The Confederation Bridge is one of the most impressive structures I have ever seen. What is surprising is that the bridge is curved and undulates. There are traffic lights, telephones, street lights, surveillance cameras and sea gulls shitting on the guard rails. Just a bit of trivia for those who are interested: the bridge stretches for thirteen kilometres, costs $39.00 only when you leave, is the longest bridge over ice-covered waters in the world, used 478,000 cubic metres of concrete and 58,500 tonnes of rebar during construction, averages 40 metres above sea level and is one of the coolest things to drive on.
We have left our trailer behind in New Brunswick so as to get a trial run at using the new little tent. Little is the operative word as we thought a backing packing tent would be useful at Kejimkujik and perhaps some sheep hunting. It is hard adjusting from a 19 foot trailer to this little tent, but we managed. After a quick stop at the visitor information centre to get our bearings, and a photo stop in Charlottetown, we are off to Belfast to find Mini-Mills Ltd. This small fibre mill has been recommended to me as a wonderful place to visit, and so it is! A tour is offered right away … Daughter passing us off to Mom. This company is multifaceted. They actually have designed and now manufacture a number of machines that take the raw fibre, be it camel, sheep’s wool, mohair (the coat from the angora goat), angora rabbit, qiviat, and maybe alpaca or llama, to a spun or even plied yarn. They have dehairing, picking, carding, spinning, and plying machines. Then they also wash, felt and dye almost any of these fibres. We aren’t done yet … you can send fibre to them with directions for almost anything to be done including weaving! The product offered in the store is of course the full gamut of needles for knitting to needle felting kits, roving for spinners and dyes as well. Wonderful friendly helpful folks, all of them. Thanks for having us to visit. And of course if you want to have a great machine and do your own, give them a call!
So now we have heard about a ceilidh (kaylee) at Poole’s Corner. As luck would have it the Brudenell Provincial Park is very close so it is a cross country sprint and find a campsite and then set up the tent, dashing for a shower and into clothes for going out to a concert. Of course PEI maps and road signs are as flawed as New Brunswick’s and we are required to ask for directions more than once. We do arrive in time and thoroughly enjoy the music of Fiddlers’ Sons. The other nice thing was being among the youngest in the crowd. This doesn’t happen often any more!