Our Summer Vacation (Part 5)

Although this is Part 5 of my vacation narrative it is actually only day two, which happens to be the day of  Hurricane Bill’s visit to Nova Scotia, Sunday 23 August, 2009.

Where we were, along the Evangeline Trail, we were only experiencing rain, at times heavy, and some gusty winds. From listening to the radio we knew that other parts of the province were experiencing more severe conditions. The entire south shore was getting hit much harder, and the extreme wave activity caused police to shut down access to such popular tourist attractions as Peggy’s Cove.

As we tuned in from time to time to the latest news reports and continuous storm coverage by the CBC, we learned that simple things like police barricades did not deter the foolhardy. Three teenagers managed to bypass the barricades by cutting through the woods. Got themselves onto the wave battered rocks and a couple of them succeeded in getting themselves washed into the raging water. By simple blind luck, for them anyway, I’m not so sure about those among their friends and family who had to admit knowing them, they managed to get washed back on shore, battered and scared but nonetheless alive.

Then as if to prove these young fellows were not the only brainless wonders in the province, CBC reporters said that hundreds of cars were parked along the roads and parents were taking their children close to the shore because, “They’d never seen waves like that before.” Shake your heads people.

The nice lady at the tourist information in Kingston had been very helpful, supplying us with maps and brochures of some of the things we wished to see on our travels. Because of the storm, a decision had not yet been made as to whether the Aviation Museum in Greenwood was going to open as usual at noon. Since it was by now only a couple of hours from noon, Marilyn and I decided to find something to occupy ourselves until then.

By now our cooler needed a replenishment of ice so we set off in search of a place to buy some. The first convenience store was out of ice so we headed over to the Greenwood Mall and there we happened upon a unique coffee shop specializing in various deli type sandwiches and several brands of Fair Trade coffees, ground, roasted and brewed on the premises.

T.A.N. Coffee was the name of it and in fact one of the most prominent things to be seen as we walked in the door was a huge coffee grinder and equally large roasting machine. By now Marilyn was feeling the chill from the steady rain and wind so a hot cuppa was very much in order. We ordered a medium dark blend and a couple of sandwiches and spent an enjoyable interlude watching the weather through the windows.

Our early lunch over with, Marilyn and I decided on some more indoor activities, window shopping in the mall. Well we didn’t buy any windows but we did find a few other items of interest in the large variety of stores which were almost all open in spite of it’s being Sunday. One of the things we were searching for was a siphon hose so we could drain the water from the cooler without removing and replacing everything within it. We were in luck. There was a brand new Home Hardware store which turned out to have two different siphon kits to chose from. Very appropriate because our oldest son, Jason, just happens to work at the Regional Office & Distribution Warehouse in Debert, NS.

After wandering around the mall for a couple of hours and picking up a few souvenirs we headed over to the Aviation Museum near the main gate to Greenwood Air Force Base and sure enough it was open. There was no admition fee to get in but there was a box for donations at the door.

As you will see by the following photos we had a snapping good time of it and between the two of us shot a couple of hundred pics. Aren’t you glad I didn’t try to include them all here?

(Click on any image to see an enlargement)

CFB Greenwood Aviation Museum

Chock full of real airplanes and parts of airplanes.

Plenty of static displays. And one that just gave me a lot of static. Marilyn the intrepid photographer.

Now that`s an engine! Put that on your Harley putt putt.

Now which dial was I supposed to monitor closely?

Lot`s of beautiful paintings on the walls.

Very life like.

Speaking of life like. Let`s take off eh?

Some of the aircraft on the grounds, covered a lot of ground.

Quite a number of monuments to aviation accident victims.

An old control tower stands upon the hill.

This plane couldn`t decide if it wanted to be a jet or a prop job so decided to do both.

I caught Marilyn trying to get this guy to talk. He just dummied up.

And so we bid a fond farewell to the now silent flying machines of Greenwood.

By the time we had completed our tour of the Aviation Museum the rain had stopped, the wind had died down a bit and the sun had made an appearance.  As we headed back out through Kingston and almost to the 103 highway we suddenly realized we were hungry and whats more, it was supper time.  And right there in our sights was a Dairy Queen.  We figured it was meant to be so we made the best of it.

Next episode I`ll tell you about the great spot we found to spend our second night, a remote little campground at Whale Cove.  Y`all come back now. Hear?