North American History: The Explorer’s Class

North American History: The Explorer’s Class

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I retired September 2019 and that winter I spent six weeks in Savannah and a week in New Orleans. I sold my house and went on the road full time in September 2020. All these great, leisurely road trips have allowed me to visit amazing historical sites and museums across the US and several Canadian provinces. While many, like the Gettysburg battlefield, the National WWII Museum or Smithsonian museums, are well-known and busy tourist attractions, others are not sites I…

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Quebec City and Montreal

Quebec City and Montreal

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Quebec City The first morning in town, Boo and I headed out to Battlefields Park and the Plains of Abraham. We walked through the park, viewing the Martello Towers, stopping to read the signs, then around the Citadel walls and onto the Terrasse Dufferin for great views of Old Quebec or Vieux Quebec. We walked back along the Rue Saint Louis and Saint Louis Gate to Esplanade Park and Parliament. Tours That afternoon I had booked the Free Walking Tour of…

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Maritime Provinces: New Brunswick

Maritime Provinces: New Brunswick

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After 3 days in Fundy National Park, I spent a week in the lovely Saint Andrews by the Sea. Saint Andrew’s Charlotte County Archives and Old Jail. From 1831 all the way to 1979 the stone jail held men downstairs in 10 cells with only narrow slits for light. Women and children were held upstairs. Two men were hung in the back, one as late as 1942. They found the scaffolding for the second hanging during remodeling and updates; that…

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Fundy National Park

Fundy National Park

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I stopped at Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park on my drive from PEI. I arrived about an hour after low tide but found the path down to the beach. Very muddy. Very weird looking. The stairwell down to the rocks on the other side blocked off but I found a path later that led down but by then tide was coming in. I went back a couple days later to see the difference at high tide. Fundy National Park is a small…

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Maritime Provinces: Prince Edward Island

Maritime Provinces: Prince Edward Island

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I took the Northumberland ferry from Caribou, Nova Scotia to Woods Island, PEI. I stopped in Pictou for lunch before going to the ferry terminal. I saw Mrs. MacGregor’s Shortbread with a large open sign on the sidewalk so stopped for some cranberry orange shortbread. I also asked them for a recommendation for a lunch place where I could sit outside. They told me to try Harbour House. Boo and I sat on the patio despite it being a little cool but we…

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Cape Breton Highlands National Park

Cape Breton Highlands National Park

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Hurricane Fiona moved through Atlantic Canada when I was in Halifax. Boo and I stayed safe in our AirBNB even if we were both worried and a little frightened with the wind and rain. Neither of us got much sleep Friday night from the noise. Our power went out around 2230 but was out for less than a day. Cape Breton was harder hit, as was Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. Power was restored to my rental in Ingonish before…

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Maritime Provinces: Nova Scotia

Maritime Provinces: Nova Scotia

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I’ve been wanting to visit the Maritimes for a while. I had a 5-6 week camping trip planned the summer of 2020, then, of course, COVID. Borders were closed. I was in New York when initially planning this trip to Canada. I was going to start with Montreal and head east, through the Atlantic Provinces, and take the ferry back to Maine. However, the Bar Harbor-Yarmouth ferry service ends October 10th so I decided to start here and end in…

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Lake Champlain

Lake Champlain

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Where next? After a couple months in Illinois to clean out my storage unit and a week in Michigan to meet my beautiful new granddaughter, I thought about going back to the Finger Lakes region. I loved my stay there in 2020 but decide to go somewhere different and booked upstate New York, finding a rental in Plattsburgh. I thought I would spend a lot of time in the Adirondacks but was closer to Lake Champlain and Vermont and Canada….

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Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

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Cuyahoga Valley wasn’t high on my list of parks I ‘must’ visit but it was a little over halfway between where I was and where I wanted to be. I thought it would make a convenient stop for a couple days. It was created in 1974 to protect the Erie & Ohio canal history and the valley from over development. Local advocates worked with Congress to designate it a national park; it was partially created from two county parks in…

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New River Gorge National Park

New River Gorge National Park

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Our newest national park, New River Gorge! The “New River” is one of the oldest rivers on the continent. I was surprised to learn there are various methods to date the geological features, so the estimate varies widely between 3 to 320 million years. It’s been a national river since 1978, was “upgraded” to national park and preserve in 2020. On the drive from Charlottesville to Beckley, I stopped at the Sandstone Visitor Center. They have some good exhibits on…

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