I did notice something and I must fess up… “Um Pam, you’re going to kill me.” And she gives me that look again, half in trepidation and half in irritation says, “What?” (Wait for it.)
“I’m not on the right page, these are tomorrow’s directions.” Okay readers, let’s not judge.
That Rings A Bell
Finally, on the correct route to Arm of Gold Campground, we had some time to spare so we stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum.
Let me share some of the highlights because it was a fascinating stop. What immediately comes to mind when I ask you about Alexander Graham Bell? The telephone would be my only guess. And yours? Not that inventing the telephone wasn’t amazing but he did so much more. In the early 1900’s he designed a biplane called the Red Wing.
It flew on May 18, 1908 and publicly received credit for first flight. I thought that happened at Kitty Hawk. The Wright Brothers did fly their airplane 5 years earlier but it was done in secrecy. At that time, they did not get the recognition.
In 1919, Bell and his 2 partners built a hydrofoil that broke the water speed record at 74 miles an hour.
Bell was interested in many pursuits, way too many for me to list, but his most passionate was his work on projects that improved the quality of life for the deaf. He invented a system called visible speech. It helped those who could not hear learn to speak. Mabel Bell, his wife, was deaf. Possibly that contributed to Bell’s unflinching desire to invent systems to overcome limitations for deaf people.
At age 6 Helen Keller met Bell. He mentored her through the years, helped her gain admission to college. She dedicated her autobiography, The Story of My Life, to Alexander Graham Bell.
One last thing about Bell. When Charles Garfield was assassinated, the doctors could not find the bullet. They came to Bell for help. Although the instrument was too weak to go through a body and find the bullet, he invented the first metal detector.
After our museum tour, we continued to North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Arm of Gold Campground. Pam and I are going to travel the Cabot Trail tomorrow.
Have you really been on a road trip if there isn’t at least one debate about directions? I don’t think so, lol.