Fantasy RV Caravan - Day 10

Sunday, 11 August - Day 10

Sprinty continues to surprise himself with starting the day with modest expectations for the day’s adventures, only to experience an awesome day.

Last evening when the Wagonmaster went over the travel day, the Trip Log indicated an optional stop at the Grand-Pre National Historic Site in Wolfville, NS.  The only description in our Trip Log was that it was a museum about the Acadians.

After the meeting, Darrell looked it on the internet and found:

• The Canada Parks web site (https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/ns/grandpre) said:  “Immerse yourself in a powerful monument that unites the Acadian people. Uncover the tragic story of Le grand dérangement through engaging multimedia. Admire the statue of Evangeline, heroine of the epic Longfellow poem. View impressive artefacts and statues: storytellers of a turbulent history. Located in the heart of a breathtaking UNESCO World Heritage Site, this is Grand-Pré National Historic Site—once a thriving Acadian settlement and now one of the most significant memorials to the upheaval and the resilience of the Acadian people.”

• Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand-Pré_National_Historic_Site) entry starts with: “Grand-Pré National Historic Site is a park set aside to commemorate the Grand-Pré area of Nova Scotia as a centre of Acadian settlement from 1682 to 1755, and the British deportation of the Acadians that happened during the French and Indian War. “

It sounded interesting.  Digging a little deeper on the Canada Parks web site, we found that in July and August, they had a 45-minute guided tour, “If Grand-Pré could talk”, once a day - 10:35am in English, and 11:35 in French for a modest cost.  As it was was just over an hour-and-a-half away from the campground, we made plans to depart about 8am.  Golf, if any, would be afterwards, if we could get on someplace being a Sunday.

Our plan was to arrive before 10am, check out the exhibits, and do the guided tour at 10:35.  We left at 8am, and Sprinty was not the first to leave this morning.  Along the way, we passed three other folks from our caravan - and they too were headed to the Grande-Pre site. Probably half our caravan mates stopped there.

We arrived as planned, and had a few minutes before the multi-media presentation started at 10am.  The presentation was very well done, and summarized the history of the Acadians from their settlement at Grand-Pre until their removal.

Right after the video, our guide François gathered up the six people who had signed up for the guided tour.  The tour started in the exhibits in the Visitor Center, then went out to the monument built to remember the Acadian settlement.  

The Acadians who settled Grand-Pre started with about 30 families who originally settled in Port Royal.  They tired of the series of conflicts, so they relocated north to Grand-Pre.  They were farmers, and developed an innovative way to reclaim farmland from the sea by building dykes and draining the sea water.  The Visitor Center even has an actual timber sluice pipe used to drain the fresh water into the sea without the sea water returning back into the land that was uncovered in a state of remarkable preservation.  Not a simple task considering the tide range here is over 45 feet.

When the poem, Evangeline (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangeline), by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was published in the United States in 1847, the story of the Deportation and le Grand Dérangement, the great uprooting, was told to the English-speaking world.  Grand-Pré, forgotten for almost a century, became popular for American tourists who wanted to visit the birthplace of the poem's heroine, Evangeline.  But nothing remained of the original village except the dykelands and a row of old willows. 

In 1907, John Frederic Herbin, poet, historian, and jeweller, and whose mother was Acadian, purchased the land believed to be the site of the church of Saint-Charles so that it might be protected.  The following year the Nova Scotia legislature passed an act to incorporate the Trustees of the Grand-Pré Historic Grounds.  Herbin built a stone cross on the site to mark the cemetery of the church, using stones from the remains of what he believed to be Acadian foundations.

Herbin sold the property to the Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1917 on the condition that Acadians be involved in its preservation.  Acadian history had already become a staple for tourism traffic on the Dominion Atlantic and the Grand-Pre site was located beside the railway's mainline.  The railway made substantial investments in developing the park and promoting the history and lore of Acadians.  Extensive Victorian gardens were planted at the site and a small museum was opened.  In 1920 the Dominion Atlantic erected a statue of Evangeline conceived by Canadian sculptor Louis-Philippe Hébert and, after his death, finished by his son Henri. 

Just one of the things our guide pointed out was the sculptor’s portrayal of Evangeline - look at the statue from the front and you see a young lady.  Look at her from the side or back, and you see a middle-aged lady.  Simply awesome that a statute could have two views at once.

There was also a tribute to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for his work in telling the story of the Acadians.

There was even a recreation of Evangeline ‘s well.

As wonderful as our guide Mike was in St John, François was a whole level better.  The 45 minutes flew by as he made this UNESCO World Heritage Site (one of three in Nova Scotia) meaningful and impactful.  Amazing and awesome describe our feeling about the visit.  

Finishing at the Grand-Pre National Historic Site, we knew we were about 90 minutes from tonight’s campground.  We decided to see if we could get some golf in, and headed for one of the golf courses along the way.  We plotted a route to the Eden Golf & Country Club, which was located in Paradise, NS (naturally).  Along the way, we saw a number of RVs headed in the opposite direction sporting Fanatasy RV Caravan stickers.  We learned later, that was the 61-day caravan that just came from Newfoundland and they were headed to the same campground we left this morning.

When we arrived at the golf course, the parking lot was packed, and we saw a number of people queued up at the first tee.  We decided to check in at the pro shop anyway and learned the crowd was because the Club Championship had been this morning, and they were finishing up.  And the group on the tee box was the last group on the tee sheet until after 3pm.

We loaded up, and had about 15 minutes to chip and putt and we were off.  It was a very windy day, and the wind carried our first tee shots right of the fairway.  It had all the makings of one of those days.  Darrell scrambled for par and made birdie on the Par 3 second hole to take a two shot lead.  He clung on to the lead to make the turn 2 strokes up.

Darrell started the back nine with back-to-back pars, and it was starting to look like he had the day sealed up.  Unfortunately, he got a bad case of lefties towards the end, and Kris did her usual consistent shot making to take the lead and finish two strokes up on the day.

It was a beautiful day, warm but not hot, windy, on a nice course at a nice rate of $75 Canadian for two golfers with a cart.  As the course was very busy, we were pleased to be able to play a nice course on a nice day, even if it took 4-1/2 hours.

By now, it was almost 6pm and we were still 30 minutes from the campground.  We picked the scenic route, which almost became too scenic.  We initially missed a turn Sprinty’s navigation system had picked, did a U-turn only to find that the road was gravel.  Darrell said he might have chosen the path less traveled if it was not so late.  Kris quietly applauded Darrell’s decision not to take Sprinty off-road again.

As is becoming the norm, Sprinty was the last of our group to arrive at the campground.  Several of our caravan mates wanted to know how we filled the day, and four of them, Doug, Jan, Bill and Lyn, gave us grief for not telling them in advance we were going to be out adventuring late.  For a brief moment, I thought Sprinty was going to get a curfew.  Again, they were envious of our adventuring and ability to pack extra adventures into the planned itinerary.

Tonight, we are at Cove Oceanfront Campground located in Parkers Cove, NS.  We are all parked with beautiful views of the Bay of Fundy.

The campground has slightly better WiFi than the last campground.  Our Wagonmaster had told us that there was no cell service at this campground.  Once we arrived and got Sprinty settled, we turned on the WeBoost cell booster and got 2 bars 3G (very usable 3G) and LTE in Sprinty.  Walk 10 feet from Sprinty, and we had no service.  When we told some of our caravan mates, they were even more envious.