Back to Velikovsky

         An early fascination of mine was a series of books written by Immanual Velikovsky in the 50's and 60's that created a worldwide controversy from the time of publication until today.   He began with the first book which was called "Worlds in Collision" (WIC) which I first read it in 1962 while in college.  He published the series of books about one premise, expanding on the first as further research was added.  The subject matter of WIC dealt with an hypothesis that 3500 years ago there occurred an  apocalyptic event that was witnessed and recorded by all the civilizations of the world at that time. The causes and resultant calamities were not understandable to these early people and the destruction was so widespread that historical records of the events are judged by us to be myths and legends.
         The author, born in the late 19th century, lived and studied in Russia, Germany, Israel and the USA, was a colleague of Einstein and died in 1979.  I heard him give a lecture at McMaster U. in Hamilton in 1976, one of many lectures he gave in support of his writings during the last 20 years of his life.  One aspect of his studies prompted him to make numerous predictions in the 1960s regarding the discoveries soon to be made by science entering space for the first time.  His theory was that Venus was a captured comet which had disturbed the solar system in its passage.  His predictions of the temperature, atmosphere, surface and electrical properties of Venus were ridiculed by planetologists in the sixties but all have since been proved.  His further suggestions about Mars, Jupiter and Mercury are equally fantastic and most notorious are his writings about Egyptology, early history of Greece, India, China, and the geology and history of the western hemisphere.
         A fascinating aspect of the entire "Velikovsky Affair" was the controversy it caused in all of the disciplines of science in the early fifties.  Each of the sciences were shaken and insulted by the suggestions that most of their beliefs were erroneous.  Publishers were blackmailed by university scions into casting Velikovsky as a heretic;  if his work was published they would boycott their publications.  Freedom of speech, of publication, of debate was withheld, until one house finally printed his first work.  It has never been out of print since, and four more of his titles, all equally controversial, have been read worldwide.
         It would not be worthwhile to try to synopsize the totality of Velikovskys work in a few words in my blog but I will leave this link to his archives which have been gathered together.

Velikovsky Archives

Below are the titles of his writings in book form and the year of first publication.

Worlds in Collision (1950),  Ages in Chaos (1952),  Earth in Upheaval (1955),  Oedipus and Akhnaton (1960),  Peoples of the Sea (1977),  Ramses II and His Time (1978).

         

Down East

Pennie and I finally took the plunge and planned a short trip to the Eastern provinces.  Our aim was to get to Prince Edward Island, Canada's smallest, and to some its most noteworthy place.  The island is the setting of the Anne of Green Gables novels which have delighted millions in all countries.  The author was Lucy Maud Montgomery and her home was in the Cavendish area of PEI when she published her first stories.
We were lucky enough to be granted the use of a friend's travel trailer and with our truck we set off in mid September.

Just getting ready to leave

We had tickets already to see the Shakespeare play Hamlet at the festival theatre in Stratford (on Pennies birthday) so that became our first destination.

Enjoying a relaxing hour at Wildwood Recreation near St. Mary, ON

After overnighting in a campground near the small towns we departed east by way of Niagara;  covering a few hundred miles a day we only got to mid New York state near the finger lakes district before we stopped to enjoy a few hours of daylight and an overnight at Lake Cayuga.
Our plans were flexible and for the next two days we enjoyed time in Stockbridge, MA, camping near the NY/MA border just east of the Hudson River.  We visited the Norman Rockwell museum and the Marian shrine of Divine Mercy.  In the most iconic early New England town of Stockbridge,  in the region called the Berkshires, we lunched at an Inn built in 1773.

The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusettes

We admired the streets and old homes in the early Autumn, drove some of the country roads and were again on our way the next day. It must be a faux pas to bypass Boston when in New England but we are saving that for another fly-in visit later, maybe with a side trip to the other place we passed through rather quickly.
Up the coast from Boston, cutting through New Hampshire in 30 minutes and into Maine we decided we just had to stop at the LL Bean flagship store in Freeport.  Then next day we toured along the Atlantic coast road through some of those lovely fishing and touristy villages.  The nicest of all I think was Rockport and one day we may spend some days exploring here.  But our destination was PEI so a few hours of driving got us to the New Brunswick border and back into Canada at St. Stevens.  It was a rainy grey day and neither of us wanted to go sightseeing so we drove on past Moncton and crossed the very long causeway bridge to the island.  What a surprise to learn that the famous PEI Provincial Park was closed to camping, just the Sunday before we arrived.  Oh well!  We found a nice RV park in Cavendish right near the Green Gables park.  Spent the next day exploring the area and the Anne Shirley home, driving the hilly green country roads which try very hard to get you lost.  Next day we drove to the capital, Charlottetown, and it was a perfectly gorgeous day, just fine for wandering around the city and harbour.  While driving through Victoria Park on the waterfront we noticed several men dressed in black suits.  Strange?  Of course they were security types. That must mean a celebrity, and there he was, with his wife, holding hands,  Mr. Thomas Mulcair, jacket off, enjoying the sunshine.  We stop and say hello and take a picture and give him a friendly thumbs up as if to say 'we'll be voting for you!' but in truth it was just nice to see him hand in hand like a normal guy with his favourite gal.

Tom and Catherine

The next day we were on our way into New Brunswick heading towards Quebec.  We had a long drive and only expected to be away another 5 days so after a lunch beside the longest covered bridge in the world, in Hartland NB, we continued on to our nights stop.

Pennie gazing at the 1289 foot long covered bridge in Hartland

Another closed camping spot!  Oh well!  We've seen other Grand Falls so this one will have to be bypassed.  We found a nice little RV spot in St. Leonard NB and next day we camped outside of the Basilica of St. Anne de Beaupre near Quebec City.

The Basilica of St. Anne as seen through my happy hour wineglass

We are enjoying the freedom of having all our belongings in the trailer behind our truck and not having to obey a planned hotel reservation schedule nor only restaurant food, but, it does make it more difficult to take a spontaneous turn to see something interesting.  It requires some planning or else the stress of finding parking, turning around, backing up and driving on congested city streets really taxes the mind.  One story only to amplify, we stop at a gas station/Tim Hortons in Quebec.  Of course I park where exiting will be easier, near the rear exit of the gas station.  After enjoying our coffee break inside we are on our way, swing around the station road to leave the parking lot and find ourselves not leaving but joining a line of take-outers.  The line looks like it will just exit straight ahead but noooo, it makes a hard left to the pay window.  Naturally I am halfway through the turn before I determine it is too narrow.  Must back out, with trailer, curbs too high, drivers behind have to be removed, english only spoken to Quebecois who graciously remove their cars for the goofy Anglaise who got themselves stuck.  But I manage to extricate us even with Tim's staff looking out the back door and maintain my composure and honour by doing it well and quickly.

Our journey from QC to home is only marred by the awful rush-hour traffic through both QC and Montreal which could not be avoided and we manage to arrive at the Thousand Islands on another pretty day, enjoy the Parkway and spend our last night on the road at a very nice KOA. 

Our last nights stay at the KOA on the Thousand Islands Parkway

 Our last day on the road we bypass Toronto on the 407 and we're home by 4 pm.  Wow,  2850 miles (4560 km) and no mechanical problems, pleasant days, adventure, new sights and memories.