Life is a Highway - In So Many Ways

So Ann and I and our feline travelling companion, Digit are finally settled in OUR spot here in the Scotia Pines Campground at Hilden (just south of Truro).  It's OUR spot because it is the one we always get when we're here.  Unfortunately, when we arrived there was someone in OUR spot and so we had to wait for them to leave.  They were a lovely British couple with a young son who are touring Canada province by province.  At any rate, Our spot is right at the end of the property where we're two steps to the laundry room and five to the garbage container.  Because we're on the end, we have a lovely large "yard" with picnic table and we can only ever have one close neighbour. Our view consists of lovely fields and forests.  It suits us just fine.  We spent most of yesterday getting settled in, doing some long overdue washing and a bit of a re-shuffle of our stuff.

Last night a lovely lady came to our door inquiring about the wifi setup here.  She and her husband from Tamegami, Ontario and are travelling in an SUV.  They sleep in the back and set up their "kitchen" on a picnic table.  Definitely not my way to travel!

Home away from Home

Life on our wheels can be pretty easy when you come equipped with the necessities.  We have all the appliances we need - fridge, freezer, stove, oven and microwave.  There are two big comfortable beds and a smaller one for a guest should we need it.  We enjoy a full bath with tub and shower and we are blessed with an air conditioner, hot water heater and furnace.  What more could a person want?  Add to that we brought along two laptops, two eReaders, two iPhones, our Tassimo coffee maker and a Soda Stream drinks maker.  Our campsite comes equipped with 30 amp power, water and sewer hookup as well as a Cable TV outlet.  We couldn't be more comfortable at home.

Stoney Creek Cemetery,
New Brunswick

Every year we spend some time in local cemeteries, capturing the images of the headstones of our ancestors.  And every year we get bitten by the same invisible menace.  We never actually see who is doing the biting and because they only get us in cemeteries, I wonder what their source is.  Could it be that we are still sharing genetic material with those long gone?  At any rate, these little beggers get into your hair and leave an extremely itchy knot on your scalp.  We've tried Deep Woods Off and all the other repellants and nothing seems to work.  Neither, sadly do any of the anti-itch products available at the local pharmacy.  I guess it's the price we have to pay.

My cat, formerly known as Digit, has turned into something of a princess on this trip.  She has always been afraid of strangers and I believe her early days were probably spent in a barn or alley somewhere.  Regardless, she has attached herself to Ann in a big way this year.  She sits for ages, just watching what Ann is doing and she has obviously set up some form of communication with her.  They have a set routine for feeding, a cuddle, water dripping from the tap, a little cream from Ann's coffee stash, a treat, a cuddle, some catnip, a bit from the cat grass plant Ann brought along and even visits overnight to curl up on Ann's bed.  At the age of 12, maybe her feral ways are behind her.

Today is cool and humid and I think we'll get off to our next cemetery early - just in case it rains.  We are going to the Old Barns Cemetery in Hants County where our Ancestor of the Day is buried.

Ancestor of the Day

Today's Ancestor story is about a family.  Captain James Scott Simmonds was born in Old Barns in January 1794.  Old Barns got its name from the Acadien barns that remained on the site after the expulsion of the French from the area.  When our ancestors came from Northern Ireland and New England in 1761, they found the remnants of the Acadien farms with plowed fields, dykes, and farm buildings still in place.

James was related to me this way:  John Simmonds/Susannah Campbell -> John William Campbell Simmonds -> Susanna Simmonds -> Flora Ann Campbell (Gamble) -> Julia West Gamble -> My Dad -> Me.  He was my 3rd Great Great Uncle.

In 1816, he fell in love with and married a young American lass named Mercy Ann Freeman.  Soon the couple were expecting their first child but just before his birth, James was killed by some falling timbers at a local barn raising.

Grave of William Henry Simmonds

His family was devastated and his parents were fearful that Mercy would take her baby back to New York after the birth and they would never see their grandchild again.  So, probably with the best of intentions, they contrived a plot.  When William Henry Simmonds was born, the grandparents somehow convinced Mercy that the child had died at birth.

Distraught, Mercy did return to her parents.  She became a seamstress, eventually remarried and move to Illinois. The elder Simmonds raised the boy, telling him that his mother had died in childbirth.

Many years later, William Henry Simmonds became a ship builder near Boston.  One day a young man came to him looking for work.  The young man was named Freeman and William mentioned that his mother's maiden name was Freeman - Mercy Freeman but that she had died when he was born and that his father had also died in a freak accident.  The young man countered that he had an Aunt, Mercy Freeman who married a sea captain in Nova Scotia who also was killed in an accident.  They had a young son who died at birth.

The thought haunted William and the next day he convinced the young man to take him to meet this woman.

Evidently, William had grown up looking very much like his father and when he walked into "Aunt Mercy's" home, she fainted dead away.

Overjoyed at this reunion with his mother, William left his ship building business, packed up his family and bought a farm near her home.

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Well, that's it for today.

To be continued.....................