Nova Scotia Cycle Tour 2013

Day 3 Tuesday September 10th ~ Margaree Valley & Golf

Today dawned spectacularly beautiful. A picture is worth a thousand words:

Curt has been hoping to see a moose. No luck so far, but some of the other wildlife is impressive!

Bald Eagle Counting Crows

After a delicious breakfast of pancakes and bacon, marinated in Cape Breton Maple Syrup, we got ready to depart for the Margaree Valley and the Normaway Inn. It is a relatively short ride of 33 miles, but as Curt, Tim and Peter had a tee time in the afternoon, the trick was to do it by lunch. We were pumped, but our pump was not. Belive it or not, we were delayed half an hour trying to get our pump to work. Finally we dug out Kirt's pump and off we went.

Pumped to ride flat out.

Ah, if only the world famous Cabot Trail was a bike path! What bliss that would be. There is a down side to being the only through road in all of Cape Breton. EVERY vehicle: large, small, powered or pedalled is on this trail. While a tad less busy than the LA Freeway in rush hour, the speed of the powered vehicles adds a certain thrill factor as you are blown about in the backwash. It is a pretty good road, reallly, but you'd better be wearing a rear view mirror and monitoring constantly.

The crew about to enter the Margaree Valley

After the first twelve miles of heavy traffic, we met up with Curt and Vanna at a Tourist Trap called the Red Barn. Now don't be fooled - we LOVE Tourist Traps. They have bathrooms. And they have bumper stickers for the back of the trailer. And they even had a moose for Curt, sort of.

We are beginning to encounter all things Cape Breton. Flags, Koozies, mugs, the usual schlock. I bought a Cape Breton Flag like the one pictured above to fly from my bicycle. The locals call themselves "Capers". (Hence the green flag? Who knows.) Capers are proud of their isolated heritage, yet aware that many consider them a bit backward. A local Caper told us this joke :

"A young Caper lad ventured for the first time to Toronto. Arriving in the big city, a woman of the night approached him saying: "Hey Stranger, how'd you like to sleep with me for $100?" The Caper replied, "Well, OK. I'm really not very tired, but I sure could use the $100."

Pushing hard, we indeed reached the Normaway Inn by lunch. The Inn's original purpose was as a retirement home for missionaries. There is a a large main house with sleeping rooms upstairs, a huge dining room and a comodious library where everyone gathers after dinner to hear local musicians play fiddle music. We never discovered what happened to the missionaries, but along the way a dozen cute little cabins were constructed and the home was converted to an Inn.

We really liked evedrything about the Normaway Inn. The staff was welcoming and cheerful, The cabins were panelled in pine and had Vermont Castings wood stoves for heat. The food was outstanding and the fiddle music was professional quality. Richard and Kirt also enjoyed sampling Scotch from the local distillery, Glenora.

Meanwhile, Peter, TIma nd Curt had motored down the coast to Inverness to play Cabot Links, a course less than two years old, but already ranked in the world's top 100. It is a true links style, running along the Atlantic with nothing but heather, thin, tight turf and greens so hard that you can't hold them. You must land your approach in front of the green and let it run up. A brisk two club wind blowing along the beach completed the links experience