Appreciative of Automobiles ~ 52 Ancestors #29

My husband and I traveled to Nova Scotia for eight days at the end of June. This was a place I had wanted to visit for years. We drove from eastern Massachusetts to Bar Harbor, Maine (over five hours), took the CAT Ferry to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and spent one night there before driving to Halifax (over three hours) and spending four nights. There was a stop in Liverpool for lunch.

Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, was a good "home base." We did a couple of day trips from Halifax where we drove at least an hour each way (one day to Burntcoat Head Park to see the Bay of Fundy at low tide and another day to see Peggy's Cove). In Halifax, we visited the Citadel, a centuries-old hilltop fort, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, and Fairview Lawn Cemetery. The Maritime Museum has interesting exhibits about the April 15, 1912, sinking of the Titanic and the December 6, 1917, Halifax Explosion. The Fairview Lawn Cemetery has a somber memorial to victims of the Titanic as well as a memorial to those who died in the Halifax Explosion.

The next drive was from Halifax to Guysborough with a stop in Truro for lunch. 

We had a wonderful two days in Guysborough, where I spent some time in the old Court House Museum, home of the Guysborough Historical Society. I met a fifth cousin (a Hull) and a fourth cousin (a Pyle) who showed us the sights: cemeteries, churches, and the house built by Stephen Pyle probably in the 1790s in which my second great-grandfather, James Pyle, was likely born in 1823.

The Stephen Pyle house in Boylston, Nova Scotia.

Both of my cousins shared wonderful stories of their families and the local area. And thank you to my Pyle cousin who also hosted us for a lobster dinner at her home on Pyle Point. 

After just two short days in Guysborough, we drove back to Yarmouth, with a stop in Truro and another in Annapolis Royal. All together, this was almost six hours.

This is my way of saying how wonderful it is to have an automobile to travel to places that we otherwise might not have traveled to, and in much less time than it would have taken my ancestors to travel to and around Nova Scotia.

This week's theme is Automobiles.