We had a bit of a late start this morning. Since we are staying at this hotel for three nights, I thought we would slow down the pace a bit. So I let Steve sleep when he was dozing, but he also let me sleep while I was dozing. So we got up late. LOL

We left the hotel at 8:35 AM and 64 degrees and we headed east toward Cape Breton. We had definite plans for a route today, but the GPS was lost most of the time and we could not seem to read the maps correctly. Consequently, we changed plans twice. However, you really can't make the wrong decision. There is water everywhere with wonderful views.

There is road work, BIG TIME, going on everywhere, but I will say, for the most part, it didn’t affect our progress at all. We figured that they have a short window to do these jobs, but after speaking to a flagger at one stop, it turns out that their snow season is about the same as Maine’s, perhaps a bit shorter. The snows begin in earnest in early December and the snow is gone in March. I remember many winters in Maine when the snow began in November and was still on the ground in April.

So we headed east along St. Georges Bay and followed it right up the west side of Cape Breton Island. At times we were driving along the water and at others we were a bit inland. There is a lot of vacant land here. Houses are few and far between in some areas and everyone out here seems to have a nice piece of heaven. Most of the houses are modest in size and few have garages, but all of them are neat and well maintained with well manicured lawns. And we saw a lot of grand front lawns. The houses are all set far back from the road, so the lawns are huge and they are all nicely mowed.

On the water, we stopped a few times to take photos. The first was Christy’s Look Off (I guess we would call it look out.) We saw expansive views of the bay from that vantage point. Next we stopped at Port Hood, which was a very nice area with picnic tables and a boardwalk out to a beach and through a nature area with tall grass and sand. Beamer liked this place and left his mark to let all other dogs know he had been there. We also stopped at Murphy’s Pond Rd Marina where we saw a lobster fishermen loading his boat with traps, with the help of his three young sons, ages estimated between 8 and 11.

It was after this that we looked at the clock and decided that the trip all the way to the end of the island was not going to happen, so we chose another route inland along some inland waterways. But we just could not find the road that would take us there. So the last plan was to drive back south and go around another peninsula in St. Georges Bay which surrounds the town of Antigonish. Why did we select this? We did it for Mike. He went to St. Francis Xavier University back in 1965-66. So we decided to go there and take some photos to give him a walk down memory lane. Mike, I hope you enjoy those photos.  

Looking on the day…Cape Breton is a beautiful area with red dirt, green fields, endless trees of many species, lovely homes, and oceans of deep azure blue. We saw rocky coastlines, charming villages, corn fields, dairy farms and friendly people.

Tomorrow, we venture over to the other side of Cape Breton. I hope we can find the roads that will take us to the best views the island has to offer.