Wes & Sally "On the Road" Wes & Sally's 2005 & 2006 Adventures

To Baddeck, NS Aug 3, 2006

Halifax to Baddeck, NS - August 3, 2006 - 211 miles

Today was an early start day. The goal was to arrive in Baddeck early enough to visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. We had a guided tour scheduled for 3:30 this afternoon. It was a relatively uneventful drive with a couple of stops for eats and fuel. Fuel = $256 - painful! We did have one slight side escursion. The route guide said Exit 5 Nice lake along the right side of the road. It was intended as info only. When the navigator read it just as exit 5 came up it sounded like the thing to do. Nice lake on the right side, but the road didn't feel right. Luckily there was a nice turn-around a couple of miles down the road. Continuing on the correct route another nice lake came into view just after passing Exit 5. You can have too much info sometimes.

We arrived at Bras D'or Lakes Campground with just enough time to get set up and head for the Museum.

I had assumed that there was a Bell Museum here for tourist purposes as a result of his having a station in the area for the purpose of developing transcontinental communications. Wrong. I was think or Marconi. However, Baddeck was actually Bells home for most of his life.

I knew about the telephone. What I didn't know before today: His development of the telephone was just an extension of his primary role - finding ways to "bridge the gap between sound and silence" - teaching the deaf to communicate. His wife was deaf. His best known student was Helen Keller. He moved to Baddeck, NS after securing a clear patent on the telephone following 12 years in the court system. That gave him financial independence. With his wife managing the finances, he was free to spend the rest of his life on his curiosities. The most siginficant were his contributions to flight and water transport. Six years after Kitty Hawk, and independently with no real exchange of ideas, he led a team that constructed the first aircraft to fly in Canada, and also won the international prize for the first manned aircraft to fly a distance of a kilometer.

During WW I he began experiments that led to development of the first hydrofoil marine vessel. In 1919 his test hydrofoil reached a speed of 72 mph, an astounding feat given the engine technology of the day. His goal was to improve military sea transportation. WW I ended, however, and there were no orders for his magnificant craft. It was abandoned and left on the banks of Lake Bras D'or for over 30 years before it was recovered for the museum. One of the original engines is on the replica in the museum. His family donated all his artifacts to the museum. His last living granddaughter, now 101 years of age, still lives in the 30 room home he built when he moved his family to Baddeck.

This evening we were treated to a Ceili (Pronounced Ki-lee)(Gaelic name for what we call a musical Jam Session) in the campground by four local musicians - three fiddles and a guitar. All were of Scottish descent, and Maynard had the most efficient use of a fiddle bow I have ever seen. His hand rarely moved more than 3-4 inches and his bow tip never moved our of a 2 inch radius. He bowed the low (upper) strings by rotating the fiddle ever so slightly. Took me a long time to figure what he was doing.