It did this for the time when it reached 100, so we have actually travelled for 165 hours - and still talking!
Day 54 - Just so you can get things in perspective, today is July 12th, and Day 54 was June 29th, so I’m always playing catch up. Things slow down for us when we are staying with friends and family because we spend time visiting and I just write things in my notebook to share with you when I get a chance. At this moment I am sitting in the verandah watching the clouds roll over the Northumberland Strait.
Quebec City to Saguenay/Chicoutimi via Hwy. 175 through the Laurentian Mountains, the wildlife reserve and Jacques Cartier National Park, and I had my 1st (and probably only) bacon wrapped weiner at L’Etape rest stop. It rained most of the day, sometimes really heavy downpours, I asked Roger “where do the cyclists take shelter?)”. We’ll have to ask Neil about that when we get back. Parts of the park had a lot of trees with black bark - maybe pine beetle?
From Saguenay to Tadoussac we hugged the north shore of the Saguenay Fjord, we could only imagine how beautiful it must be without the heavy clouds and rain.
We landed in Tadoussac at Gite Au Vieux Pommier greeted by Ella, a power house of energy from Tunisia - she switched us to Auberge Madison Gagne operated by her son and they have a fierce battle going on with which has the better ratings on Google and Expedia! We’re too tired to care. We were right on the edge of the water and a field that was filled with wild strawberries. I’m reading Braiding Sweetgrass and this was quite significant to me.
Day 55 - Tadoussac - This is a whale watching town on the Saint Lawrence River - beluga, humpback, sperm, fin and blue, and dolphins. We didn’t take a tour but we did visit the Sand Dunes of Tadoussac, a UNESCO site. The dunes are 2 immense marine terraces measuring 30 metres in height that stretch along the edge of the river and when we went in the morning it was so foggy/cloudy that we would have been happy to see the water much less a whale, but the sky cleared in the afternoon and we returned to this …
Now this is where I got confused - I thought the ferry went to New Brunswick, but we travelled a long way in what was still Quebec until we got there. Janet was so excited to be in New Brunswick I started to doubt my maps!
We stayed on Hwy 132 (what we have learned is that a highway is what a road with 2 lanes is called), still along the St. Lawrence, Through Rivière-du-Loup then through marsh and farm land into New Brunswick to stay the night in Edmundston, where the storm damage caught up with us and the power went out! Next morning heading out Hwy 44 along the Madawaska River and had our 1st encounter with a moose. No damage done to either!
and continued along lupin lined Hwy 17 to Campbellton where we drove right into a parade! And witnessed our 1st Road Rage :( Campbellton was known for its salmon and logging, just like Mission, and there’s a large fountain in the middle of town honouring the Resticouche Sam, a Rotary tribute to the mighty Atlantic salmon - prime reason for the settlement along the Resticouche River.
The heavy rainstorm there left 100 families out of their homes.
This was where we pulled over and had a fun facetime visit with John and the kids - nothing like one of those to make you homesick!
It’s a lot of fun travelling through these towns - every one of them has at least 2 spiring steeples and lots of old historic buildings and homes. BC feels so young! There is a Starfish route through New Brunswick which we pretty much followed all along the coast of Baie des Chaleurs, Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Northumberland Strait, through Bathurst, Caraquet, Miramichi and on into Shediac,
Day 58 - We’re in Acadia Country!
We enjoyed a visit at Musee Des Cultures Fondatrices in Grand- Anse, former Pope’s Museum (yes, the only museum in North America dedicated to the Papacy. There is a scale model of St. Peter’s Basilica and painted ceilings that are still there when it reopen in 2016 as a cultural centre. There is the story of the Irish Potato Famine and the migration to Canada and settlement here of the Irish Catholics. Later, when many refused to swear loyalty to the British crown they were cleared from their settlements and large numbers were sent to France and the Caribbean. But a number resisted this and hid with the help of their Mi’Mak allies and have since returned to the area and reestablished large communities such are Caraquet, Capital of Acadia, St-Louis de Kent and many others along the coast. We passed on the big Acadian Historic Village - the tour was 2 hours long and we really felt we had the most of the information from the local centre.
Day 59 - Shediac, home of the World’s Largest Lobster, a statue commissioned by the Shediac Rotary Club
The Auberge B & B was lovely and we met a couple from Frederickton who had moved to Nova Scotia from Surrey 3 years ago, drawn by the low housing prices, in another EV charging station conversation.
Continuing along the coast we stopped on the beach near Cap-Pele for a picnic, looked off to the east and low and behold, there was the Confederation Bridge! So off we went - popped onto Prince Edward Island for a visit to Borden and sent a bouquet of pictures of his old house and his grandparent’s home to my friend Colin back home. We stopped into Pigeons Gift Shop and visited with Ashley, super friendly and very helpful giving us names of indie bookstores when we return to PEI.
$50. toll on the Confederation Bridge and we were back in New Brunswick, Hwy 16 through Melrose to Aulac, then into Nova Scotia! We have travelled in 3 provinces in one day!
Nova Scotia, past Springhill - birth place of Anne Murray, and on to Truro. Stopped in at Masstown to charge the car and met a great couple from Quebec who gave us lots of great tips on places to stay and cheese curds. I did not know that they are best if left at room temperature overnight before making poutine!
Truro - In Colchester County - territory of Mi’Kma’Ki people. We went to view the Tidal Bore but it was low tide, but the really helpful lady at the Information centre directed us to Burnt Coat Head in Hants County for a better Bay of Fundy tidal experience. A tidal bore is a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave of water that travels up a river or narrow bay, reversing the direction of the river or bay’s current. It is a strong tide that pushed up the river, against the current. Unlike the Skoomunchuk, this is a wave as opposed to rapids.
Berry’s Motel on Robie St. in Truro was interesting, mix clientele, most appeared to be permanent and well lived in, but our room was really clean and Berry was really friendly. Interesting ….
On our way to the tidal bore we stopped in at the post office in Maitland, very colourfully decorated, and the town with “Canada’s Oldest General Store”. I took a picture of the white place because I’m thinking it’s probably Canada’s Oldest Duplex!!
Brunt Coat - nothing short of amazing! We walked on the ocean floor in the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy. When the tide comes in it travels about 5”/minute to an average of 47.5 feet high (the extreme range is 53.6!) Burnt Coat is known for having the largest tidal range of any location in the world.
From here through Windsor (lots of Anglo/British town names here) where the covered bridge we had hoped to see we were told by a guy in the diner that it came down in 1972! Windsor boasts being the undisputed Birthplace of Hockey in Canada or, The Little Town of Big Firsts. Windsor is sister city to Cooperstown, New York - Birthplace of Baseball 🏒 ⚾️.
We’re headed to Roger’s cousin’s near Wolfville.
I’m beginning to feel a little better about getting caught up on the blog, but it’s always going to be behind where we actually are - which is Melmerby Beach in Nova Scotia, on our way to PEI (again)!
Boy there’s a lot of Largest, Oldest, Deepist, Widest, Tallest things here in Quebec and the Maritimes!
Thanks for the blogpost link. Love the pictures and your stories- who you meet at the ev station, the oldest duplex, the tide out...
ReplyDeleteSafe journey neighbors Love Sherry