Eric Stendal

Date: Friday, 11 September 2026

City / Region: Baddeck, NS & area

Weather: lows of 12° with highs of 16 with a very light rain that occurred today but plenty of wind, but not as bad as yesterday

Morning Summary

This morning I wasn’t having breakfast, so Shelley ventured downstairs to grab their “Ready to Go” breakfasts and a tea before we hit the road.

That turned into a fiasco. She ended up waiting almost a half hour for her breakfast bagel and tea (and surprise coffee for me!). She was miffed. Had she known it was going to take that long, she would have come back upstairs for a bit of that wait.

We hit the road and started our drive to Louisbourg to see the area and the fort.

It was a short drive up to Louisbourg. On the way, we stopped at a Shell gas station that inside had a Canada Post outlet, restaurant, bakery, gas station snacks section, and liquor store. It had everything!

You pumped your gas first and then go in to tell them your pump number. VERY old school. I haven’t done that in a million years.

The rest of the drive up the winding highway was very pretty. We saw the evidence of Hurricane Fiona which swept through the area in 2022. It was the most intense post-tropical cyclone to hit Canada on record, and also the costliest cyclone to hit Canada until this record was broken by Debby in 2024. The trees were all clipped at the top and the shear amount of them that you could see showed you how widespread and vicious this storm was.

The drive through Louisbourg was okay. Not much to see in the town on the way to the Fort. Arriving at the Fort you are greeted by a Parks Canada ranger who directs you to their parking lot. That is also manned by Parks Canada rangers and they show you exactly what spot they want you to park in.

Shelley collected Maggie into her carrier and we were able to successfully sneak her in. Because I’m a veteran, we were able to obtain free passes into the Fort. We just wanted to stroll around the grounds and pop our heads in to whichever building intrigued us enough. We didn’t opt for the guided tour. That was priced at $5.95 per person if you wanted it.

They also had an opportunity for one to fire a musket ($45.95 for that) or shoot a cannon ($64.95 for that privilege).

We learned that the site was reconstructed on the original site:

As a fishing port, military base and centre of commerce, Louisbourg briefly shared front rank importance in France’s overseas empire.  Home to a transplanted European civilization, it flourished for less than half a century, and then it was extinguished by military conquest. None of its structures survived the next two centuries.

In 1961, the Government of Canada began a $25 million project aimed at reconstructing approximately one-quarter of the original town and fortifications. Within this area the buildings, yards, gardens and streets are being recreated as they were during the 1740s, immediately preceding Louisbourg’s first siege. Almost all of the buildings on site are reconstructions built between the 1960s and 1980s, though many incorporate original foundations.  Abandoned after 1763, Louisbourg became the only major colonial town without a modern city built on top of it.

The work at Louisbourg has required an inter-disciplinary research effort. Archaeological excavation has yielded millions of artifacts as well as the ruins of fortifications and buildings. Some 750,000 pages of documents and 500 maps and plans have been copied from archives in France, England, Scotland, the United States and Canada. The historical evidence reveals much about life at Louisbourg and provides an excellent base for the study of the French in North America.

Afternoon Summary

We enjoyed walking around the site to see the many buildings. Even though they were reconstructions, they were built upon the exact spots where the buildings originally occupied. Some foundations were left unfinished (kept as ruins) so that you could appreciate the work that went in to the reconstruction efforts which took place.

Maggie behaved herself very well. She knew her assignment and did a stupendous job at remaining discreet.

Our Mazda was just shy of the kilometres that required us to have some service done on it. So we stopped by Sydney Mazda and they were able to fit us in and get our tires rotated, fluids topped up, oil change done, and sign off for warranty all checked. Perfect. We ate some of our fridge contents for lunch there in the dealership and we had stopped at Wendy’s to buy some chilie, baked potato, chicken strips and a child cheeseburger that I gave to Maggie in pieces. (No, she didn’t eat the whole thing, but she sure enjoyed what she was able to nibble on).

Evening Summary

Shelley drove us up to Baddeck. Baddeck is not a large town, but very scenic. We are at the Silver Dart Lodge and it overlooks Bras d’Or Lake. When Shelley and I were checking in, she was getting tripped out by how ‘retro’ it was. There was the stereotypical check in area with multiple levels of seating and lounge areas beside the check in counter. There was also a very large gift shop where you could buy jackets, mints, hats, pop, touristy things…..very cool.

The row of lodgings was like an old motel type with your car parked right outside your unit. Once inside, another door led you out onto your deck and onto a large expanse of grass with an observation deck set up so you could sit outside and enjoy the view of the lake.

Photos

Just a few photos from our morning trip to the Louisbourg Fortress in Louisbourg.

Daily Highlights

• Our best moment was being able to drive in to Mazda and have our car serviced pretty much right there on the spot!
• Our funniest moment today was when I stepped outside to take a photo of the view, and Shelley came out with me pulling the door closed behind her. We were now locked out! I had to walk down in my socks to the main office for another key.
• Our biggest surprise is how much we enjoy ‘old school’ motels (that are kept nice). Such charm and functionality. Love ’em.
• We learned that the Fortress at Louisbourg, although built on its original foundations, it was all reconstructed.

Logistics

• I got my 6,855 steps in today. Just a little bit of driving done and it sure was scenic.
• We bought some lunch items and a neat book written by Ronald J. Dale entitled, “The Fall of New France”. Some other souvenir items and a bottle of Glen Breton scotch.
• We have a loose itinerary planned out for tomorrow with an early start so we can get it all done comfortably with stops along the way. We only hope the weather will cooperate for us. If it’s anything like today, we’re set to go!

Closing Thoughts

This was a slower paced day (even though the whole trip has been pretty chill). We are surprise with how little we’ve packed but also seeing that we don’t need as much as we think. Our little cooler we bought that plugs in to the car or hotel to keep our items cold was a REALLY good purchase.

I have to add some personal reflections on the 25th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York. At that time, during that afternoon, I was working in the Offices of the Director General Health Services at the National Defence Medical Centre. The captain was in the general’s office when the first plane hit the tower. The general kept CNN on whenever she was at work. The captain called me in. “Look at this,” he said, pointing to the television set.

I couldn’t reconcile what I was seeing. Did a Cessna fly into the building or a helicopter? But that’s quite a big explosion for such a small plane. Early reports coming in were confused as well. We were stunned in our places in front of that television watching live when the second airliner slammed directly into the side of the building. “Holy shit!” we both exclaimed. The captain looked at me and said, “This means war…..we’re going to be involved in a war. Go grab the general out of her meeting.”

We all know now how tragic, truly tragic, those minutes, hours, and days unfolded as we’ve moved through history.

Move forward to the 2nd of May 2011, and I’m now in Kandahar, Afghanistan waiting to depart for some leave at the airport. We were being held at the military base in the departure lounge for hours beyond our ‘go’ time. Finally, word came down that airspace and aircraft were all being held while this secret operator was executed. The team of Navy SEALs that I was having coffee with not a few weeks before, had gone in on an operation to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

When military reports of this were made known to us, our military flight was then cleared to fly to Dubai for us to connect to our respective flights home or abroad.

Much to reflect on….and now we’re up to 2026 and I’m on a fantastic time away with my beloved bride and prized doggie driving the roads of Cape Breton and Atlantic Canada.

We are looking forward to tomorrow’s drive up and around the tip of northern Nova Scotia.