Armadillos, Electric Cars and Vibrators

September 28, 2023 - September 30, 2023

We left you as we arrived at Bullwinkles Bed and Breakfast. This is one of the most eclectic B&Bs I have ever stayed at, including one that Nikki and I stayed at in Egypt that was run by “The Micheal Jackson” of Egypt and that guy wanted Nikki to be his third wife. She chose to stay with me, some days the verdict is out if that was a good decision. The house is like a museum. You enter and there are two old motorcycles in the entryway. To the left was the owner's office with an antique sewing machine and another antique motorcycle. As you move down the hall the walls are covered in old movie posters, adverts from magazines, and of course motorcycle memorabilia.

Among the more memorable ads was one for Live Armadillos Shipped Anywhere $5 or $9 for a pair, Apelt Armadillo Corp, Comfort, Texas. I had to look them up, they had a family-run armadillo farm from the late 1800s until 1971. They were so popular they are in the local museum. Aside from shipping them off, most likely to be eaten in chili, they also made baskets and lampshades, a business that thrived employing hunters and cooks to prepare the meat. I also learned that the armadillo was a popular food for BBQ, stew, and chili. Especially during the great depression when they were renamed Hoover Hogs after the president of the time. Oh and if you want to have a piece of or the entire farm FarmAdillo is for sale, $1,640,000. It has agricultural tax exemptions and sits on 10 acres with many of the original buildings having been restored. 

Another advert poster from the early 1900s featured a well-dressed young woman driving her equally well-dressed man with golf clubs and a greyhound running beside the car. The ad was for a 1910 Baker Electric Runabout car. This fully electric vehicle was capable of up to 23 MPH and 80 miles of range on a single charge. They were marketed to the elites of the day, often touting their quiet, easy-to-use, no-black smoke and lush interiors as features that a deserving wife needs to get around with. They were not as fast as combustion engines but back then the combustion engines were very loud, required to be cranked, and spewed out thick black smoke with the occasional backfire that sent horses running. So many of the elites of the day preferred the electric vehicle even with the double the price tag attached to it. The Baker Motor-Vehicle Company was based in Cleveland, Ohio, and was one of the top producers of electric vehicles from 1905 - 1915. They merged with another company in 1915 but both were eventually surpassed by the Detroit motor companies. The last model was built in 1916 for $2800. Jay Leno who has one of the largest privately owned car collections has a 1910 Baker Electric that he still drives today and says he easily gets 100 miles on a charge. Hard to imagine that we had an opportunity over a hundred years ago to keep and improve on this technology instead of the oil and gas engines we use today. 

Ok, this last advert was hilarious, and I am sure that in the day, early 1900s, it would have read entirely differently. The black and white poster features a young lady with a kind of mischievous smile holding an odd contraption up in her right hand. The caption next to her photo reads “For Glorious Complexion and Abounding Health”. Hamilton Beach Vibrator. Ok now her smile makes sense. The only thing is that this device was not a vibrator by the standards that we know today but more of a motorized handheld massager. However, the way the write-up is written you get the impression that this could very much be the beginning of the vibrators that we know of today.

Just the first paragraph on the poster says it all; “Little tell-tale wrinkles and throbbing pains both give way before the welcome stimulation of the Hamilton Beach Vibrator. Beauty answers as it gently tap-tap-taps the skin, and an invigorating, health-given glow follows its more powerful rub-rub-rubbing”. By the way, this is the same Hamilton Beach that we know today for blenders, mixers, and other kitchen appliances. However, a quick search of their modern-day company website shows no vibrators for sale today. Too bad it looks like they had a good thing back in the early 1900s. 

Anyway, you get the picture of what Bulwinkels is all about. The owner used to be in the motorcycle racing and supply industry before retiring and buying an old house that needed restoration that is now the Bullwinkel Bed and Breakfast Souris, PEI. 

It would turn out that this was our last night in PEI and the last evening with Brad and Andrea. We had a great dinner at 21 Breakwater, another repurposed home facing the water. Excellent food and a great atmosphere make this another highlight of the PEI experience. The next day Nikki and I took Zorro for a walk to the Souris Historic Lighthouse.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Brad and Andrea as they were heading for the ferry that would get them closer to their home and we were heading to the Confederation Bridge to get back to New Brunswick bringing our family road trip to an end. What a fantastic trip it was. I hope we can do it again, maybe head to Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Nikki and I made a few last stops. One in Montague, where we visited an art park with sculptures, a marina, a small visitors center, and a couple of restaurants.

It also has a trailhead for the Confederation Trail that takes you across PEI. The main trail follows the 273 km old railway that ran from Tignish in the West to Elmira in the East. It now has several feeder trails, making it a 449 km journey that will take you to various towns and cities across this beautiful island. It is open to walkers and bikers as well as horses at certain times of the year. There are numerous places to stay, shops, and restaurants along the route as well the trail itself has over 1600 geocaches and 250 multilingual interpretive boards providing information on the area. I think this would make a great bike trip, the gradient along the route never exceeds 2 percent making it suitable for all fitness levels. I will add this to my bucket list. 

Our last stop was a beautiful beach and lighthouse out on Panmure Island. The lighthouse is surrounded by a couple of cool outbuildings and you can either drive out to it, so not really an island, or walk the sandy beach out. We did not have time on our side as it was already after noon and we still had a 4-hour drive back to my folks' place in New Brunswick. 

It is now heading into October and Nikki and I spent the last bit of time we had exploring the area around my folks' place. We hiked to another waterfall, visited a local art exhibit, and also took some time to relax and enjoy our fantastic spot on the lake. 

Thanks for following along. The next blog will be at Zimmerman’s then Hampton, Virginia meeting some of the Salty Dawgs that will go on to form a large part of our adventures in the Caribbean.