Today began with ….yep…more rain. It appeared to be on schedule to rain all day, so we continued on
with our plans.
We had breakfast, showered, dressed and decided we had to
have the A/C on…as loud as it is, it needed to be running. One hundred percent humidity and 72 degrees….oh…muggy.
 |
| Prince Edward Island in distance |
Anyway, we dashed to the truck and took off on the Ceilidh
Trail.
All in all, it was not a very
exciting loop. The road came into the
Atlantic on occasion, but more often, the road was inland. We did get a view of Prince Edward Island
off in the distance, drove through numerous small villages….not much going on
at all. Although, everything is beautiful here.
 |
| Cemetery |
 |
| Red Shoe Pub |
We took this picture of Mabou welcome
sign. The Rankin Family is a renown
family of musicians/singers and they are from Mabou. At Mabou, we took a picture of the famous Red Shoe Pub. The ceilidh didn’t start until 4 p.m. today and it was around 1:30 (by the way, the rain had stopped by then). As I have Rankin cousins from Benton, Louisiana, plans were to
talk to the Rankin sisters as we visited the Red Shoe Pub (they are the
owners). However, that was not to
be. Our timing was not right. So we may never know if Fred got all his talent from his long lost kin in NS.
We continued on down the road to the Celtic Music
Interpretive Centre in Judique. There
was a ceilidh scheduled there for 3 p.m.
So we decided to kill a little time and then go back to the ceilidh
there. We returned about 2:30 and the
place was almost full. We got a table
near the front and watched as more and more people came in.
This is where you really notice the difference between the
two sides of Nova Scotia. On the
western shores, French is prevelant, Cajun music or Acadian music is the
norm. Here on the eastern side, it’s
Celtic and the Scottish roots are definitely here. Everyone is named Mac-something….MacDonald, McIntyre,
McNamara. And the accent is different.
Two gentlemen came in and asked if they could sit with us at
our table. We said, sure, and met
them….Gary and Raymond McNamara with the lilt in the accent. We visited a bit and then the show
began. Howie McDonald (of course) was
entertaining today on the fiddle with the Celtic tunes. Gary began to explain what they do at this
ceilidh. They do square dance
sets. Not our dosey-do kind, but the
Scottish kind.
We watched the locals do their version of a square
dance. Lots of it was the same as ours….no
caller, though. They just move through
the turns from memory (and sometimes it gets messed up..lol) The footwork, now, is something else. More of the Scottish/Irish jig. Loved watching them, but the dance floor was
much too small. He said it’s really to
be done with only two couples, but many more were out there and it was really
crowded.
Howie McDonald played a few more songs and then they were
ready to do another square dance set.
Gary asked me to dance it with him.
Now, actually, I was his partner, but some of my one on one dancing was done to
the “corner” and he introduced me to my corner. So…off we go. It was a
lot of fun. I tried to adapt my
footwork to theirs and it wasn’t too hard. The beat was almost the same….just a bit slower. I sure can't do it like they can. Gary told me what to do, which way to turn
and who to follow and I only messed up and turned the wrong way once. Fun.
But very, very hot. No A/C was
on and it was hot and muggy. I
really enjoyed dancing with the locals....
But I much prefer Cajun music and dancing….
By the time we left, it was standing room only and the floor was filled with people. I have videos but can't get them loaded...sorry.
We came back to the RV around 6. Ronnie is still not feeling good, so we’ll watch a movie or
something tonight. I hope he doesn’t
get any worse or I’ll have to find a hospital, clinic or something. And Medicare doesn’t work here in
Canada….oooops.
Tomorrow our plans are to spend the day on the CabotTrail. It’s supposed to be
spectacular.
